Lisa Marie Presley Memoir Recap/Discussion: Chapter 7

[shangri__la]

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Previous recaps: Chapters 1 & 2 || Chapter 3 || Chapter 4 || Chapter 5 || Chapter 6 (pt one) || Chapter 6 (pt two)

Lisa Marie Presley’s memoir From Here to the Great Unknown was 85% done and spread across 16 tapes when she passed away in January

Comments

[sea_thoughts]

So sad to read that Lisa felt she had nothing and she'd failed at "the one thing she was good at". And I feel horrible for Riley, being called a "narc" and then being told she couldn't understand because she's not an addict. Reading this it seems like the whole family would have gone down the drain without her holding it together. And of course she was focused on the twins because they were just kids, she wasn't able to see how much Ben-Ben was suffering at the time.

[saturdaysinbed]

op i really look forward to these recaps and appreciate you doing them.

man. riley has really never had a break.

[shangri__la]

Thank you 💜

[theylezharold]

I really appreciate your lack of judgment in these towards pain and addiction and human experiences.

I LOVE how you fill in the blanks with your own other knowledge and research!

And fuck Scientology.

[shangri__la]

💜💜

[melancolour]

What an incredibly sad and tragic chapter. In some ways the story reads like it's not about Lisa as a person anymore, but the journey of addiction and how that is felt through the family.

“my music wasn't that successful, I didn't finish high school, I'm not beautiful, I'm not good enough, but I'm a great mother.” She couldn't handle losing the one good trait she felt she had, so she doubled down on the drug abuse.

:( This is so sad. The 'I'm not good enough' internal monologue is one of the most toxic ones you can have, especially combined with drugs that make you not hear it anymore.

He wanted to live a simple life in Hawaii or Japan, but when conversations started to get serious, he felt the harsh reality that he couldn't leave his mom. Like all the siblings, he knew how fragile Lisa Marie was, how lonely and sad she was because she pushed away everyone and everything she loved and was isolated. Benjamin gave himself the responsibility to never leave Lisa's side.

This shows the dark side of the co-dependence that was highlighted

[shangri__la]

💜💜

As I was reading, I was thinking about how much trauma Riley (and the twins) must have. They're apparently all in therapy, thank God.

[drunkard]

The 'I'm not good enough' internal monologue is one of the most toxic ones you can have, especially combined with drugs that make you not hear it anymore.

Ugh, this got to me. When I took drugs and drank it felt like I was finally free from the voices in my head telling me these awful things. And then suddenly you realize that the drugs have you hostage now too. 💔

[theylezharold]

"If treatment puts you back into a community of addicts at the end, it's pretty much doomed to fail."

Yesss, hence a big reason why AA blows.

[filmstudent23]

Funny how they thought of Riley as the softie in the family. Realizing everything she just went through im here thinking she’s fucking hardcore. Many wouldn’t have managed the things she went through so gracefully.

[willardwright]

"Lisa refused to go to a hospital in Tennessee because the state would take away the twins (Riley at this point seems oblivious to the severity of Lisa's worry, saying “for drugs? Who cares? You're going to die.”). "

I don't think she's oblivious here, I think she's a 20 something year old who's terrified her mom will die and her priority is convincing her to go to hospital but she has no idea how to achieve that.

I feel for all of them, including Riley. Her family really put her through it, and reading her comments it kinda feels like she feels she has to minimize her own struggles because she didn't have it as bad as them. But she obviously went through a lot.