When Your Fall From Grace Is Televised
People make me violently ill sometimes
Note: This is a rant, which means I wrote it all at once and didn’t stress about making it pretty. You’ve been warned.
Recently, news broke out about Demi Lovato overdosing. While many fans and addict advocates have made their voices heard in support, countless people are tossing around tasteless jokes and ignorant judgement.
You wouldn’t care if she wasn’t famous!
She’s the one that put the needle in her arm.
Why don’t you show the same level of compassion for a homeless person?
She doesn’t deserve empathy because she CHOSE to be addicted.
Addiction is a choice!
You’re whining about Demi Lovato hate, but where were you when it was Lamar Odom?
You can ask anyone fighting to overcome addiction if they looked up and decided they wanted to give up control to a destructive substance. Guess what they’ll say? No. They’ll say absolutely not. They’ll say they tried it, thinking they could stop whenever they were ready. They’ll say their eyes widened in horror when they looked in the mirror and couldn’t recognize themselves anymore. They’ll talk about how they watched their lives spin out of control all because of a stupid choice. They’ll admit their mistake and wish they could take it back. Not a single one of them would say that they wanted to be addicted to a drug.
You don’t hop on your soapbox and preach about how bad drugs are when you’re chanting Lil Wayne lyrics at the top of your lungs. You don’t talk about how bad it is to experiment with all these substances when you’re loading your phone’s storage with all these new rappers nobody really understands.
But let somebody OD and end up in the hospital or a casket. Then everybody wants to kick somebody when they’re down. This is why people don’t ask for help. They shove it under the rug and hope nobody notices. People glorify drugs in music and social media posts, and then when people fall for it everyone wants to retract their careless ignorance.
When Michael Jackson died, people couldn’t wait until the autopsy came out so they’d no what drugs were pumped into his veins. When Prince died, people were quick to bring up his drug history. The same thing happened when Whitney Houston died. While her family and fans were mourning, people were ripping her name to shreds. When Lamar Odom was battling his demons, people claimed he deserved it for cheating.
But what about the people that aren’t famous? What about the homeless man down the street? What about the people in the crack houses?
What about them? You treat them EVEN worse. Then you hop on social media like you’re the next Mother Theresa. A lot of you roll your windows up when you’re at a stop sign and you make eye contact with a homeless person. Let someone that appears homeless walk into a store, you’ll automatically assume they’re about to steal. Let a homeless person ask for help and you’ll treat them like it’s their fault they ended up on the street. You’ll act like they deserved it. I bet over half of you back up the politicians that believe people with a criminal record and/or drug history should be barred from any type of government and state funded assistance.
You spit at people who are addicted to drugs, but you can’t go a day without a cigarette.
You talk about drug addicts when you buy a case of beer every time you make a store run and don’t remember how fast you guzzled them down.
You look at addicted people with looks filled with disgust while you continue to make self–destructive choices like having unprotected sex with people you’ll never see again or staying awake all night and pushing yourself to work in the morning.
You claim that you want people to get help but you turn your nose up at people in rehab and AA meetings. You make jokes and memes about people relapsing.
I wouldn’t call myself a fan of Demi Lovato. I know of her. I’ve heard a couple songs and I’ve seen her on TV. Still, the lack of empathy people have horrifies me. How do you make jokes about someone fighting for their life? How do you claim they deserved it because they made a mistake? Haven’t you done something dumb before? Didn’t you feel invincible at some point in your life?
I sincerely hope Demi gets the help she needs to bounce back.I also hope she’s not looking at all these pathetic lowlifes trying to make themselves feel superior simply because they haven’t hit a low of this caliber. I hope the people battling addiction behind the wall known as privacy don’t allow this to discourage them as well. All of these memes directed at Demi are indirectly targeting them as well.
You have a heart, people. Use it.
