The Death of Philip Seymour Hoffman

I have a friend who has been dealing with her son, who has been addicted to heroin for years and the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman has got to really hit home for her.   She has tried every form of treatment you can imagine.  I am amazed had the difficulties she has faced, especially since he is of adult age.   What amazes me the most - how many of her friends just don't understand this addiction.  Instead of offering help, the are judgmental and critical.

I found this little bit on a blog and thought it was worth sharing.

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Monday, February 3, 2014

Addiction, Mental Health and a Society That Fails to Understand Either

Philip Seymour Hoffman died yesterday. He was found with a needle still wedged into his arm, heroin believed to be the culprit.

When I heard of his passing yesterday, it hit me in the gut a little bit. Not because I know him, not because I know his family members or friends. Not, much to the dismay of what some may believe, because he was an award winning actor.

It hit me because he isn't the only face of addiction, he is just the most recent one. He's just the face that most people recognize, the one that we were familiar with, the one that we came to love through his work on the screen.

Whenever someone famous dies, there seems to be this immediate attempt by far too many people to make their life and death insignificant, as though the death of a celebrity somehow negates the death of all the other people who died on that given day. People attempt to place more value on the lives of some people, less on others, claiming that the celebration of the death of a celebrity is a misplaced outlaying of our efforts. I argue the opposite, obviously, particularly in situations like this one where there is so much opportunity for us to learn about addiction, about mental illness, about why lives end this tragic way.

The opportunity is there, without question. The issue is whether we, as a society choose to seize it, or whether we chalk this loss up to drug use and wave it off indifferently as another selfish life wasted.

Please continue on with this article by clicking here. So worth your time.

According to and article in USA Today, the cause of death was obvious since the man was found with a needle still in his arm.  But it will take a while to get the complete autopsy report.