One of our favourite actresses, Jamie Lee Curtis, has penned an important and largely personal blog over on The Huffington Post on the tricky subject of opiate addiction. In light of Prince's recent passing - though his actual cause of death has yet to be confirmed - there has been a lot of conversation online about prescription pain-killers and the effects of their long-term use.
Curtis urges readers to avoid enabling their family members who face the same struggle, revisiting her own story of addiction and what she went through. "I was toxic" she says. "I too, sought to kill emotional and physical pain with pain killers. Kill it. Make it stop." She's been in recovery for more than 17 years and while she herself is doing great, she feels it's important to share her learnings. Here's just some of what she said; you can read the full piece over yonder.
It seems now that the governmental body, the AMA, the FDA and the media are starting to address the rampant epidemic of opiate addiction. There have been re-classifications and attempts at reigning in the over-prescription of opiates. Most people who become addicted, like me, do so after a prescription for a painkiller following a medical procedure. Once the phenomenon of craving sets in, it is often too late. I, like all of you, mourn the passing of a great artist but I also mourn the passing of potential artists past and present, caught in this deadly vise. Let’s work harder, look closer and do everything we can not to enable and in doing so, disable, our loved ones who are ill. This is what it sounds like when we all cry.
