The price of fame: success, mental health and addictions
Recently, a new example of the high price that some people pay for fame has jumped into the media. Demi Lovato, the Disney star sung by thousands of young people, confessed her addiction to cocaine and alcohol.
Years and years of trying to convince yourself that you control a dizzying world, without realizing that addictions are a Russian roulette where it is very difficult to succeed. All a constant effort to show an image of success, glamor and success , while reality knocked at his door in the form of suffering, disappointments and mental alterations.
The Disney structure itself enhanced it, showing young people in a permanent party where family references were almost non-existent. He made denial and concealment a way of life, in which they prioritize more to continue squeezing economic results than the person himself. The artistic image ended up destroying the person who was struggling to fit.
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The relationship between addictions and economic success
Substance abuse and alcoholism they have a high relationship with mental illness and in the present case it could not be less. Manic episodes, depression, bipolar disorder and bulimia were some of the diseases that were tried to hide behind a smile and a marketing campaign.
Perhaps the case of Demi Lovato is the most recent, but not the only one. Very striking cases like that of Amy Winehouse, with her death at age 28 and recently reached the top, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson or Elvis Presley, put us before an endless list of people who knew the curse of a badly assimilated fame.
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Is the fame dangerous?
A study conducted by researchers C.R. Epstein and R.J. Epstein, professors of the faculty of medicine of the University of Queensland, entitled Death in The New York Times: the price of fame is a faster flame, puts overwhelming conclusions before us. Old age is shown as the cause of majority death in civil servants, professionals, academics, professors and doctors, while is a minority in singers, actors, actresses and creative professionals .
The second group, linked to "fame", had a greater relationship with the so-called "recreational" drugs , in addition to the use of psychoactive drugs such as anxiolytics and opiates as coping strategies that prove long-term lethal. The abuse of tobacco and the excessive consumption of alcohol differed in a very significant way with the first group of "non-celebrities", detecting a greater number of non-smokers and non-drinkers in this group.
The researchers indicated that cancer, particularly tumors in the lungs, were more common among artists . On the other hand, the study shows that the psychological and family pressures of having a successful public life lead to self-destructive tendencies throughout their lives.
Although it is true that in many cases of deceased celebrities there are examples of too permissive education, abuse or mistreatment, these people would be more willing to accept the serious psychological and physical costs that will reverberate in their lives if that leads to their well-being. to fame, understanding it as a "price" to pay necessary.
The "all available" trap
It is sometimes difficult for a person sometimes in full development, to see that from one day to the next everything that accompanies him are smiles, praises, fans, money and facilities. A world that extends to your feet like a red carpet where everything that can go through your minds is available at the moment with just asking.
A world without limits where sometimes the artists are squeezed to the maximum by record companies, representatives or their own relatives without caring about the consequences of creating an unreal world where everything is allowed.
The actor James Dean with his phrase "Dream as if you were to live forever, live as if you were to die today", put before us the ingredients of the recipe for success: fame and money. The dark history of fame is determined to show that some who savor it fail to assimilate its transcendence and end up being devoured by their own shadows.
Bibliographic references:
- C.R. Epstein, R.J. Epstein; Death in The New York Times: The price of fame is a faster flame, QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, Volume 106, Issue 6, 1 June 2013, Pages 517-521, //doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hct077 .
Ismael Dorado Urbistondo
