Saturday

A different kind of discussion about Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen is not a joke. His disease is fatal. The fact that the media has put him in the position of power is simply called "enabling" and it must stop. Only one article I've seen lately even hints at the enabling caused by the running-jokes about his demise.

The owners of a popular 12 Step Recovery Website have had their moment making a point of cashing in on Charlie Sheen's meltdown, making me wonder who ISN'T interested in watching this travesty occur before our very eyes.

My discussion on that forum was obviously so clearly stated that it was censored. Even other addicts seem to want to watch the meltdown. How telling the response is to the owners' dedication to free thought on the site.

Maybe America likes to watch melt-downs. Perhaps people with less money think it's interesting to watch a man who seemingly has everything go off the deep end in a spiral of drugs, alcohol, sex addiction and just plain mania. Whatever the reason, a clear word must be said about making fun of this tragedy.

STOP.

Craig Ferguson has it right. Here's an example of socially-conscious reporting. On a Late-Night Talk Show.



A Casualty

Sheen is just one more casualty in the war on drugs and the media's fascination with celebrity and absurdity. Whatever the reason, this man is very very sick. As a person with the same disease (addiction) I cannot go on watching him become the butt of every one's jokes.

Absolutely — his words have been filled with self-centeredness and his actions show an obsessive and compulsive denial of even being an addict. That is the definition of addiction. Kissing it off to "no one can get help unless they want it" has proved to be a fallacy. Watch a few episodes of "Intervention" to know that the bottoming out process can be lovingly pointed out and orchestrated by those who truly love and care for the addict.

The man might have bi-polar disorder. He certainly looks as if he is close to death. The producer of the hit show that was just canceled as a result of Sheen's antics is one of the few people who have shown they will no longer stand by and watch him crash and burn. The intervention started at that very moment by a man who has obviously seen his share of enabling and co-dependence.

Thank you to the honesty of this Hollywood mover-and-shaker who realized his only chance at getting help for Sheen was to cut the cord.

Martin Sheen has been open about his own struggle with the disease and should know quite well that there is a road to death by this disease and there is a road back called recovery. What I ask now is "Where are the family members? When are they going to step in?" The shame of having an addict in the family can only be measured by how far the family will go to get the addict help. Sheens? Where are you? Do you feel the need to step away from Charlie as he goes through his own personal hell?

I remember reading about and watching Martin Sheen melt down in an early scene in "Apocalypse Now" when he was obviously very drunk and allowed to go the extreme lengths of self-destruction to shoot that scene and to show the horror of a man and his demons. At least M. Sheen was able to see on screen just exactly what meltdown looks like as the director and editor chose to leave the horrific drunken rage in the film, even after being physically attacked during the shooting.

There are no high priced directors and big money backers watching Charlie Sheen melt down. There are only people who will either cheer him on or walk away from him.

This addict embraces her brother in the fellowship of recovery just as much as I embraced Rush Limbaugh into the family. Was that hard to do? No. Did I get a ridiculous amount of flack for supporting him. You bet.

But had it not been for those who stood by me while I was going down and telling me they would not watch me kill myself I would not be here today to write about and for any person enduring this disease. Laugh if you want. But know that there were a great deal of people who enjoyed watching the beheading of Royalty in Britain and the Colosseum spectacles in Rome.

Question is, what does you heart tell you? If you care about your fellow human being, I pray you will stop all Sheen jokes as you hear them being told and remind the joke teller that life and death are no joking matter.

Getting Help

Praying for you Mr. Sheen. May that the next article I read about you not be an obituary. Here's a link you might be interested in... Get Help for Charie Sheen!


5 comments:

rookie said...

succinctly said...
may i share this???

beaglelover said...

I agree with your commentary and I hope to God(dess) that Charlie Sheen will get help before it's too late. One tends to think it may already be too late as far as his career or his mind are concerned.
-D. Thompson

lisbethwest said...

rookie, you may refer people to this blog but cannot copy it to put it in a different souce unless I see the editorial policy. Thank you for asking - you can refr tonight after 7pm Mar 6, 2011

lisbethwest said...

This has been discovered on the Recovery website that I spoke of in my original blog. Quite a scuffle was made about censorship: In reply I ask for specifics about David from Louisiana.

The next blog post will show what I originally wrote.

Anonymous said...

I would be very interested in the response if any.