My last post was about a life wasted by synthetic concoctions that numb and dumb. We usually hear or read about them if they're famous people and completely brush them aside as low-life scum if they aren't. Drugs have victimized many stars and futilized many talents. It's like a bad dream you can't forget, a shadow always on your tail. Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, Chet Baker, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, Brittany Murphy. Their lives and deaths are always reminding us to stay away from drugs. But no, the best things in life are either illegal, unhealthy, unethical, immoral or taboo. More and more people try and get hooked on drugs everyday and the painful Russian roulette between drug addiction and society itself continues.
Druggies would justify that it's their bodies and they have the right to do whatever they want with it. What they don't realize, or most probably choose not to, is that they are an epicenter of destruction sending shockwaves of despair and grief to those around them. Drugs kill, that's a fact. But it doesn't only kill you, it kills everyone else around you.
Of all the reality crap that MTV shows, I was able to catch one that is actually inspiring. Since my cable company no longer subscribes to MTV, this particular show I caught on Velvet. The show's title is here:
I watched but a couple episodes of this since I don't know its timeslot and I found at first that the show was stupid. It's like watching a retreat on TV with people sharing, leaders giving inspiring speeches, people exposing their and their family's dirty laundry for everyone to hear and see, stuff like that. Stuff that my usual cynicism feeds on for mockery. After all, it's just all about teenagers and their teenage drama: I feel so alone, I wanna belong, I don't know who I am, all those crap. But this particular episode touched me deeply. And I would've written asap after watching the show only if there was no power outage. Here is the only picture of the girl I'm talking about, I don't know what her name is but her story was incredible:
She shocked her core group when she revealed that she has a mental disorder, bipolar and she has had bouts with severe depression. She lives in a broken home, with her drug addicted father who verbally abused her to the point of breaking down. Her own father, the one supposed to protect her, cherish her, love her, encourage her, was the one who raged that she was crazy, that she was no good, that nothing will ever come out of her miserable life. He stepped on her when she was so down, when she needed his love and support most. Blame it on his own personal misery, his hatred of himself, his drug use. But damn it, it crushed her fragile teenage spirit. She recalled that a friend of hers, who also has the same sickness as her, joined her in committing suicide on Christmas day. Fortunately, her parents found them and brought them to the hospital for treatment. She tearfully recalled that a family friend, who has no business at all to attend to her, offered her help. She now lives with that family friend, who she fondly calls her 'aunt'. She said that was the only time she felt she was wanted and she was loved.
Her story shocked not only her core discussion group but her other schoolmates who participated in that sharing. One of them said she was amazed how anybody could have survived that kind of treatment. One of them said she wanted to hug her each time she crossed the blue line. Overall, I think not only was it an eye-opener for everyone there (jock, prom queen, loser, nerd, bully, etc) that they can live side by side, pass each other on the hallways without truly knowing one another, how each one really felt, it could have been the last lifeline of that girl. It was cathartic to have shared her demons so they can leave her, so that everyone can see her now, no longer invisible but with the support of once-strangers-turned-friends.
Yes, drugs would destroy people around you, those who love you. But hope springs eternal. We can get back, we can regain what we lost, we can save lives. We can find time, time to listen, time to care, just a few minutes to really listen to someone who says "If you really knew me...."
No comments:
Post a Comment