30/10/2023
I’ve just started listening to this and I usually don’t post when something “significant” (for want if a much better word) happens because I feel it loses it’s authenticity in the social media world 🤳 it’s all about likes and the “algorithm” 🙄 it’s a catch 22 for someone who wants to share things that might help others but doesn’t know how to maintain integrity to do so! Anyway, that’s something I have to navigate but I just wanted to post something with regards to Matthew Perrys passing 🕊️
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I saw some comments that mocked him and questioned the validity of people’s condolences because he was a “Hollywood Millionaire” and it pi**ed me off to be honest. I could speak on it for days but bottom line is, what clearer example would you need that all the things we apparently strive for such as money 💰 and success 📺 could not rid him of his demons?
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I know his exact cause of death hasn’t been established but he was very open about his struggles with addiction and this man had all the money to seek professional support, and he did. He had all the adoration of millions of people, he was a successful actor… yet he couldn’t conquer those demons 💭 and always “felt alone”
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What chance has the average person got who’s battling addiction when they don’t have the success, the money or the support of others? It’s heartbreaking and something very personal to me because I am an addict…. Something I’ve kept very private and battled for a number of years; but I’ve also grown up around addiction, I’ve seen it first hand, up close, I understand it and watched it change people I love ❤️
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The point of this post is a) to highlight how devastating, how subtle, how suffocating addiction can be and how it robs millions of people every day of the freedom they long for 🙏 and to remind people it isn’t the substances that are THE problem 💊💉 🥃 addiction is a desire to escape PAIN, by whatever means. It just so happens that drugs and alcohol hit that bit deeper, numbness, offer that temporary relief but we can become, and are, addicted to TV, shopping, food, p**n, social media and so on and
b) to encourage people to have a little more compassion ❤️ nobody wants be an addict
