What Journalists Can Learn From Whitney Houston’s Death
Roy Hobbs, a veteran journalist, was a weekend television anchor in Birmingham, Ala., when he was busted on drug charges in April 2010, his name splashed across local news media. “I was trying to commit suicide,” Hobbs told Journal-isms later.
Entertainer Whitney Houston was found underwater and apparently unconscious in the bathtub of a Beverly Hills, Calif., hotel where she was pronounced dead Saturday night, police said, Richard Winton and Andrew Blankstein reported Monday in the Los Angeles Times.
Police said they could not speculate on what might have caused or contributed to her death, but several prescription drugs were found in Houston’s hotel room.
Los Angeles County coroner’s officials said it is too soon to say whether the medications played any role in the singer’s death. Authorities have said that they are trying to determine whether she drowned and that determining a cause of death could take weeks,” the reporters wrote.
In reading, watching and listening to the reports about Houston, Hobbs saw parallels between his story and hers. Since his 2010 arrest, he has been in recovery and is starting a new life.
Hobbs explains in this essay for Journal-isms.
By Roy Hobbs
The death of Whitney Houston is the cause of great pain for me. I can identify completely with her story because in many respects it mirrors mine. It is a story of professional success wrapped by disappointments in her personal life. It involves trying to live up to a perception.
I am not a superstar or a onetime sweetheart of the world. What Whitney and I had in common is that we were both addicts. As we look at her story, we might look at ourselves and do what my father tried to teach me: Walk a mile in the other man’s shoes.
As journalists, we need to use this terrible loss to bring the issue of depression and addiction out of the darkness. By shining a light, we have the chance to defeat it. Those of us in recovery need to tell our stories and educate people about addiction.
We know all too well about pressures. Deadline pressures, often several times a day. Many times when the long day is done, we throw down a few. Imagine the pressure superstars like Whitney face.
I have no way of knowing all that was going on in Whitney’s life, but based on news articles, I see parallels. I am in a very public position, a television news anchor/reporter, who, I am told, is very good at my job. I went through a terrible divorce, as did she with Bobby Brown. I lost my job and my income. She was allegedly broke and had lost her instrument for making a living, her voice.
Those are the seeds of depression. I know. That changes your brain chemistry if suffered for a prolonged period. Most times you don’t even know you suffer from it. I didn’t. It is truly a silent killer and it nearly killed me. Most family members and friends don’t know you’re suffering from depression, let alone what to do about it.
Was that the case for Whitney?
Like her, I am an addict. It was hard to accept that at first. It was not what my parents, my children, my friends or I thought I would become.
Addiction is a disease. I didn’t know that when I was in active addiction. I thought it was my lack of will or morals.
I fought for years with that mistaken belief. It took me to the bowels of society, and as a respected member of my community, I fought hard to hide it. But the disease took over and despite my every effort, I could not stop.
Addiction is a progressive disease. It might start out as fun, but the ends are always the same — jails, institutions or death.
I went through all three, except when I tried to kill myself, death would not take me. I thought death would free me from my pain, my shame, my hurt.
Today, I know I would only have passed all of that to my children and friends. They would have suffered all that I would have left behind.
Whitney and I could have shared that bleak outlook. But there is another significant difference between us. She never got into recovery. By the grace of God, I did. Otherwise, I too would be gone.
Something greater than me had other plans. I was fortunate enough to go into treatment. It was there that I learned that I suffered from major depression. I was put on medication and it made a difference.
I learned that addicts don’t have what “Earth” people have in their brains. “Earth” people have a green “go” button and a red “stop” button. Addicts have only a green “go” button. Once we start, we can’t stop.
Based on what I have learned about Whitney, she might not have had a red “stop” button. Recognizing that is the first step to recovery, I cannot do what “Earth” people do. I needed to join a self-help group to be around people like me and hear their experience, gaining strength and hope.
News reports say Whitney went to rehab twice, yet during Grammy week celebrations, she was drinking.
I don’t know where Whitney was spiritually, but I had to seek out a connection with a power greater than myself. Some choose to call that a connection with God. I needed that because active addiction left me spiritually empty. Those were just the first steps because I will be an addict for the rest of my life. The difference now is I am a recovering addict. Has it been easy? No. Is it worth it? Yes.
It hurt me deeply when I learned that Whitney Houston passed away. What hurts me most of all was that she was not in recovery, because I know she was experiencing deep pain. I pray that she has found her peace outside of her imperfect human body. I pray that she is surrounded with love.
I hope we as journalists write stories that give people hope that they can recover their lives. Show us people who are doing just that.
Who knows how many can be saved?
Will Whitney Houston Death Renew Focus on Addiction?
“With the sudden and tragic passing of Whitney Houston, there’s no doubt there will be scores of tributes,” hip hop journalist Davey D wrote Sunday for hiphopandpolitics.com.
” . . . She became the poster child for drug abuse and addiction in an industry that is chock full of people dead and alive who have all succumbed at one time or another to some sort of addiction. Over my 25+ years in this music industry I’ve seen a whole lot of ugly truths we like to keep hidden behind the glitz and glam. Anyone in the music/ entertainment industry can tell you stories of executives & shot callers who routinely do lines of coke, pop pills, do speed, take ecstasy or drink themselves under the table while ‘moguling‘. Those abusive habits are far too often shared with the talent/ artists.. In a business where egos are massive and insecurities shallow, taking a ‘lil something something‘ to get amped up or ‘get you open’ is all too commonplace. People don’t wanna talk about it, but its true.”
Richard Winton and Andrew Blankstein reported Monday that Houston was found underwater in the bathtub of a Beverly Hills hotel where she was pronounced dead, police said.
” ‘She was underwater and apparently unconscious,’ the Beverly Hills Police Department said in a statement, adding that authorities ‘cannot speculate on what may have caused or contributed to her death.
“Several prescription drugs were found in Houston’s hotel room, but Los Angeles County coroner’s officials said it’s too soon to say whether the medications played any role in the singer’s death. Authorities have said that they are trying to determine whether she drowned and that determining a cause of death could take weeks.”
But Davey D continued, “If we look at the pantheon of great Black artists hooked on drugs of one type or another the list is long.. [Billie] Holiday, John Coltrane, [Jimi] Hendrix, Dorothy Dandridge, Dinah Washington, Richard Pryor, Ole Dirty Bastard, Sly Stone, David Ruffin, George Clinton, Frankie Lymon, DJ Screw, James Brown even the King of Pop Michael Jackson and that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Keep in mind these are just Black artists. If I start adding names outside our community like Amy Whinehouse, Kurt Cobain, River Phoenix, Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison to name a few, the list gets substantially longer…
“. . .If we wanna really honor Whitney, how about helping put an end to the demons that plagued her and so many others? If we wanna honor Whitney, how about us having a honest, impactful and earnest discussion about addictions and mental health so we can spare future generations of this pain.”