Drug Addiction of Whitney Houston - Essay Sample

Introduction

Celebrities are among the most addicted individuals to different addictions like drugs, gambling, dieting, eating, and shopping. Addiction to drugs is one of the common issues facing celebrities that affect their psychological, biological, or sociological life. There are different approaches to the treatment of addiction in celebrities. Whitney Houston is one of the celebrities under the addition of drug abuse, a situation that has affected different spheres of her life. In spite of the of the approaches used treating Houston's condition, drug addiction has impacted her sociological, psychological, and biological life in various ways as seen in the discussion of this paper.

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Houston had an addiction to drugs especially cocaine and alcohol. Houston began to use alcohol and cocaine at the age of 20 years. The singing talent in Houston increased the addition to cocaine and alcohol because of luxury life lived by celebrities (Martins, 2018). Though cocaine and alcohol were the major addictions for Houston, the singer also abused prescription drugs like Flexeril and Xaxax as well as marijuana and Benadryl. After the accidental death of Houston, there was the presence of several drugs in her bloodstream with the inclusion of cocaine, alcohol, marijuana, Flexeril, and Benadryl (Sutton, 2018). Though Houston was a star in singing, a battle with drug addiction was a significant challenge in her talent.

Houston's addiction to drugs affected her life in various ways. First, the addiction impacted her socially by contribution to her divorce with Bobby Brown. In an interview with MTV, Brown who was the ex-husband to Houston reported that Houston and the abuse of drugs was one and he could not find a place in her life; he decided to move away from her life (Cussons, 2018). The addiction also affected her life biologically; Houston was suffering from heart diseases because of cocaine abuse. Following her accidental death, the coronary reported that the presence of cocaine in her blood might have caused sudden death because of a heart attack. The addiction also affected Houston psychologically as she was emotional and angry after using marijuana and alcohol.

Different addition treatment and approached were used to treat and manage Houston's addiction. The most commonly used was rehabilitation, in most of the cases the celebrity-attended rehabilitation sessions (Payne, 2018). Family members and friends secretly organized for rehabilitation sessions for Houston because drug abuse was negatively affecting her life. In one occasion with an interview with New York Times Houston also admitted of having been in a rehab severally (Martins, 2018). The other approach used in the treatment of Houston's drug addiction was withdrawal. The use of the withdrawal method was not successful in the case of Houston because of influence from friends who were also addicts that caused her to resume drug abuse.

Since the use of rehabilitation and withdraws did not work in the treatment of Houston addiction, I suggest the use of relapse prevention. Houston would have used medications to re-establish the normal functioning of her brain as well as reduce cravings for drugs. For example, in the treatment of alcohol addiction, Houston would have used drugs like Acamprosate and Naltrexone to reduce cravings for alcohol (Chapman, 2017). Consequently, the use of relapse prevention would have worked together with rehabilitation and withdrawal approaches in the treatment of Houston's drug addiction state.

Conclusion

Conclusively, addiction to drugs is one of the common issues facing celebrities that affect their psychological, biological, or sociological life. Houston had an addiction to drugs, a situation that affected her life. In spite of the treatment approaches of rehabilitation and withdrawal employed, Houston did not recover from the addiction. A suggestion for the inclusion of relapse treatment in the rehabilitation and withdrawal treatment techniques would have helped in the recovery. Therefore, using an example of Houston, there is a need for intervention on how to prevent and treat addiction among celebrities.

References

Chapman, K. (2017). Management and treatment of drug addiction. Journal Of Chronic Diseases, 9(2-3), 315-326. doi: 10.1016/0021-9681(59)90169-9

Cussons, E. (2018). A Timeline Of Whitney Houston's Battle With Drug Abuse. Retrieved from http://www.mtv.com/news/2497086/whitney-houston-drug-abuse-timeline/

Martins, B. (2018). How a Director Uncovered Whitney Houston's Secret Pain. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/movies/whitney-houston-documentary.html

Payne, S. (2018). Whitney Houston News: A Timeline of Singer's Drug Abuse Battle. Retrieved from https://www.ibtimes.com/whitney-houston-news-timeline-singers-drug-abuse-battle-409882Sutton, R. (2018).

Whitney Houston Long-time Battle with addiction. Retrieved from https://people.com/celebrity/whitney-houstons-long-battle-with-drug-addiction/