Essay Example: Celebrities are Human Too - Challenges Faced By the Famous

With the increase in innovation and entertainment activities, there is an equal increase in the number of celebrities that conduct their lives with superiority and material wealth. From the occupations that give them fame, rewards, and opulence, these superstars often seem to love their lives without any care in the world (Furek, 2008). Notwithstanding the above case, celebrities are still a human being, and as a result, they face challenges that everyone has, therefore, as regular folks, they also exhibit struggles including sex addiction, eating addiction and drug addiction which make them struggle with their lifestyle (Furek, 2008). Battling alcohol and drug addiction is a difficult thing. Nevertheless, if one is a celebrity who has access to narcotics and other drugs in abundance, it can become very difficult to end the habit of addiction. Additionally, as a celebrity, the world is always watching to see your struggles, with criticisms from other people while others wait to learn something from your life (Furek, 2008). One of the celebrities that has struggled with drug addiction is Nicole Richie, one of the main American TV personality and a daughter to Lionel Richie, the musician.

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Nicole Richie, in most cases, talked publicly about her addiction to both cocaine and heroin. Nicole Richie reported that boredom led her to get into drugs. In her life, life was easy since she could easily find whatever she wanted. Therefore, she saw the need to create drama and attract the attention of the people. As a result, she deeply got into partying, and the lifestyle that she adopted led her to addiction in heroin at an early age, early and mid-twenties. While Nicole Richie was struggling with drug addiction, she was not doing it in private; it was all in the public domain because she wanted attention from everyone, a scenario that later proved to be very helpful or a blessing in disguise. At the age of 18, Nicole Richie was doing a lot of cocaine, later, she went for the treatment, but later on, she started using heroin, and in the year 2003, she was busted and arrested for the possession of heroin.

The drug experimentation in Nicole Richie's teen resulted in cocaine, alcoholism, as well as the heroin addiction in her early and mid-twenties. In addition to drug addiction, Nicole was also plagued with eating disorders as a result of her frail appearance. The use of drugs led Richie to legal problems and constant partying (Kirane et al., 2016). Attending numerous parties accompanied by the drug use made Richie violent, and in most cases, she used to fight with other people after doing drugs. For an instant, in the year 2002, she was arrested after waging a fight in a New York night club, luckily, the charges labelled against her were dropped (Kirane et al., 2016). Again, in the following year, 2003, she was arrested in Malibu as a result of possession with heroin as well as driving without any license (Kirane et al., 2016). After being arrested in the year 2003, she was taken for the addiction treatment, and in the end, she was sentenced to three years' probation (Kirane et al., 2016).

The drug addiction interfered with Nicole Richie's social life; she became violent and reckless in her life. Psychologically, she became weak, and her relationship with friends and family members deteriorated. Her gender, race and class played a greater role in the addiction processes. Coming from a rich background, she had the money to buy drugs; she also had the opportunity to get legal support once arrested in possession of drugs. In other words, in most cases, when she was arrested, she was able to get support from the family, which was in a position to hire a good lawyer. The above situation led her to the addiction problems and even violent behaviours. Additionally, her gender contributed immensely to the addiction behaviours, in most cases, she could be supported by the once she got into an altercation with other people, in other words, her gender contributed much to the addiction problem (McCartha & Strauman, 2009).

As Nicole Richie's addiction problems were getting worse, there were several approaches that were undertaken to help her. First, Nicole was taken to the rehabilitation centres where she was given different treatments to help her come out of the addiction problems. When Nicole Richie was arrested on various occasions, she could admit having been under the influence of drugs, and this made it possible for her to be taken in different rehabilitation centres for treatment processes. For instance, after being arrested in the year 2003, she was taken for the addiction treatment, and in the end, she was sentenced to three years' probation (McCartha & Strauman, 2009). In addition to the rehabilitation centres, Nicole Richie also attended different counselling programs to get support on how to end the drug addiction and regain her normal life. The good thing with Nicole's addiction was that she was never private with her condition, and this made the treatment process easier. She was able to get support from different professionals, a situation that enhanced the healing processes. The strength-based treatment and harm reduction approach that Nicole Richie could have taken is the avoidance of harmful or illegal drugs, which is always a difficult step to take.

References

Furek, M. W. (2008). The death proclamation of generation x: A self-fulfilling prophesy of goth, grunge and heroin. New York, N.Y: iUniverse. Retrieved from: https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=UkmhTZBHlEoC&pg=PA132&dq=Nicole+Richie+struggle+with+drugs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjPorLr-7jjAhUQhRoKHbGXD_4Q6AEIQTAF#v=onepage&q=Nicole%20Richie%20struggle%20with%20drugs&f=false

Kirane, H., Ketteringham, M., Bereket, S., Dima, R., Basta, A., Mendoza, S., & Hansen, H. (2016). Awareness and attitudes toward intranasal naloxone rescue for opioid overdose prevention. Journal of substance abuse treatment, 69, 44-49. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2016.07.005

McCartha, M., & Strauman, E. C. (2009). Fallen Stars and Strategic Redemption: A Narrative Analysis of the National Enquirer. Florida Communication Journal, 37(2). Retrieved from: https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=10503366&AN=57400552&h=p8VUEesSAQA%2fuxzwnmBHv9VwxeJ1trY4Jz%2f8feCgd9CwjqjjSmDyoig70eV%2f%2feLYN96O10rJLEcKsv4fuMCITw%3d%3d&crl=c&resultNs=AdminWebAuth&resultLocal=ErrCrlNotAuth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d10503366%26AN%3d57400552