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Author Topic: Jeff Conaway RIP
Lisa
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I loved him on Taxi, and I loved him in Babylon 5.

link

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Orincoro
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That's very sad. He was struggling with a terminal disease for a very long time.

As an aside, it will piss me off a little if the "complications from pneumonia" cause of death is the one that the mainstream media runs with, if it is in fact drug related. I don't like that the drug related death is so typically minimized to "accidental death" or "allergic reaction," or "fell into a coma." Why not just say, he died after a long struggle with drug addiction? As I read according to the wikipedia article, the death was related to a drug binge (though not an overdose). I'm sorry if it's disrespectful to talk this way, but we shouldn't forget why this guy died, and it wasn't because he just caught a bad cold or something.

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AchillesHeel
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I was never a fan of his work, in fact I have never seen him act outside of Grease but I did watch the rehab show when it first started. He and his girlfriend were the most depressing and vividly unhealthy part of the program. I can only hope his misfortune and suffering can help others see the truth of drug use and what the long road has in store for addicts who dont devote themselves to treatment and sobriety.

I agree with you Orincoro, and while I do my best to not speak ill of the dead I find lying just as offensive. His body was in shambles after poisoning himself for so long, even if it was pneumonia or a complication thereof his devastatingly poor health that allowed it was a direct effect of drug addiction. To point out, people dont die of cancer they die of infections that thier body cant defend against because the cancer has weakened the immune system, but when a cancer patient dies of a cold they say it was cancer. In a situation where 'drug addiction' simply replaces 'cancer patient' why be so sensitive about it?

[ May 29, 2011, 04:13 PM: Message edited by: AchillesHeel ]

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Lyrhawn
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Loved him on Babylon 5. He'll always be Sgt. Allen to me. Hopefully he'll find some peace now.
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Rakeesh
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...is that a serious question? One reason some might be so sensitive about it is because the only ones who might care aren't dead. That is, the deceased will likely be survived by someone who might not like it known that they died of something shamefully related (and please, let's not pretend there's no social stigma attached) to drug abuse.

I'm not sayin' that makes the decision to beat around the bush OK, but it's not difficult to understand reasons why it's done.

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Orincoro
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It's a rhetorical question of course. I just don't appreciate that particular stigma being catered to so much in the press. And of course, I know it often has a lot to do with the family and whomever else is feeding them information, and how they spin things. There's always that need to keep things close.

It reminds me, weirdly, of the time that an exchange student at my university was found hung in a closet in the office of his lab. A friend of mine at the time had met the guy not long before, and been a sort of reception buddy for him for a few days. The school newspaper reported it in vague terms of "hanging," and "unexpected death." My friend was devastated that he might have been partially responsible for not making this poor guy feel more welcome in the country, leading to his suicide. It wasn't until months later that we found out the guy's death was actually ruled as accidental by the cops. He had died practicing auto-erotic asphyxiation. Now, it's not necessarily anybody's fault really that things weren't made clear from the beginning, but on the other hand, my friend was hurt by not knowing the truth of the matter. And I think there's generally more sense in sparing people from obfuscation and confusion than sparing others from the truth, when that truth is very wel established.

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Orincoro
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quote:
Originally posted by Rakeesh:
That is, the deceased will likely be survived by someone who might not like it known that they died of something shamefully related (and please, let's not pretend there's no social stigma attached) to drug abuse.

You're not wrong, but as always, and most especially in these cases where a celebrity or well known individual has died, I think it's important to point out that addiction is a disease, and not the same thing as drug abuse- you could never touch a drug in your life, and still be an addict.
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Lisa
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quote:
Originally posted by Orincoro:
I think it's important to point out that addiction is a disease, and not the same thing as drug abuse- you could never touch a drug in your life, and still be an addict.

That's ridiculous. I mean, if you want to say that you could never again touch a drug in your life and still be an addict, you'd at least have a view with some basis, though it isn't the kind of "fact" you obviously think it is. But as phrased, what you said it patently false.
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Lyrhawn
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Hm, yeah, I don't know about that one. Never having touched a drug in your life and being addict-prone, sure. Being an addict without touching it? I think that might stretch the definition.

Removing the stigma on addition, and reclassifying it as a disease not worthy of scorn, though, is certainly a laudable and worthy goal.

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Mr. Y
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I think what Orincoro meant is that one can be addicted to other things than drugs.
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Kwea
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You can have an addictive personality, to be sure. And you could be addicted to gambling, or other things.

But in this particular conversation, addict pretty much means drugs or ETOH to most of us. I work in a CSU and Detox clinic, and I see all sorts of addicts, but mostly drug addicts.

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Orincoro
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quote:
Originally posted by Mr. Y:
I think what Orincoro meant is that one can be addicted to other things than drugs.

Yes, and have an addictive personality. It's not something magical in the drugs that does it to you on its own. That just serves as the catalyst for most people.
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Orincoro
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quote:
Originally posted by Lisa:
quote:
Originally posted by Orincoro:
I think it's important to point out that addiction is a disease, and not the same thing as drug abuse- you could never touch a drug in your life, and still be an addict.

That's ridiculous.
It is not ridiculous. It is simply not what common wisdom holds to be true. But addiction manifests in a thousand ways, and drug abuse is just the most visible and most obviously ravenously destructive.

There's a difference between substance dependence and addiction, though they most often occur together. Addiction can be manifested without dependence, and dependence without an addictive syndrome.

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theamazeeaz
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quote:
Originally posted by Lisa:
quote:
Originally posted by Orincoro:
I think it's important to point out that addiction is a disease, and not the same thing as drug abuse- you could never touch a drug in your life, and still be an addict.

That's ridiculous. I mean, if you want to say that you could never again touch a drug in your life and still be an addict, you'd at least have a view with some basis, though it isn't the kind of "fact" you obviously think it is. But as phrased, what you said it patently false.
Gambling.
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Orincoro
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A non-comprehensive list might include:

  • Shopping
  • Sex
  • Food
  • Exercise
  • Internet
  • Pornography
  • Love
  • Food
And those are just the obvious ones.

(I said food twice... I like food)

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