Heath Ledger's Death Should NOT Be A Surprise

So I get to my ridiculous hotel room in Richmond, Virginia (a city I still adore) that has everything that I could ask for from a hotel room except for the call girls. However, there is a phone book and I know how to use it. I find out that Heath Ledger is dead at 28 years of age. Early stories indicate that he died of a drug overdose in Manhattan. We are all shocked when someone famous dies early. Why should anyone be surprised that a famous actor, actress, or musician dies of a drug overdose? I ask, why not? Celebrity status is not what it is cracked up to be. Little kids grow up wanting to be famous. If my child told me that they wanted to a famous something I would strongly encourage them to not go down that road. Then I would lock them in the basement for the next twenty years. Why? Here's why. When you become famous several things happen. The biggest of these things is a loss of privacy. You now live in a bubble that can be seen by anyone at anytime. It is like living in a real world Big Brother episode. You are chased by the media, stalkers, and the morbidly curious. All the time. Sure, you have all the money that you could imagine, but you pay out for the loss of privacy and the enormous neverending strain that goes with it. If you were watched all the time by everyone, every step, every decision, every fall and every rise, then how would you escape? Hoe does anyone escape? Well, skip that question. Many people find the escape hatch in booze, drugs, sex, and gambling. Just look at most famous people that you know and if you dig hard enough and for long enough you will find that they found an escape hatch. Then you will find that they used the escape hatch so much that they became addicted to it. Once addicted it's too late. Once addicted then the disease process kicks in. Then the cycle downward continues even further. There is a laundry list of celebrities that are dealing with (and died from) addictions and because they are celebrities then we hear about it continuously. They found an escape hatch and they became addicted to it and then cycle into oblivion. I do not know whether or not Heath Ledger was addicted to drugs or not. If it is a suicide, then he picked the ultimate escape hatch. A permanant one. One that there is no turning back from. If he was using drugs and booze excessively to the point of being substance dependent then the spiral of addiction reached a final desperate end. Either way is a deeply sad occurance. As I watch the news reports of people, deeply saddened, coming to Heath Ledger's apartment after the news of his death was reported, I am reminded of a couple of things. The first thing is that many people believe that they know the celebrity and feel deeply attached to them even though they have never met the person and likely never will. However, we see them on the screen, hear them on the radio, and we hear everything about them through the media to the point that we feel we know them and know everything about them. As a society we have become so disconnected to our families, our communities, and oursleves that people are so desperate to connect to something that they fall upon our overly exposed celebrities. The other thing that I am reminded of is that there are thousands upon thousands of people who die in this country due to chemical dependency and/or suicide. Each one is a horrible tragedy. Everyone that reads this post has been touched in some way by chemical dependency, suicide, or both. Dig deep enough through your friends and family and you will find someone who has dealt with chemical dependency or been hit hard by a loved ones suicide. It's there. Trust me. How come we don't hear about those tragedies. Aren't these people important? Don't they play more important roles in people's lives than celebrities? We don't hear about them? Deaths by suicide and/or chemical dependency complications out pace the homicide rate by at least a four to one margin. What do we hear about? Grisly murders and celebritity death and spiraling lives. Aren't these avoidable deaths a bigger tragedy? Maybe I should call for the call girls because I need an escape hatch from all this. Gimme the phone book!!