Who Killed Heath Ledger?
Summary: Can our beloved Heath Ledgers death be at least one particular catalyst that will draw this devastating travesty to the public's interest to demand a lot more details?
Search phrases: Who Killed Heath Ledger
Write-up Physique: The very first time I saw Heath Ledger, it was by accident. My date and later to-be husband, Nick, took me to see 'The Sixth Sense', lastly succumbing to peer tension to guess ‘the huge surprise ending. By now, 'The Sixth Sense' was off the large theater chain circuit and basically screening in tiny suburban independent theaters, which led us to expertise a single of these now uncommon events: a double-characteristic matinee. The initially film was 'ten Points I Hate About You'.
Properly passed ‘teen films, even these with Shakespearian-based scripts, we shyly admitted to liking ten Factors. Wow, I actually including the male lead, what was his name? “He’s Australian, you know”, replied Nick. And in common Aussie-style, I was doubly impressed and now stupidly filled with national pride. Yet another brilliant Australian up-and-comer to join the quickly growing queue to grace Hollywood screens.
Years later, I would usually grab the DVD to fill a cheerless afternoon and locate myself watching and rewinding the identical scene. Above and More than and Above yet again. My secret guilty pleasure. Heath sliding down the pole, microphone in hand, singing “You’re only too superior to be real, can’t take my eyes off of you …” The brass band kicks in. And that charmingly defiant half-run, half-prancing across the school measures. The scene is brilliant. It’s inexplicable. He only has that old-fashioned ‘it’ factor.
I’m not a star-struck fan and was under no circumstances 1 of these teenagers with film-star idol posters plastered all More than my bedroom walls, nevertheless this youngsters got talent.
And then came these scene-stealing roles that entirely blew us away. The Patriot. Monsters Ball. And ultimately top-man status and an Academy Award nomination. By now, we had been simply applied to possessing A different popular Australian up there with the rest of the world's superior talent churning out an endless array of diverse, nevertheless illustrious movie roles.
We had no notion. It was not endless. It was not what we expected.
When people today who I’ve by no means met yet enormously admire die, I’m sad. Nevertheless I’ve under no circumstances cried ahead of. I have in no way prior to felt that heart wrenching overwhelming shock that lasted for days after I heard the news. This time it was somehow additional individual. As quickly as I read the comprehensive list of the very first Article of his deathbed scene, I intuitively knew how he died. 10 days later the final medical examiners Post confirmed my suspicions.
Hollywood is ‘Xanax-city. Feeling down, pop a Xanax. Feeling stressed, pop a Xanax. Want to carry out at your incredibly finest, pop a Xanax. A-list stars feel the anxiety to supply A-grade performances when operating on multi-million dollar movies. There's too significantly funds at stake. The intense stress, each internal and external, is immeasurable. The studios are risking billions, paying the stars millions, and the actors are unnaturally subjected to a lot more strain than we mere mortals can envision.
Heath Ledger, himself, admitted that after the globally release of A Knights Tale with its immediate paparazzi-bulb-flashing stardom, his stress levels elevated 10-fold.
Xanax is the trade name of the generic anti-tension/tranquillizer prescription drug, alprazolam, listed in Ledgers toxicity Article. The other anti-pressure drug was diazepam, or much more typically recognized as Valium. Those drugs are from a class of frequently prescribed tranquilizers identified as benzodiazepines or merely referred to as benzos.
According to the most recent National Well being Research, roughly ten million scripts of benzos are written annually in Australia alone with its meagre population of 20 million compared to 300 million in the US.
Several medical doctors will write a script for benzos more rapidly than a speeding bullet. Yet the true risk is that too A lot of of them do not know the extended-term effects those drugs have on your process, how to offer their individuals the real tips when administering or monitoring the dosages, and – a lot more frighteningly - how to handle their individuals benzo withdrawal process. Firstly, this is how benzos influence your Physique – or a lot more importantly – your brain. Benzodiazepines raise, or rather, raise your brains key neurotransmitter, normally acknowledged as GABA. Sooner or later, and this can be as rapidly as 3 to four weeks if taking a day-to-day dose, your brain will cease creating its own GABA and rely completely on the artificial benzo.
GABA is the most important neurotransmitter mainly because it impacts only about anything else. Largely it enhances the brains other neurotransmitters including Serotonin and Dopamine. All of the brains neurotransmitters have important functions like, voluntary movement of the muscles, wakefulness, sleep, memory function, sensory transmission - in particular discomfort, and substantially, significantly additional.
The difficulty is that from this point on your brain wants much more benzo as tolerance begins the downward spiral, and the brain requirements greater and greater dosages to acquire the similar effect. If the patient is not offered the true dosage or management tips, that insidious and generally-undiagnosed disorder recognized as Benzo Withdrawal Syndrome (BWS) will commence its ugly and potentially hazardous descent.
BWS is acknowledged by specialists in the field for its severity and prolonged nature. It may possibly take years to totally withdraw from benzos, even with proper care and supervision. Without having this experience, the unwitting patient can endure from Above 30 signs and symptoms, the most common becoming unrelenting insomnia, severe discomfort and mood modifications. Individuals who have been taking benzos for a comparatively brief time can knowledge withdrawal signs and symptoms even whilst taking the drug. In addition, if you have been taking them for a prolonged time, and then suddenly cease, dire circumstances might take place. Or, at the really least, additional discomfort, additional depression and unrelenting insomnia.
When we now read about Heath Ledgers complaints, does this sound familiar? Anything Factors to extreme Benzo Withdrawal, nevertheless no-1 is exclaiming its dangers. In fact, most GPs and even hospital medical doctors admit they know incredibly tiny about Benzo Withdrawal. Some even refer their individuals to drug rehabilitation centers – an absolute no-no according to benzo counselors. Benzo withdrawal is the precise opposite to alcohol or street drug dependency. You don’t Will need to abruptly do away with the benzo from your Physique, as they usually do in drug rehabilitation. The brain requires the benzo. A single have to gradually withdraw the artificial benzo till the brain can Sooner or later raise its own GABA. Sudden cessation of benzos can cause severe complications which includes seizures and blackouts.
When in BWS, the counselors advise against taking any medication or drugs whatsoever. Paracetamol is in all probability the basically thing the Physique can cope with for discomfort relief. Practically nothing else. Even codeine is forbidden. As well, a single have to entirely refrain from alcohol, caffeine, and all stimulants. There is a robust protocol to be followed and With out this experience, the patient is very easily place at good risk.
The Ashton Manual, the identified benzodiazepine ‘bible, warns:
“Drug interactions: Benzodiazepines have additive effects with other drugs with sedative actions such as other hypnotic's, some antidepressant's (e.g. amitriptyline [Elavil], doxepin [Adapin, Sinequan]), massive tranquilizers or neuroleptics (e.g. prochlorperazine [Compazine], trifluoperazine [Stelazine]), anticonvulsant's (e.g. phenobarbital, phenytoin [Dilantin], carbamazepine [Atretol, Tegretol]), sedative antihistamines (e.g. diphenhydramine [Benadryl], promethazine [Phenergan]), opiates (heroin, morphine, meperidine), and, importantly, alcohol. Individuals taking benzodiazepines ought to be warned of those interactions. If sedative drugs are taken in overdose, benzodiazepines may well add to the risk of fatality.”
The accurate issue is that there are really couple of specialists in treating BWS; they will not include your nearby doctor, hospital, or drug clinic. Nevertheless, there are great BWS authorities that can be quite useful, however they are frequently identified in in particular funded tranquillizer recovery clinics.
1 ought to ask, why don’t physicians know about this? The challenge is they only don’t. Is it their fault or the pharmaceutical organizations that profit from those addictions? There is smaller or no dissemination of facts inside the community, the medical fraternity or from the pharmaceutical corporations about benzodiazepines. And, according to BWS counselors functioning in the field, there is insufficient study or empirical research on the effects of benzos and BWS management to help them with their intensive workload's.
Why? Who is at fault? Who is responsible for remedying the scenario? Why are the people today who write the scripts uninformed about the after-effects and potential dangers linked with benzodiazepines?
Can our beloved Heath Ledgers death be at least 1 catalyst that will draw this devastating travesty to the public's focus to demand far more details?
I hope so.
