Tuffgirl

Maybe its because that was the first album I bought...with my own babysitting money...and wore out the tape in my boombox.

Maybe it is because she was only 8 years older than me and my daughter is her daughter's age.

Maybe it is because she was the epitome of addictions - such an amazingly talented and beautiful woman who hit the skids pretty hard, but seemed to be rising above it all.

Maybe because she wasn't a "success story" after all.

Just makes me really sad. And brings the reality of addictions home for us all.

RIP, Whitney.

fedup3

A friend of mine who passed away 10 yrs ago was a good friend of Whitney's mom who was also a singer. My friend was a trumpet player and knew Whitney since she was born and he was so proud of her and her success, ugh. I'm glad that he wasn't here to have to see her death.

kiki5711

More than drugs she was addicted to bobby brown who was her destruction.

why she never moved on past him, I don't understand.

he was and is a mean ghetto thug who abused her until she died.

tjp613

I don't know why, but the only emotion I feel when I think about her death is PISSED.

I'm just so sick of these f#%*ing drugs EVERYWHERE.

I'm just PISSED.

Willybluedog

I have to tell you I am struggling with being compassionate for someone who is rich, who had boatloads of god given talent, who had every avenue for recovery open to them, when the poor struggle for help with their addictions.

Also there were 8 marines killed in combat this week, their deaths are getting no publicity, there are no lines of mourners, no songs being sung for them, they were doing something noble, a thankless job in a godforsaken hellhole and yet people agonize over a rich drug addict.

While millions pray for Whitney Houston, I will pray for our dead soldiers.

Please join me.

wicked

I will.
Beth

aasharon90

Until we get the rest of the results of the cause of
death, I am thinking she wore herself out at the end.
She was at the hotel for 2 weeks prior to her death,
partying and having a good time. Her heart gave
out. IMO.

Im 53 and even tho i still feel young, I dont think
i could party continuously day in and day out without
consequences, esp. for 2 weeks straight.

Its hard to imagine that death is so permanent.
There's no going back to correct mistakes. No
waking up. And how sad it is for our talented
icons to end so young.

Remember we have one body, one mind, one
soul, one LIFE.

Cherish it. Take care of it. Respect it. Once it's
gone it's gone as I recall 21 yrs. ago when i
took a hand full of pills with alcohol to end
my miserable selfish life.

Thank God it wasn't my time to go, because
today I live an honest, happy, healthy, joyous life.

lillamy

Her death made meetings more necessary for me this week.
The fact that someone who had every opportunity to check in to the fanciest rehab clinics and get whatever help is available still died an addict just drives home for me what an incredibly insiduous disease addiction is.

Soldiers are heroes, and they deserve our prayers and remembrance every day whether they live or die. Addicts are caught in a disease that prevents them from making the decisions that could save their lives. Appreciating the one doesn't in any way prevent me from feeling heavy sadness about the other.

RUKIDDINGME

I will pray for Whitney for my heart tells me to, but those young heros deserve not only my prays but my deepest graditude!

My son was a Marine and an alcoholic, it's why he was other than honorably discharged.
It's still painful to think about to this day. But my son gave me a gift that I am ashamed that I never had and that is Patriotism!! I will never give it up.

Willybluedog

lillamy,

I don't disagree with you, but most of the people mourning Whitney Houston will never think twice about the men and women that made it possible for her to live in a land where she could get rich for singing.

I just think most of the time that the priorities of the American people are seriously screwed up, I know I cannot change it, but I try to make a point by listening to and purchasing the music of entertainers who volunteer for the USO, rather than giving my money to spoiled, drug addicted divas.

jessiec

Yes, her loss has really saddened me. She was a big part of the soundtrack of my life. I, too, keep thinking this woman was loved by so many, had a family and a daughter,had such an incredible gift, a charmed life financially (at least at some point) had all the resources in the world ... and she none of it was a match for her disease.

LaTeeDa

Count me as one who is touched and saddened by this tragedy. There are very few singers whose voice can bring me to tears, but Whitney Houston was one of them. I remember crying at her rendition of the Star Spangled Banner before the superbowl in 1991 and I also cried two days ago upon hearing of her death. She was the same age as me (actually a year younger) and my heart goes out to her daughter. As her spectacular and very public fall from grace illustrates, addiction is truly an equal opportunity destroyer. RIP Whitney.....

L

lillamy

I think you're not talking about the American people, my friend -- I think you're talking about the media...

Tuffgirl

Well...uummm...I would be happy to join you, as many here would as well...but I think you may have missed the point I was making about the sadness of addictions. And that this particular situation plays on all of our fears here at the F&F of alcoholics forum.

If this was a military support forum, you bet I would be posting about the death of 8 marines in combat, not Whitney Houston.

wanttobehealthy

Did I write this? This is precisely what I have been thinking... Right down to age (mine that is and yours-- my girls are a lot younger than yours!). The VERY first tape I ever bought on my own (w babysitting money) was hers!

I've been feeling very upset about how yet another addiction death is in the news-- and it's a death from "legal" drugs... I'll admit to wondering if xAH has thought even for an instant about any of this... All these stars and ordinary folks throwing their lives away, breaking their loved ones hearts, all bc addiction has such a grip on them...

I have been frustrated listening to the Nancy Grace types who are screaming about how no one "saved" her and how it's everyone else's fault she died. I am certainly not blaming the dead woman here, but I think anyone who knows anything about addiction knows that no one can "save" an addict...

It just seems that rather than sensationalizing it maybe this would be a good time for some accurate talk about addiction....

stillnotdrinkin

In an interview with Diane Sawyer, Whitney seemed insulted when she was asked if she smoked crack. She said something to the effect that with all her money she didn't have to smoke crack. It turns out it looks like perscription tranquilizers were here problem or at least a big part of her problems. Having had a few perscriptions for tranquilizers and for painkillers after some knee and shoulder operations, I can say that I managed to abuse those pills as fast as I possibly could, but I thankfully never went doctor shopping for more or resorted to buying them from a dealer. Alcohol was always my thing and I shudder when I think how quickly I would crash and burn if I became hooked on pills which are nice and quick and easy to take. They dont have an odor and you can down them without anyone being the wiser. Drinking, however takes some work, effort and time. An inability to keep booze in my horribly inflamed stomach at times was the only thing that slowed me down.

wicked

You know what is the saddest thing I heard from one of the talking heads tonight?
There was a party planned at the hotel, while Whitneys body was dead on the floor of her bathroom.
This is show business I guess. The party must go on......
That is disrespectful. That is what is shocking to me. Damn.

Sorry Whitney. I hope you found some peace at last.

Beth

Dee74

I think what a lot of people are missing, especially on other sites I've been reading, is that this is a personal tragedy - and one that many of us either have experienced, or narrowly averted.

I didn't have Whitney's money or her opportunities no - but I had her illness and I shared her demons - I was convinced I could control this, I could handle this my way, and I pushed away all offers of help... and I nearly very nearly lost my life too.

Let's not speak of divas and princesses - a parent has lost their child, and a child has lost their mother, and the world has lost yet another person, far too young, to this dreadful disease.

Let's not make our grief comparative either - I can grieve for the fighting men and women who given their lives for us...and grieve for lost souls as well.

D

tiredoftryin

I was watching Sunday Morning, a show that is on on....Sunday morning....lol...and one of their journalist or/and announcers said some facts about Whitney's musical history and they were pretty fantastic. I was just starting to have babies when she was coming into her own so I didn't really pay too much attention to her but I liked what I heard. The man on that show said, let's just remember her for what she gave to us with her beautiful voice and let the rest lie. LOL....that didn't take long to not come true.

I have been going back through You Tube and listening to her and oh my god, I get goose bumps and the nerve endings start to come alive along my arms at times when she sings. She truly had a gift that she was able to share with the world for awhile and I am glad that she had that time to do it in.

I also saw a video she was in, and it was to raise money for children so they could have music in their lives. She was live and she was phenomenol, outstanding and there are no words to describe her performance really, but it stirred my soul for sure.

It is sad to see great talent be coralled by addiction and taken away from people who love them like, in her case, her family and the world of music. I know how it feels to watch someone prefer alcohol to coming home to children and a wife. To watch his parents try and try again to get him to stop drinking and yet not really want to acknowledge that it was a disease or is a disease, he was just a bad in their eyes.

Maybe this will bring out the world of addiction to those who think people who drink too much are just over worked or need to let off some steam or they are the bad egg in the family or their wife doesn't have any social events at home so he has to go outside of his home to have fun (oops, that is one that was told to me by a relative that decided to have a hunters feast at their house so that I could see how social events would get my husband to be part of the family and not drink. But to their dismay he wound up in the kennel with a good friend from across the street that he grew up with and they both wrestled in that kennel after proceeding to get totally drunk. I just sat there and said nothing while the family member--the one who had the answer to get this person to stop drinking--was somewhat uncomfortable with the whole incident.) But back to my origional topic sentence, maybe more people will start to understand that addiction is real.

I am going to look at the good that she did. And I just heard that her family and friends now will have her back for her funeral and not let the public in anymore. Now we can start to focus on our Veterans coming home and what they will need.

Willybluedog

You all can kick sand at me all you want, I got your point Tuffgirl.

This woman had everything, I understand she was an addict, just like any other arrogant, sel-f-absorbed addict, just like my mother has been for 40+ years, just like Elvis Presley was (a person family friend for many many years).

My point was we all cry over a star, and we ignore the millions that die every single day, how many people cry for the soliders that died, the children that starved to death or were beaten to death or bombed to death.

My point was that stars having plenty of sycophants to mourn them. I am sorry for her family especially her daughter, and will pray for them, but all of this wailing 24/7 is out of proportion to the pain of the rest of the world.

And maybe it is the fact that I am an a$$hole, I will not mourn my own mother when she finally drinks herself to death, I hate her. I have no sympathy for those who choose to destroy themselves, who leave pain and destruction in their wake. My sympathy is reserved for the innocent, the ones who deserve so much better from those that were supposed to be good to them.

So anyway, it is obvious that I have offended some of you by pointing out that your emporer has no clothes, I should have kept my opinions to myself, next time I will know better.