Words from the Wise...

Celebrities should not be blamed for youths abusing drugs. Whether young adults listen to artists who engage in drugs, or what negative celebrity behaviour they are exposed to by the media, is not the reason they choose to use drugs. If this was the case, and celebrities were the true cause of kids developing drug habits, the rates of drug addiction would be much higher than they are, because so many people are exposed to and are interested in the work of stars who have drug habits. The choice to participate in illicit activities is a personal one. Karima Habibali, a Transpersonal Psychotherapist at Turning Point Detox Centre in Hamilton, says that with their patients who struggle with drug abuse, they aim to “explore their reasons for using/abusing alcohol/drugs internally; to heal trauma from within.” When working with patients, Karima does not focus on outside influences, especially those in the media, to make sense or redirect blame for their substance addiction. She believes that the direction people choose to take their lives, and the steps they take to reconstruct their lives after any damage is done, is an internal process. It does not make sense to say that certain music, films, or artists are the cause of these problems developing in the first place.
If, indeed, celebrities and their work were the source of individuals’ motivation to engage in drug abuse, then once their addiction is treated, their interests in art forms would change. “I would state that there aren’t differences in clients’ interests after a period of recovery and healing,” Habibali says of patients’ interests before and after treatment, “so much as there is increased motivation to pursue individual interests that had been lost within the depths of the addiction.” Her experiences have shown her that there is a general loss of interests amongst individuals with drug problems. Therefore, celebrity influences are not relevant to increased substance use, because people struggling with drug abuse lose interest in the world outside themselves.