Author Topic: I know we've talked about this before, but  (Read 26651 times)

Offline Ellemeno

  • Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 15,367
I know we've talked about this before, but
« on: May 07, 2008, 03:53:36 pm »
How can a smart person have put SIX major drugs into his system? 

This is a piece I get really stuck on.  Any words of insight?  Or commiseration?

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 9,566
  • Those were the days, Alberta 2007.
Re: I know we've talked about this before, but
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2008, 04:47:04 pm »
How can a smart person have put SIX major drugs into his system? 

This is a piece I get really stuck on.  Any words of insight?  Or commiseration?

I don't know Elle, but I know it happens, look at Anna Nicole.

Perhaps he accidentally took too much of one and it had not completely left his system, and if he had jet lag, he could have been easily confused. It could have slippery slope, one drug building on the others.
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline opinionista

  • BetterMost 1000+ Posts Club
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,939
Re: I know we've talked about this before, but
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2008, 04:51:29 pm »
How can a smart person have put SIX major drugs into his system? 

This is a piece I get really stuck on.  Any words of insight?  Or commiseration?

It has nothing to do with being smart. If Heath suffered from accute insmonia, like the press said, it's not surprising he took desperate measures. He wasn't careful which doesn't mean he wasn't smart. 
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement. -Mark Twain.

Offline Fran

  • "ABCs of BBM" moderator
  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 9,905
Re: I know we've talked about this before, but
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2008, 06:42:12 pm »
How can a smart person have put SIX major drugs into his system? 

This is a piece I get really stuck on.  Any words of insight?  Or commiseration?

Oh, Elle....

...because he was human -- it's as simple as that. Human beings make mistakes and don't always use their best judgment.  Unfortunately, in this case, the mistake had a tragic result.

Elle, I don't think you'll ever be able to fully understand the "why" of it.  I tend to think of it as a whole convergence of things that occurred with a horrible consequence.  I know that the "if onlys" can easily drive me crazy:  if only someone had been with him that night, if only he had been able to fall asleep naturally, if only he was deeply involved in a relationship, if only he had stayed in London, if only he had never visited the doctors who wrote the prescriptions....  I think I'm finally at a place where I can accept what I cannot change.  Not that it makes it any easier, but at least my frustration over trying to figure out the "why" of it is gone.

Hopefully, you'll get to that place, too.   

Offline MilAn

  • Brokeback Got Me Good
  • *****
  • Posts: 475
Re: I know we've talked about this before, but
« Reply #4 on: May 07, 2008, 07:28:33 pm »
I think he should have gotten proper help for his depressions. I read that a consequence of depressions is anxiety and insomnia omong others. If he wasn't able to help himself, I hope someone else tried at least. We can't know! It's sad that his family didn't live in the same counrty as Heath. A good support system can be very helpful!

injest

  • Guest
Re: I know we've talked about this before, but
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2008, 11:49:48 pm »
frustration...I know with these dang allergies and bad sinuses..after two dang months I just get DESPERATE for some relief. I know I have taken more than I am supposed to...and closer together than I should...I have just been lucky.


Offline RouxB

  • BetterMost Welcome Wagon & Contributor
  • Moderator
  • BetterMost 1000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,471
  • ...a love that will never grow old
Re: I know we've talked about this before, but
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2008, 11:52:14 pm »
Having 6 different drugs in his system doesn't mean he sat down and took 6 different drugs all at once. What we don't know - and never will- what the concentration was of each, how long they had been in his system or when he took them. 

When people take medication-prescription and over the counter- and it isn't working, they frequently up the dose thinking it that will do the trick and simply underestimate the consequences or they keep trying something different hoping that will work. I suffer from migraines and I assure you I have taken aspirin in larger doses and more frequent intervals than recommended.

The bottom line, though, is that the how and why does not in any way impact my feeling about him. He is magnificent no matter.

 :-*


 

Heathen

Offline ifyoucantfixit

  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 8,049
Re: I know we've talked about this before, but
« Reply #7 on: May 08, 2008, 12:35:36 am »



      I will say first off..... Well I consider myself a smart person.  But I have been prescribed a lot of different medicines by several different doctor, for differing things.  I have some that i take regularly, and
some that i take only occasionally..
      I was given a prescription by mistake and it was fine and dandy
with my everyday group of meds.  But I had reason to take a muscle
relaxant one day..and when I took the two of them together, it was
nearly a lethal dose of meds.  I was knocked out in a matter of a minute..I was lucky to be woken up by my grandaughter.. If she hadnt gotten hold of me i might have been a goner. 
       So it is like the perfect storm.  When some of the bad things
all come together, and make the fatal thing happen...

   The ignorance is in not being told everything when you have the medicines prescribed... Those little dont drive or operate machinery tags are not nearly sufficient to inform
people of what can happen.



     Beautiful mind

Offline Penthesilea

  • Town Administration
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,745
Re: I know we've talked about this before, but
« Reply #8 on: May 08, 2008, 01:57:41 am »
Oh Elle.

(((Elle)))

The one insight I gained from this whole disaster is that meds stay a lot longer in your system than I would have thought possible. I honestly didn't know that they can stay in your system over days and build up on another.

Wanna know my personal theory on what happened to Heath (and it's not more than that)? I think he changed to different meds after his return to the US. Maybe one day still taking what he had taken in London, the next day switching to another set of meds, hoping they would work better and not knowing that what he had taken the day before was still in his system and that the stuff could add up.

Still, it leaves the question why he took that stuff at all. Insomnia? Well, it happens to a lot of people, and I wouldn't interpret anything into it, if it were the only pills he had taken. Painkillers? Maybe the cold/supposed walking pneumonia he's said to have had at that point.
But anti-anxiety drugs? And the combination of those three types of meds? I'm sorry, but that doesn't speak of a person who is in synch with themselve. And that's one of the saddest things in this whole horrible story.

 :'(

Offline serious crayons

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,712
Re: I know we've talked about this before, but
« Reply #9 on: May 08, 2008, 10:30:31 am »
A couple of other possibilities.

I myself, when taking prescriptions meds, especially painkillers, have occasionally forgotten when I took the last dose. So maybe he just lost track.

And it's possible that he felt depressed enough that his attitude became careless. Not like he was trying to hurt himself, but more like he just didn't care enough to pay attention.