Posted on 06/04/2008 5:07:39 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
New York, NY (BANG) - Tatum O'Neal says her dog's death trigged her drugs arrest.
The 44-year-old actress, who was arrested for allegedly buying crack cocaine and powder cocaine in New York on Sunday, admits she spiraled out of control following the death of her 16-year-old Scottish Terrier Lena three weeks ago.
She told the New York Post newspaper: "I lost my Scottish Terrier, Lena. That seemed to set me off. She got old. She got cancer. She was the fabric of our family. We had to let her go to heaven. My daughter and I had to put her down. It was too horrible for words."
"I couldn't get out of it. I was going to my psychiatrist. I was doing everything I could do. I have the disease of alcoholism. It's lifelong. I treat it every day by going to my 12-step program."
"One day, I'm walking aimlessly. I found myself doing the wrong thing. I met a drug addict who was panhandling."
Tatum, who claimed she was buying drugs because she was doing research for a film, is now set to check into a rehab facility after her legal team rejected Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Felicia A. Mennin's recommendation of two days of drug counseling during her arraignment on Monday.
A source said: "She's going to go to her own, high-priced, out-of-the-spotlight rehab to get clean.
I've always felt sorry for this girl. Her genetic make-up has doomed her from the start.
Classic addict BS.
An addict will use any excuse. The other day she broke a nail, oops, gotta go snort a line.
*****

Tatum O'Neal leaving court on Monday...
**I’m sorry, Tatum. Both of my dogs died last year (of old age) and I didn’t reach for the crack pipe, LOL!**
***
My girlfriend’s goldfish died a year ago, yet I didn’t see her head to a psychiatrist NOR the closest crack dealer.
I’m afraid to think if 3 of her dogs died, that gives her a reason to join Al Qaeda.
There is no such thing as a drug addict or alcoholic but rather simply people that make poor choices and have no self control.
She mispoke, she meant the dog that died sixteen years ago that was three years old, not the sixteen year old dog that died three weeks ago.
hummm...so you’re tellin’ me that my old man, one of the Korean War Frozin’ Chosin, decorated with a Bronze Star with V Device for Valor on December 5th 1950, a hard working hard hat Irishman who battled alcoholism all of his life is simply a guy who made a bad choice and had no self control?
If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. -- Will Rogers --
You don't have clue what you are talking about.
Back in high school, I had two friends, one who beat the disease of cancer and another who died from a drug overdose. The one who had cancer did not elect to have the disease, the one who overdosed elected to stick that needle in his arm.
My brother is a junkie and will likely die because of it. In our teens and 20’s we both did drugs. The difference was that I had the self control to know my limits and he did not.
We and we alone control what we do to our bodies.
I used to believe your “theory” and I was as strident as you are in your beliefs. And in part, you’re correct. People DO make stupid choices. But once you get involved with drugs and booze, they DO scramble your brains (physiologically) and it’s pretty hard to get your head back on straight with a scrambled brain.
Many do it. My Grandma sobered up nicely (no big deal; she just quit drinking beer when we Grandkids came along and she had more to live for) and my Husband hasn’t had a drop of Demon Rum in close to six years now. He “chose” me and the kids over alcohol and prescription drugs, so it can be done if you have an ultimatum and A LOT to lose. :)
Some people can turn their lives around, and some, like Dear Tatum, cannot. Sadly, she must not have anything to lose any longer. Part of it is genetics, part of it is upbringing. Part of it is tolerance from Society as a whole, and your own circle of family and friends, also known as “enabling.”
(Don’t worry. I haven’t drunk the Koolaide. Enough IS enough! However, some people with drug and alcohol problems don’t always have someone in their lives to tell them that.)
And, let me add...I’m glad you’re still with us!
Husband’s brother died of a heroin overdose when he was 18. People don’t think this cr@p goes on in a Cow Town like ours in the middle of nowhere, but it does. :(
So, because you're not an addict nobody is? I can eat peanuts just fine. Some people go into convulsions if they eat peanuts. I guess they are just weak people who can't handle their peanuts? And physical withdrawal symptoms are all just fact. Alkies who die in withdrawal are just good fakers, eh? Remove the plank in your own eye before you criticize the speck in your brother's eye.
Most people in this county under the age of 65 and over the age of 17 have used illegal drugs but only some become addicted and claim no self control over their actions. The majority are able to take a few bong hits in their parents basement or in the dorm room and not permit their lives to spiral out of control.
Using drugs or alcohol is a choice when people let their choices get out of control they use the excuse of addiction.
fact = fake
And to think I could have taken drugs instead?!
And for the last 20 years meth users have been destroying small town America.
I agree. And that takes us right back to my “Societal Enabling” theory.
But, you can say the same thing about booze, or contraband cigarettes. Neither is good for you, but both are LEGAL for adults over 21, so until those laws change, we just have to deal with the fall-out because I’m never going to advocate making something illegal that is currently legal for adults.
I can’t stand Nanny Staters. *SPIT*
Her dog dying is why I put on a few pounds. Or more.
When I met my wife I was in college and partying a bit too much.
She asked me to quit and I did immediately.
It was not easy but she was more important to me than my self or the drugs.
As for my brother, he choose his drugs over his family.
And that is what junkies do, they put themselves and their drugs before everything, even their own family.
It’s sad. She’s talented. Years ago she lost custody of her three children from her marriage to John McEnroe, the tennis player.
I only tried drugs once. Because I know that I have no self control.
First she said she was doing research for a role. Now it’s because her dog died? Sure, blame the dog for your nasty habit. Her three kids range in age from 22 to 17. They must be so proud of Mommy.
drugs and pets do not mix.Nor does alcohol and pets...
I sold meth for a few years in the early 1980s. I used it for about 6 years.
I had stopped selling it because I saw what it did to people I cared about, plus I was disgusted with the whole psychotic madhouse my world had become.
One image remains vivid. A friend and I were sitting in his living room. Since he started shooting meth, he had lost his job, his car, his wife took the kids and left, most of the furniture was gone, his electricity was cut off and we sat on the floor in the dark illuminated by a single candle flame.
As he prepared another shot, he waxed eloquent as to why he didn’t have a drug problem.
mark
My Detroit Tigers just get swept by the A’s, now where’s the number for my dealer?
I understand where you are and where you have been and I can say that meth is the only drug that has ever scared me by both seeing its impact on other people and using it a few times. By far meth is the most dangerous drug, worse than alcohol, coke, smack or crack.
At one point in my life I watched in my own living room one of the world’s most famous rock band shoot meth and that one night alone scared me straight.
However, those who use it and other drugs lack self control, they are among the weak and the rest of us can only fear being one of the weak.
Drugs are EVERYWHERE, including at the Catholic high school I attended back in the early-mid 1990s. According to my father, there were kids doing speed at his Catholic high school back in the early-mid 1960s.
Yep. My dad is 61, and admitted to trying Mary Jane when he was serving in the US Army. It was quite popular among our soldiers back then.
My mother, on the other hand, would run if she even smelled marijuana.
I drank - HEAVILY - for thirty years. I rationalized it by citing the fact that I was never caught DUI, never missed work, was never late for anything and always had money for the really important things.
Then one day my body rebelled. I spent a week in the hospital, GI bleeding, literally moments away from death.
I prayed a lot.
My prayers were answered. Despite consumption of an average of a quart of whiskey a day for all that time, I had no delirium. My health gradually returned and today I live and work and enjoy each day more than ever. I have never been to an AA meeting, nor have I had any counseling other than my doctor telling me that if I did not quit, I would die. I give credit for my recovery to the intercession of Jesus, not my own will power, though I made the conscious act to accept His help.
I work in a venue with other people who are alcoholics, some in remission, like myself, and some who have yet to come to grips with their situation. One thing I can say for sure - each person's trials and choices are their own and no one else's. While it is true that each one makes his own choice, it is just as true that you cannot look into the mind or soul of that person and make the choice for them.
If someone I know makes a positive choice for their life, I try to give them reinforcement. If they do not, I do not judge or rebuke, but I also do not enable. I do not advertise my experience, but I also do not shy away from sharing it. (It's amazing how many people ask because they “have this friend”.....)
The rationalizations that people make are their own, and each one has to reach their own personal breaking point. I just pray that they will break in the right direction.
I guess the point I am trying to make is that while it is true that addiction is a choice, it is also something that in some people closely resembles a disease, the difference being that a disease cannot be cured by choice.
It may be the ultimate proof of the existence of free will.
(Now I'm going to go and try to figure out what I just said.)
I think your thoughts were crystal clear. Thanks for sharing that. :)
Yeah, when I am sad, I always reach for the Crack pipe. It’s like a bridge over troubled water.
After all that time, I still have to make the right choice every day. Some days are much more difficult than others, but my faith, family and friends get me through.
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