Whitney Houston: Drugs Claim the Life of a Superstar

Whitney Houston's huge shadow loomed over the glorious Grammy Awards show in Los Angeles last night, reminding one and all that behind the curtains and the limelight are lives lived in agony and wretchedness. For decades, the most gifted singer of her generation squandered her talent as she battled with drug addiction.

Numerous attempts to save her proved futile. Courtney Love recommended that Warren Boyd — a former addict who helped Robert Downey Jr. kick his habit — live with Houston and monitor her comings and goings. He kept self-serving sycophants and dope-pushers from taking advantage of her frail state of mind.

Speaking of which, both her first husband, Bobby Brown, and her most recent beau, singer Ray J, were not exactly salutary influences on her lifestyle. The latter gentleman is best known for starring in a home-made sex tape with Kim Kardashian in 2003 (arguably the talentless reality star's best performance to date). With these two bums around, Whitney never had a chance to be loved in a way that would prevent her from seeking satisfaction elsewhere.

The burning question is this: Why does someone who seemingly has it all traipse willy-nilly down the path of self-destruction? According to a book well-worth reading — A General Theory of Love— it is the lack of vital emotional connections to others that turns our brains against us. "The real battle our country fights," the authors write, "is not against drugs per se, but limbic pain — isolation, sorrow, bitterness, loneliness and despair. Mood-altering agents sold on the street obliterate anguish for a few minutes or hours, and then they dissipate, leaving behind a deeper ache."

Addiction of the kind that destroyed Whitney Houston is, thank goodness, a rarity. Of all the people who try cocaine, less than one-percent become regular users. As Malcolm Gladwell has written, the problem, therefore, is not eradicating coca crops, but discovering what that one-percent finds so irresistible to their blighted emotional lives.

Although addictive tendencies are definitely heritable, there is good news for parents and grandparents of vulnerable youth. Research indicates that children with close family ties are far less likely to wind up in the throes of drug addiction. Turns out "hugs not drugs" might have a basis in neurological reality. Would that Whitney Houston could have surrounded herself with people capable of filling her poor, capacious heart. She might have had a second chance, instead of a sordid, tragic ending. Goodnight, sweet princess…..