Actor Anne Heche, who famously struggled with addiction and mental illness, succumbed to the injuries she sustained when she crashed her car into someone’s home on August 5th. While there are many people, particularly her famous friends, sending their condolences to the family and posting about the actress on their social media, there are thousands more commenting on those posts telling them she deserved what happened to her. Why? Because the crash happened because she was intoxicated while driving, and in the process she destroyed someone’s home. Not everyone agrees, however, that the deceased actress deserves such harsh criticism
Does Anne Heche Deserve Such Harsh Criticism?
On August 12, 2022, actress Anne Heche’s life came to an end that can only be described as tragic. This was after surviving a traumatic childhood and rising to Hollywood stardom, all the while dealing with addiction problems. When she crashed into a woman’s home in California two weeks ago, she was under the influence of narcotics. One week later, she died in hospital when doctors proclaimed her brain dead and her family agreed to take her off life support. (1)
Since her family announced her death, there has been an outpouring of support from many of Heche’s Hollywood friends. Many of these people’s messages of support have been met by harsh criticism from the faceless public. These people are saying that she deserved what she got after her actions – driving while under the influence of drugs – destroyed someone else’s home (though the person, thankfully, was unharmed). Author Elizabeth Grey recently wrote an opinion piece published on NBC News about these rather malicious comments these posts have been receiving.
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Addiction is a Battle
Grey, an addiction survivor herself, disagrees with these people. While of course, she does not condone driving while under the influence, she says that Heche certainly was not deserving of the horrific and painful death she suffered. This is because Grey understands more than most how complicated addiction is, because she, herself, is an addiction survivor. Though she is currently controlling her addiction with reasonable success, she speaks in her piece about how each day for victims of addiction is an absolute battle. Some days you win, others you don’t. (2)
“As I read the comments, the word that popped out at me was “choice”,” Grey wrote. “ “There are accidents and there are choices,” said one of the many Instagram users pummeling Baldwin, adding that “her choice burned down a family’s home.” I will make no friends for saying so, but I’m not sure Heche did make a choice… For me, the compulsion to use drugs never felt like a choice. It felt like a lightning strike. The rational part of my brain shut down.”
She went on to describe a story when she nearly gave into her addiction because of a minor irritation. Grey explained that, particularly when you are still dealing with symptoms of withdrawal, minor irritations can feel extreme. Extreme then kicks in the addiction side of your brain, which then pushes you to do some pretty crazy things.
“Compulsion is the crux of addiction. And compulsion is “an irresistible urge to behave in a certain way, especially against one’s conscious wishes.” Nothing is more bewildering to me than harming myself against my own will.”
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The Biology of Addiction
Grey is right – addiction is an illness that affects people’s ability to make sound decisions. The substances actually inflict a chemical change in their brains. They are not making a choice, rather, their brain sends them intense signals to seek out that drug or alcohol no matter the consequences – for themselves or people they care about. Researchers who have studied the brain on addiction have discovered that it is a long lasting and complex brain disease. Treatments can help people control their addictions, but actual cures still do not exist.
“A common misperception is that addiction is a choice or moral problem, and all you have to do is stop. But nothing could be further from the truth,” says Dr. George Koob, director of NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. “The brain actually changes with addiction, and it takes a good deal of work to get it back to its normal state. The more drugs or alcohol you’ve taken, the more disruptive it is to the brain.” (3)
In fact, addictions hijack and even destroy important regions of the brain that are there to help us survive. A healthy brain rewards healthy behaviors and causes you to react when you are in danger. This includes when you’re about to make a questionable decision, such as eating dessert before dinner… or getting behind the wheel when you are intoxicated.
Addiction changes all of that. Not only does it hijack the reward/pleasure centers of your brain to make you want that substance more and more, but it also sends your danger-sensing circuits into overdrive. This then causes you to feel stressed and anxious when you are not using that substance. Furthermore, the repeated and heavy use of these substances damages the part of the brain responsible for decision-making. These are the areas that should pick up on the dangers of using these substances and also certain activities that you shouldn’t do while intoxicated.
“Brain imaging studies of people addicted to drugs or alcohol show decreased activity in this frontal cortex,” says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse. “When the frontal cortex isn’t working properly, people can’t make the decision to stop taking the drug—even if they realize the price of taking that drug may be extremely high, and they might lose custody of their children or end up in jail. Nonetheless, they take it.”
Did Anne Heche Deserve What Happened to Her?
Anne Heche lived a tragic life with a childhood marred by sexual abuse at the hand of her own father. This trauma followed her into adulthood and manifested itself in the form of addiction. Despite her successful career and two loving sons, she still struggled to control that side of her life. Ultimately, it brought her life to a horrific and painful end. While she didn’t take anyone else’s life in the process, she did destroy their home and everything that they had. Because of that, did she deserve what she got? I suppose, in the end, that is not for any of us to decide. We can only send our condolences to the family who lost their home and to the children who lost their mother and hope that no more tragedies will come from this situation.
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Sources
- “Actor Anne Heche dies a week after car crash.” The Guardian. Catherine Shoard. August 12, 2022.
- “Anne Heche died a tragic death. That isn’t stopping people from shaming her..” NBC News. Elizabeth Grey. August 15, 2022.
- “Biology of Addiction.” NIH. October 2015.