The press now reports him having Cocaine problems and this being the reason for the failure of his relationship with Michelle Williams, the mother of his child. I don't know about the veracity of that report, but he had been seen hanging out with Lindsey Lohan (whom we KNOW had drug problems) and then of course, with Mary Olson. Other people, like Jake Gyllenhaal, who befriended Heath during the filming of Brokeback Mountain, are now agonizing over Heath's death, presumably because he did not intervene with Heath during the final months of the decline of his life.

Drugs and talent

The newly released toxicology reports determined Heath's having overdosed on sedatives. How this came to be is not clear. Heath was reportedly having trouble sleeping and had been rumored to have been struggling with having played the character of "The Joker" in Batman. His vivid portrayal of a psychopathic killer may have pushed him over the edge. Other rumors are about his having been seen partying heavily just prior to his death.

Heath clearly, whatever the cause, was in a lot of pain. Then he dealt with that pain using drugs of one sort or another. Whether he was a long term addict or a recent one due to recently prescribed medications; he was in trouble.

Being famous is no protection

Even people as remarkable and successful as Heath can find themselves battling demons of pain and anxiety and unable to cope. One would think that at that level you would have resources available to help you overcome them, and that there would be in his life concerned about him enough to have intervened. Yet this is not what appears to happen for so many talented people. Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, Brad Renfro, Charlie Sheen, Lindsey Lohan and the list goes on. Few of them get the help they need because, I fear, being so successful and famous blinds the people in their world. Regardless, it's obvious he was in a lot of pain and desperate to find a way out of it.

We all look for a way out don't we?

This is what happens to us isn't it? We have something in our live gives us pain and we are driven to find a way out of it. We feel like "the victim" of something that is causing us pain and we look for something to take us out of it. For many of us it's food, others it's alcohol, shopping, work, or drugs... as it appears to have been for Heath. We begin by trying to Rescue ourselves from being a Victim of our pain, and end up harming ourselves. This is how the cycle happens inside our psyche, inside fighting our own internal demons, whatever they are.

What if someone could begin teaching us how to manage the pain and to work our way through it rather than struggling with resisting the irresistible? Medicating our pain doesn't make it go away does it? It only postpones our awareness of it.

Our culture of pain avoidance

It's sad to think of someone as talented, charismatic and brilliant as Heath Ledger dealing with so much pain. And its even more painful to realize he was supported in this by doctors and "friends" encouraging this coping mechanism.

What is your coping mechanism?

Do you have demons you feel you have to cope with by medicating your way out of them? What is your "drug" of choice? Comment below, let me know what you think.