Gerry Rafferty dies

Not that long ago people would not speak openly of cancer. Alcoholism is a medical disease not a character flaw. I've read nothing in the press, British or otherwise that I would consider disrespectful to Mr. Rafferty.

No its also a character flaw IMO, they go hand in hand. Yes its a disease but a flaw in character can be weakness or denial in dealing with it. Weakness in character also lets these addicts break their loved ones hearts over and over, weakness in character allows some to steal and commit violent crimes to feed whatever the disease may be, drugs, gambling, drink and on. The are many MANY times equally destructive and share equal blame.
So it often is just as much about character as it is illness. Atleast some of these events gets folks talking and may help somebody come out on a better end then Rafferty. You will be missed and God be with you, thanks for the music!

Chadnliz, we could debate that topic ad nauseum. Denial is part of the 'disease'. Denial is the thing that so often prevents an addict from getting help. Addict or not, we all have flaws. The addiction becomes the central principal in one's life. The fallout follows and becomes part and parcel. Alcoholism can also be hereditary and/or learned. Mr. Rafferty's father was an alcoholic. None of this absolves anyone of responsibility. End of rant.

I think its a little or lot of both, I have seen a few examples in my own life of folks who were piece of shits long before being addicted use it as a excuse for all their bad deeds so I know for a fact it happens.
When somebody is a scumbag from the get go thats a character issue, to see them try to manipulate this disease concept into their own benefit is a disgusting thing to witness. I know sadly there are many who know exactly what I am talking about.
Well atleast this sad event got people talking if even for only a very short time.

“I need never look down upon another human being unless I am bending down to help them stand back up on their own two feet.”

Long before the addict admits his or her disease, the family and friends already know something is amiss. Airing the surmised reasons for death should come as no surprise… at least not to them..

As for news reports, just like the death penalty is no deterrent to capital crimes, all the tv, news casts, web shots, blogs, celebrity chasing poporotcy in the world isn’t going to stop anything. It’s sure no preventative measure, no propolactic or insulator against anyone contracting alcoholism or drug dependencies just because they read someone else dies from it. We’ve been anesthetized to the news…. Quite commonly. Only the more jarring headlines catch us up at odds.

for a second reflect back and ask yourself, Did anyone you knew, sit around the high school or college campuses and say, I wanna be a junkie when I grow up!

Of course not. But some do. Bander is right. It is a disease. It’s ddocumented. It’s treatable. There are numerous accounts of full recoveries worldwide.

It’s also the most misunderstood, enigmatic and increasingly involving, duynamic of it’s kind. It’s no simple matter. Some say it’s in the genes some say it’s moral lack. Other’s point to .it being a simple matter of choice.

Someof these pundants … are clueless and very much so. Even some of the so called professionals selling the recovery game itself. It’s why addiction carries such a dark social spectre about it. No one really knows, but those who face it every minute of every hour of every day for the rest of their lives.

We know how bad Pancretitis is. We know how bad Pancreatic cancer is. … if you have ever had it yourself. If not, you can only speculate. Routinely it is terminal.

We lost a member here not long ago who had Pancreatic cancer. He also was a major contributor to the music industry, colabberating and writing his songs that were published. Playing live concerts well into his 60s… while struggling with Pancreatic cancer.

He was also a recoverd alcoholic. With sixteen years of recovery to his credit. Not drinking one day at a time. No matter what came his way. With a dire prognosis having been handed him, he had every reason in the world to have a drink in many peoples opinions.

Not in the mind of a recovering alcoholic though. One can’t conditionalize their mending from this malady. His integrity, his calm manner when we spoke, and the lightness of our talks always wer uplifting for me.

He never related to me his trials with pancreatic cancer or that his condition was terminal. Never. Not once. It was a shock to learn this later./

I met him by accident and we talked. Shortly thereafter I had a run in with acute Pancreatitis . he was instrumental in my recovery and attitude during that time frame…. For following my stay in the hospital for about a week, I was informed I had cancer.

Pancreatic cancer. Colon Cancer… and Adrenal gland cancer as well. I hit the tri fecta. Finally I won something big!

That was almost four years ago come next memorial Day. For four or five months I wondered about a lot of things.

There is nothing that has quite the benefit of one so afflicted person helping another so in the same tracks… as I’ve been told. I find that a very true statement looking back on my own exp talking to Paul.

More’s the pitty every time a life is needlessly wasted. A life given to addiction is a life of futility, frustration, despair, bewilderment, and incomprehensible demoralization. It simply does not have to be so.

It ain’t just about character. Albeit there are all sorts of them subscribing to this program or that for their own recovery today, that’s for sure.

As I understand it, and from what I’ve heard here and there, , To a person, along the way seldom if ever, does any addict or alcoholic think to themselves the ultimate penalty will be theirs to pay as the result. So strong is the denile.

I’ve been told it’s a disease which says you haven’t got it when you do. It says, ‘You can fix it when you can’t’. tells you, “It’s not as bad as it really is, and it uses your own voice to speak these things. It says the same thing everyday… until no one is there to listen to it anymore.

Gerry Rafferty’s demons have stopped talking now.

Numerous times people have said, It’s pure insanity… and denile, vanity, and the rest of the 7 deadly sins are the arrows which fill it’s quiver. It’s more than just that of course, much more… and why it’s such an unfathomable dilemma.

Science and research say, It affects every person who comes in contact with the addict or alkie. The whole family. Nuclear and extended…. Not just the afflicted one themselves. It’s a tremendous force, For which there is still no known chemical cure, but it can be arrested from further development, and a full recovery can definitely be made from it. With help. With time. A little work, a lot of Grace, And some major changes.

I especially hate to see anyone, celebrity or not, die for no good reason. The disease of addiction is not a good enough reason to forfeit one’s life. The main problem is no amount of help, love, education, assistance, incarceration, punitive measures, financial penalties… nothing outside the individual affected can effect the changes needed within them to forestall the ominous forboding future that is their’s by their own hands.

Only that one who’s got it, can do anything about it, or so I’ve been informed.

Additionally, when or if they get that brief moment of clarity, or some say divine intervention, they bneed lots of help. Lots of support…. For a indeterminate amount of time. For they can not unspring the trap they set for themselves by their own hand early on unless they gain such aid..

We all know too well sometimes they do nothing about it, and the results are always cast into stone…. They go insane and are institutionalized, become a danger to the public and are locked away in jails or prisons, or they die a needless, miserable and very often, lonely and unwarranted death

It’s because we as a society do not understand the disease of addiction that we are unable to separate the person… from the behavior.

Very often the ill ones are acting against their own wills! Oh… and will power? That’s no good for their recovery either. Once in a while you might hear someone say, the disease of addiction is in part, “self will run riot”.

They are indeed quite literally, out of control. Nearing madness and qualifying as insane. How sane is someone who continues to do the exact same thing and expect different results? Addicts do it routinely… either consciously. , or sub consciously…. Day after day after day after day. Harming themselves and everyone they come into contact with regularly.

Still we can’t divide from them the one we know or love and their behaviors … at times. If indeed they had a choice we know they’d make the right one… their disease affords them no choice in their minds. That’s the insanity under which they exist… endlessly. Causing more harm, destroying lives, undoing trusts, burning bridges before they even get to them! They keep on incorporating more amd more shame, and guilt., and they are indeed changed by it all. Becoming someone who looked like someone we knew, but now that person isnn’t visible to us anymore.

Their there! Right there in front of us, but we can’t see them any more, for the hurts they have delivered unto us. The trouble they’ve caused. The harms they’ve done. The lies. The broken promises. Our own resentments of themstand in our way. , We’ve meshed their choices and behaviors into this new vision we see them as. The liar. The thief. The drunk. The junkie.

Pouring gas on a fire won’t put it out contrary to popular opinion. .

I need never look down upon another human being sick or otherwise, unless I am bending down to help them stand back up on their own two feet.

How very, very, sad is it to say someone is beter off dead, than alive? It’s tragic. It’s pitiful. And it’s going to happen again. The odd part of it is you can never tell just who will die or who will recover from the abyss of addiction.

Personally, I would have figured Joe Cocker not to have lasted through the 70’s! I’d have bet a lot on that one. ya just never know.

The solution? IMHO ?? it’s all about Grace… and I don’t mean Slick either.

There is one thing people can do to help the infirmed, they can pray. Oh, and they can conceive the person is afflicted by a disease… and not merely a jerk. One dcan try thinking about addicts as some other adversely affected social group. Like people who have MS. Turrettes. Kidney disease. Diabetics. Malaria. Sure, there are a few diffs…. The main fact however is this… They are sick. Sick and usually, don’t know it. Not early on at least..

no one would chide someone in a wheelchair, berate another who has to carry about an oxygen tank everywhere they go. Nobody would punish someone with leporacy. These are all issues not one of the victims picked out as a prize they wanted… but they got it still. Addicts are no different than any other sick soul.

Once the line is crossed over, there’s no going back. No Mulligans. Do overs. Not even if your fingers are crossed. Their road will be unending for them to ever fully recover from the clutches of their illness. It will take daily measures. A whole new change and fashion of life must become their own. They will change, and be changed. Often it’s found to be into something far far better than they were previously. Usefully whole. Happy. Helpful. Charitable. They’ll enjoy a newfound freedom. It’s no subtle thing. Indeed it is one of our modern day miracles.

Still… those caught up in the wreckage of the addicts past may never entirely forgive them for their insurrections, misdeeds and harms.. so be it. Each of us can only change ourselfves., we are not granted the power to change another. Such alterations are an inside job.

Recidivism is a biggie for addict s, and it is for ex cons, ex smokers, and heart patients too. . So again, similarities abound amongst quite different sections of the populus..

Love is key to any addicts recovery. Love for themselves once owned and now lost. Love from their family members, friends and piers… love comes in various forms. Now and then tuff love is due them… though not hatred. Addicts can share in what is now a common solution, or a uncommon and untimely end, IF THEY ACCEPT A FEW FACTS, AND SWALLOW SOME HUGE TRUTHS ABOUT THEMSELVES.

Admitting a thing is not always like accepting that same thing.

Namely they suffer from a problem . they can’t solve by themselves. Then… and only then… is there help.

There’s always hope… there’s always our prayers.. and with a bit more effort and understanding, there’s always our love. All of these are vital to the ones who need to recover from so terrible a medical catastrophy.