The first time I saw Heath Ledger, it was by accident. My date and later to-be husband, Nick, took me to see ‘The Sixth Sense’, finally succumbing to peer pressure to guess ‘the big surprise ending. By now, ‘The Sixth Sense’ was off the major theater chain circuit and only screening in small suburban independent theaters, which led us to experience one of those now rare events: a double-feature matinee. The first movie was ‘10 Things I Hate About You’.
Well passed ‘teen movies, even those with Shakespearian-based scripts, we shyly admitted to liking 10 Things. Wow, I really like the male lead, what was his name? “He’s Australian, you know”, replied Nick. And in typical Aussie-fashion, I was doubly impressed and now stupidly filled with national pride. Another brilliant Australian up-and-comer to join the rapidly increasing queue to grace Hollywood screens.
Years later, I would often grab the DVD to fill a cheerless afternoon and find myself watching and rewinding the same scene. Over and over and over again. My secret guilty pleasure. Heath sliding down the pole, microphone in hand, singing “You’re just too good to be true, can’t take my eyes off of you …” The brass band kicks in. And that charmingly defiant half-run, half-prancing across the school steps. The scene is brilliant. It’s inexplicable. He simply has that old-fashioned ‘it’ factor.
I’m not a star-struck fan and was never one of those teenagers with movie-star idol posters plastered all over my bedroom walls, but this kids got talent.
And then came those scene-stealing roles that totally blew us away. The Patriot. Monsters Ball. And finally leading-man status and an Academy Award nomination. By now, we were just used to having another famous Australian up there with the rest of the world’s great talent churning out an endless array of diverse, yet illustrious film roles.
We had no idea. It was not endless. It was not what we expected.
When people who I’ve never met but greatly admire die, I’m sad. But I’ve never cried before. I have never before felt that heart wrenching overwhelming shock that lasted for days after I heard the news. This time it was somehow more personal. As soon as I read the detailed list of the first report of his deathbed scene, I intuitively knew how he died.
Ten days later the final medical examiners report confirmed my suspicions.
Hollywood is ‘Xanax-city. Feeling down, pop a Xanax. Feeling stressed, pop a Xanax. Need to perform at your very best, pop a Xanax. A-list stars feel the pressure to provide A-grade performances when working on multi-million dollar films. There’s too much money at stake. The intense stress, both internal and external, is immeasurable. The studios are risking billions, paying the stars millions, and the actors are unnaturally subjected to more pressure than we mere mortals can imagine.
Heath Ledger, himself, admitted that after the worldwide release of A Knights Tale with its instant paparazzi-bulb-flashing stardom, his stress levels increased ten-fold.
Xanax is the trade name of the generic anti-anxiety/tranquillizer prescription drug, alprazolam, listed in Ledgers toxicity report. The other anti-anxiety drug was diazepam, or more commonly known as Valium. These drugs are from a class of commonly prescribed tranquilizers known as benzodiazepines or simply referred to as benzos.
According to the latest National Health Study, approximately 10 million scripts of benzos are written annually in Australia alone with its meagre population of 20 million compared to 300 million in the US.
Many doctors will write a script for benzos faster than a speeding bullet. But the real danger is that too many of them do not know the long-term effects these drugs have on your system, how to give their patients the correct advice when administering or monitoring the dosages, and – more frighteningly – how to manage their patients benzo withdrawal program.
Firstly, this is how benzos affect your body – or more importantly – your brain. Benzodiazepines increase, or rather, enhance your brains main neurotransmitter, commonly known as GABA. Eventually, and this can be as quickly as 3 to 4 weeks if taking a daily dose, your brain will stop producing its own GABA and rely totally on the artificial benzo.
GABA is the most important neurotransmitter because it affects just about everything else. Primarily it enhances the brains other neurotransmitters such as Serotonin and Dopamine. All of the brains neurotransmitters have important functions such as, voluntary movement of the muscles, wakefulness, sleep, memory function, sensory transmission – especially pain, and much, much more.