What Amy Winehouse Taught Us About Denial and Alcoholism

REST IN PEACE –

March 8, 2022 – Denial was dangerous for Winehouse because it interfered with her ability to accept the help she needed to meet a challenge she could not overcome on her own. Pride certainly got in her way. She “didn’t wanna have ta” face her alcoholism fully and go to treatment.

Virtually no one wants to need treatment. Unfortunately, alcoholics too often turn the realistic need to enter rehab into a battle between themselves and anyone who is urging treatment. This leads to a prideful stance to maintain a distorted sense of power by not letting anyone “force” them into treatment. “You can’t make me” becomes a battle alcoholics can win, while ultimately losing the war.

I have even witnessed many alcoholics steadfastly defending their “right” to live as they please, including to drink as they wish. The problem is that no one is trying to take away their right to drink. Of course, they have that right. But it is sheer reality itself that is dictating they must stop drinking if they wish to end their worst suffering and continue living. It is not their family and friends who make them unable to stop on their own. This is just the simple, plain reality. Unfortunately, alcohol so disrupts clear thinking that alcoholics can deny reality past the point that they are still alive.