SHOE ADDICTION

I was really saddened to hear the news of Simon Monjack’s death this past Sunday. I really believe that he died of a broken heart, consumed with grief over Brittany Murphy’s recent death. I started to think about Brittany’s movie roles and how many of the troubled characters she portrayed suffered from various addictions. In Clueless, Tai likes her cocaine. In Bongwater, she is a pot dealer. Girl Interupted sees her addicted to valium. Spun portrays her as a meth addict. Some people believe her real death resulted from a dependency and addiction to prescription drugs. All of these addictions are clearly detrimental, but are addictions always bad? I think Simon was addicted to loving his wife. I think he needed her and couldn’t live without her. R.I.P. Brittany and Simon.

Drug addiction, tobacco addiction, gambling, internet addiction, sex addiction, exercise addiction, work addiction, cutting, pornography, shopping addiction, spiritual obsession, food addictions. What does addiction mean to you? I did a workshop last week where we explored its meaning. It’s definitely an obsessive compulsive disorder. Webster’s defines addiction as the state of being enslaved to a habit or to something that is psychologically or physically habit forming, such as narcotics, to such an extent that that its cessation causes severe trauma. Here are just a few of my many addictions.

• Limes – I need them in my margaritas, in my mojitos, squeezed on my grilled corn on the cob and in my guacamole. We go through about two dozen limes a week in my household. If I stopped having lime, I would be traumatized for real.
• The smell of baby powder – I don’t think I could live without nuzzling and burying my face into my children’s freshly bathed and powdered necks.
• Music – I love it so much and I am enslaved to how it makes me feel and can transport my moods. If I didn’t have music in my life, there would be no joy.
• Pole dancing – since I started, over four years ago, it has really changed my life. I am addicted to the movement, to spinning and flipping and reenacting how to fly like a real live superhero. If I ceased this compulsion, I would probably die from missing out on all that fun.
• Creating with my hands – this is crucial to the fabric of my existence. Whether it is knitting or painting or building legos, I have a compulsive need to make things with my hands. Maybe I traded one addiction for another because I no longer smoke cigarettes since I started to knit.
• Shooze – if I excluded them from my life, my heart would break for sure. And my feet would probably blister if I walked around barefoot – that’s pretty traumatic, don’t you think?

I really, really need and have an affinity for all of the above in my life and I think without them, I would be pained, stressed and despondent. So my conclusion is, not all addictions are treacherous.

Gisele Stiletto, available at http://www.sfactor.com/
Music: Faster Kill Pussycat, featuring Brittany Murphy