A Life Interrupted

On Saturday Amy Winehouse was found dead at her home, the victim of an as yet unexplained death.

I was with A at the time, who is a great fan of Amy and just about held back the tears.

"It's just so sad to think that she knew all those people and she died alone. Where were all these people? Why didn't they try harder? Where was the intervention?"

"How can you intervene, when the person in question can't ask for help or is so far gone they can't help themselves". I replied.

When sadly intervention comes in the shape of her record company and management team, who right up until her sad, disastrous drunken performance in Belgrade last month, continued sending an obviously troubled soul out to sing for her supper.

She should have been in rehab, not on tour. It seems it was just a money making exercise and not instigated by Amy, but by the people behind her. The irony is that Amy's death now almost certainly guarantees that cash bonanza, the tour was supposed to achieve.

Then there's Amy toxic taste in men, reaching an all time low with Blake Fielder-Civil, a lovely piece of pondlife that she married and who inspired (via his lousy treatment of her),the album Back To Black.

Blake actually 'credits' himself as having introduced Amy to hard drugs. He took pictures and video of Amy under the influence and sold them to the press for blood/drug money.

Her fair weather friends - Not the real ones, the ones who drank and took drugs with her, hanging out with Amy, because of who she was and whather money could buy them.

Or how about the of 'unstinting support' from her own father who said he was 'devastated', but has vowed ‘not to crack up for Amy’s sake’. Amy's mother always remained behind the scenes and was with Amy the day before her death.

Her father was very different. From the moment Amy hit the big time with Back to Black, her father decided to grab some of the limelight too, hanging on Amy's coat tails bringing out his own big band CD and turning up on radio.

It's so easy to point the finger of blame at the numerous factors in an addicts' life. The reality is addiction is incredibly hard to break. It strangles and tortures its victims. Turns their bodies and minds into enemies and systemically destroys the person they once were.

Utimately, the only person who could have helped Amy was herself and hitting that 'rock bottom, I can't do this anymore point' which those addicts who have managed to pull themselves back from the brink always talk about.

Unfortunately, for Amy, her wealth insuluated her from hitting the rock bottom of losing everything. The disease of addiction so completely engulfed her, that when her death was announced on Saturday, although it was a shock, sadly it was not an unexpected one.

Instead of demonising a lost soul, racking over the carcauss of a wasted talent in a media circus, we need to ask ourselves how we can better understand this disease, that doesn't discriminate against who its lures into its clutches.