Amy Winehouse's death is bothering me. I never listened to her music until she passed away and barely ever heard of her, but I think people are being cruel. They're judging her as stupid trash because she apparently had addiction problems and died of an overdose.

My "friends" on facebook are making a big deal about it, all denouncing her and making jokes about the situation. I don't think anything is funny about it. "She should have said yes, yes, yes to rehab!" wrote one of my friends. Since when has society expected people in a self-destructive, sick state of mind to make healthy decisions?! Worse - what did my friends think of me a few years ago when I struggled through my own self-destructive path?

Amy's death isn't just about a drug addict dying of an overdose, it's about how an entire network of family and friends can ignore a loved one's misery so blatantly that the person ends up killing themself. Where were they with tough love, with interventions, with public pleas for her to get help? I never once read about or seen any such thing in the media. I did hear, however, people salivating when they talked about how drunk she was during her concerts and how troubled she must be. Disgusting.

So - if you're reading this - you have two things to think about. One is that you're constantly being judged by others because pathetic people talk about other people instead of thoughts, and the other being that you might have such a friend in your life who needs help right now, too. Ask them how you can help - you'd be surprised at how little people think to ask that. It can make all the difference.

I'm glad to see your blogpost, as it's good to know I wasn't the only one who felt ashamed of the cruelty so many people are showing in the face of her death.

They clearly don't understand what it's like to have that pressure wear at you constantly, and the effect it can have. Depression, anxiety, or whatever the case may be...it's like this gravity well that constantly pulls with tidal stresses. It never goes away, and people don't understand that, after a while, you break.

Laughter and simple kindness are so powerful, as you intimated. They literally make all the difference. They save lives. But, somehow, cruelty seems to come easier for many, and that makes me very, very sad.

I don't know Ms Winehouse, nor am I all that familiar with her art, but I feel like she and I and many others have stared into that same abyss. People would call me dramatic, but that's exactly what it is...and for her, I am so very sorry.