Why do so many celebs have addiction issues?

Are performers naturally more inclined to become addicted to something? Is it the artistic temperament? Is the industry THAT stressful or boring? Or is it a case of essentially trashy people with too much money and time on their hands?

• Probably starts out because people need to lose weight and work on 14 hour shoots that start at 5 am.

• I don't think it's more prevalent, we just hear about it more. A lot of regular people have additction issues, they just don't make it public.

• R1, stars rarely work 14 hour days. Especially big stars on big films. SAG and the unions have rules that are upheld. Indie films are another story.

  Been%20there%2C%20done%20that%20

• I think it's the boredom and long stretches of time where there's nothing to do but wait. I don't know any actors, but know a number of successful singers. Their lives are just going from the bus to the stage to the bus to the hotel, etc, and they often turn to drugs to alleviate the boredom. Plus, you have NO idea how easy it is for them to get drugs: people bring them around all the time, and doctors will write scips for anything you want.

• Disposable income and time on their hands.

• I thinkk r4 nailed it. Drugs are all around someone "in the industry" or the arts, in general. Seems to come with the territory. Availability meets lifestyle meets dysfunction. Artists are vulnerable to it. So many are messed up people.

• Repetitive behavior that is rewarded handsomely, ephemeral traits projected upon them by many different users, lots of down time, fear of a fickle public where any slack-jawed idiot with a modem can shit on career prospects, a dependent support staff eager to fulfill every whim… I'm surprised there aren't more junkies and drunks.

• We pay for the display of talents that don't necessarily require intelligence. So our celebrities are often dumb, and almost always badly educated, with access to enormous amounts of money, and surrounded by people who want to indulge them. What's the surprise? Yes, there are some exceptions. Some of them actually go to college. But you don't hear about Jodie Foster or Natalie Portman having addiction issues.

• Drugs are prevalent in the industry, ease of access alone causes more use. It is like asking why a lot of bartenders/strippers/djs are also into drugs, prevalent in the environment they are in.

• It wasn't that long ago that entertainers were considered not much higher up the social ladder than prostitutes.

• R9 Bingo.

• "Don't buy drugs. Become a pop star, and they give you them for free!"

  Bill Nighy

• They have loads of money and a lot of free time on their hands. And many sycophants and enablers as well. Also, when they're working, there's a lot of sitting around and waiting on a set or backstage. I think this is why a disproportionate number of actors, actresses and singers are smokers as well. You would be surprised at how many of them smoke cigarettes.

• r8, a lot of talented and intelligent artists have addictions. If they are true artists, then they are tortured in some way or another.

• Why do so many CEOS have greed issues? Honestly, I'd take a fucked up celebrity over a sociopath like Mitt Romney who looks at a map of America and decides it's his for the taking.

• Oh for fuck's sake r15 not everything is about politics.

• Not everything's about drug addicted celebrities, r16.

• In this thread it is r16.

• [quote]Not everything's about drug addicted celebrities This thread is. Now fuck off.

  OP

• Imagine working on a film: You shoot a scene for about 15 minutes. You go wait in your trailer for 30. You shoot a scene for five minutes, then wait in your trailer for an hour. Repeat on and off for 14 hours or so a day. Hours of boredom, waiting, getting AMPED for a scene then having to wait for an hour. The adrenaline/boredom ratio is extreme. If you're good- you're invested in your role, worried about the quality, you crave feedback, You don't even really know how this whole project will turn out for months. Meanwhile, between films, anything can happen to your career. You could be the hottest thing ever in May and be a joke by December all for circumstances that are largely out your control. The whole business is RIPE with insecurity.