Friday, May 18, 2007

Dead Addict Of The Day

Since I began my dead addict project, I've dreaded the day I'd reach this loathsome letter: Q. Fortunately, however, I've found a pretty interesting dead heroin addict to feature with a Q name. His name is Glenn Quinn, and he was Mark on Roseanne as well Allen Francis Doyle on Angel.

He is very handsome in a way I find particularly unnerving, with dark hair and blue blue eyes. He also has a wonderfully charming dimple. It is interesting to look at pictures of him because it is possible to determine how close you are to his death date by the sunken-ness of his cheekbones and eye sockets. It is a kind of sick face I'm particularly familiar with, and it frightens me to think that we might have been getting close to death.

He was found dead of a heroin overdose on the couch of a friend he was visiting in December of 2002.

He even has a few fan sites of his own, such as this one and this one.

2 comments:

Jonathan said...

JW,

You left a comment at Tisha's "Serenity Quest" blog, and both her and I responded to it. I don't know if you've been back to see it, so here's her response and mine:

TISHA: without meaning to judge you seems like some of us have a need to help/save others even to the point that we're destroyed by it.

The victims I dealt with are not substance abusers of any kind but they always seem to be targets for abuse and helping them break that cycle has proven difficult cause they don't see a problem with the way others are treating them.

ME: Amen, Tisha. I too will abstain from casting judgment on JW, but I can speak from my own personal experiences.

In the past, I always had a knack for winding up dating girls who had some kind of baggage or drama, and I felt like it was MY job to be Superman and save them from themselves. It failed, every time.

In those cases, the girls seemed to enjoy "being saved", because they kept doing the same things over and over so that I would "save them" over and over. I guess they felt that my desire to keep intervening must have meant I loved them, when in fact, I pitied them (though some of them I did love).

In my own case, I finally came to the realization that I had to love myself enough to not hold myself responsible for other people's chosen lifestyles or decisions...or I would be destroyed.

It wasn't easy for me to do that, because I was beseiged with guilt for "leaving them all alone." But I couldn't be an enabler or a "savior", as much as I wanted to be the latter. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

I don't know JW nor her personal situation, so I can't really comment on HER particular matter. I can just testify from my own experiences. I decided that I would take ownership of MY life, not holding myself accountable for other people's poor decisions, and definitely holding myself accountable for MY decisions (good and bad). The guilt was crushing BUT temporary, and the liberating feeling that followed was indescribably refreshing.


My blog is political in nature, so don't feel obligated to come check it out, especially if the politics differs from yours. However, if you want to e-mail me, follow the About Me links and you'll find a link to my e-mail address.

Either way, take care and God bless.

Jonathan

Unknown said...

Damn, I didn't know that. He was so handsome and realistic. But aren't we all? Well, realistic, anyway. Heroin turns you ugly and you can't even see, as it happens right in front of your own face. I think if you can you stop looking in the mirror. I mean really looking.