What everyone has gotten wrong about Lamar Odom

I keep seeing things on Facebook shaming people for being concerned about Lamar. Shaming us for caring what happens to him and not caring about this soldier, sick child, nurse, etc.

I have a few things to address on this topic. I’ll pic the lightest one first.

Lamar is married to Khloe Kardashian. It appears this fact has made everyone forget that he is also a very talented basketball player and a very kind soul. I’m going to go ahead and admit this now. I watched their romance on Keeping up with the Kardashians. I watched their wedding. I watched their spin off show. I’m not sorry. Since we have been small we have read fairytales. We have watched romantic comedies. We have read romance novels. Women especially love a good love story. A real life one that plays out on live TV with actual people, that’s a bonus for us romantics. When Khloe and Lamar divorced I was heartbroken. I don’t know these people but to some degree they have allowed us enough access into their lives to feel like I do actually know them. As if we are acquaintances who only see each other on holidays. Which we do, only the holidays are filmed and they are eating glamorous food in fancy dresses while I sit on my couch watching in my sweats eating Oreos. We have all followed along as Khloe moved on. I’ve watched in awe as she got fit and healthy. I’ve even done some of the workouts she’s posted and I admit, they’re kicked my ass. I’ve watched the current seasons lamenting about how I wish Lamar could get better and they would make up. When his best friend died of drug related issues I was scared. Scared because I knew he had two options after that: get clean and turn his life around, or allow the depression to eat him whole and overdose himself. This leads me to my second thing.

Lamar Odom suffers from depression. Probably other things, PTSD from all the death he’s seen sounds right. Until recently he’s tried to be a stand up guy. He was a dedicated athlete, a good grandson, father, and an excellent friend. He was by all means a good person. Lamar, like many is also an addict. Before anyone judges him for overdosing as a method of treating his depression please first stop and make sure that you have never once in your entire life done anything self destructive as a response to depression. Be sure you’ve never had too many drinks, taken too many pills, done too many lines, or eaten too many donuts. Make sure that you, yourself have never once self medicated. The fact that he is an athlete who happened to fall in love with a Kardashian doesn’t make his addiction less valuable. It doesn’t make his life less valuable. It is tragic to me that someone with his financial means still couldn’t manage to find a way to get clean, to treat his demons, and to save himself. How dare we judge him because he was married to Khloe. How dare any of you judge the news for talking about her. She is a human. A real person who dropped everything to fly there and be with him. To sleep on pillows in a sleeping bag on the floor of his hospital room never leaving his side. To fly his whole family in to make sure they got to say goodbye. She shut down all of her publicity. Stopped posting to the apps and the websites. She became just like every other human out there is hurting, watching someone they love hanging on to life by a thread. Does her being a Kardashian devalue that? Or is everyone so blinded by their jealousy of her fortune that they want to tear her down for being a famous person going through a horrifying situation? I’ll admit now, I would gladly be known as being famous for doing nothing besides opening my own clothing store, having my own clothing line, launching a successful hair and make up line, looking pretty all the time, and having a highly viewed television show, if it meant I could have Khloes bank account. Wouldn’t we all?

Two people met, and fell in love very publicly, and when one of them nearly dies some of us are going to understandably be sad about it. We are going to have questions. We are going to want news coverage on it. Because the fact is this isn’t fiction. We can’t turn the page and find out what happens next. We have to wait for information. Jax Teller was a fictional tv character who died a year ago on tv. I’m still sad about Opie, Jax wife, and Jax himself. In fact. I cried actual tears when Jax and Opie died. These are fictional people. That doesn’t mean we don’t become attached. Khloe and Lamar are real people, for some of us who have been following their “love story,” this was heartbreaking for us. Who cares if it was in a brothel in Nevada, and she’s a Kardashian. Two of our favorite characters are hurting and so am I.

Finally. For any one, anyone who is posting that Lamar shouldn’t be discussed, or given media coverage for the public, or mourned, because he was a drug addict who overdosed, kindly fuck you. My biological father was a drug addict. He committed suicide while high on meth and other opiates. Telling the public that we shouldn’t care about Lamar because he was “just a drug addict” is telling me that my fathers suicide shouldn’t have mattered because he was just another druggie. Just because Lamar is famous it doesn’t change the facts. He is a man who struggles with depression, who chose to self medicate, and lost the battle with the disease of addiction. Rather then smuggly post pics about how you are not sorry you don’t care about another drug addict why not see this for the very public platform it is. This is a very public face to addiction and depression. This is a real life example of what happens if you don’t seek out the proper treatment. The news should print everything about this. Cover our feed with this story because it is bringing awareness to this topic. Look what can happen if you don’t stop now. Look what happens if you don’t seek help. Look how many people would be left hurting if that one last pill/line/needle turned into an overdose. My dad didn’t know how to get help. Depression, drugs and suicide were swept under the rug and ignored twenty one years ago, they still are. It didn’t get treated the way it should have, and he is gone now. Lamar overdosing is a huge wake up call to the public. Don’t do drugs. Get help. Treat depression. When Robin Williams committed suicide everyone mourned. Everyone shared his photos and the news followed closely. No one complained because he wasn’t married to a Kardashian and he didn’t commit suicide via drug use. The hard truth is Lamar was in a sense committing suicide. He knew what path he was on and he chose to stay the course. He knew death was a very real option after losing his best friend. He was slowly killing himself. The public is outraged at the coverage though because he is linked to a Kardashian and he used drugs. What a massive double standard between the two men.

I hope Lamar never comes across the meme comparing himself to the wounded solider. Seeing that America is considering him worthless because of his habit. I hope he never comes across that meme on a bad day and thinks, “maybe they are right, maybe I am no one, maybe I shouldn’t have gotten to live.” I hope he never sees something like that meme, thinks his worth is less then any other human, and chooses to use again. I hope he never loses the battle with recovery because some dumb ass thought posting all over the Internet how proud they are to not care about a worthless drug addict made them feel good for a moment. I hope he sees all of the love and outpouring for him and he realizes he has value, and he stays clean, and he when he looks for support he finds it, in place of distasteful memes degrading him for being someone who suffers from a disease.

I’m not sorry for following along with Lamar. I will continue to do so. When he woke up I was overcome with emotion. He gets a second chance. He has a real chance to change. To turn his life around and get clean. He can use this experience to educate others and help others. I cannot wait to see how he overcomes this. I cannot wait to see how he teaches the public to change and move on. I also cannot wait for Khloe and Lamar to make up and get married all over again. Of course on television so I can watch and feel like an invited guest again. It’s just like the fairy tails. Only the prince was a drug addict who got a second chance and Cinderella is a reality tv star.