When you think of Hollywood, what comes to mind? Palm trees, the weather, celebrities, but what if I told that Hollywood has a completely different side, a different personality. Among the houses with the views and the million-dollar cars and the endless amount of movies and TV shows that are constantly being made, there is a dark side to the town we all come to know and love.
Being in Hollywood may be the place where you hope to find fame and fortune. A place where there are thousands upon thousands of people who have the same dream as you. There’s a chance the person sitting next to you in the audition room is going to be the next big thing and it’s going to make you think about what they have that you don’t. It’s going you make you question why you’re in Hollywood to begin with.
Meeting people and making friends is hard for anybody, but when your all have the same goal in mind, you tend to gravitate towards them. You make friends with whoever without realizing if they are going to be a lifelong friend, a bad influence or are just friends with you just for the people you know and hoping that you can get them a meeting. It’s a cruel world to be used and taken an advantage of and some people are strong enough to be able to walk away and not look back, but there people who will take it personally and do what they can to deal with it.
Some people grew up in an environment where they knew someone with a drug addiction, so it’s something that they’ve always known, and they don’t see life in any other way, or they went through a traumatic experience in which they couldn’t cope and turn towards drugs. Those are the ones that are hard to beat because there is always an underlying issue that has never been resolved. Then there are people who never been about drugs but are pressured into trying.
When you’re in an environment where your peers are doing things that may or may not be up to your standard, you want to take part to fit in. You crave that attention to be accepted or you may already have that itch in your brain, and you need to get rid of it by doing something you promised yourself you would never do.
We all have the urge to please people. We want to be liked and we would do anything we can to fit in no matter the cost.
With Hollywood being filled with so many different personalities, we are bound to find a group of people to fit in with. Hollywood is the place where even the kid who never said a word in high school could find their niche in Hollywood. There’s always something for someone.
Even with drugs, there’s always going to be something more to try. There’s always going to be something new that someone wants you to try, but how far are you willing to go to please the people you call friends.
The pressures of Hollywood are never far. There’s always someone in the industry who is going to tell you about the latest trend and if you want to be the next big thing, you got to be able to do it, or at least be comfortable about doing it.
Sometimes it’s not even your “friends” that are trying to get you to some things. There are producers and directors that will try everything in their power to make you the next big thing. They will tell you things to improve, from changing your hair to your weight. They want to make you think that if you put in a little more work, you can be on your way to being a star, but there’s always a catch, what starts with one thing will turn into something else and before you know it, you are struggling to keep friendships, getting jobs or even being able to pay the bills because you are willing to do anything for your career. Is risking everything you work hard for worth your life?
With that being said, we never know if we will ever go down that road of addiction. If you look at your surroundings, you will adapt to where you are and who your with. Hollywood is filled with people who come from different backgrounds, different home lives and have different stories, but you’re there for the same thing and depending on who you befriend and how much time you spend with them then you’re going to start acting like each other, pick up each other’s mannerisms and develop new habits because that’s what the other person is doing, but there’s going to be people who go in alone without anyone influencing them because it’s something that they’ve choose to do.
There are pros and cons about being in Hollywood, people want to enhance their careers by being around like-minded people, if they develop connections then they can move up in the industry, but some people use those connections for the wrong reasons.
It’s not easy to see people for who they really are. People are naïve when it comes to knowing what they think it’s best for them especially when it comes to Hollywood or just Los Angeles in general. There’s a lot of temptation and people want to experience everything. People live in the “you only live once” mantra and it doesn’t always work. People take that literally and way too far. It doesn’t end to well for them.
So many talented people have been taken long before their time and their deaths could have been prevented if only they came to the realization that what they were doing was going to eventually kill them, but there are people who know that their addiction is getting out of control and want to get help and in most cases, it’s too late. I don’t want to use the term, “At least they tried.” Because it sounds wrong. It sounds like they didn’t try hard enough. If you knew anybody with addiction or you are someone that is struggling, you know what it’s like to go through daily life with the knowledge that drugs was just a phone call away. If you put yourself in an environment where everyone around you is encouraging you to join them, you’re tempted because you want to fit in, you want to belong, but how long does that temptation last? How long can you keep saying No without eventually saying Yes?
People know when to stop and other people just keep going. If you get to the point where you have to keep doing it to get rid of the last night’s craving then you’re going to keep doing it over and over again. You drink again to get rid of that hungover, you drink again tomorrow to get rid of hangover you’re given yourself today. It’s a vicious circle. A cycle that may not be able to be broken. Some people may have the urge to do something, do it then never do it again. They got that itch or that crave out of their system and their good. They don’t need to keep going. They could go weeks, sometimes months without doing anything because they don’t have that bug to encourage them to keep going.
Los Angeles is filled with people who have connections. It’s easy for someone to know where to get something. Even if someone doesn’t use themselves, they know someone who does and can hook you up. Those kinds of people are going to get you in trouble especially if you go them often. They will know you better than anyone.
When someone is in active addiction they may have more than one person on speed dial all for different reasons. It’s easy just to call someone up and get something in just a few minutes. It’s hard for them to not go a few minutes without calling, they need that fix and they need it now.
We look at celebrities as people who can do no wrong. People can do so much good in the world, but they are people just like us. They have a personal life that we don’t know about, Just like how we wake up every day and go to work, they do the same thing, but they are just photographed and filmed and plastered all over the internet. They get no privacy. So, it’s understandable that they will do anything to keep their struggles to themselves, but one slip up can mean the end for someone.
They can also put themselves in dangerous situations. They can meet someone in a rundown motel or a back alley, places where it’s hard to track down a source. False names are used, or someone would send a middleman to their dirty work for them. You never know who your buying from. It’s never safe, but when you really need something, you accept the risks that come along with it.
There are places in Los Angeles that are or were well known places to party and do drugs and some of those places were also the last place that someone was when they died. They tend to use a club or a hotel as place to get high or to meet someone, they get ahead of themselves, or they don’t plan on doing anything but are pressured into doing something. Sometimes celebrities will do it in the privacy of their own homes.
Parties in Hollywood are notorious for drugs. There’s always one person who knows someone that will hook you up. One phone is all it takes. You have to be careful with who you know or even tell something too because they can be the person that can change your life forever.
It’s hard to around certain people and be in certain places when you know that drugs are involved especially if you are in recovery and trying to stay sober.
Drugs and peer pressure are dangerous things when they’re together. It’s a toxic relationship that should never happen, but when it comes to getting that fix, you accept the risks.