Whitney Houston’s passing has ignited discussions about the correlation between celebrity anxiety and medication overdose. Dr. Harris Stratyner, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at New York’s Mount Sinai hospital, said that many celebrities are diagnosed with anxiety disorders and prescribed benzodiazepines. Dr. Meldon Kahan, associate professor in the department of family medicine at U of T, said that because these pills provide such rapid relief to stressed celebrities, they increase the risk of addiction. Too many benzodiazepines calm a person’s system until he or she stops breathing — and celebrity deaths have confirmed the consequences of overdose.
