On not writing off

[breakinglight11]

There was a period where Robert Downey, Jr. was such a morbid coke addict that it was pretty much universally agreed that his disgusting mortal overdose was only a matter of time. Couldn't stay clean enough to keep an acting job, was telling the judge that told him to shape up or he'd be dead to go fuck himself, he was going to do coke forever. My very first awareness of the man was when my mom mentioned that she was sorry he had to be fired from the gig he had on Ally McBeal, and what a shame it was that he'd just never be able to get himself straight.

What must that have been like? To have your world be collapsing around you, and to not be able to open a magazine without reading somebody speculating on when you were finally going to kill yourself with the drugs? To have everybody convinced that you were simply incapable of turning things around? What must it have felt like, to hit bottom and know that literally everybody thought you were hopeless? How do you dig yourself out when nobody in the world believes in you?

But somehow he did. He climbed his way out, even after everybody wrote him off. Now he's got a nice wife and son, as much professional success as anyone could want, and is universally adored by fans. He made it.

A good thing to remember in a rough time. After all, one of the thieves was saved.