Presumably, we all know that Amy Winehouse passed away on Saturday afternoon, after a long, public struggle with substance abuse. Though we do not know exactly what the cause of her death was, her tumultuous relationship with drugs and alcohol were most likely linked to any health complications that led to her passing. When the news broke, I was on Twitter, and immediately, there was a huge collective burst of sadness and shock among the people I follow who loved her music and were rooting for her to make a comeback. At the same time, there was another loud outpouring of contempt by people who decided to make tacky, tasteless jokes about how she should have said “yes, yes, yes” to rehab and celebrated the death of another waste of space drug addict. The complete lack of empathy for her, her family, her friends and her fans was just shocking to me, especially mere moments after her death was announced.

It’s one thing to delight in the glee of celebs showing up to events in consistently tacky outfits, becoming divas on the Home Shopping Network, continuing to star in movies that flop or getting caught in ridiculous sex scandals (Seriously, tweeting a crotch photo? Comical, lame and totally worth mocking).

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Like the rest of America, I sat down on my couch with a bowl of popcorn to watch the 20/20 interview with Charlie Sheen . Over the last few days, he’s become the most quotable person in the entire world. All you have to do is say tiger blood and you’ll get instant laughs. But after watching last night’s special, I’m not laughing anymore. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Charlie Sheen is mentally ill. (Just watch these clips and you’ll see what I’m talking about). And while we wrote about this on Monday, it’s gotten only more serious in the past few days.

And it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better anytime soon. He’s being enabled by his porn star goddesses, his publicist quit, and he doesn’t think he has a problem. If this was your relative, your parent, your friend, you wouldn’t be laughing. You would be scared. Because whatever is going on with Charlie Sheen is scary. While this is great entertainment for all of us sitting at home, it’s no longer a joking matter. We’re watching the unraveling of a human being happen in front of our eyes…and when something bad happens….which seems inevitable at this point, we’ll all be guilty.

Everyone who is now following him on Twitter will be guilty, everyone who ate up these interviews will be guilty, and the reporters who interviewed him for ratings will be guilty. If this was your friend who suddenly went off the deep end, you wouldn’t be egging her on, you would be uncomfortable and uneasy and you would try to figure out how you can help.

But how can we help Charlie? We’re not the big media companies, we don’t really know him, and we don’t know how to help him. And while I cheered this morning when I heard that his kids were taken away, I still felt uncomfortable knowing that he’s still not getting the help he needs.

So what can we do?

We can stop clicking on the Charlie Sheen links our friends send us, we can turn off the interviews, and we can respond to people saying “he’s crazy, lol” by responding “yes, he’s crazy, he is legitimately mentally ill, and mental illness isn’t funny.”

What do you think of about Charlie Sheen? What do you think about the way mental illness is portrayed in the media?

As 2008 draws to a close, those of us here at College Candy strive to provide you with a recap of the year in pop culture, poring over countless magazines and endless E! programs to get the full scoop of the year’s worst. In no particular order, we present to you our list of Pop Culture shiz that should forever stay in 2008.

The Pregnant Man – Thomas Beattie became the sensation of the world in April when he appeared on Oprah to defend his choice to have a child as a transgendered man. Sticking up for your beliefs? Awesome, and definitely commendable. Eventually turning into a fame slut and marketing out your second pregnancy? Not cool. Now pregnant with his second child, Beattie has already cemented a book deal on his experience and been interviewed a second time as a ‘Barbara Walters Exclusive.’ One child is a miracle. A second one immediately afterwards is a marketing scheme.

Batsh** Insane Celebrities Across The Media - Britney, Lindsey, and others: we’re talking to you. 2008 was the year of the mental millionaire, with the world playing a captive audience to the tragic, bizarre, and sometimes just eerie behavior of celebrities. We watched Britney Spears struggle to put her life back together after divorce, Lindsey Lohan battling various addictions, and Scarlett Johansson crossing the borderline into stalker-ish about Barack Obama. Here’s the real scoop: an estimated 57.7 million adults are suffering from a diagnosable mental illness in the United States alone. What makes these celebrities any different from these people who are suffering in private besides their income and the paparazzi that shadow them? Watching people suffer is definitely a trend that shouldn’t cross over into ’09. Read More »

“College, now those are the best years or your life,” says a fella-wearing-a-tux-from-the-squeaky-clean-1950s. Uh-huh, sure, fella.

Before paralyzing you, my dear reader, with my cheekiness, I’ll check my sarcasm at the door. While the experience of college is truly a gift, i.e. if one is open to education, willing to forge new friendships, and eager to learn something from their lovers, it is also a tumultuous period in one’s young adult life. Suffice to say, depression is common, and most college students experience varying degrees of this mental illness.

To be sure, the term is overly-used and problematic, just as the term melancholy was exhausted during the 19th century. Nevertheless, that’s not to say depression isn’t real – it most certainly is, and I know a handful of people who thought its symptoms so real, they are no longer alive (incidentally three of them were in college, and one of them shot himself in the library’s bathroom at my school, while I wrote a final paper at my carrel).

There are a lot complicated reasons why college students are susceptible to depression. In order to clarify the complexity of this issue, my first few discussions address environmental forms of depression, which are just as serious as chemical ones. Read More »