Presley Gerber, 27-year-old son of supermodel Cindy Crawford and businessman Rande Gerber, died of a suspected overdose just hours after checking into a rehabilitation facility in Santa Monica, California.
He’d been open about his decade-long struggle with mental health and substance abuse. In 2023, he launched an Instagram video series called “Mental Health Mondays” sharing his personal battle with addiction, anxiety and depression.
In the videos, he shared his fears, his hopes and the realities of navigating through fluctuating medications, severe panic attacks and staying sober during recovery.
His death saddens me deeply. Because he did all he could. He was strong, brave and determined. He wanted to make it, almost did but sadly, didn’t.
And yet, we call them junkies — they who are submerged in the scourge of substances.
But they didn’t choose to be junkies. The first drink or puff might have been their choice — to try a new thing, to numb a pain, to feel brave or to simply fit in. But the succeeding ones were no longer theirs.
We are not all born with the same brain. Some can stop at the first drink while some can’t until they remember nothing.
The World Health Organization has officially recognized substance use disorders as medical conditions rather than moral failings.
They don’t mean to do it. But they cannot help it. Are they junkies? Or are they victims?
We cannot simply tell people to stop smoking, drinking or doing drugs and expect them to succeed without struggling and stumbling.
Can you stop eating the cookies, chips and chocolates you cannot go to bed without? Can you stop eating the desserts and pastries you cannot stop buying? Can you find the strength to push the plate away when you’re full?
That’s different.
Is it?
Why do you do the things that you do even when you know they’re not good for you? Because it feels good. And why can’t you stop doing it? Same reason. See, not so different.
Are we any better simply because we don’t drink, smoke or do drugs — because we still possess some form of addiction, perhaps not as dangerous or as life-threatening but equally harmful?
Look at all the people at a dinner table — lost to scrolling.
We are not without sin. We simply sin differently.
Not all brains are typical. Some have altered circuitries that affect decision-making and impulse control. How brains respond to stress, regulate mood and process rewards is affected by genetics. Severe stress, trauma and abuse during childhood can alter the brain’s stress-response system.
This is why some people possess brains permanently “hyper-reactive” to stress and why they pop a pill every time they feel some pain or turn to alcohol and drugs when they’re sad, angry or upset.
But the relief provided by substances is temporary. Chronic alcohol abuse can worsen or trigger depression while stimulant abuse can trigger psychotic or paranoid disorders. Heavy drug or alcohol abuse can physically alter a healthy brain and make it mentally ill.
So, imagine what substance abuse can do to an already altered, atypical and/or neurodivergent brain?
If you with your typical a.k.a. “normal” brain can’t even fight the compulsion to eat, imagine what it must be like for one with a neurodivergent or altered brain to fight the compulsion to smoke or drink.
Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Sometimes, biology, environment and brain development conspire to make life harder for some. They’re not junkies. They’re victims. But with family and community support, they can become survivors and lifelong warriors.