196. For all of you saying you know he was doing other drugs like coke and heroin, blah, blah, blah, because of how fidgety he was in interviews and on the red carpet. Did anyone ever think that he actually had an anxiety problem and not a drug problem. He was taking anxiety drugs, so it would make sense. Not all people in Hollywood are slime or doing drugs and living their lives recklessly, get a clue people.

And I wouldn't wish insomnia on anyone, it's horrible. Get two hours of sleep for a couple weeks and see how you feel. It starts making you crazy, you would do anything for some sleep.

Keep judging a-holes. You will get yours eventually. Leave the poor man alone and let him RIP.

Posted at 2:20PM on Jan 24th 2008 by blah, blah, blah

197. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE VIDEO WHERE THE REPORTER SAID HE HUNG HIMSELF?! why did tmz take this down???!?!?! I thiunk the medi is screwing with us over his death. Why did the cops bring ina ladder?!?!!

Posted at 2:36PM on Jan 24th 2008 by shannon

198. blah blah blah #199..you are EXACTLY right.

My husband has anxiety, and he fidgets all the time. He can't keep his legs still, he's always fidgeting and he's definately not on drugs. I see it on a daily basis, my husband has anxiety so badly it even causes heart palpitations. He has tried all of this medication, and none of it has helped.

He told me last night that he felt sorry for this guy if he indeed DID have anxiety AND was a star, that is not a very good combination at all. He also told me it sounded bad of him to say, but he could relate to Heath Ledger's comments on how he felt good about dying because he had Matilda to pass along in life. My husband said he has thought about the same thing many times, because anxiety and heart palpitations can make him feel sometimes like he might die and it's something that he thinks about often. He told me he had never told me before, but he worries about dying because of his heart palpitations caused by anxiety and that he would at least die knowing that he brought 3 children into the world, which made him feel like if he died tomorrow...he at least accomplished something.

People with anxiety do fidget, can't sleep, are anxious and think about dying because a panic or anxiety attack can literally make you FEEL like you ARE going to die.

Give the guy a break, we probably have 30 medication bottles in our house that have been prescribed over the last few years for incomnia and anxiety.......my husband doesn't use any of them, but he has them all here if he needed them.

Posted at 3:24PM on Jan 24th 2008 by Reality Check

199. I think his doc is in big trouble (assuming all the meds came from the same doc) ! Ttoo many sedatives on board at once - likely depressed his respirations enough that he just stopped breathing.....

Posted at 3:54PM on Jan 24th 2008 by lisa

200. A PHYSICIAN IS ALWAYS VERY CAREFUIL ABOUT THE DOSAGEN OF THEIR PRESCRIPTIONS, IF THE PACIENT FOLLOW IT THERE WILL BE NO AZZARDS----PHYSICIANS CAN LOOSE THEY LICENCE IF THEIR ARE WRONG.

IF PEOPLE PLACE TEIR "GOALS IN LIFE" TO HIGH TO BE ACCOMPLISHED CERTAINLY THE PERSON WILL BE SUFFERING FROM ANXIETY BECAUSE THE INABILITY TO REACH SUCH GOALS. WE ASRE NOT HERE TO BE STARS, OR OTHER GREAT TITTLE--THE MEANING OF LIFE IN THIS MATERIAL WORLD IS TO "EVOLVE THE HUMAN EGO" AND THE ONLY WAY TO ACOMPLISH IT IS HAVING CULTURE AND KNOWLEDGE ABOUT "THE VERY NATURE OF THE SUPREME BEING AND OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS MAJESTIC POWER.

YOUNGER PEOPLE DEBILITATE THEIR OWN BODY WITH BAD HABITS___GOING TO BED IN THE EARLIER HOURS OF THE MORNING AFTER CONSUMING GREAT AMOUNT OF ALCHOOL, EATING POOLY AND EXECIVE SEXUAL DOINGS--ALL THAT CONTRIBUTE TO DESORGANIZE THE MENTAL BALANCE OF AN INDIVIDUO.

Posted at 4:51PM on Jan 24th 2008 by Italo Babini

201. i dunno about others but at our pharmacy the computer tells us if the patients had a prescription filled somewhere else and if a drug will interact with something else theyve gotten here it tells us that, too...just sayin

Posted at 5:10PM on Jan 24th 2008 by chinye

202. AS MENTIONED THERE WERE LEGAL DRUGS AND THEY WERE ************ F U L L ******************* SO THEREFORE IT WAS NOT AN OVERDOSE THAT KILLED HIM... WHAT WAS HURTING HI THE MOST WAS THE SEPERATION OF HIS WIFE MICHELLE WHICH HE ADORED AND HIS LITTLE GIRL....

MY SYMPATHY GOES TO ALL HIS FAMILY AND MICHELLE AND HER LITTLE GIRL AND HER FAMILY AS WELL...

MAY HE REST IN PEACE.....

Posted at 5:41PM on Jan 24th 2008 by shirlina

203. I challenge each and every one of the people reading this story to go into their home tonight and pull out every prescription bottle leftover around their home from long gone illnesses. Then come here tomorrow and post what you found. See what conclusions people draw. If you're willing to listen to this crap and feel it's fair and justified then you have no problem posting what you have in yours....(including your Valtrex). Live with the same scrutiny that this man WHO CAN'T DEFEND HIMSELF is living with. Just because there are 5 medications in his apartment does not mean he was taking all 5 drugs at the same time. It's also important to note that police claim that those 5 bottles were nearly full. I have a full bottle of hydrocodone and oxycoton in my medicine cabinet. I take one each month on the day of my period and I am in heaven. One is even in my sister's name because she didn't use them and I knew I would for my monthly cramps. I was also prescribed xanax by one of my doctor's about 4 years ago because he "suspected" I might be depressed when I was exhausted all the time. I refused to take them. But I still have them. So, now we're down to two addictive pain killers and one anti-depressant. And I'm not in the least describable as a drug user. You people are fishing for scandal at the expense of a GOOD successful, hardworking, FATHER and MAN. It's disgusting!

Posted at 7:35PM on Jan 24th 2008 by Kelly

204. I have been prescribed all of these medications, and most are still in my cabinet, unused when they stopped being effective. I have fibromyalgia, and I am also prescribed a narcotic and a muscle relaxer.

You cannot take one type of sleeping medication for a prolonged period of time or it becomes ineffective. If he really had pneumonia and the medications depressed his breathing even further, it explains things. Not that he took too many, but that the side effects of the medication in combination with the pneumonia can possibly cause respiratory failure.

It could happen to anyone, it isn't negligence but a true and terrible possible side effect. He didn't have a drug problem. He had anxiety and insomnia. Millions of Americans suffer from the same thing.

Posted at 7:58PM on Jan 24th 2008 by Concerned Mother

205. Why is the contents of Heath Ledger's medicine cabinet of such public interest? Big deal, so he took several anti-anxiety drugs. So do tens of millions of other people. They are life-savers in that they allow so many patients to function and lead fairly normal lives.

Even in death there should be a measure of privacy surrounding such personal matters as medication, how many pairs of socks and underwear are in one's drawers and what brand of peanut butter is in the refrigerator.

By the way, I take several benzodiazepines, so big deal!

Posted at 9:22PM on Jan 24th 2008 by MrEd

206. It seems as if everyone is missing the whole point here. Ok Heath had medications that were prescribed to him in his house. Big deal. Many people have those same drugs in their homes. The point is what was going on in his soul that caused him to need these medications. He said in another interview that he was stressed -his mind racing, not being able to sleep. I think he probably just wanted to rest and took more than his body could handle. I have been there. The news and the gossip columns and a great deal of the public are just dragging this poor man through the mud. There use to be ethics in reporting but not anymore and it makes me sick. The police leak information, the paramedics leak information it has to be against departmental policies to do this and I hope Heaths family sues the hell out of everyone that came into contact with him the minute he was found. The only ones so far that are showing any kind of ethics is the funeral home.

As for this "overdose," it seems that everyone hearing that word automatically lables a person a junkie, a drug addict or any other slanderous term they can find. Hospitals use that term loosely. A few years ago, I had a severe toothache during a holiday weekend. I finally got to a dentist and they only did a small procedure to "get me out of pain" until I could get to a specialist the next day. Needless to say now i was in severe pain for days and the dentist prescribed tylenol with codine. It said to take one on the label but i decided to take two because I couldn't stand it anymore. Anyway since i didn't eat the whole time the medication gave me severe stomach cramps and an ambulance had to be called. I gave them the pill bottle with two pills missing and they asked me why i took more then prescribed..because i was in pain!! Then they told me they had to say it was an overdose. So I od'd on two tylenol with codines. But if i was a famous person that story would have been changed to make it look horrible. Media manipulates the public in any way it wants and most of the public believe it. WAKE UP!! The body wasn't even cold before there were minute by minute updates. Let Heath rest in peace.

Heath, your troubles are gone. Sleep well.

Margaux

Posted at 8:55AM on Jan 25th 2008 by margo

207. It seems as if everyone is missing the whole point here. Ok Heath had medications that were prescribed to him in his house. Big deal. Many people have those same drugs in their homes. The point is what was going on in his soul that caused him to need these medications. He said in another interview that he was stressed -his mind racing, not being able to sleep. I think he probably just wanted to rest and took more than his body could handle. I have been there. The news and the gossip columns and a great deal of the public are just dragging this poor man through the mud. There use to be ethics in reporting but not anymore and it makes me sick. The police leak information, the paramedics leak information it has to be against departmental policies to do this and I hope Heaths family sues the hell out of everyone that came into contact with him the minute he was found. The only ones so far that are showing any kind of ethics is the funeral home.

As for this "overdose," it seems that everyone hearing that word automatically lables a person a junkie, a drug addict or any other slanderous term they can find. Hospitals use that term loosely. A few years ago, I had a severe toothache during a holiday weekend. I finally got to a dentist and they only did a small procedure to "get me out of pain" until I could get to a specialist the next day. Needless to say now i was in severe pain for days and the dentist prescribed tylenol with codine. It said to take one on the label but i decided to take two because I couldn't stand it anymore. Anyway since i didn't eat the whole time the medication gave me severe stomach cramps and an ambulance had to be called. I gave them the pill bottle with two pills missing and they asked me why i took more then prescribed..because i was in pain!! Then they told me they had to say it was an overdose. So I od'd on two tylenol with codines. But if i was a famous person that story would have been changed to make it look horrible. Media manipulates the public in any way it wants and most of the public believe it. WAKE UP!! The body wasn't even cold before there were minute by minute updates. Let Heath rest in peace.

Heath, your troubles are gone. Sleep well.

Margaux

Posted at 9:03AM on Jan 25th 2008 by margo

208. I can't believe so many glib comments on here. It's a human life, people...not a punch line.

Posted at 10:18AM on Jan 25th 2008 by jeff

209. While I think there is no doubt that Anna Nicole Smith was a prescription drug abuser, I do not think Heath was. However, I do find it odd that both Anna Nicole and Heath exhibited fever or pneumonia in the days before they died. Both were on prescription meds PRIOR to their illness (in Heath's case, I think he was probably first prescribed anti-anxieties to counter depression he was feeling over the breakup of his relationship. The anti-anxieties cause him to have insomnia as a side effect so he took Ambien. The Ambien, or combination of Ambien and anti-anxiety, created his pneumatic symptoms because the body was trying to fight whatever adverse condition was caused by the combination of the two. ) In a nutshell, these drugs caused Heath's death...

What it all boils down to is that both of these stars misread the side effects of these drugs (flu symptoms) to mean they had a bug, cold or flu.

Unfortunately, as long as pharmecutical and insurance companies are in the pockets of our government officials and have active lobbyists, this will never be regulated or addressed adequately.

Posted at 11:21AM on Jan 25th 2008 by Kelly

210. ITS SUCH SHAME THAT A JUNG HANDSOME ACTOR IS NOW DEAD HE HAD A LIFE AHEAD OF HIM

Posted at 7:41PM on Jan 25th 2008 by naomi