Yvette Marie Stevens, better known as Chaka Khan, canceled the rest of the shows she had scheduled for this year and entered rehab. Her sister, Yvonne Stevens, A.K.A “Taka Boom”, joined her in a rehabilitation program to treat an addiction to prescription drugs. Khan’s rep dropped the news on Sunday, and he added that the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame had been struggling with an addiction to the medicine that caused the death of Prince.

Chaka Khan, aged 63, was devastated by Prince’s death, and it’s possible that she saw herself reflected. According to an inside source, the woman had been using Fentanyl, an opioid pain-killer for a long time before she decided to enter a rehab program. It is not clear who convinced whom, but her sister Taka Boom is also going to rehab voluntarily.

Yvette Marie Stevens, better known as Chaka Khan, canceled the rest of the shows she had scheduled for this year and entered rehab. Photo credit: Metamansion.com
Yvette Marie Stevens, better known as Chaka Khan, canceled the rest of the shows she had scheduled for this year and entered rehab. Photo credit: Metamansion.com

“Chaka Khan has entered an addiction rehabilitation and aftercare program which will cause her to postpone all dates scheduled for the month of July,” her rep said in a statement with E! News. “Chaka has struggled with a dependence on prescription pain medications and has voluntarily entered the program to get healthy and stay that way. As part of the ongoing outpatient treatment the doctors have urged her to resume recording mid-July and all performances beginning August 1st and onward.”

The list of celebrities entering rehabilitation programs is very long

Reading about a celebrity going to rehab is not that weird. Over the years, the public has seen as their idols get addicted to something, the list includes Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Charlie Sheen. The sheer number of famous people falling to drug or alcohol addiction has made people wonder whether the environment that surrounds them is pushing them to this kind of problems. However, according to Drug rehab, most of the guilt falls on the parents that act in a negligent after their children hit stardom. That does not explain the ones that get hooked when they are grown-ups, though.

Dr. Scott A. Teitelbaum, from the University of Florida Health, specializes in addictive behavior. In his career, he has published a lot of papers addressing alcohol, drug and gambling addiction, and what are the factors that put a person in that position. He claims that when a person becomes famous, they are put in a situation that eventually makes them feel they are superior, something very common in addicts. He added that all addicts, regardless their need, are self-centered, narcissistic people who believe rules don’t apply to them. This behavior combines with the resources a famous person can have access to which makes it easier for them to get hooked on something.

Dr. Dale Archer, from the psychiatric services at the Memorial Hospital in Lake Charles, might agree with Dr. Teitelbaum. He carried out a fascinating study in 2005 that proved fame and addiction are not only related, but fame itself can be an addiction. In his experiments, he gave a group of monkeys the option of drinking their favorite juice or looking at pictures of distinguished members of their community, and they chose to look at the pictures.

“When we get an addictive rush, we are getting a dopamine spike. If you talk to anyone who performs at all, they will talk about the ‘high’ of performing. And many people who experience that high report that when they’re not performing, they don’t feel as well. All of which is a good setup for addiction,” Dr. Archer told the press when he presented his paper called the “Duke Study”.

Science might have found not only that famous people are more likely to get addicted to something, but also, that regular citizens might get hooked to fame itself.

Source: E Online