Wishful Drinking : Carrie Fisher
Wishful Drinking is the autobiography just released by Carrie Fisher. She is the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher and many remember her as Princess Lela in Star Wars. There was even a Friend’s episode about Ross having a crush on Princess Lela. She has had periods of recovery but also relapses over the years for addiction.
Carrie Fisher goes into a lot of detail about her family background, her parents split and has both great insights and humor. She makes parallels between Paul Simon, her former husband, and her dad. USA Today has an excerpt from her book and here is a small section where she recounts a call from her mother:
“Oh yes — now, dear, I need you and Pinky (my mother’s hairdresser’s name was — naturally — Pinky) — I need you to get to the house before the police to let them in, but also I need you to go through the house and hide all the guns and bullets and — what else…Oh yes! I need you to flush your brother’s marijuana down the toilet. So you think you can do this, dear? Let me talk to Pinky.”
Well, this part was kind of thrilling, I have to say. Who knew we had bullets and guns in the house? Granted, they were my stepfather’s show guns that he wore ridiculously in some Christmas parade some years back, but it turned out it was considered a firearm! We were suddenly more like a mafia family than a show business one!”
Obviously, most people don’t have a family background at all similar, but despite this, there are some realizations that will hit anyone who has a drinking addiction or substance abuse problem.
She talks about her electroconvulsive therapy and so many personal areas with such a sharp wit and can cut through fake appearances very well. It is hard to always find “her” because there is a distant quality at times. Carrie Fisher does describe herself as newly made bystander which I found interesting. It’s helpful when you read autobiographies or hear about celebrity’s trials with drugs and alcohol to see some common factors to your own life- look at family history, think about difficulties with friends or marriages, what are the messages you received from your parents? How did you deal with stress as a teen?