>>>
let's begin the half hour with more of the untimely death of the singer of
amy winehouse
and the demon she battled.
peter alexander
is in london with more. peter, good morning.
>> reporter:
lester, good morning to you. autopsy results are expected as early as later this afternoon. a formal investigation, an inquest, will also begin this afternoon. just a short time here outside
amy winehouse
's home. we did see for the first time from her parents, they came, mitch, her mother, and mom janice, visiting this location as well as all the fans that have come here over the last
48 hours
. her dad said he was both devastated and speechless by his daughter's loss. now as you come back out live, you can see that massive memorial that has grown here over the last
48 hours
. fans of
amy winehouse
leaving behind flowers, cards, candles, as well as
alcoholic drinks
and cigarettes being left here. winehouse had a very public well documented battle with drugs and alcohol. the question this morning is could anything have been done to save her? stumbling, incoherent, and disoriented.
amy winehouse
was clearly in no shape to perform in serbia in june, her tour canceled. a month later at age 27 she was dead.
>>
i think a lot of people knew she was headed down this path.
>> reporter:
it was her
2006
grammy-winning "back to black" album that made her a global sensation.
>>
ai think a lot of the pain and trouble in her life came right out as she sang.
>> reporter:
as her celebrity soared her life began to unravel. the young singer acknowledged addiction struggles with song "rehab" here in her u.s. tv debut on "the
late show with david letterman
."
>>
amy
tried just about everything. there was crack, there was cocaine, there was pot.
>> reporter:
before long her personal missteps overshadowed her music.
>>
she was in and out of rehab. ever since the "back to black" album.
>> reporter:
there were run-ins with the law, public fights, emergency hospital trips. even a video that appear to show her
smoking crack
cocaine.
>>
she was addicted to so many substances.
>> reporter:
winehouse also battled
eating disorders
and often looked gaunt and pale.
>>
amy
's family tried numerous times to get her help. it never stuck.
>> reporter:
in
2009
her mother janice even spoke about fearing for her daughter's health.
>>
the need to rescue her is like enormous. i just want her to be okay. and i would do whatever it took.
>> reporter:
the downward spiral continued.
>>
many people are asking if
amy winehouse
could have been saved. i believe, yes, she could have had the circumstances been different.
>> reporter:
she now join what's many in the
music world
call the
27 club
, along with fellow musicians,
jimi hendrix
,
janice joplin
,
jim morrison
, and
curt cobain
, all of whom died at just 27 years old.
>>
such a sad and familiar story. it will make her a legend of sorts but she could have been a much better legend. it's just a tragedy.
>> reporter:
also today we're learn that
amy winehouse
's
record label
,
island records
, insisted she have weekly doctor visits. the last doctor visit was here at her home at
8:00 p.m
., the night before she died.
>>
peter alexander
in london for us. thanks. we're joined by addiction expert and pat o'brien,
tv personality
and recovering addict. good morning to both of you. kristina, you had your own battles are alcohol and
drug addiction
. watching this story, all weekend long as i talk to people about
amy winehouse
, nobody was shocked. they were sad but everyone kind of shook their head as if they expected this to come. is there anything such as a lost cause when it komcomes to addiction and recovery?
>>
no n. my opinion, absolutely not. that's why i've dedicated my life to helping families. i was as hopeless as they come. 18 years ago i was homeless in the
streets of san francisco
eating in dumpsters and here i sit with you today.
>>
you failed in recovery, didn't you?
>>
i don't believe there's failure in recovery. i also think it's so important to say right here right now that treatment also works. treatment is effective. treatment gets a bad rap in the media and i want to be very clear that when you use treatment for what it's used for, which is detoxification and stabilization, treatment is successful.
>>
there's treatment and there's what happens afterwards?
>>
we lose good people is the re-entry into their lives and folding back into a media mix or a pr firm, although they're good at selling image, they are not good at teaching individuals how to live sober. nortd to live sober behave to align ourselves with like-minded individuals that share the same thoughts and feelings and struggles.
>>
you deal primarily with people whose names we will never know. let's turn to pat o'brien. pat, you know what's like to live in a public way. and to almost be a
punch line
at times. how does that affect what is already acknowledged a difficult strug until.
>>
lester, good morning. yeah, you've got to ignore the
punch lines
. i'm going to plagiarize russell who talked about
amy
, i hope that this allows people to look at alcoholism differently. it's a disease. you know, when i was in detroit, i almost died. coming up on 100,000 days, and you know, 1,000 days, i was almost dead. very
smart people
would say to me, pat, just stop drinking. you can't stop. it's a disease. our brains are wired a little differently. you know, if someone has cancer, i battled that, too, you can't say to them, well, stop having cancer. but with cancer there is a solution. there are solutions that you can do. there is no cure for alcoholism.
>>
pat, how many times have you blown it, have you fallen off the wagon and have you ever reached the point where you're like, i just can't do this?
>>
i relapsed three times. public relapses. i did stupid things and blackouts when i did them but i'm over that now. you can't get sober until you want to get sober and you have to have a structure and people around you that want you to get sober. there's no pill. there's no cure. and there's two things. there's alcohol and there's ism. you can stop drinking but then you have to take care of all the other thinks that go along with it. it's a lot of work but can be done. we talk about
amy winehouse
but 100,000 people died last year from alcohol-related diseases. get to the other story later and somebody who killed a family of four driving drunk. so it's not just celebrities. there are a lot of people out there suffering.
>>
christina, could
amy winehouse
, in your opinion, have been saves?
>>
i think -- i think there's hope for every addict and alcoholic that's suffering. it's really about after care and supportive, you know, support. after somebody leaves treatment. you know, i don't know
amy winehouse
and i don't know her story but i know addiction better than i know anything else. when there's appropriate structure around somebody, yes. we recover and we tlif and we go on.
>>
your family at one point rejected you, said we love you but we can't be you anymore. how important is the family dynamic in getting people help?
>>
it's imperative. addiction doesn't just happen to individuals but to
family systems
. and when my family let me go and, yes, i merely died, but then letting me go i came to terms with my own disease. and i certainly -- i want to -- we have to remember that today, you know, a family woke up without their beloved child.
>>
sure.
>>
and it's so tragic. and in this is what happens to addiction. left untreated, people die.
>>
this is a good discussion. i'm glad we had it. thanks so much for being here. pat, as always, nice to have you here as well.
