The Michael Jackson Tragedy- What Happens When You Don’t Deal With Your Past

Young Michael Jackson

By Tara Overzat

Michael Jackson died on my birthday. I received a text message from a friend at 6:09pm. TMZ was reporting the death well before any of the other news outlets.

Everyone was shocked and saddened. I feel like Jackson was robbed of his last shot, his last chance to make things right. He wanted to show the world again who he really was- a person who loved to dance and sing, to entertain.

But it was he himself who took away that last chance. Surrounded by “yes men” Jackson refused to deal with his traumatic childhood and instead sought painkillers, prescription drugs and myriad plastic surgeries. Ultimately, it killed him.

I was told as a child to never talk about anything that happened in my home, much the way Jackson probably was. It wasn’t until the 90′s or so that the singer started to mention beatings at the hand of his father, Joe Jackson, and the robbing of his childhood, being forced to practice and perform with his brothers all day instead of playing outside and enjoying just being a kid.

It appears that Jackson never sought counseling to deal with these justifiable issues.

Everyone has crosses to bear, and while some crosses may seem bigger than others, your cross will always be heavy to you. But by shedding light on your problems, by being honest about the past and not hiding it, your cross can get much lighter.

Michael Jackson made the world a better place. And I wish he had sought counseling so that he would be around to see that. He deserved his one last shot in the spotlight on his “This Is It” tour.

As a result, I am posting again on my other blog, Living With Child Abuse. It is heavier fare, and I will still be doing lighter opinion pieces on shyextrovert. However, with Jackson being yet another casualty of child abuse in the public eye, I think it is important to tell my story, which fortunately has a happy ending. It has taken a lot of hard work and emotional fortitude to keep my dysfunctional past from ruining my current life. But the truth is, with help and an open attitude, people can be healed. (I wrote an article highlighting three very successful people who overcame traumatic childhoods in the article “What Will Happen to the Children” which can be found on shyextrovert and The Atlasphere.) Jackson could have been here with us for decades to come.

Rest in peace, Michael Joseph Jackson. You are safe now.