I don’t think Heath Ledger woke up in the morning thinking, “I’m going to kill myself today.”

Heath had stated before that he took an Ambien during the shooting of Batman: The Dark Knight, and that wasn’t enough, so he had to take more.

It’s kind of like what happened with Anna Nicole Smith; when you have an addictive personality, if you’ve been taking Valium, Ambien, Xanax and all these types of drugs, you build up a tolerance. You wake up and think you need to take another pill to go back to sleep, when really you’re still operating in a level of sleep walk. You take that other pill and shut down your body.

If reports are true that Heath was also suffering from pneumonia at that time, then that just added to the danger. This poor young man was exhausted; he’d been traveling all over the world, shooting and promoting movies, and he was physically drained.

Our bodies can only take so much; it needs to rest and heal. If Heath had pneumonia, then his body was just over-exhausted. In that state of sleepwalking he ended up, unfortunately, taking that last pill that just shut his body down.

Early reports of his death painted a picture of there being pills strewn all about. I think we’re quick to paint that picture because there had been reports that Heath was having challenges with his own personal recovery process. There were some reports that he’d gone through some 12-step treatments and was trying to stay sober.

In my opinion, a drug overdose is the only thing that could take the life of such a healthy young man. It’s very unlikely that his death was caused by anything other than addiction, especially with all those pain, anxiety and sleeping pill bottles lying around his room.

If and when we do find out that his death was due to the a drug overdose, I really want to stress that addiction does not make people bad people.

The reason I wasn’t even asked to do a bunch of different shows after his death was precisely because he was so respected in the entertainment industry. You know, if Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan died from addiction, I would have been asked all over the media to comment about it.

Being that it was Heath Ledger, who was not demonstrating addictive behaviors in public, it’s been more of a mourning reaction. People are devastated because it was not expected.

Heath's addiction may have slipped through the cracks because he was what we would call a “functioning addict.” He was just starting to climb the ladder of his success. He was still able to show up at work.

Addictions are like cancer. In stage one, the doctors offer you chemotherapy and surgery to get that tumor out. In stage four of cancer, the doctors say they’re not going to even give you chemo or surgery because there is so much cancer in the body that all they want to do is make you comfortable in your last days.

The disease of addiction is the same thing; it’s a medical condition, whether you’re in stage one or stage four, and they’re all just as fatal. If the tests show Heath’s death was caused by an addiction issue, I believe Heath was in stage one of his addiction.

Anna Nicole Smith, on the other hand, was probably in stage three to four of her addiction and demonstrated a lot of addictive behavior. Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears are in stage three to four of their addiction. They’re still able to show up, but their careers are now suffering.

If you look at video of Heath’s interviews [1] in the past year, you will see a decline in his behavior. There were red flags of addiction – the scratching of the skin, the touching of the face, the awkward body movements. It was like he was trying to crawl out of his own skin. These are the signs that the people that love the person who suffers from an addiction need to watch out for and take action on.

Addictions to prescription meds are very difficult. Ten to 20 per cent of people who need prescription pills are addicts, and the doctors who are taught to prescribe medication for pain don’t always know that right away; they just prescribe as they would normally to the regular 80 to 90 per cent of their practice. All of a sudden the addict tells the doctor they accidentally dropped their pills down the drain and asks for another prescription.

We’re learning new things about addiction every day, and the part that is devastating is that we’re watching our loved ones die.

We’ve all heard the rumors that Michelle Williams and Heath were separated because of his addiction problems. If that is true, prior to breaking off engagements or relationships with people that you love, you could address it with them. If that was the case, I’m sure Michelle did address it with him. I'm sure she did say, “Please, we have a young daughter that needs you to be there as a dad.”

The number one symptom of the disease of addiction is denial, so we realize the addict will say, “No, I don’t need help.” When the addict doesn’t listen when we’re trying to address their addictive behaviors, when they don’t respond to it, there are professionals out there to get them the help that they need. If Heath was in denial, then the people around him had to break down their own walls of denial.

I’m sure some of the people closest to Heath noticed some of the addictive behaviors. His family lost a cherished loved one. His daughter lost a father. The world lost a great entertainer. It’s devastating that someone so talented, handsome and put together on the outside had to lose his life due to addiction.

I heard Amy Winehouse just checked herself into rehab yesterday. She can look at Heath and think, “Wow, I’m worse than he is, and I’m still alive. I better address my issue, because I’m young and talented, and I don’t want to end up dead.”

These are the kinds of awakenings we need to come out of this tragedy.

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Yesterday an incriminating video of Heath Ledger at a "drug party" was released. For more information, click here [2].

If you know someone affected by addiction, please forward this story to them.

For more information on addiction and treatment options, visit Ken Seeley's website at Intervention 911 [3].

If you found this article interesting, you may also want to read Interventionist Ken Seeley: Breaking Down Walls [4].