Oliver Sykes of Bring Me The Horizon needs to make up his damn mind.
A few weeks back, he talked about how people should do drugs at least once in their life for the experience but ultimately should get off them eventually. It's something a lot of people didn't agree with or at least had some differing opinions on, which is understandable considering a dude who's in a band that plays for a younger crowd is saying "everyone should experience acid once."
Now according to an interview Sykes did with The Pulse Of Radio, he's saying that people on drugs need help.
"For me, it had to get to its absolute worst for me to make a change. Hopefully for others, they won't have to. This may sound like the lamest advice in the world, but talk to someone, figure out why you're addicted. I don't believe that people are born or destined to be addicts."
"There's always an underlying problem, whether it be self-medicating, using it as a coping mechanism, or using it to not feel all together. First figure out what that is, then work out a healthy way to combat the problem … I didn't think it would help. But even if there's no answer to your troubles, they will seem so much smaller once they leave your head."
Here's everything that's wrong with this-
- Talking to someone about your addiction isn't "the lamest advice in the world." It's obvious advice, but it isn't lame. Addiction is a mental illness that when someone is ready to talk to someone else about it, should absolutely be addressed.
- Again, mental illness. Not every addict is just choosing to do drugs. I've seen it firsthand with people close to me- they got the mental health help they needed and they've been clean for a long time now.
- Why tell people to do drugs at least once and then turn around and say it's just a bad way to self-medicate? Why encourage behavior you also condemn?
In short, I think Sykes just needs to shut up about drugs. Dude encourages drug use, which is shitty advice to begin with, and then turns around and says not to. Maybe he's saying to do drugs a little and then stop? Which is also incredibly stupid advice.
I'm not sure what we're supposed to take away from these two statements aside from "Sykes says things off the cuff and then immediately forgets, apparently." Goddammit Sykes.
