Anne Heche burned in wreck

What if she was having pyschosis AND was drunk?  

And because I feel like it needs to be made clear, while psychosis = mental illness, mental illness =/= psychosis.

I share those concerns.
In this particular instance it (so far) seems to be an isolated incidence. Some celebs have a long history of substance abuse and going in & out of rehab...but she isn't one of those.
She's had 2 public incidents - 20 years apart and the first time no-one was in any danger. That suggests to me that whatever official diagnosis she has, she actually manages her condition well for long periods of time....and that isn't someone who "needs to be in a controlled environment" She's not Britney Spears who was cycling out of control with seemingly no insight for several years.

Yes some people do require long term care for the safety of others, but a person who's had one episode like this in 53years doesn't fit into that category.
Will Smith acted out in violence and hurt someone else, are we locking him away in a safe environment? Tiger Woods took drugs and smashed himself up is his car too - is he in jail?

With what’s been reported, I’m leaning more toward this. Just as some are speculating this may have been due to some sort of psychotic break, I suspect this was simply drunk driving. And unless I’m misremembering, the spaceship incident in Fresno in 2000 was because she was high on ecstasy. She previously said she had sobered up, but just last year she’d been videoed leaving Craig’s in W Hollywood seemingly drunk, incoherent and slurring her speech, apart from the recent drunken podcast.

I wouldn’t wish the horrible injuries Heche is suffering on my worst enemy and hope she gets the help she seems to sorely need, but I feel terribly sorry for the tenant who lost everything and the landlady whose house has been condemned.

In any event, the LAPD have obtained a warrant to test her blood sample.

I’m just sorry for everyone involved. I am also of the mindset of “we don’t know, until we know”. It’s all pure speculation at this point.

Case in point - just the other day, my DH was driving back to work from a city about an hour and a half north of us. I got a call from him, asking me to jump on the Internet and turn on the TV to find out what was going on because he had just come upon a terrible accident. People were jumping out of their cars and running over to the two automobiles involved. One bystander threw her hands up to her face and backed away from one of the wrecked cars that she had run up to. People were initially trying to get to the occupants of the other car and they all backed off. My DH feared that everyone was dead. It didn’t take long before the accident made the news. A local congresswoman and 2 others were in a vehicle that was struck head-on by another car. The local police were quick to report that the car with the single occupant had crossed the centerline and hit the congresswoman‘s car head on.

However, the police jumped to the conclusion that it was the other woman’s fault. Once they finally did their due diligence, it was reported that the congresswoman was the occupant of a car that crossed the centerline and hit and killed the other woman. People were so quick to judge the woman who was killed as being the driver at fault. Eye witnesses and camera footage proved that that was false. If I was the family of the deceased solo driver I would be furious that her name was besmirched in such a way since it made the national news. All of the sympathy went to the congresswoman and the other two in her car. Where is the sympathy for the woman they killed?

I caution anyone to know all of the facts and make sure the facts are just that - the true facts before making any judgment.

If indeed she was drunk or high, then I agree with you (though I’d like to see our justice system focus as much on rehabilitation as punishment in those cases).

I just want to clarify that I don’t follow celebrity drama and have no opinion as to whether she was under the influence or experiencing a mental health crisis. I just wanted to respond to the opinions that seemed to lump the actions of a person experiencing a psychotic episode in with those who made a choice to drink or use drugs and then drive.

Yes, psychosis is real, and no, someone experiencing it is not capable of making appropriate choices. These people often end up in prison even for minor offenses because our system doesn’t have another path for them. In my opinion, part of the reason we don’t have another path is because too many people (and legislators) still believe that mental illness is a character flaw and a choice. My only purpose here is to combat that line of thinking. I really don’t give a damn whether this particular person was drinking or psychotic or what, and I have no interest in “justifying” what she did.

No, just tagging on and clarifying earlier position. Sorry if it seemed directed at you.

I'm with you, Merge. I really don't know anything about Ann Heche, other than someone mentioned she had a previous mental health crisis. I do not really have an opinion on her specific case, not to mention we have no ideas of the details other than what TMZ published.

I'm just sad and angry that mental illness is treated so criminally in our society. Most mentally ill people are not violent, not any more so than non-mentally ill people. I've had a family member that had a psychotic break a few years ago, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It was horrible and traumatic for them. It was truly awful and difficult to get the treatment they needed, and there was almost no chance of getting them committed to a hospital without their consent. Thankfully they agreed to treatment. Their brain chemistry got out of whack after decades of their meds keeping it in balance. They're doing well now, thankfully. If you met them when their medications work, you would never in a million years believe what they had gone through.

I just think it's interesting.  If you think Heche was incapable of rational thought and therefore not responsible for driving erratically, where does the line get drawn?  When people die?  If Heche was incapable, was the woman who killed six capable?  Or are we only giving our sympathy/empathy  for white celebrities drive recklessly?  What about other drunk drivers?  Couldn't it be argued they are self-soothing and drinking drunk may have been caused by their mental illness?

Most people who are mentally ill are not having a psychotic break from reality. I would hope that a mentally ill person who commits a crime could get treatment, but that doesn't preclude them from facing their crime. Unless they have no idea they committed a crime because they were under psychosis and incapable of rational thought, and then treatment for the psychosis is appropriate.

Most drunk drivers are perfectly capable of knowing that it is illegal and they shouldn't be doing it. They should serve time for their crimes, even if they have a mental illness. In a perfect world, they'd also get treatment at the same time.

I can have empathy for a great variety of people. I don't really know anything about Ann Heche, so I'll reserve judgement until more valid information comes out.

I doubt the average person would be able to tell the difference between someone drunk and someone psychotic. As a nurse I have seen numerous times people with various illnesses being put down to substance abuse, when it was in fact a legitimate medical condition instead.

it's not a vacation, no-one is "on a psychotic break" - people experience or have psychotic breaks.


A bottle with a red lid and someone claiming she seemed out of it is suddenly "evidence"?
A friend of mine was having a party one Saturday, she went and picked up supplies late Friday evening including alcohol. It was raining really heavily and she doesn't remember exactly what happened but she skidded, hit a barrier and rolled her car. Witnesses called the police and the ambulance. She was lucky and only had minor injuries, also lucky she didn't it anyone else. She'd bought alcohol for the party, it all smashed in the car - both her and the car stank of alcohol and she was a bit out of it and didn't understand what had happened at first & she said the police and ambulance officers treated her quite badly - until they breathalyzed her at the scene...and got a zero reading, then suddenly they treated her with a little more compassion. She went to hospital and also had a formal police blood alcohol level take, that also came back as zero.
Things aren't always as obvious as they may seem at first.

Also no-one has claimed she shouldn't be held accountable, or that she shouldn't face criminal charges. However knowing that she's has a past history of abuse and mental illness, some of just aren't jumping on the "she's drunk - throw the book at her!" bandwagon without some actual facts.

Didn't you once claim you'd stopped being a dick and had learned not to judge others too harshly or quickly? How's that working out for you?

First of all, we don't know that she had a psychotic episode at all.  That's pure speculation here.  There's as much if not more credence to the speculation that she was driving drunk.  Does that change anything for you?

Second of all, accountability to me = keeping her safe and others safe.  I never ever said prison sentence.  I do think they need a long-term treatment program if they are fleeing the scene of accident #1, nearly killing a pedestrian, and then driving into a house.  You don't?  What's your solution to this?  Let's say she wasn't driving drunk and it was psychosis and she pulls through.Do you think she should be allowed to operate a motor vehicle?  She's clearly a danger to herself and others in that state.  At what point does her driving rights trump the safety of others?  

On your health analogy, if a person with a heart condition kills someone, I certainly hope there would be restrictions on driving until their heart condition is treated. My daughter is epileptic.  When she was diagnosed after her first seizure (non driving), she had to be seizure free before getting behind the wheel for three months.  Guess who drove her to work?  Me.  We're in a non-reporting state so she could've gotten into her car and drove, but she did the right thing.  In fact, we even added to the 3 month seizure free guideline and she didn't drive for six months.  She knows what the seizure triggers is and when she feels the slightest bit off, she will not drive.  

Edit:  Also, thank you for your viewpoints.  I know you have been through so much and I admire your strength and compassion.

Valid point. I was thinking the same thing about the young men who have killed multiple children in school shootings more recently. It's a valid question to ask. Are we more likely to have sympathy for wealthy, famous white women? Are we more likely to have sympathy when the crime does not involve children?  There definitely is bias, whether we want to admit it or not. 

I think peas are showing sympathy because this hits too close to home. They or someone they love suffers from mental health problems, so they have compassion for her struggles. When it's something that directly impacts you, it's real hard not to be biased. 

Page Six is reporting Anne had concaine + possibly fentanyl in her system at time of wreck.



Anne Heche was allegedly under the influence of cocaine and possibly fentanyl at the time of her horrific car crash last Friday.

Los Angeles Police Department sources told TMZ Thursday that the actress’ blood test results came up positive for both substances.

However, the law enforcement insiders cautioned that fentanyl may have been administered to Heche at the hospital to help manage her pain after the accident, so they will do more testing to determine whether the fentanyl was in her system when she crashed.

The actress, 53, was not under the influence of alcohol, reports TMZ, despite a photo taken shortly before the accident that showed a red-capped bottle in her car’s cupholder.


pagesix.com/2022/08/11/anne-heche-under-influence-of-cocaine-at-time-of-crash-report/