by Denise Wallace

Created on: July 20, 2009   Last Updated: July 23, 2009

I don't believe, at all, that Michael Jackson lived a life of deceit. I believe that he was doing the best that he could with all that was expected of him. I can't imagine having to perform in front of millions of people especially with the expectations that came along with his name and being depressed at the same time.

His abusive childhood is what I believe spun him into depression. His dad referred to him as big nose, this obviously destroyed his self esteem about his appearance and we know the path that led him down with all of his surgeries. And the beatings that he received made him believe he wasn't good enough. Growing up with this kind of baggage is heavy, painful and destructive.

I also don't believe that he ever sexually abused anyone. When you come from an abusive childhood your emotional age is retarded significantly. This is why he believed he could have sleepovers with children. He wanted to be a child, he wanted the opportunity to live a loving childhood. Watching him when he got on TV to discuss the sex allegations, you couldn't look at him, listen to him and not see the pain.

When I hear everything that had been going on in his life the years before his death I don't understand why someone didn't step in and do something to help him. He was drowning in depression and self medicating with anything he could get his hands on. His family is coming forward now, talking about how much they loved him and on and on, if they loved him so much why didn't someone do something to help him? Why was this poor man left to fend for himself to find any crooked doctor who would give him the drugs he needed to cover all of his pain? He should have been under the care of a therapist, a psychiatrist, a councilor, anyone who would have listened and helped him and some day even recover.

It has also been said that he wouldn't have killed himself because he loved his children; sometimes that doesn't matter. Sometimes the pain is so great that you can't see past it. Yes, he loved his children, that's probably why he lived to 50. But when the pain of depression is so deep and so hopeless, there doesn't seem to be any other way out other than to medicate with whatever you can get your hands on and to hope and pray the pain will go away, whatever that means.

I believe that if someone would have given him some real love, led him in the right direction, taken him to a psychiatrist and stuck by him through it all he would be alive today and he would have lived a happier, more fulfilled life.

Learn more about this author, Denise Wallace.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.