>My life seems so incredibly vanilla compared to some of the stuff I read here. And I think that I'm a fairly colorful character. Am I the minority or are the addicts, depressed and clinically insecure just more vocal?

I don't know, but it seems many "talented" people have "issues". Or haven't you noticed? I consider myeslf fairly normal, except that I've done some pretty unusual things, compared to most here. However, that is probably because of my background.