sortofhomecomin

"Drinking for England", a nineties docu from the UK. May trigger as some of them are what one might call 'unapologetic alcoholics', freely admit having no intention of stopping in spite of adverse health consequences and only one has acknowledged she needs help and is going for treatment.

"Saving Ed Mitchell" about a former UK newscaster. From about two decades ago. He did get sober after the docu and is still alive and well and as far as I know, sober.

babycat

Finally watched "Rain in my Heart" this evening.
Oof, not an easy watch but I of course did not expect it to be, hence my waiting years to watch it. Pretty much exactly what I expected. Absolutely heartbreaking.

sortofhomecomin

"Rain in my Heart" seems to have hit a chord with a lot of folk. I first saw it when it was new in 2006 and I must admit at the time most of me thought "wow, I'm glad I'm not like those folk."

By the end of my drinking, though very lucky not to have liver disease or any serious physical illness, during one of my slips, I was drinking wine at almost a fast a rate as the younger man in it. I wasn't literally drinking it from a pint glass, like he was, but I went through two bottles in about two hours, maybe even less. So it brings home to me that this illness is progressive in nature. And even now, typing this, I just realised that me writing "I wasn't literally drinking it from a pint glass" is partially the addictive part of my brain trying to tell me "hey, your drinking wasn't really that bad. See, there's a line you never crossed!" Today and just for today I am glad to be sober.

RyanCulberson

Steve-O’s (Jackass) documentary on Youtube is amazing. He was addicted to ALL the drugs and booze for a long time. He’s been clean for over 12 years now. Definitely an inspiration!

I don’t have enough posts to include the link but it’s an easy find.

sortofhomecomin

Yes I haven't see the docu but I knew he was in recovery. I suspect most of the Jackass team must have been on substances to do those things.

DriGuy

I never heard of it until you posted this days ago, but that was enough of a recommendation for me, and the day I heard about it, I found it on eBay and bought it. I've had it in my possession for a few days already, but I also signed up for two streaming services and I've bought a ton of dvds, usually certain TV series that I want in my collection to finish out the rest of my pandemic isolation. I will watch Smashed when I clear a bit more off my plate.

How could anyone buy a dvd on a single recommendation from one stranger? There are several reasons. 1. I like Arron Paul from Breaking Bad. I'm not sure why exactly, maybe it was just the show. 2. I have a large collection of dvds and I keep them on a bank of hard drives strung together with a spider web of power cords and USB cords. I can sit at my computer and call up a menu of hundreds of movies and TV series, organized by genre. One genre is "Alcoholism," which is not the most popular Hollywood topic, but when I spot a film about alcoholism, I just buy it for my collection. 3. OK, I'm a geek. I do like movies. And I love digital technology.

Hollywood, as with most of the genres has a format for alcoholism, and they touch on certain well known cliche's like the smoke filled rooms of AA, how getting sober tests marriages, relapse, etc., but every once in awhile, they add something that happens to strike a chord without being a cliche, and I like that because it helps people understand the complexity of alcoholism. How differently each of us experiences it.

Way back when (like way back) I went to the movie theater with a friend. Back then there were no critical reviews. We just went to the theater to watch whatever was showing. I'm not sure I even knew the title of the movie before I got there, but it was Days of Wine and Roses. I thought it was going to be a love story, but it was my first introduction to the very darkest side of alcoholism. I was still in my teens, and I had not yet had a drink. I was terribly shaken by the film.

But when I turned 21, I started drinking freely never expecting that the sort of addiction in that movie could ever be me. I asked my friend on the way home, "Do you really think alcohol could do that to you?" He assured me that he had alcoholics in his family, and that it definitely does get that bad. I took him at his word, because what did I know? I thought maybe he was right, but maybe he was wrong. He turned out to be right.

DriGuy

Smashed: Into the first 20 minutes. I can't say this isn't painful to watch, but it will hold your attention.

DriGuy

Good film. Well worth watching. It does a good job at capturing some of the problems we have to square off with in recovery, like they actually used recovering alcoholics as consultants for the script. It's a bitter/sweet portrayal of success.

RyanCulberson

Yeah, I think they were all pretty wasted in those days. Knoxville and other members of the Jackass crew actually physically intervened and forced Steve-O into a psychiatric ward. He was there for two weeks before entering rehab. Bam is the only one left (that I know of) who is still struggling. He posted a drunken rant the other day that was really sad to watch. Hope he can get some help. Ryan Dunn's death messed him up big time.

sortofhomecomin

A new one has come up on Youtube, "A Royal Hangover", I will watch it.

RecklessDrunk

Final 24. Many of the episodes.

They are, at least they were free on you tube. Chris Farley was in the program but many others were not. So I guess Chris self identified as alcoholic but many others did not that I can think of. So we can't diagnose all of them as alcoholic. I watch and can only make my own theories and see much of the similarities with myself. Especially Chris Farley and Janis Joplin. I am in about as different of a type of work then you can get from an actor, comedian, or blues singer. I would look at Chris and Janis and think I like to party too but that could never happen to me. How can you od when you're that rich? I didn't have nearly as much money but I had that style of drinking turning to druggin and I could identify with some of their pain and insecurities. A needle was a yet, and it did finally happen but only a couple times and not until near the end of my using. So I was wrong, I could have ended up like them. Even without much money.

I wasn't born until 3 years after Morrison died but huge fan of his going back to high school. I first recognized People are strange from the lost boys movie when I was like 12 but didn't really know their work. By high school I was fascinated by Jim Morrison and his music and poetry. Maybe acid and mushrooms helped that along but his singing and poetry was remarkable. Not the biggest music historian but I do have high functioning Autism so I can pretty much name each regular Doors album year and the tracks on each one from 1967 to 1971, though I wasn't born until 74. I think if Morrison found his way to a meeting. Although we are very different. Led very different lives, but like most people in the rooms, we would have had a lot in common.

BigShoe

sound of metal is a new movie that deals with Addiction and recovery and is really well done. plus it has the benefit of not really triggering any use