Customer Reviews

Addiction

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Fantastic. I have been sober for 7 years. As an alcoholic in recovery I have read and studied an awful lot about this topic. Unlike any single item I've read, listened to, or watched this documentary covers this disease from every angle. When clean and sober we addicts don't ask for sympathy just understanding. This documentary shows how those we affected need the same. If you are having a problem or are a family member; please get this and watch it. If you are in the health field or a friend of someone in trouble; please get this and watch it. I you feel like alcoholics should just have a couple and stop; please get this and watch it. What a great job they did educating us all on this disease. Thank you guys for such a great job!

This is a long overdue documentary. It's phenomenal in that it covers almost every aspect of addiction there is including the ER perspective and the challenges with health insurance.

As a healthcare professional, I am frequently astounded by the response I receive when I ask patients what they have lost as a result of their addiction. While the responses range from jobs to cars and money, the room often becomes a lot quieter when the responses include children, families and identity. - This documentary hits on those difficult issues and several others which are present today and continue to present challenges for patients, families and healthcare providers. There is a long way to go - this documentary is a nice step forward.

this is an incredibly powerful documentary that looks at addiction from many different angles. it's about time light has been shed on the subject- light that can burn anyone and then fade out before you know it.
millions of americans struggle with addiction and most of them can't get help. chances are, you're affected by addiction in one way or another (yourself, a friend, a family member..) and this documentary does a fantastic job at helping to remove the stigmas from the disease and show the struggles on the way down as well as up. i think america as a whole should be forced to watch this film- it's unparralled.

Strengths:
* - This video does a terrific explaining addiction as a brain disease, the best I've ever seen.
* - They did a great job choosing the experts to interview, they are the most respected researchers in the field today.
* - A segment on parity and the efforts of a steamfitters union to self-insure do a great job illustrating how difficult it is to get decent treatment.

Weaknesses:
* - There is no presentation of recovery. I assume this series is intended to reduce stigma. Without presenting recovery, I fear it will increase stigma.
* - It oversells pharmacological treatments. A lay person I say the centerpiece video with said, "so all you need to do is get one of those prescriptions?" They give the impression that the medications are a complete treatment rather than a potentially helpful tool.

I am a licensed Social Worker who has worked with addictions for 30 years. This information was not exactly new. However, there are many recovery programs & staff who would benefit from adding this information to their treatment programs. The main mesage to me was that in order to successfully treat the "cravings" we need to address the brains chemistry. Although it is not appealing to treat ones drug adiction with another drug ( take methadone for example) the research does merit attention. If there is a medication to help with the cravings then to me it is worth looking into.
So many people look down on people with addictions and think they have no willpower. True many have stayed sober thru 12 step programs but many more need something else they are not already being offerred. People say the addict "failed" the program where I see the program "failed" the addict. One key in this documentary is to get addicts into treatment ASAP vs waiting for them to "hit bottom". I think the brain chemistry information can be a useful component to adapt into treatment. Then if it works we can save thousands of lives.
I don't see this as a one size fits all but as an addition to prevention programs along with counseling and 12 step meetings.

I've found Addiction to be a quality addition for my library regarding drug and alcohol abuse. [...]
Not only is the main 90-minute movie a valuable asset, but also the 20-minutes mini-movies help to go into further depth and detail including interviews with experts in the field, understanding relapse as a part of recovery, understanding adolescent addicts, searching for treatment and the CRAFT and CBT approaches to addiction treatment.

I am a chemical dependency counseling student, I found this documentary to be up to date and even told me things that I didn't learn in lecture. There is a chapter called The Science of Relapse and I would suggest anyone watch it; it gives a detailed description of how relapse happens and what can trigger it. I think that it could even help family members struggling with understanding relapse. Very well executed and not a bunch of pshycobabble. My professor recommended it to the class, I'm really glad I listened to him.

I had high hopes for this. After spending $24.95 to buy it, and watching the first disc, I don't even feel inspired to watch the other discs. I am an alcoholic myself, and have been sober (thanks to AA) for 11 plus years. I work in the medical field, and am exposed to addicts of every stripe on a daily basis. I found the ballyhoo surrounding the release of this confusing. Perhaps it just shows the hunger of the American people to learn SOMETHING, ANYTHING about the subject of addiction. It IS a complex subject, and I didn't find any answers here.

I'm not sure exactly what the purpose of the show was. If it was strictly to educate, I found it to be an extremely non-cohesive hodgepodge of information that DID'T include some of the most important ideas about addiction. It was like a puzzle that all lay strewn about on the table so that you couldn't figure out what picture it was supposed to be - and with some of the pieces missing, to boot! If it was to inspire addicts or their families to get treatment for their addiction, I didn't feel in the least bit inspired. I did not leave the show with an uplifting feeling, or even a scared-and-need-to-do-something-about-it feeling. I left the show vaguely confused, not much liking or caring about either the addict subjects or any of the researchers. There were exceptions, of course. I enjoyed the Night in the ED segment, and I found the Steamfitters to be very "real" and human. Addiction IS a terrible disease, and it deserves better treatment than this.

Probably the main thing that I did NOT like was that the whole show seemed slanted towards "magic bullet" thinking, which does a disservice to the addict. That is, over and over are mentioned "exciting new medicines" and "getting the right medicines and the right treatment to help the addict", which I find dangerous and misleading. That is, it leads one to feel that the solution to addiction is just getting hold of one of the new "miracle" drugs touted. Perhaps the show was funded by the pharmaceutical industry. "Miracle drugs" which will solve an addicts problem nearly effortlessly and painlessly have continually popped up over the years (antabuse and SSRI antidepressants come to mind), and none have a very impressive track record. In fairness to the show, they do mention some of this, but it seems buried in the more frequently talked about glamour of the next "miracle drug".

I was particularly amazed that amongst all of the brain scans, scientific speculation, and such, that there was NO mention whatsoever of any 12 step program, or any proven treatment center such as Hazeldon or the Betty Ford clinic. Because the reality is, while these scientists are busy engineering the next ever more detailed brain scan machine, there are real humans out there in the world who are SUCCESSFULLY HELPING THEIR FELLOW HUMANS TO GET CLEAN AND SOBER. What a concept! And without miracle drugs even!

Getting clean and sober is not easy, and it does a disservice to addicts everywhere to a) give voice to the magical idea that some miracle cure is going to solve everything, and b) not to mention real life programs available now (often free) that have proven track records, and offer REAL hope.

If you like science, be aware that Alcoholics Anonymous has been shown SCIENTIFICALLY in study after study to have THE SINGLE BEST TRACK RECORD AT KEEPING ALCOHOLICS SOBER. Is it for everyone? No, but if you want to get (and more importantly STAY) sober, the odds are better with AA as a follow-up (after initial treatment) than with anything else that you can name. "It works if you work it" as they say in AA. I have no direct experience with other 12 step programs, and so can't comment, but I know that they operate very similarly. WHY on a show about addiction would they not mention any 12 step program?

I sat with my jaw hanging down as I watched the entire show, and AA was only mentioned twice: once by a woman early in the show who had been sober for 17 years or something "through AA", (that in itself is an amazing accomplishment, and should say all you need to know about AA), and later in the show on the Steamfitters who formed their own support group basically because they felt that going to AA would be somehow 'wimpy' for manly men like them. I don't where they got that impression, because I've never heard of AA being called 'wimpy' (or whatever term they used). AA's full of bikers, construction workers, etc., right alongside the doctors and lawyers. That's the beauty of it: it recognizes that addiction knows no boundaries, and shows what we addicts have IN COMMON. The irony of the steamfitters is that the little group they formed is ALMOST EXACTLY LIKE AN AA GROUP AND MEETING! I was laughing - there was almost no difference. So if you want to know what an AA meeting is like, watch the steamfitters. The sense of caring about their fellow man who is an addict like them came from the deepest depths of human caring and no-nonsense facing the facts. And the power of "it takes one to know one" that lets them get their fellows to let down their barriers and listen is exactly why AA is so effective. Who wants to listen to a scientist? If you're an addict or an alcoholic, you want to listen to another addict or alcoholic. They've walked a mile in your shoes.

So to me the show was a moderately boring stream of blah, blah, blah with little real inspirational meat or insight. If you want some real scientific insight into how this "brain disease" works (at least the alcoholic version), try the book "Beyond the Influence", available from Amazon. Good meat there. If you want to see some good talk from people who have (to me) better insight into the whole addiction thing, search online for the Larry King Live addiction show which featured Jamie Lee Curtis and Betty Ford's daughter from the Betty Ford clinic. Transcripts are available online. It was an incredible show. Coincidentally, one of the "researchers" who appears on the HBO special was also on the Larry King show, and it was slightly embarrassing to watch his miracle drug theoretical approach to the subject next to those who are actually down in the trenches with addicts on a human level. You will see what I'm talking about.

When my dad finally addmitted his own addiction and recieved help at Hazelden in Center City MN, my siblings and I seeked more education on this disease that is addiction. We didn't realize it was a clinical addiction and struggled with the fact that he couldn't 'just' stop drinking. Going to the Family Program (a 4 day interactive program that Hazelden offers the family) and getting the education we needed to not only cope with situation from the past, but how to deal with the future and possible relapses. This video series follows all the ugly faces of addiction and helps you realize that all types of people can have addicition, and that the ear;ier treatment begins, just as with cancer, the more likely recovery is. This has been a tremendous help to us. We would recomend it to everyone. Most likely addiction and cross addiction are somewhere in everyone's lives. The more we learn about the grips of addicition the easier it is to live for today and see a brighter tomorrow!

Many drug addiction documentaries do not present the problem in realistic, scientific, or humanistic terms. This one does all three in a truly convincing and affecting manner.