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Thursday, April 19, 2018
Vancouver film community addresses mental health and addiction
www.vancourier.com: Enid-Raye Adams’ dad was an addict for most of his adult life. And, like many people who love an addict, at a certain point Adams reached her own rock bottom with her dad’s addiction. She cut him out of her life.
2 comments:
Rosie Villano
said...
It’s so empowering to see someone take their personal struggle and use it to create change for others.While it is no secret that there are substance abuse issues in the film industry, I like that Adams started from a place of authenticity. Even though there are some scripted elements I liked that Adams tried to use real people and real stories to talk about the issue. Real stories will always be more powerful and more interesting than scripted ones. I think it is a powerful way to get through to people. I appreciate that the complexity of an addict’s situation is no lost on Adams. The article does bring up the question of how to best solve the opioid crisis. The fact remains that it is a complicated situation with an almost infinite number of factors. But I like that Adams seems to focus on helping people in the here and now, rather than looking at the whole situation.
Especially in industries like entertainment, film and performance, and doubly so in the technical fields, mental health and substance abuse are so swept under the rug and not dealt with. This PSA is timely and important, not only in a time that people are talking more and more about mental health and substance abuse in the industry, but also a time where issues like this are becoming more and more to a head in every area of life, even and especially in college. The reasons that this was made, too, brings light to another under-seen issue that isn't often dealt with - the effects on the family of people with substance abuse or mental health issues. And while I think a PSA, especially for the entertainment fields and the rampancy at which these issues crop up and are ignored or taken as 'the way things are', is incredibly important, I would also like to see it spur on some more serious discussion in the media and the world about how these crises are really effecting us, how we've failed to fix it and why, and how we can go about dealing with it better in the future.
2 comments:
It’s so empowering to see someone take their personal struggle and use it to create change for others.While it is no secret that there are substance abuse issues in the film industry, I like that Adams started from a place of authenticity. Even though there are some scripted elements I liked that Adams tried to use real people and real stories to talk about the issue. Real stories will always be more powerful and more interesting than scripted ones. I think it is a powerful way to get through to people. I appreciate that the complexity of an addict’s situation is no lost on Adams. The article does bring up the question of how to best solve the opioid crisis. The fact remains that it is a complicated situation with an almost infinite number of factors. But I like that Adams seems to focus on helping people in the here and now, rather than looking at the whole situation.
Especially in industries like entertainment, film and performance, and doubly so in the technical fields, mental health and substance abuse are so swept under the rug and not dealt with. This PSA is timely and important, not only in a time that people are talking more and more about mental health and substance abuse in the industry, but also a time where issues like this are becoming more and more to a head in every area of life, even and especially in college. The reasons that this was made, too, brings light to another under-seen issue that isn't often dealt with - the effects on the family of people with substance abuse or mental health issues. And while I think a PSA, especially for the entertainment fields and the rampancy at which these issues crop up and are ignored or taken as 'the way things are', is incredibly important, I would also like to see it spur on some more serious discussion in the media and the world about how these crises are really effecting us, how we've failed to fix it and why, and how we can go about dealing with it better in the future.
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