so the brand-new show euphoria starring zendaya, sydney sweeney, maude apatow, Jacob elordi and more just premiered on HBO and there
is a ton that we could talk about when it comes to mental health as well as
addiction what is up everybody this is Chris from the rewired soul where we
talk about the problem but focus on the solution and if you're new to my channel
what I'd like to do is take a look at what's going on in movies TV shows pop
culture the YouTube community and try to see what lessons we can learn from them
but I'm also extremely passionate about mental health as well as addiction
recovery so if you're into any of that stuff make sure you subscribe and bring
that notification about and if you didn't get the memo make sure you're
following me over on instagram and twitter at the rewired soul because my
brand new book rewire your anxiety is coming out very very soon and i'm giving
away a bunch of free copies so follow me over on instagram at the rewired soul
and on twitter all right so let's talk about euphoria
so whenever a show comes out that's depicting mental illness or addiction
i'm always looking to it to be like okay how accurate is this all right like is
this stigmatizing mental illness is a stigmatizing addiction or is it fairly
accurate right because one thing that a lot of people are looking for is like
things that they can relate to so this show you foria with Scindia has been
extremely hyped alright maybe it's just hype to me because my beautiful
girlfriend Trista die we watch a lot of HBO we keep seeing the previous for it
but yeah like right now like Episode one has premiered and I highly highly highly
recommend it check it out all right but there's a few things that were accurate
some things that weren't so accurate so there will be some spoilers if you
haven't watched episode 1 yeah so if you want go check that out come back to this
video so I might do more videos in the future like maybe following the the
first season this kind of reminds me of 13 reasons why so there is an
opportunity to do different character breakdowns so if that's something that
you'd like me to do like let me know down in the comments below but anyways I
want to focus on Zendaya's character whose name is Rue alright and I might
use ruins a day interchangeably throughout this video so
anyways she is the main character of the show you forea and basically the way the
show starts out is that she was experiencing symptoms of OCD as well as
anxiety as a child talks a lot about panic attacks and things like that so
one of the things is is that which is getting first diagnosed like this was
like a million diagnosis out her okay so like I was just talking to Tristan about
am i okay so what was her exact diagnosis alright so it seems like the
two primary ones are obsessive-compulsive disorder as well as
some kind of things I do this sort of a OCD there's a lot of you know anxiety
symptoms that go along with it as well but the doctor is like they're saying oh
might be bipolar might be this and that and they like medicate the hell out of
this young girl and this is something that is quite common right like when a
child starts acting just kind of different or weird or whatever it is
sometimes and there's a huge issue we have in the United States we over
medicate the hell out of them and sometimes the diagnosis isn't even
correct at that age so typically like you need to follow a case as a child
gets older to see what the actual symptoms are but anyways the over
medication is like a main theme that kind of kind of turns into why she ends
up becoming addicted and things like that so what we see later on is Roux
played by since e'tenday'eh ends up stopped taking her medications alright
and this is something that a lot of people do and I actually have a whole
chapter on medications and rewire your anxiety and here's the thing like it is
important to talk to your doctor and everything like that and try to do a
minimize your medications if at all possible but be like sometimes certain
medications we just have bad reactions to and they might make you feel numb
they might make you feel like a zombie they they might do all sorts of things
like there's all sorts of side effects of these medications gonna have but
rather than like just not taking them like make sure you're talking to your
doctor now if you're a teenager watching this and I would love to know from you
in the comments below like what demographic is actually watching this
show so if you're watching this show and you're cool with it let me know how old
you are down in the comments below this is like a show about teenagers but
there's a lot of adult content in it but anyways if you're a teenager don't do
this keep taking your medications because what ends up happening is woo
ends up stop taking your medications but she's still having her symptoms all
right her symptoms of OCD and anxiety panic attacks and everything like that
that's which he finds drugs okay and this is very very very common
okay self medicating mental illness the two leading causes of addiction or
untreated or undiagnosed mental illness and those of you who are just now
meeting me hi I'm Chris I'm a drug addict alcoholic and pretty soon I'm
celebrating seven years sober actually in less than a week alright and this
like I can really relate to this show because around high school that's when
my symptoms of anxiety and depression really started to hit hard and that's
when I started to self-medicate with alcohol because it's it's the only thing
that kind of quieted my mind so unlike the character Roux from this
show like I didn't have like a doctor or anything like that prescribe me any
medication so the only quote-unquote medication I found were substances
so anyways Roux ends up we find out that she overdose and her sister finds are
like that was a pretty powerful scene when they kind of like remember that
because it's it's really common like when we're in our active addiction we're
not thinking about how it's affecting everybody else you know so after Roo
overdoses she ends up going to rehab and and yeah so as soon as she gets out this
is something that I saw quite a few times not only while I was working at a
drug and alcohol rehab but I've also seen it in my addiction recovery
so when ruget sout like she's talking well she's narrating the show and she's
talking about how she has no plans of staying sober and like I can relate to
that because when I first got sober like I was forced into it like many people
are and I had no plans on staying sober no plans I was just gonna I was gonna
stay clean for a little while kind of let the heat died down you know
I'll just go back to what I was doing you know what I mean and thank God like
I learned that I didn't have to live that way anymore and that life could be
better without substances but in this show it doesn't look like Roux figured
that out because as soon as she got out she was seeking drugs again so one thing
I want to talk about is there's a scene where like she's like joking around like
with uh one of her dealers or something like that she's like oh I went to rehab
and you know I turned my will of my life over to Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior
and everything so what Cindy is referring to in that scene is the third
step in 12-step programs and that's not what it is okay something that I have to
teach a lot of people like when I was working in the treatment center and
people who are newly sober is 12-step programs are spiritual not religious if
you're not bound with religion don't worry all right this is about finding
spirituality and there are plenty of people a great book by the way is waking
up by Sam Harris and it's about finding spirituality even if you're an atheist
so like I just want to touch on that because there's a lot of shows out there
that don't depict 12-step programs in the right light so I just want to jump
in there and clear some things up real quick all right
but anyways not long after that there's a scene where roux and her mother get
into a fight right after she gets home after she got high and everything like
that and her mom wants to randomly drug testers so by the way if you're a parent
watching this well the drug test your kids if you're suspicious of it okay
like a lot of parents look well well I want them to know that I like trust them
and everything like that like listen most teenagers already think their
parents don't trust them okay so if you're suspicious
feel free to drug test them and it's a great deterrent to because when teens
are out partying or with their friends and they offer them drugs or whatever
your teen has a good out - not use drugs loose it like oh sorry my parents drug
tested me randomly you know what I mean that way it's like they're not like
looking like a little punk you know what I'm saying
but anyways like rue is very upset about her mom like not trusting her so two
things here one of them is this is very very common with addict behavior all
right addicts when we know we're guilty we get overly too
okay I can't believe I can't believe you would even ask me that and like you see
with Roux she was high and she ends up going getting her friends pity but
anyways this is something I always teach people new in recovery as well like a
lot of people they just get clean they just get sober and they're wondering why
nobody trusts them right and like let's use as India or ruh if you will as an
example like before she went to treatment
her little sister found her overdosed right covered in vomit okay and then she
gets all defensive later on about why don't you trust me something that I had
to learn because it's something I got very defensive about as well well it's
like I gave people reasons not to trust me and it was going to take a while to
earn that trust back one of the things that I thought was pretty funny I'm like
by the way like if you're wondering if you're a drug addict like this seem like
we'll teach you if you're a drug addict and it's this when when rue was sitting
outside with her dealer and her dealers like oh you know like it seems like
you're using a lot and you know what's going on with you or whatever and like
that's something like that kind of like hit me after I got sober when I was
looking back and I'm like when you're a drug addict and you're drug addict
friends or saying that you have a problem like there might be an issue
right like if you're hanging out with a bunch of people who do drugs
or even if they drink and they're noticing that you do a lot more than now
there's an issue and this is something that I dealt with like when I got into
cocaine and you would go to bars and I go you know smoke some lines in the
bathroom or whatever like I was always doing way more than everybody else you
know and people like Chris you kind of do a lot of drugs alright so if your
drug outed friends think that you have a problem you might have a problem and the
last scene I want to talk about is is right there it's in that same scene
where she's talking to her drug addict buddy who's a dealer as well and she
talks about her first panic attack and she thought I thought that she was dying
and her parents took her to the hospital and they gave her a liquid valium and
like the way she describes like when I share my story about the
first time I got drunk like like this is what happens to so many of us all right
especially if addiction runs in our family like sometimes we are hooked from
the get-go so she talks about how they gave her liquid valium and everything
just got quiet and she was like ah like this sense of relief and that's what she
was looking for and like that's when we know were hooked right because that's
what happened to me the first time I got drunk like I had this noisy brain for
most of my life and the first time I got drunk I found this relief right I found
this relief through alcohol which later turned into drugs and my whole life
just turned into this this whole you know trying to quiet my brain and
everything but the problem with self-medicating with substances is the
substances start becoming the primary source of all of your problems
alright so now that I've been sober for almost seven years like I still have a
noisy brain I still have my generalized anxiety disorder but I can no longer
turn to mind-altering substances to quiet that down which is one of the
reasons why I'm writing the book rewire your anxiety because I've had to develop
a ton of different coping skills on how to manage my anxiety without turning to
substances alright and like this is this is huge because even even though I'm on
an anti-anxiety medication it only does so much so I had to learn other ways to
manage my anxiety all right but anyways anyways euphoria right now - thumbs up
go check it out if you've watched the first episode let me know your thoughts
about it down in the comments below okay and like I said if you're into this show
if you want me to do more episode breakdowns or like character breakdowns
like just let me know down in the comments below like I'm here for you
baby alright so anyways that's all I got for this video if you like this video
please give it a thumbs up if you do make sure you subscribe and bring that
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so so much for watching I'll see you next time