On the morning November 26th, 2019, my parents found their son, and my youngest brother dead to his addiction to "bliss."
To be clear; I didn't want to watch this film. I'm glad I did. My brother was an alcoholic and a drug addict for the better part of 13 years, starting not long after he graduated high school. He had long a beautiful seasons of sobriety during this time. But most of these years were ruled fraught with relapse, jail, court, broken hearts, and cautiously optimistic hope.
In his last trip into the land of bliss, not long before his death, meth had truly taken him to different worlds, though I must say here that none of them struck me as anything more than a nightmare.
I'm not sure that the world Jason sought looked like the one in this movie, but I know he first traveled there to escape the pain he felt deep inside. Loss of child hood friends, contemplating his own identity as an adopted son (With us from birth mind you), and the battle in his own mind as a baby carried to term by a drug addict herself.
Along with my tribute, I'll add that I'm grateful to have seen a glimpse of what his world might have been like. It was terrible and helpful. This movie is unsettling every step of the way if you love someone who is or was battling an addiction. You'll probably only watch this once, or maybe never. But there is no doubting that it was a worthy venture to tell a difficult story that resembles the lives of those trapped by drugs and maybe even more importantly, us who live as ghosts in the lives of those we love. Sorry to anyone else who knows this pain.
Love you. Miss you. D.
To be clear; I didn't want to watch this film. I'm glad I did. My brother was an alcoholic and a drug addict for the better part of 13 years, starting not long after he graduated high school. He had long a beautiful seasons of sobriety during this time. But most of these years were ruled fraught with relapse, jail, court, broken hearts, and cautiously optimistic hope.
In his last trip into the land of bliss, not long before his death, meth had truly taken him to different worlds, though I must say here that none of them struck me as anything more than a nightmare.
I'm not sure that the world Jason sought looked like the one in this movie, but I know he first traveled there to escape the pain he felt deep inside. Loss of child hood friends, contemplating his own identity as an adopted son (With us from birth mind you), and the battle in his own mind as a baby carried to term by a drug addict herself.
Along with my tribute, I'll add that I'm grateful to have seen a glimpse of what his world might have been like. It was terrible and helpful. This movie is unsettling every step of the way if you love someone who is or was battling an addiction. You'll probably only watch this once, or maybe never. But there is no doubting that it was a worthy venture to tell a difficult story that resembles the lives of those trapped by drugs and maybe even more importantly, us who live as ghosts in the lives of those we love. Sorry to anyone else who knows this pain.
Love you. Miss you. D.