I know it is easy to blame him for his misgivings, notably his inability to respond to what sounded like a genuinely sympathetic counselor who was bent on helping. But I think that misses the point of this heartwrenching piece. Who among us Nytimes readers knows the depths of what this drug can do to the resolve to use, and keep using? Until this doc, it seemed like a distant epidemic personified only in ever more grim statistics. I don't think he is innocent, but I don't think we can simply cast blame on his resolve. He's a torn, beaten down soul that has flaws as we all do, it's just that his come with far greater reprocussions for himself and unfortunately his family.
2
An addict spends most of their time figuring out who to rip off in order to get money to get high. The film neglected this sordid fact.
If you are serious about coming clean, the best way is to do hard physical labor, all day, every day so you don't have the time of energy to think about getting high and to stay away from the people that are using.
The poetry component no doubt plays a crucial role in facilitating the opportunity for witnessing the intimacy that Szynol describes. A pair of poets (whose anonymity I shall respect by keeping secret their names) provided Szynol with access and a view, through poetry workshops they conducted for more than a year at the Laconia prison, into lives of those like John.
This film makes it clear to me that once addiction takes hold choice is effectively gone.
John is physically altered by his addiction, it's harrowing to watch ,
my gut feeling is the calls from the centre go unanswered out of his fear, fear of what getting off will take, fear of knowing that most likely getting off will mean a life apart from his wife as her addiction is intertwined with his.... his comment about support to me is not off putting, human nature to blame something outside yourself
3
This guy has no intention of getting better, weak and unmotivated, he'll never be able to kick, he doesn't want to. Very difficult to have sympathy for junkies in the first place
5
The number one source of opiates for many addicts including myself when I was addicted was Medicare and Medicaide patients on HUGE doses of opiates.
These old people aren't living. They are just propped up on recliners with a TV on and everything they need to survive (mostly pill bottles) scattered around them.
I'm just so sick and tired of people saying their grandma has actual pain that only 300 dilaudids a month can cover. If you need that much opiates you need to be in the hospital or the grave.
4
We do little to find good solutions when problems are presented in extremes. On almost all issues, the two sides present diametrically opposing views that invariably involves labeling the other side in perjorative terms. Drug addition is not made up of poor victims of circumstance, absolved of any responsibility and therefore purely sympathic. Nor are addicts all personally irresponsible and in circumstances of their own making. Whether the issue is white privilege, gender pay gap, race disparities in crime or any other of the myriad of issues that are currently eating at the fabric of society, the problem is rarely discussed from the uncomfortable middle where victims and perpetrator or victim and knowing participant must share in a proper discussion of the issue and its resolutions. A movie like this sheds light not on the issue but on a person and some portion of addicts. That is good but not good enough
2
What does the film say of society's obligation to discourage addiction, even by ways that are punishing to the addicted? If society does not fulfill that obligation how many will become addicted, and stay that way, who would not have otherwise?
"Everybody knows that?" Really? Then talk about.
1
What eventually happened to the subject John Bixby? The morality of this type of filmmaking is explored in this piece. Does the filmmaker have an obligation to advocate or provide help, or at least followup on the subject after the project is over? I often ask the same question about shows on television that exploit the dysfunction of people for its entertainment value.
2
I just came from visiting my elderly neighbor who can no longer live with her husband because of illness caused by long term opiate use. She believed the pills were the only recourse for her headaches and her doctors just kept writing and writing those prescriptions. It was much easier to do that, they told me, than to help her find another therapy. I attended many appointments with her, she resisted their weak efforts and they capitulated. She found a pill mill in the neighborhood and got almost 300 pills in one visit. Living with her became intolerable so now her husband is paying $7,000 / month for her room in an assisted living facility where she gets no services, not even medical care, because neither she nor her husband can adequately advocate for her. It took about seven years for things to get that bad. In that time, Medicare and the city have paid millions of dollars in ambulance rides, ER visits, hospitalizations and hundreds of fruitless doctor's appointments. Her husband is donating all the opiates she left behind to a vet whose scripts have been halved even though he is 100% disabled by grievous wounds suffered in Iraq. I blame the doctors and I can't get over the tremendous waste of resources this single case represents.
10
Please let them know that sharing opioids with others is not only a federal offense, but also could be very risky to the recipient as well as the giver. If the recipient accidentally overdoses on this extra supply, they would be liable.
Please don’t play doctor just because you have extra pills. Take those to a takeback location and get them out of the system, for everyone’s safety.
4
I had a hard time following the story, especially the second half, when the both the lighting and the mood were so dark.
If John is a typical sufferer of opiod addiction, there is clearly no possibility of lasting recovery. What hope is there? Best to prevent first time use as much as possible, but let those already addicted experience the natural consequences of their actions. It is a pipe dream to think we can change them. Time to get real.
4
That is completely untrue. Totally false. I know a number of heroin addicts who have been sober for years. It can be done but it is very, very difficult. Addiction is progressive, but so is recovery, and as time passes by it becomes easier and people come to value their sober life and hang on to it.
5
How would you feel if he was your son?
1
What do you recommend for people with chronic pain? Suffering? Suicide?
This is the kind of guy that ruins it for everyone else
15
Ruins what? Being an addict?
He lost me at the end when he said that he "had no support"...meanwhile, there were at least two messages from his counselor, trying to get him back to treatment, that he ignored. Available treatment is a lot more support than most addicts get.
23
@Mary I think by the filmmaker including John saying he had “no support”, it is an attempt to highlight how the brain gets highjacked by the disease of addiction. Addiction can convince you of many things- there is ALWAYS an excuse to use. In Johns case, this time, it was his addicted brain telling him that he had no support.
There is a misconception in public is that we can be in control of ourselves but results are divergent. We should have respect towards our uncontrolled instincts.
2
when we begin to acknowledge addiction socially as a disease just like diabetes or depression (depression often being a cause for self medicating to begin with), understand how to separate the behavior from the individual and attach it to the disease and give mental health the same priority as physical health, then we will begin to see a change.
10
It's an amazingly beautiful piece of video. And to be quite frank, for anyone who's done opiates, it's straight-up porn.Look how terrible it is; hear how wonderful. I'd be better off not knowing that feeling is possible. Opiates are the worst thing in the world.
9
I beg to differ, opiates are one of the best things in the world. If you don't believe me just take a Tylenol next time you break a bone or have surgery.
15
I disagree that opiates are "the worst thing in the world." As Paulie said, if you're in severe post-op pain they are indeed the best thing in the world. I went without pain killers due to fear of opiates after a very invasive surgery and was in agony for weeks. The toll of the pain on body and spirit was enormous. In preparation for a second, and third surgery of a similar nature, my doctor asked me to please consider taking Percocet. He said I've observed you and know you and I see no signs at all that you're in danger of becoming an addict. Sure enough, I used the prescribed bottle of ten Percocet up, one a day, and at the end of the intense pain period I was able to taper off in a day or two with no ill effect whatsoever. I've been on Percocet maybe five or six times. On the first day of each treatment the medicine produced a mild euphoria - what the package insert described as an "unwarranted state of well being" - but this was gone by the second day. I rested well and made good recoveries each time. Between surgeries I gave no thought to opiates at all.
My fear is that if I need a fourth surgery that I won't be able to have my pain adequately treated and I'll be faced with PTSD again from the experience.
I wonder why we can't develop some sort of psychological test to determine who will be addicted and who will be able to use opiates without ill effect? Or perhaps there is a physical reason some people get addicted, and this could be assessed?
9
I do however agree Skyler that the film may be an advertisement for opiates. I remember a very old anti-heroin commercial that showed an addict lying on his back. A voiceover described the "sweet erotic warmth" of heroin, as his dead body was wheeled in to a box in the morgue. I always thought that anybody tempted to try heroin would hear the part about sweet erotic warmth and be able to block out the visual message that, oh right, and it kills you too.