 As a recovering opiate addict, there's only one thing I look for in movies that depict addiction. So in this movie review, I'm going to talk about the movie Six Balloons on Netflix and whether or not it passed the test and how accurate it actually is. So stay tuned. 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 here, my channel is all about helping you out with your mental health, but I'm also a recovering opiate addict. So I do some videos about addiction and recovery and things like that. Like right now, I'm super grateful because one of my videos about opiate withdrawal has like over 20,000 views. It's like my biggest video as of right now. So I know a lot of you out there who have subscribed to me are opiatics or hopefully in recovery. And this new movie on Netflix called Six Balloons stars Dave Franco and he is an opiate addict. So there's not much to spoil in this movie to be honest, except for the ending, which I won't tell you. So don't worry, you could stay here. But you pretty much gather what the movie is about from the preview. So James Franco is an opiate addict who relapses and it's about him with his sister and his sister is trying to find him some heroin because he's going through withdrawals. All right, but let's talk about a few things and kind of the things that hit close to home for me and whether or not this movie did a good job depicting heroin addiction first and foremost like man like dude as soon as like this movie kind of started going and getting into the plot like just the whole movie I was just getting these like flashbacks and reminders and uncomfortable and everything like that. And one of the things was from from the previews I thought the little girl might be his sister's daughter, but it's actually James Franco's daughter. And like his daughter is about the same age that my son was when I first got clean from opiates and like it was messing me up and like my son's actually here right now and he's in the other room playing video games and he was like coming in and interrupting me during the movie and I'm like, man, this this is nuts like it's crazy like and there there's parts where you know he's got to like score some dope and like use around his daughter and he's coming in and out of it and like apologizing and you could just tell he feels like like garbage and like I get that I get that one of the worst memories I have from my addiction is my my son just wanted to play with me when he was a baby and he's just knocking on the bathroom door while I'm in there like crushing and snorting pills and you just you feel like absolute garbage and like there's like this misconception that like you know us addicts and stuff when we're in our addiction or even before after like we just don't care about anything like it's this really brutal situation where you know what you're doing is wrong you hate yourself for doing it but you feel like you have to do it part of this movie is that they're they're planning a surprise party for Katie's boyfriend and Katie is Dave Franco's sister in this movie and they're playing a surprise party but when she goes to pick up Dave Franco's character he's clearly high he is clearly high and she asked to see his his arm and roll up his sleeves and they get into like this argument and he says like I just need you to trust me like he freaks out because like yeah man like relapse sucks it's embarrassing you feel like you've let yourself down your family down your kid down your friends down everybody down and like you get defensive about it because once it comes out like you know you know what's coming but I think the director did a very like very good job um from Katie's point of view because Katie is the main character in this movie the sister and like throughout the movie um there's this audio book that's playing and then you know when she's trying to help out her brother like meanwhile she's missing from the party and people are blowing up her phone then you got the kid in the background and like just all these noises happening at once like I'm starting to get anxiety like watching this movie like that that's how it is like now I work at a drug and alcohol rehab clinic and sometimes unfortunately I gotta help people after they relapse and like when you are just stuck in the middle trying to help somebody while everything else is going on like it's crazy because then you have this like inner conflict happening too like how much do I help do I help you know are they gonna be okay because throughout this movie then uh Dave Franco's character Seth has to ask her to go like score him some dope and buy him some needles you know and she has everything else going on so she's stuck in a tight spot and just making decisions go go go go go right just trying to keep everything under control under this completely hectic situation one of the reasons that um she has to end up finding him some is because she goes to take him to detox and like man when when I'm dealing with people who are trying to get back into treatment or they relapse or even looking back at my own experience like like you see his character going through just the myriad of excuses right I can't take time off work they're gonna know then you find out his dad got him a job so like that's another thing that you know uh he tries to use to not go to detox then they go and they don't take his insurance anymore so they gotta find somewhere else but then they get there and all the beds are full and this is something this is one of the reasons why I make this channel and I try to increase awareness about addiction so please share this video because like there is so little funding for this even though it's like the biggest health crisis in the united states but so many places are out of beds just completely out of beds like there was one time here in Las Vegas where I was trying to help like two or three people just get to detox like state funded detox because they didn't have insurance and like the waiting list was like a hundred something people long like if you're an opiate addict like think about that a waiting list just to detox of over a hundred people like that's like a week two weeks like could be a month like it's crazy and like watching him just go through this struggle and oh boy when he was going through these withdrawals I was like dang um because like I actually went through a cold turkey detox and like it was rough and watching him go through that like another uh a tv show that did that very well too was the first season of mr robot um when he was addicted to um morphine and like yeah watching him go through that and like something I will say about my personal addiction my struggle like like uh he he was begging her to get some he just need a little bit more and you know try to make this a little bit easier and stuff just until he gets there and he says like you need to get me some dope or I'm going to die and yeah that's literally what it feels like and there are major health risks that come with quitting uh cold turkey I'm very lucky that nothing happened to me but I was on a bunch of heart medications so that probably helped out but for my personal detox like I don't know like I was in such a bad state and like part of the addiction like I hated myself I absolutely hated myself and one way that I pushed through that cold turkey detox was just like I deserved it I felt like I deserved this pain this agony every ounce of it I felt I deserved it and I was at a point too where I didn't have um someone like Seth had I didn't have Katie I didn't have anybody enabling me either and I was just like I'm not even gonna try I'm just gonna go through this but like I mentioned in my other video about my opiate withdrawal like man like one way I stay clean is never forgetting how rough withdrawal actually is and like man like this really really reminded me and yeah so later after uh after they get him some dope it's crazy because if any of you know an opiate addict or an addict in you know any sense like like you can definitely relate to this like he he looks like he's dying right and he's just like vomiting and sweating and shaking and trying to like keep his legs under control and then he goes and he shoots up and he is just a million bucks just like not even a million he is like a billion dollars and he's just happy go luckily he starts playing with his daughter again and they're going out of the pharmacy where they just got needles and he's playing around and then they get back in the car and he's laughing and joking around with his sister and stuff and and I don't know it just kind of brings her out of that mood and this is kind of like what those um those relationships are between an addict and a codependent or an enabler you know what I mean like just like 20 minutes ago or an hour ago like she was losing her mind and like you know yeah it's nice to have like this like a little bit of fresh air like okay everything's cool right now but that's often how addicts keep this cycle going you know and the next part is you know he's telling her in the car too because she's she's still upset and she's like this is the last time I swear it's the last time I know what I gotta do and I'm gonna do it and like like welcome to the club and that's what we say that's what we always say we say this is last time I know what I gotta do like man I work in a treatment center I have people who come back five six seven eight times right and they tell me that the second they walk in the door I know what I gotta do I know what I gotta do I know what I gotta do and like and it's it's rough like when do you believe somebody like when do you believe them you know and it's hard because you can't believe them until you see them put actions behind their words like something they they start arguing about is like you know she starts saying like listen we've set a very low bar for you like just get clean and stay clean that's it you don't have to be like some kind of perfect angel just stay clean and something I often teach my clients about too is like you know that that is a very low bar and if you want to set the bar right there go for it but for me too I had to change a bunch of other things in my life but when you change those you happen to not relapse you know what I mean because I no no longer have like the triggers of the arguments with my friends or family and stuff like that because I was actually working on myself so one thing I would have liked to see you know maybe like the movie was very very good but like what is he doing like what happens after like I'd be down to see see a sequel and stuff and see if he like actually stays on the right track but yeah like I said at the beginning of this video like the one thing I look for is like is this realistic because there's a lot of movies out there about addiction and stuff like that and they just do an awful job it's like you know just some writer who's like yeah I bet it's kind of like this no but this was real realistic so like man and you know as I'm watching it like there's some there's some scenes in there where they could obviously like trigger somebody who might be early in their recovery but someone like me or somebody who has a strong foundation of their recovery like I think we have to watch movies like this I I like watching movies like this because you know the longer you stay clean the more um the more you have this thing in your brain that says like oh you're fine now you're okay like when I see something like this or if I watch intervention or anything like that like it reminds me it reminds me about how awful this thing actually is so that's another reason why I watch these movies is just to keep it fresh in my mind like no man I don't want to go back to that all right but anyways if you watch this movie I would love to hear your comments your thoughts about it if you're in recovery and you haven't seen it quit waiting go watch it right now if you're not going to be triggered all right if not get a foundation come back in about a year watch it then okay but anyways anyways that's all I got for you um please share this video hopefully some people will watch it I really hope this movie gets the exposure that it needs all right but if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and if you're new here like I said I'm always making videos to help you out with your mental health to help you stay clean so make sure that you click that little round subscribe button and if you want to check out some other videos on my channel you can click or tap on one of those thumbnails all right anyways thanks so much for watching don't be an enabler and I'll see you next time