 So the brand new show Euphoria starring Zendaya just premiered on HBO and there is a ton that we can 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 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 ring that notification bell. 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. Alright 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 alright? Is this stigmatizing mental illness, is this 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 Euphoria with Zendaya has been extremely hyped alright? Maybe it's just hyped at me because my beautiful girlfriend Tristan and I we watch a lot of HBO and we keep seeing the previews for it. But yeah like for right now like episode one has premiered and I highly highly highly recommend it. Check it out alright? 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 one yet. 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 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 Rue and Zendaya interchangeably throughout this video. So anyways she is the main character of the show Euphoria and basically the way the show starts out is that she was experiencing symptoms of OCD as well as anxiety as a child. She talks a lot about panic attacks and things like that. So one of the things is that when she's getting first diagnosed like they're throwing like a million diagnoses at her. Okay so like I was just talking to Tristan about I'm like 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 anxiety disorder but 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 it might be bipolar it might be this and da da da da 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 it kind of turns into why she ends up becoming addicted and things like that. So what we see later on is Rue played by Zendaya ends up stop 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 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 can 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 the show and you're cool with it let me know how old you are down in the comments because 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 Rue ends up stop taking your medications but she's still having her symptoms alright her symptoms of OCD and anxiety panic attacks and everything like that that's what she finds drugs okay and this is very very very common okay self-medicating mental illness the two leading causes of addiction are untreated or undiagnosed mental illness and those of you who are just now meeting me hi I'm Chris I'm a drug addict and alcoholic and pretty soon I'm celebrating seven years so we're 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 Rue from this show like I didn't have like a doctor or anything like that prescribed me any medication so the only quote-unquote medication I found were substances so anyways Rue ends up we find out that she overdosed and her sister finds her like that was a pretty powerful scene when they kind of like remembered that because it's it's really common like when we're in our act of addiction we're not thinking about how it's affecting everybody else you know so after Rue 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 Rue gets out 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 die down you know that was gonna 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 the show it doesn't look like Rue 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 one of her dealers or something like that she's like oh I went to rehab and you know I took my will of my life over to Jesus Christ my lord and savior and everything so what Zendaya 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 down with religion don't worry all right 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 Rue 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 test her so by the way if you're a parent watching this randomly drug test your kids if you're suspicious of it okay like a lot of parents like 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 too because when teens are out partying or with their friends and they offer them drugs or whatever your teen has a good out to not use drugs because they're like oh sorry my parents drug test 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 defensive okay I can't believe I can't believe you would even ask me that and like you see with Rue she was high and she ends up going get her friends P 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 Zendaya or Rue if you will as an example like before she went to treatment her little sister found her overdose right covered involvement 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 was 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 scene like will teach you if you're a drug addict and it's this when when Rue was sitting outside with her dealer and her dealer is 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 at it like when you're a drug addict and your drug addict friends are 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 them like there's an issue and there's something that I dealt with like when I got into cocaine and we would go to bars and like go you know sport 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 all right so if you're drug addict 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 thought that she was dying and her parents took her to the hospital and they gave her liquid value and like the way she describes that 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 value 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 we're 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 all right 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 all right 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 two 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 all right so anyways that's all I got for this video if you like this video please give it a thumbs up if you're new make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos and a huge huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon you are all amazing and if you would like to become a patron and a one of the tiers you get all of my books for free and future books so become a patron click or tap right there all right thanks again so so much for watching I'll see you next time