Clean By Amy Read, The Film, Russell Brand From Addiction To Recovery

Currently about twenty-three point five million people in the United States are addicted to alcohol or drugs. However, only about eleven percent of these people will seek the treatment that they need. The remaining eight-nine percent of people live with this incurable disease. There are various reasons why they are not being treated, some can afford the cost, some lack the support and family and friends and others are still in the state of denial. In the book Clean by Amy Read, the Documentary, Russell Brand from Addiction to Recovery and the short story, A Counselor’s Personal Narrative On Drug Addiction, By Lauren Armstrong comment that until society accepts that addiction is a serious disease, the issue will never improve. In

During his use, he was told that he if continues to use the amount he was currently using, in six months he was going to be dead. His girlfriend Amy Winehouse had overdosed, leading Russell to come clean. Russell had blamed himself for not getting Amy the help she needed. He had been an enabler of her drug use and felt responsible for his death. In the film, he comes into to terms that he could have not done anything to stop it. His close friend tells him, “Remember it is their choice to get clean, not yours” (). People cannot make others stop using, it must be a decision that addicts make on their own. They need to have a strong desire recover. The film also shows why society has not accepted that this is a serious disease. Using drug addicts are extremely unbearable and intolerable people. The narrator says, “He understands why people don’t see at as a disease. Drug addicts become a different person than they were without the drugs. They become selfish, egotistical and self-destructive and demanding” (). This is not the person who is doing this, it is what the drugs are making them do. In the story of addiction, this is the part people do not have control over. There is a choice to use and a choice to get clean. People need to comprehend this when communicating with addicts, they must understand it is not the person that is acting like this, it is the drugs. At the end of this film, the viewer will now see that addiction truly is a disease. Russell says, “Having an addiction is an illness. We need to get that message crossed. It needed to be treated like an illness” (). This was proven by going to going to neurologist who showed an addict’s brain compared to a non-addict’s brain. The addict’s brain had some noticeable differences, and furthermore demonstrated that certain people are wired to become addicts. They have something that they cannot control, a sickness, but people continuously look