A Star Is Born 2018 – A story of Love, Loss and Addiction

I first saw this movie when it came out in 1976. At that time it was sad but I hadn’t “lost” then so like a lot of what we see and hear it didn’t resonate. This version depicts a great love and a family torn apart by addiction and this certainly resonated as I know it will for a lot of people. It brilliantly displays the hope, the lack of hope, the love, the frustration, the desperate sadness that any addict and their family goes through in their battle with addiction. Historically we didn’t recognise what the family unit went through. Primarily the focus was on the addict with polite stabs at how to help them kick their habits but the family were viewed as part of the “problem “ and not the “solution” or even worse – ignored. Years on, currently and as a generalisation despite some best intentions, we still struggle to provide any meaningful joined up help for addicts (whatever their addiction of choice is) or their families. It is good so many people have been moved by the film and I hope it brings some recognition of the entire family situation. We all learn from things that happen. I certainly learned to strive to help as many addicts and families in the most realistic way I can for those that trust me to do that. Perhaps the powers that be who seem to continually get it so wrong, in my view, might learn from this film how addicts and their families are just real people who struggle to survive in this sometimes cruel World.