Videos explaining addiction and substance use from a scientific, medical, and legal perspective.

What is Addiction? (Addiction Policy Forum)
• Overview of what the disease of addiction—also called substance use disorder—is.

Chasing The Dragon: The Life of an Opiate Addict (FBI, DEA)
• Documentary aimed at youth and young people, told through first-person accounts of people who have abused opioids.

Addiction (PBS Nova)
• Discover how opioid addiction affects the brain and how evidence-based treatments are saving lives.

The Addiction Series, Episode 1: The Hijacker (Addiction Policy Forum)
• Learn about how substance use disorder affects tissue function in two main parts of the brain, responsible for basic survival instincts and impulse control.

The Addiction Series, Episode 2: Whirlpool of Risk (Addiction Policy Forum)
• Addresses risk factors that make some people more likely to develop addictions than others. 

The Addiction Series, Episode 3: Understanding Severity (Addiction Policy Forum)
• Explains how substance use disorder, like other chronic illnesses, worsens over time and risk of death can increase.

The Addiction Series, Episode 4: Don’t wait for “Rock Bottom” (Addiction Policy Forum)
• Debunks the idea that waiting for addiction to get worse before seeking treatment is dangerous.

Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong (Johann Hari, TED Talk)
• Scientific overview of how we become addicted and new ways of thinking about recovery.

Videos on addiction’s societal causes and impacts.

How isolation fuels opioid addiction (Rachel Wurzman, TED Talk)
• Neuroscientist Rachel Wurzman explains how social isolation contributes to relapse and overdose rates and.

The Rise of Fentanyl: Drug Addiction on the I-95, Two Years On (BBC Three)
• BBC reporting from 2018 covering the state of America’s opioid crisis. 

Addicted: America’s Opioid Crisis (BBC Three)
• Full documentary exploring the depth of America’s opioid crisis and the role played by pharmaceutical companies.

The Paraphernalia Project with Ana Gopoian (LiveLoud Families)
• Executive Director Ana Gopoian’s presentation providing an overview of The Paraphernalia Project.

Videos covering effective interventions and recovery.

Narcan® Video Series
• Includes how to use Narcan (naloxone), how it works, and why it’s important to keep in your first aid kit.

Everyday Addiction Interviews: Loving and Relentless (Susan Riegler, TED Talk)
• Learn to identify when to speak to a loved one experiencing addiction and how to do so. 

Videos about trauma, mental health, and their intersection with substance use.

How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime (Nadine Burke Harris, TED Talk)
• A pediatrician explains how abuse, neglect, and parents with mental health or substance use disorders impact the health of the children who have experienced it, even into adulthood.

Stories from people in recovery, people who have experienced addiction, and their loved ones.

Addiction is a disease. We should treat it like one. (Michael Botticelli, TED Talk)
• A former Director of National Drug Control Policy discusses his struggle with substance use disorder and encourages others in recovery to fight stigma and tell their stories.

Recovery Happens Here CT
• Personal stories from people across Connecticut (including some TriCircle facilitators), provided by the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

What’s your Story? Family, Addiction, and the Brain (Melissa Vayda, TED Talk)
• Melissa’s personal experience of growing up as a child with a mother addicted to alcohol and opiates and her path to peace and understanding. 

Rewriting the Story of My Addiction (Jo Harvey Weatherford)
• A candid talk about the stories we tell ourselves and how Jo rewrote her own story of addiction to alcohol.

Recover out loud (Tara Conner, TED Talk)
• Miss USA 2006 shares her lifelong struggle with addiction and what she’s learned from 10 years of sobriety.