'Drunk On Too Much Life' Captures Holistic View on Psychosis

Last week, an organization I belong to, the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (ISPS), hosted a screening of the film Drunk on Too Much Life.

As I clicked the link, I envisioned what would show might be an academic discussion. What I discovered reached far beyond what I could have imagined. It proved to be a multidimensional exploration of mental health, connection, meaning, and the lived experience both of psychosis and humanity.

"Feeling so connected to everything and feeling so astute, but also it being an overwhelming experience of stimuli and being so much danger. You're connected to the world, but you're interacting with it in ways that are harmful." -Corrina.

Corrina is an individual with lived experience of visions, unusual beliefs, exuberant highs, and canyons of depression. Michelle is her mother, and Pedro is her father. Throughout the film, Corrina traverses her journey to make meaning of her experiences and heal. In this process, the family converses with individuals standing at various viewpoints, from experts by experience to spiritualists and trauma authority Gabor Maté.

"She's starting to develop a fear of going crazy and describes it as being drunk on too much life." -Michelle Melles.

Drunk on Too Much Life is Corrina's conceptualization of what many call mental health conditions. Throughout the documentary, there is a pivot between biological, psychological, social, and spiritual understandings of what this means. Corrina discusses her medication and also the sense she is making of what she has walked through.

"There's like this openness that is so beautiful, and you can't separate those to things, the side of her that suffers and the side of her that creates." -Pedro Orrego (Corrina's Father), Drunk on Too Much Life

Pieces of art, music, poetry, and writing are shared throughout this film. Corrina is an exceptionally artistic and empathic human. These clips lend something especially memorable and precise to her descriptions. At one point, a tale is told of a time when Corrina could see two shadows surrounding her father. In a short time after, two tumors were discovered in the father's lung. The family expresses openness to the idea that Corrina's insights might reach beyond symptoms of a purely biological phenomenon.

"Consciousness is all about awareness of the other, awareness of the higher sense of self. We live in a culture and world that is terrified of anything strange or different. Society needs to change it is not us that needs to change. Corrina, you are a beautiful being just the way you are." -Shawn Pendenque, Expert by Experience, Drunk on Too Much Life

Like Corrina, Shawn is a person with a mental health diagnosis. He acknowledges yet the sense of compassion this has allowed him to realize, something that Corrina shares to a visceral level. He discusses the transposition that this has with a society that is obsessed with conformity, materialism, and minding our own.

From my eyes as a therapist who also lives with mental health conditions, I am reminded of some of my times of meeting others with lived experience. There is a shared understanding that I have found in others who have had similar experiences that I have never accessed in other spaces. I believe that part of this bridges simply from the connection that comes from parallel stories, and part is from the level of groundedness that these grant us. The most compassionate people I have met have almost exclusively been people living with mental health conditions.

"And if you listen and you listen and you listen until you've heard enough of the context of a person's life, what's going on with them makes perfect sense, and they can start to pull the threads together to make sense of it and step by step start to be OK." -Kevin Healey, Hearing Voices Support Worker Expert by Experience, Drunk on Too Much Life

Kevin is a voice hearer. He shares an image of the voice he hears with a puppet named Dave hat embodies the voice. He is a person who has reached the community from others who hear voices. Rather than random words, he recognizes that the content of voices sometimes holds meaning. His disclosure is echoed in recent research on voice hearing (Brett and Read, 2025).

Psychosis Essential Reads

The Man Who Made Schizophrenia in a Lab

How to Start Dynamic Psychotherapy for Psychosis

"Now I take drugs just so I can stay here. I don't take psych drugs to manage my mental illness, I take them to manage my superpowers." -Sascha DuBrul, Clinician and Expert by Experience, Drunk on Too Much Life

Sasha is a clinician and a person with his own lived experiences. He shares in a conference with Corrina's parents about his outlook. What strikes me most is the reframing he offers regarding parts of self, multidimensional aspects of psychosis, and how medication allows him to turn down the volume on some of these intrusions so that he can tune in more clearly to what matters to him.

I am naturally drawn to Sacha's humility here as a fellow therapist and person with lived experience. I can see how he identifies both the painful and meaningful aspects of mental health. As someone who also takes medication for my mental health, I also appreciate his acknowledgment that medication can play a role in recovery.

"My problem with the medical system is not that they give medication, but that it's all they do." -Dr. Gabor Maté, Physician and Trauma Expert, Drunk on Too Much Life

What Dr. Maté hits on here is a reality in mental health treatment. Psychosis and other extreme states of mind affect and are affected by biological, psychological, social, and perhaps even spiritual pieces of well-being. Yet, many only receive treatment in one of these areas through therapy, medication, spiritual guidance, or social support. For myself, and many others, what has been most helpful has been an interweave of interventions to each aspect of our wellness.

Closing

I encourage anyone interested in better understanding psychosis to watch this film. It is one of the most vivid discussions on the experience that I have come across.