For this highly sensitive film to connect with young, skeptical audiences, the script needed to feel highly authentic. To ensure it reflected true lived experiences, each line was based on interviews with hundreds of people with co-occurring disorders. The script opens with “drink if you…” challenges from our street casted actors. As it begins to grow darker, the lines are composited from the real experiences of those we interviewed. It is ultimately delivered in a flat and defeated deadpan, with little hope that the repetitive cycle will ever come to an end, building to a final cry for help.

Over 100 people die of drug overdoses a day in the United States. Yet, experts, politicians, and the public as a whole fail to acknowledge recent data that shows that more than 50% of Americans with misusing substances also struggle with mental health disorders. Which means many are not being treated appropriately.

Harris Marquesano was one of these people. At the young age of 19, he died of accidental overdose after struggling with ADHD and anxiety for the majority of his life. When the American healthcare system failed to see the connection between his mental health and substance use—ultimately leading to his tragic death—Harris’s mom, Stephanie Marquesano, founded the first and only national nonprofit solely dedicated to treatment for co-occurring disorders.

Named “the harris project,” the nonprofit exists not only to educate young people and help prevent them from going down the same path Harris did, but to help change policy across the country. This film was an essential step in the process.

In the film, a seemingly innocent drinking game grows ever darker as a young woman slowly reveals how her mental health problems drive her substance misuse—and vice versa.

The phrase “drink if you…” acts as a beating drum at the heart of the story, mirroring the cyclical nature of addiction as she struggles to get through even the most routine moments—eating breakfast, going to school, being with friends—until, finally, her darkest secrets are brought to light.

Despite massive efforts to destigmatize substance misuse, society continues to dismiss users as helpless “addicts.” However, many fail to realize the truth: that one in every two people with misusing substances also struggle with mental health challenges.

To illuminate the connection between these co-occurring disorders, particularly for young people who may unknowingly be self-medicating, we developed a relatable film that intuitively pairs mental health challenges with the unfortunate, yet inevitable result: a drink and other substances. Each line in the film is based off of an insight we heard when interviewing hundreds of teens suffering from co-occurring disorders. Ultimately, it aims to help society better understand the issue not just on a practical level, but emotionally, as well, changing the minds of young people, the public, and even policy across the country.

We open on a group of friends sitting around a pool at a party.

Friend 1: Mr. McFarlane!

We hear laughter.

Friend 2: I got one. Drink if you’ve stolen clothes from Lisa’s closet. Come on…I know at

least one person!

Main VO: Drink if you have a crush on someone that’s not your boyfriend.

Friend 3: Drink if you posted a photo I look trash in cause you look good in it.

Main VO: Drink if you have to drink to…just to be here.

We hear our main character’s inner monologue.

VO: Drink if you don’t know why you just said that.

VO: Drink if no one likes you anyway.

VO: Drink if you replay every conversation you had that day in your bed at night.

VO: Drink if no one understands what you’re so worried about all the time.

VO: Drink if you can’t go to class without it.

VO: Drink if you’re pretty sure everybody hates you.

VO: Drink if you’ve stolen your dad’s pain meds because drinking doesn’t cut it.

VO: Drink if you can’t escape the thoughts in your head.

VO: Drink if you’re so anxious it’s happening again.

VO: Drink if you don’t know what you just took.

VO: Drink to feel something.

VO: Drink to feel nothing.

VO: Drink if no one even knows.

VO: If you’re happy.

VO: And you know happiness won’t last.

VO: If you’re depressed.

VO: If your mind is racing.

VO: If you’re tired.

VO: If you can’t focus on anything.

VO: If your mind won’t shut the fuck up.

We come back to the drinking game at the pool.

VO: Drink if you’re afraid you won’t wake up tomorrow. Drink if you don’t care.

Super: One in two people with substance use issues

also struggle with mental health challenges.

Super: Learn how you can help a loved one with co-occurring disorders.

Super: the harris project

theharrisproject.org