Addiction and Grief in Euphoria: A Psychologist Explains What the Show Gets Right

Reviewed Kalia Lapomarel, LCSW, LCASA — Dually licensed clinician specializing in grief, trauma, and substance use disorder at NuTrans Health.

Published: June 2026 | Last updated: June 2026 | NuTrans Health — Raleigh NC | Charlotte NC | Freehold NJ | Telehealth

Euphoria ended on May 31, 2026, with Rue Bennett dying alone on her sponsor's couch from a fentanyl-laced pill. Not a dramatic spiral. Not a public collapse. A quiet, almost accidental final moment in a life that had been fighting itself for years.

The finale divided audiences. Some called it brutal and irresponsible. Others called it the most honest thing television has done with addiction in a decade.

As clinicians who work with people navigating substance use disorders and grief every day, we think the second camp is closer to the truth.

This is not a review of Euphoria. It is a clinical reading of what the show gets right, what it oversimplifies, and what it might mean if the story hits close to home for you.

Table of Contents

Why Euphoria Is Worth Taking Seriously as a Clinical Text

Most television gets addiction wrong in predictable ways. It either glamorizes the high or reduces the story to a morality arc: person uses, person hits rock bottom, person gets clean, credits roll.

Euphoria refuses both of those templates. Creator Sam Levinson, himself a former addict, has spoken about his intention to show addiction as it actually behaves. Not as a single dramatic collapse, but as a long, shape-shifting relationship between a person and a substance that outlasts their adolescence, their relationships, and, in Rue's case, their life.

That commitment to honesty is clinically significant. It is also personally significant for the millions of people who watched the show while living some version of it themselves.

"I think in the end I wanted to tell an honest story about addiction. I also wanted to tell a story about grief and the emotional turmoil that it can create," Levinson said after the finale aired.

Those two things, addiction and grief, are not separate storylines in Euphoria. They are the same storyline. And that is exactly right.

What the Show Gets Right About How Grief Triggers Addiction

Rue's story begins with her father's death from cancer. She is seventeen. The loss does not just sadden her. It undoes her.

She is discharged from a rehabilitation facility the day after her father's funeral and relapses almost immediately. That sequence is not a dramatic device. It is a clinically documented pattern.

Research consistently shows that grief, particularly the loss of a parent, is one of the most powerful triggers for substance use. Bereaved individuals face a significantly elevated risk of developing or worsening a substance use disorder. According to a systematic review published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, people with complicated grief have a substantially higher risk of substance misuse. The relationship runs in both directions. Unresolved grief increases the risk of addiction, and addiction blocks the emotional processing that grief requires to resolve.

What Rue's story captures so precisely is the function that substances serve for a grieving person. She is not using drugs to party or to rebel. She is using them to not feel the loss of her father. Substances provide a neurological off switch for emotional pain. They work in the short term. And that is exactly what makes them so dangerous for someone whose grief has no other outlet.

What the clinical research tells us:

• Bereaved individuals are more than twice as likely to develop an alcohol use disorder within two years of a major loss compared to non-bereaved individuals
• People experiencing complicated grief are particularly vulnerable to addiction as they attempt to manage severe and ongoing emotional pain
• According to Hazelden Betty Ford's research, grief is one of the core clinical issues that must be addressed in effective substance use disorder treatment, not as a side issue but as a root cause
• Substances do not resolve grief. They suspend it. When the substance is no longer present, the grief remains exactly where it was left, often intensified

Euphoria shows this. Rue does not use drugs and feel better. She uses drugs and stops feeling. The distinction is everything.

Rue's Non-Linear Arc and What It Tells Us About Real Recovery

One of the most clinically accurate things Euphoria does across three seasons is refuse to make Rue's relationship with addiction a straight line.

Season 1 shows her in acute crisis.

Season 2 shows her in deeper freefall.

Season 3, set five years later, shows her in something that looks almost like stability.

She is not using it heavily. She has a sponsor. She is functional. Right up until she is not.

Levinson has described this intentional shift: "You can go through different phases of addiction where you're using every single second of a day to feeling like you kind of have your life together. Maybe you smoke a little weed, you drink, but it's not the most pressing issue."

This is an important and under-represented clinical truth. Addiction does not look the same every day, every year, or every season of a person's life. People move in and out of periods of heavier use, relative stability, and crisis.

That pattern is often misread by families, employers, and the people experiencing it as evidence that the problem has been solved. It has not. The underlying vulnerability remains. The grief, if it was never processed, remains.

What the non-linear arc reflects in clinical terms:

• Recovery is not a destination. It is an ongoing relationship with risk, coping, and support
• Periods of relative stability can mask unresolved grief and trauma that have never been addressed therapeutically
• Functioning does not mean recovered. Many people with substance use disorders maintain jobs, relationships, and routines while their underlying drivers are entirely untreated
• The risk of a fatal relapse does not disappear during stable periods. Tolerance reduction during those periods can make an accidental overdose more likely if a relapse occurs

Rue's stability in Season 3 is not a sign she won. It is a sign the show understands that addiction is chronic, not episodic.

The Fentanyl Ending and Why It Is Clinically Honest

The death of Angus Cloud changed the ending of Euphoria.

Cloud, who played the warm-hearted drug dealer Fezco, died at 25 from an accidental fentanyl overdose after returning home from his father's funeral. Levinson has said that after Cloud's death, he could not in good conscience write a survivor's story for Rue without acknowledging what the fentanyl crisis actually costs.

"I can't tell a story about addiction without the very real consequences. Most people don't get a second chance. Fentanyl can just take you out in an instant," Levinson said.

Rue's death mirrors this reality precisely. She does not relapse in the dramatic sense. She hurts her hand, accepts what she believes is a painkiller, and takes it at her sponsor's home while recovering. She has no reason to believe it will kill her. That is exactly how fentanyl kills people.

What this moment reflects clinically:

• Fentanyl is now present in the majority of drug overdose deaths in the United States, including in pills that appear to be legitimate pharmaceutical medications
• A person in a period of relative sobriety has lowered tolerance, making a dose that once felt manageable potentially fatal
• Most fentanyl deaths are not deliberate relapses. They are accidental exposures in people who believed they were taking something else or something safer
• The CDC has reported over 70,000 drug overdose deaths in a single year, the majority involving synthetic opioids like fentanyl

Rue's death is not a punishment for her choices. It is a depiction of a public health crisis that ends lives the same way every single day, without drama or warning.

"As a clinician, what struck me most about the finale was that Rue did not die in crisis. She died in a moment of ordinary vulnerability, which is exactly how fentanyl works. It does not wait for a dramatic moment. It arrives in the ordinary ones." Kalia Lapomarel, LCSW, NuTrans Health

The Real Grief Behind the Show

Season 3 carried an unusual and painful burden because its themes of addiction and death were mirrored so closely by the real lives surrounding its production.

Angus Cloud died in July 2023 at age 25 from an accidental overdose, having just returned home from his own father's funeral. Executive producer Kevin Turen died before the season aired. Eric Dane, who played Nate's father Cal, died in early 2026 after battling ALS, having already filmed his scenes. The Season 3 premiere opened with a tribute to Dane and included a dedicated in memoriam card for all three.

The actors who returned to finish filming did so while carrying real grief for people they had worked alongside for years. That weight is present in the performances, particularly in Zendaya's. It gives the finale a texture that no amount of scripting alone could manufacture.

Levinson incorporated previously shot footage of Cloud into the finale, showing Fezco alive in a dreamlike sequence. For the cast and crew, that was not just a storytelling choice. It was a form of mourning made public.

This convergence of fictional tragedy and real loss is part of what makes Euphoria's final season land differently from other prestige dramas. The people making it were not just performing grief. They were living it.

What the Show Gets Right About the People Around an Addict

Euphoria is not only Rue's story. It is also the story of every person who loved her. And the clinical accuracy extends to them too.

Rue's mother, Leslie

Leslie's parenting oscillates between enabling and desperate control, and the show never positions either response as simply wrong. That ambivalence is real.

Families of people with substance use disorders routinely move between covering for their loved one, confronting them, withdrawing, and overextending. The clinical term for this cycle is reactive codependency. It is one of the least discussed but most damaging dynamics in addiction treatment, and Euphoria depicts it without editorializing.

Ali, Rue's sponsor

Ali is one of the most clinically honest portrayals of a sponsor and a person in long-term recovery that mainstream television has produced.

He is not a saint. He has his own history of loss, harm, and moral failure. His relationship with Rue is genuinely reciprocal. She gives his sobriety meaning. He gives her a structure she cannot build alone. The sponsor relationship, when it works, looks exactly like this.

Jules

Jules's experience of watching someone she loves disappear into addiction maps precisely onto what clinicians call compassion fatigue and secondary trauma.

Family members and intimate partners of people with addiction regularly experience anxiety, depression, PTSD-like symptoms, and profound grief of their own. Jules's final scene, silently painting Rue engulfed in fire, is one of the most honest depictions of what it feels like to grieve someone who is still alive. And then to grieve their actual death.

Families Bereaved by Overdose

Jules's grief points to a wider clinical reality that Euphoria touches but does not fully explore.

People who lose a loved one to overdose face a specific and compounding form of loss. Overdose deaths are frequently stigmatized in ways that natural deaths are not. Families often feel unable to speak openly about how their person died. They carry shame alongside grief, which makes processing both significantly harder.

Research shows that people bereaved by drug overdose are themselves at elevated risk for complicated grief, depression, and substance use disorders. The loss does not end the family's relationship with addiction. In many cases, it deepens it.

What families bereaved by overdose commonly experience:

• Stigmatized grief that feels unspeakable in social or community settings
• Guilt and self-blame that persists long after the death
• Anger at the person who died, which then triggers more guilt
• Elevated risk of their own substance use as a way to manage unbearable pain
• Isolation from support systems that do not understand overdose loss

If you have lost someone to overdose and recognize any of these, you are not alone, and you are not failing at grief. You are experiencing a specific and under-supported form of bereavement that deserves clinical attention in its own right.

NuTrans Health's trauma therapy services are available to families navigating this kind of loss, in person in Raleigh, NC, Charlotte, NC, and Freehold, NJ, and via telehealth across both states.

Where Euphoria Simplifies or Overstates

Clinical honesty requires naming where the show gets it less right.

The visual language of using

Euphoria's cinematography is extraordinarily beautiful. The sequences in which Rue is high, the saturated colors, and the surreal choreography are aesthetically seductive in a way that real drug use is not.

This has been a legitimate critique since Season 1. For a younger or more vulnerable viewer, those sequences risk romanticizing what they should complicate.

The speed of the crisis

Rue's downward spirals in Seasons 1 and 2 are dramatically compressed in ways that real addiction timelines rarely are.

The slow, bureaucratic, exhausting nature of getting and losing treatment access is largely absent. Real recovery is less operatic and more administrative than Euphoria suggests.

Recovery resources

The show depicts Ali and the NA meeting as Rue's primary recovery infrastructure. This is realistic for many people, but the show does not explore therapy, psychiatric medication, or integrated treatment in any meaningful way.

For viewers who take Rue's story as a map, it may significantly underrepresent how much professional clinical support is actually available and effective.

What Watching the Show Might Bring Up for You

Euphoria is not easy viewing. And for certain people, it is not neutral viewing.

If you have a personal history with substance use, the show may trigger cravings, memories, or emotional distress you did not anticipate. If you have lost someone to addiction, or are currently watching someone you love struggle, Rue's story may land somewhere that is hard to locate, let alone name.

You might be watching Euphoria and noticing:

• Grief you thought you had processed suddenly feels present again
• Recognition of patterns in Rue's behavior that you see in yourself or someone you love
• Anger at the ending, which may carry information about your own relationship to the idea that people in addiction should survive
• Relief at finally seeing something that reflects your experience accurately
• Sadness, numbness, or a need to stop watching and come back to it later

All of those responses are clinically normal. And all of them are worth paying attention to.

If the show surfaces something that feels too large to carry alone, that is not a sign you are too sensitive. It is a sign the show did its job, and that you might benefit from a space to process what it brought up.

If addiction is affecting your life or the life of someone you love, learn more about effective solutions for opioid addiction treatment and recovery support.

When Grief and Addiction Need Professional Support

Rue's story is a story about what happens when grief does not get clinical attention. Not because she was weak or failed, but because untreated grief and untreated addiction are both conditions that worsen without intervention. Together, they can be fatal.

Signs that grief may be driving or worsening substance use:

• Using substances specifically to avoid thinking about someone you have lost
• Finding that substances are the only thing that reliably quiets emotional pain
• Noticing that your use increases around anniversaries, holidays, or grief-adjacent dates
• Being unable to talk about your loss without dissociating, shutting down, or immediately reaching for something to take the edge off

Signs that grief itself has become complicated and needs support:

• Your grief is as acute as it was immediately after the loss, even years later
• You have organized your life around the absence of the person you lost
• You feel unable to imagine a future that includes meaning or connection
• You are experiencing prolonged sleep disruption, appetite changes, or difficulty functioning in daily life

What effective treatment for grief and addiction looks like:

• Integrated care that addresses both simultaneously. Treating only the addiction while leaving the grief untreated is one of the most common reasons for relapse
• Trauma-informed therapy that understands the neurological and psychological overlap between grief, trauma, and substance use
• Individual therapy to process the specific losses and the coping mechanisms that developed in response
• Psychiatric support where appropriate. Grief and addiction frequently co-occur with depression and anxiety, which respond well to medication in combination with therapy
• Community and peer support. Connection with others who have lived similar experiences is one of the most consistent protective factors in long-term recovery

Grief and Addiction Are Treatable. The Right Help Changes Everything.

Whether Euphoria brought something to the surface or you have been living with grief and addiction for a long time without the right support, NuTrans Health is here.

Our experienced psychiatrist in Charlotte provide substance use disorder treatment and psychiatric medication management across North Carolina and New Jersey. Our providers understand the relationship between grief and addiction as interconnected experiences that deserve integrated, compassionate care, not sequential treatment.

We accept Medicare, Medicaid, BlueCross BlueShield, Cigna, Aetna, Optum, Wellcare, and most major insurance plans. Telehealth is available across NC and NJ.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Euphoria accurately portray addiction?

More accurately than most mainstream television. The show's depiction of addiction as non-linear, grief-rooted, and shaped by the fentanyl crisis reflects real clinical patterns. Where it is less accurate is in its visual glamorization of the high and its compressed portrayal of treatment access and recovery resources.

Why did Rue Bennett die in the Euphoria finale?

Creator Sam Levinson changed the original ending after Angus Cloud died in 2023 from a fentanyl overdose. Levinson said he could not tell an honest story about addiction without showing what it actually costs. Rue dies from a fentanyl-laced pill she believed was Percocet, reflecting the real mechanism by which fentanyl kills most of its victims today.

Is the connection between grief and addiction real?

Yes. Research consistently shows that grief, particularly complicated or prolonged grief, significantly increases the risk of developing or worsening a substance use disorder. The relationship is bidirectional. Unresolved grief drives substance use, and substance use blocks the emotional processing that grief requires. Effective addiction treatment must address grief as a root cause, not an afterthought.

What is complicated grief, and how does it relate to substance use?

Complicated grief, also called prolonged grief disorder, occurs in approximately 10 to 20 percent of bereaved individuals. It is characterized by grief that remains as acute as the initial loss for an extended period and disrupts daily function. People experiencing complicated grief are particularly vulnerable to addiction because substances offer temporary relief from pain that has no natural resolution point.

Can someone experience addiction and grief at the same time?

Yes, and it is extremely common. Grief can trigger addiction, and addiction can complicate grief by blocking its processing and intensifying the underlying pain. Treating one without the other is one of the most common reasons people in recovery relapse. Integrated care that addresses both simultaneously produces significantly better outcomes.

What should I do if Euphoria triggers difficult feelings about my own experience?

That response is clinically normal and worth taking seriously. If the show surfaced grief, cravings, recognition of your own patterns, or distress related to someone you love who has struggled with addiction, consider speaking with a therapist who specializes in both grief and substance use. Those feelings carry information, and professional support can help you work with them rather than suppress them.