Kevin Smith Reflects on ‘Complete Break with Reality,’ Trauma and Healing in 35-Minute Mental Health Talk

Kevin Smith has three words he wants all of us to understand – “Trauma is trauma.”

In a video Smith created with the assistance of People, the View Askewniverse director detailed his recent journey from the depths of mental hell to recovery and contemplation. Said Smith, “For the last month I have been at a mental health facility. In the parlance of our times, I went crazy. I lost my marbles. I had a complete break with reality.”

Unsurprisingly, the indie film icon started the 35-minute monologue about mental illness, tragedy and healing with some sardonic self-deprecation. “Five years ago, I had a massive widowmaker heart attack” Smith began, “I don’t know if you heard about it – of course you did, because I would not stop talking about it because it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened since Clerks.” Then, just a few weeks ago, he had his break. 

At the height of his disassociation, Smith fortunately had the wherewithal to seek treatment from psychiatric professionals rather than “succumbing to grim alternatives,” as he said in a heartfelt Instagram post promoting the video. In this starkly introspective speech, Smith walks through his recent crisis as well as his earliest and deepest trauma, including an instance of sexual abuse he suffered as a child. Smith hopes that, by explaining the hard work he’s done in recent days in order to fully process, accept, and begin to heal from the wounds he once thought were safely hidden from himself and the world, he might inspire someone suffering from the same pain to seek lifesaving help.

With some of his darkest days behind him, Smith has a message to spread – “At the other side of the hardest thing you’ll ever go through lies your joy.”