This 1990s video footage of Angelina Jolie is so confronting, we almost didn't publish it.

This video of Angelina Jolie is so confronting, we almost didn’t publish it.

It was filmed in the late 1990s and released today by a New Yorker called Franklin Meyer, who claims to have been Jolie’s drug dealer at the time. Jolie is seen pacing back and forth, somewhat frantically, speaking on a large black landline phone. She’s skinny to the point of being skeletal, she’s pale, and she has a series of small bruises down her arms.

She looks, in short, like an addict in desperate need of help.

Watching this will make you feel uncomfortable, voyeuristic and maybe even a little cruel. That’s exactly why we were unsure about publishing it. But then we realised that this video is actually about hope.

Because it proves that no matter how desperate and impossible your life may seem, you can survive it.

If one of the most admired women in the world can reach this level of desperation and still recover? Then that is a story that should be heard. A story of recovery that gives hope to every addict who has ever felt that there was no way out from their wretched circumstances and drug dependence.

We know Angelina Jolie was a drug addict at the time this was filmed. And while she didn’t share this video with the world, her alleged former dealer did, she has voluntarily chosen to share that part of her life publicly. Jolie knows how powerful it can be for survivors of addiction to see a celebrity go through it.

For people living with addiction and mental health issues, life generally has to get really fucking awful before it can get better. And that is exactly what happened for Angelina Jolie. She didn’t just recover from addiction and put the pieces of shattered life back together, she did much, much more.

Jolie healed herself, worked hard to become a stable, strong person, found and maintained a loving relationship, became a mother, made a beautiful family, carved an incredible career for herself, won critical acclaim for her work, and ultimately did a lot of good visiting war zones, defending refugees, and working with the UN. It’s the ultimate comeback from a harrowing past.

Yes, we are using this video to peak at the horror one of the most successful, impressive, and powerful women in the world. But we’re doing that in the knowledge that she not only survived that time but went on to a happy, fulfilled and successful life.

Angelina Jolie’s recovery should give us hope. It’s proof that even when addiction or mental illness has ravaged your body and taken your vivacity, life is not over.

Life is never over until it’s actually over.

Click through to see the many incarnations of Angelina Jolie, throughout her whole life:

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