Avicii - I'm Tim

I just finished watching the documentary 'Avicii: I'm Tim', and it struck me deeply. As someone who has spent her entire life coming to terms with the reality that I'll always live with anxiety, I felt so connected to his experiences. It's a lonely journey when your mind is constantly in overdrive - questioning everything and rarely finding peace.

As a society, we must do better. We need to actively work toward destigmatising mental health struggles and creating spaces where people feel supported and understood, not shamed, for seeking help.

This quote from the documentary shook me because it mirrored so much of what I feel:

"But my dream would be to be completely, completely at ease and completely happy with what I've got already, and not really have any aspirations to do a billion other things. I just want to be free from all the ideas of a life. The thing that has kept me from living life has been that exact thing: having an idea of what life should be and what should make me happy.

Nothing has turned out to be true. But I want to learn how to be content. That would be life for me. Being content."

These words hit home in a way I can't fully describe. So often, we're trapped in this endless pursuit of what we think life is supposed to be, only to realise that the pressure to chase a perfect life - one that doesn't even exist - leaves us feeling more lost than ever.

We need to do better. Let's talk about this more. Let's remind each other that we're not alone.

First and foremost, Tim's story is heartbreaking and he certainly was and remains a musical genius. I've now seen both documentaries (Avicii: True Stories and I'm Tim) and in my opinion, the 'True Stories' documentary is a better overall narrative and composition. Because 'True Stories' captured the progressive discovery of Tim's mental health battle while documenting his journey from another angle, the developing story and narrative was naturally organic and pure. The shift in focus during that documentary helped make it more impactful. Whereas 'I'm Tim' feels like a constructed but purposeful look back at his life. This composition feels untidy and somewhat rushed in places. 'I'm Tim' is clearly supported by family and friends close to Tim, which should absolutely be respected, but 'True Stories' engaged my attention with more depth and emotion. Perhaps because it was first, but certainly because it felt more organic. 'True Stories' appears to have been pulled from BBC Select, and you can't buy it in any format, which makes you wonder if the release of 'I'm Tim' has ultimately played a part in that. Sadly, I think many people will miss out on the better documentary because of this, although they have enough similarities to make I'm Tim worth watching. Regardless, raising awareness regarding the battle for positive mental health and remembering those who have ultimately lost such battles, makes documentaries like 'True Stories' and 'I'm Tim' incredibly worthwhile and worth viewing.

So firstly, a great documentary. It started off great and he really did come across as a nice guy, and we all know at least one or two of his songs. However,

we know most of that already and this would have been a great opportunity to explain to the audience more of his struggles, how bad were the drugs and drinking what friends were not the right type around him, why did the manager leave and not speak to Tim was it over money and lack of loyalty.

Lastly, although personal but if your doing a documentary we just needed a better understanding of such an early death how bad it really was or was this not explained due to the guilt of the people around him who never done enough.

My only glaring observation is this documentary didn't go deep enough. It needed more exploration, more explanation and just more..... It never really climaxed and we're not learning anything new here that wasn't already known through the internet; Really disappointed to be honest. It did nothing for me.

It did a good job, however of documenting Tim's climb, but not so much his downfall, making the documentary a bit one sided. Maybe I was just expecting something more comprehensive? I'm not sure what they were trying to achieve with making this documentary. Was it just an intention to only shed light on his music career and portray him in that light? That's what it seems like to me.

I'm not a fan. I like a handful of his songs, but this documentary made me understand the greatness of Avicii and the impact of his music.

I mostly enjoy rock and soul music. After watching this documentary, the creativity of this young man truly resonated with me and completely changed my perspective on his music.

But most importantly, it showed his pure soul and how his music truly came from the heart.

I'm a relatively older man, and the mindset of this young guy made me reflect deeply and wipe the tears from my face.

Whenever I listen to his music, I'll remember that I need to become a better person.