Alcoholism Essay, Research Paper

AlcoholismApril 30, 2001According to Alcohol And You, We live in a society that drinks heavily, and teens are influenced by this. Living with an alcoholic basically means living with stress a great deal of the time. Alcoholism is a family disease that affects not just one person in the family but everyone. In The Power Of Inclination,” the wife’s love for an alcoholic made her terrified and upset. Also, in You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone alcohol affects the entire family, even though the alcoholic is only a teen. In The Glass of Absinthe two adults are drinking at a bar. They go home drunk and affect their families. These fictional writings on alcoholism are accurate in its symbol of alcoholism as a serious problem that affects many people. This report will be based on understanding the problem, how people are affected, and helping people cope. At first, to help in understanding the problem, one must gain knowledge into why parents and teens drink in the first place. An alcoholic is not simply someone who gets drunk once in a while, nor is an alcoholic necessarily a drunkard. Alcoholism is defined as a disease caused by an addiction to alcohol. The drinking problem can cause serious problems that affect life, work, and health. This is shown in the story You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone, when Marcus starts having a growing dependence on alcohol. His grades start suffering; he wrecks his new car; the school newspaper turns down his material, and his girlfriend objects to his growing dependence on alcohol. All of these serious problems are affecting Marcus’s everyday life, due to alcohol. The alcoholic is obsessive with alcohol and is not able to control the amount he/she drinks. This is shown in You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone, when Marcus states in the middle of the day, Putting the bottle in his book bag had saved his life more than once that day, Alcoholics feel they need alcohol to save them. Instead of relying on people for help, they turn to alcohol. Marcus had family problems that caused him to start drinking. To get better, Marcus had to admit to his problem with alcohol and eventually reach for help instead of reaching for a drink. Most experts agree alcoholism can be controlled only by total sobriety. While alcoholism may involve physiological factors that make certain people more likely to become addicted, emotional factors are also involved. For example, self-hatred is a common emotional factor in alcoholics. They think that they are worthless even to their own family members. They believe everyone just hates them. So, they have another drink to take my mind off it. In the painting The Glass of Absinthe the man and woman are drinking. By the expressions on their face and body language it is obvious to me that the man and women were drinking due to loneliness, unhappiness, or depression. The man or women could be a teenager’s alcoholic parent who came to a restaurant or bar to drink away their problems. Many alcoholics grow up in alcoholic families. Drinking may be thought of as a way to lessen the pain of their childhood emotional scars. In reality, drinking just adds to an alcoholic’s problems. Alcohol makes it difficult for a person to make judgments, concentrate, and to understand things. The alcoholic is much more that a drinking problem. They are in need of a great amount of help from a trained professional to quit drinking. From You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone, Marcus was in great need of help. He was sneaking drinks from his parent s bar, and a vodka bottle was the only thing that could get him through one horrible day to another. This shows the fictional literature was accurate.

When a parent is an alcoholic, each family member is affected. Many teens’ lives are filled with uncertainty when their parents are alcoholics. But adult family members are affected, too. Many spouses do not know about their love for her husband or wife anymore due to the fact that they are alcoholic. Alcoholic parents often switch between extremes. They can be loving and responsible when sober, but wildly violent and abusive when drunk. Teens love their alcoholic parent one moment but may resent them the next. Marcus s Mom says, If the Hospital don’t keep him this time, doctor, I’m going to find a way to kill him quickly, not piece by piece like he killed me. Her reaction in this quote clearly shows how desperate a family member of an alcoholic can be. It truly shows that alcoholism can ruin lives. Often the effects of growing up in an alcoholic household do not become apparent for years. Children of alcoholics either become alcoholics themselves or marry an alcoholic. One-half of the alcoholics in the United States had one or two parents who were alcoholics. The environment from which a person matures is less important than the choices that individual make because of that environment. Even if things at home seem out of control, teens can take control of their lives. In You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone, Marcus was having family problems. But instead of going to get help right away he turned to alcohol and his problems became worse. Although Marcus’s parents weren’t alcoholics, he still had problems that led him to his drinking. In some cases, it is the parent who is the alcoholic, not the kid.Teachers can help teens by teaching them not to feel responsible for their parents drinking and by helping teens to understand that it is the parents and the parents alone who are responsible for their own alcoholism. Teachers can help teens to understand that they cannot cure their parents without help from a trained professional. Teens need to know that yelling, crying and arguing with a parent accomplishes little. Some people even think about killing their loved one because alcohol ruined their relationship. Teens and adults with alcohol-related problems need to admit their feelings. Some youths feel guilty because they sometimes resent their alcoholic parent. But it is normal to feel this way, especially if a parent’s drinking prevents them from providing the care and support the children need. Teens need to focus their anger on the alcoholism instead of the parent. This is the same for all people in an alcohol-related circumstance. In conclusion, alcoholism is an addiction that hurts many families across the nation. The solutions are often difficult and the emotional wounds that are inflicted take years and years to heal. The fictional and factual writing on alcoholism was accurate in its portrayal of alcoholism as a serious problem that affects many people. But hopefully, with time and dedication there will be hope for those families who suffer with the disease.