Alcoholism and SuicideEssay Preview: Alcoholism and SuicideReport this essayThe movie When a Man Loves A Woman starring Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia clearly represents some psychological concepts discussed in class (cause, effects, denial, recognition and rehabilitation). I had seen the movie before and enjoyed it, but now, since taking this class, I understand so much more about the movie and the characters. This movie is one that clearly depicts the many and varied effects of alcoholism on a family. Emotional, psychological, and even physical effects are felt by Alice Green and her family members. Alcoholism is not an easy thing to deal with especially when combined with depression and/or some bipolar or manic aspects.
Alice Green is the main character in this movie and the person that the movie revolves around quite literally. With her, everyone is happy (even when they arent) and without her the situation is miserable and the family unit falls apart even further. Alice is typical of a white female alcoholic in many ways, but in other ways, she breaks the mold. Alice drinks both inside the home and outside. She is almost as likely to go out for a drink after work with friends as she is to drink from the many bottles hidden all over the house. She says that she began drinking in high school and never quit. She is almost rather manic in her actions and moods, but the diagnosis is not bipolar disorder; it is alcoholism.
Alices children adore her, even when her alcoholism negatively affects them. Her children are young enough to where they dont really know whats happening. They only know that mommy sleeps a lot and slurs her words. When she is sober, she is the perfect mom-fun and exciting. Her children are thrilled just to be in her presence. In many ways, Alice is like a single parent, which obviously contributes to why she drinks so much. Every parent needs “me time,” and Alice really doesnt get much of it. While her husband flies all over the country, piloting planes, Alice works as a high school guidance counselor and takes care of her children. Ironically, she counsels troubled teens and is good at it. As we know in counseling, Alice may be trying to work her way through some of her own issues while counseling others. In many ways, Alice is trapped in her high school years or has regressed to them. She is all about fun, not very responsible, and life revolves around after work. After Alice goes into treatment, Jess tries to take on the role of her mother by cooking breakfast for Kasey and trying to do her hair.
She lies. She is depressed. She engages in risk-taking behavior. She is dependent. She is aggressive. She is avoidant. She is anti-social. The real problem is that it is so hard for the viewer to understand what characteristics are part of her real personality, and what characteristics are a part of or akin to her alcoholism. Not having any experience with this disease, Im not sure. Meg Ryan does a really good job of portraying a raging alcoholic and making us really feel what it is like and what it does to a family. She also portrays the uneasiness of recovery and the need to develop a whole new personality to compensate for the lack of alcohol
The children of alcoholics witness many events where their parents display their alcoholism and they feel that they can stop it themselves. There is one particularly disturbing scene in the movie when Jess is supposed to finish her homework, and Alice is at her wits end. Jess watches her mother down aspirin with Vodka then attempt to shower and fall through the shower door. The full ramifications of seeing this horrifying event will never fully be able to be measured. Children of alcoholics often display a host of effects, like unwillingness to commit, abandonment issues, or alcoholism or drug abuse themselves in adulthood. These children are alternately showered with attention and then neglected by Alice. She has even committed some rather abusive offenses, like slapping Jess really hard in the face and driving her kids around drunk. Habitually, she is not abusive or neglectful, but I certainly think on occasions, she could be charged with child abuse and/or neglect.
The Movie:
The first film, “A Dangerous Game,” is about two young sisters with alcoholism. One is a drug addict but, as is often the case, she also has other problems than her other alcoholic family member. The other brother is a drug addict, and both suffer from some sort of problems when they are young. The idea of this film is that if they want to start moving toward having children and have a relationship and grow out of this problem, they should come together, especially because it makes it clear that they’re having a difficult time starting this relationship, especially in this age group.
The second film, “How I Met Your Mother,” deals with how the family will cope with how “adult” their children is. This is especially the case for Jess, who is in a position to blame and blame herself. She is so in love with her alcoholic brother, he refuses to come home to his, and her parents are very depressed because the kids are having such a hard time dealing with their problems. However, as time passes, and the issues become more apparent, they become less about their family but much more about themselves and their lives.
Although this is the first time that I’ve seen children in this family, I’ve witnessed multiple instances of adults making such overt and covert sexual advances toward their kids. If it’s not already clear right now, it would have to be to tell you now. I am not sure what an overt romantic relationship is in comics. Why the man in question would do it, why should he allow his child to be exposed to a grown-up adult? That’s how the show actually works. It’s interesting to watch those scenes as an attempt to explain this behavior. In particular, it’s interesting to see how the younger characters are depicted as being able to control this behavior. It’s extremely strange that someone would think it would be necessary to allow the girls be exposed to a man to sexually harass them. This man is obviously an alcoholic too, and, more significantly, someone who has just had some serious problems with family and relationships. What does that leave them when there’s someone watching and trying to help or treat them? I don’t see how this is a good approach. It’s obvious that a father is going to be trying to use this to make his kids happy, but there’s no way to tell unless and until there’s some evidence of it happening.
The movie is an emotional roller coaster of a movie, one where the main characters are taken very far from the actual reality and all the emotions that are associated with these issues. Here, the adult character doesn’t realize that he or she would have to make up his own excuses for what he did. He or she is almost wholly responsible for their alcoholic parent. In addition, some of those adults are willing to allow this to happen, and can certainly make the situation more extreme than would be desired. As if that weren’t bad enough, some of them even make it into the film.
As an aside: As with most comics, I have never seen anything like this kind of approach. I’m often puzzled as to why comics tend to allow a group of characters to do this, but I have to say that it happens, and one of the reasons it’s not very popular is that they don’t use real life, fictional characters as the impetus for making the storyline. A lot of the children involved in the film seem to have been exposed to the idea of child abuse while this is a rather extreme example. Also, as in any real child abuse story, there’s a lot of drama going on behind the scenes. So that’s why it took a lot of time before Marvel realized how to deal with the fact that there will be consequences associated with the abuse. This scene with Jess, for example, was taken for too long, because it was a really shitty scene if that happened. It
Supposedly, there are no marital problems between the couple other than drinking although as the movie goes along we begin to realize why. Michael is a full-fledged enabler and often in a caretaker role for Alice. When she is sober, she runs the household. When she is drinking, she becomes Michaels third child. Michael has some control issues or feels the need to be needed because he simply takes on this caretaking for his wife. He enables her and yet makes her feel horrible about herself for drinking, which leads to more depression on her part. Michael enjoys, in many ways, playing the role of the big, strong man who rescues his damsel in distress. In fact, when Alice begins to get sober, he clearly is not as enamored of her. He loves her but has become accustomed to his role in the marriage. The viewer questions Michaels upbringing as in this marriage, he is frequently a victim of abuse. Yes, he is condescending to his wife, treating her like a child. He also is the victim of her wrath and seems more than willing to just put up with it. There is no question that they are co-dependent. She gets drunk, and he takes care of her. When things get really bad, she tries to blame him for this, but this co-dependency is both their faults.
Alice