Analysis: Don T Drink The Juice

For the entirety of my life, my father has struggled with alcoholism. My father’s addiction left me and my family with no choice but to separate ourselves from him eight years ago. For those eight years, I resented the man we had left. How could I not? His alcoholism, his selfish addiction, had taken my childhood memories of laughter and happiness, and left me with ones of worry and fear. I wondered how he could be selfish enough to idly watch his family suffer as a result of him.

Alcoholism does not only affect a person’s physical, mental, and emotional state, but it also changes the lives of people close to the drinker forever. It ruins relationships and trust that took years to build up, and may never be able to be restored. In Jeannette Walls’s memoir, The Glass Castle, she tells the story of her childhood in which her father was an alcoholic. Jeannette’s father, Rex Walls, was brilliant and charismatic when he was sober, but when he drank, he was destructive and dishonest.

Alcoholism is a demon, a disease, something reached for out of desperation. It helps with a person 's problem by deadening their senses, and increasing his problems at the same time by destroying his character. When you drink, you don 't have to think about all your problems, you can just let the alcohol wash them away from your mind. But it can never take away all your problems—they still remain, just your sense to care for them is gone. Alcoholism has a great chance to pass on to later generations, but sometimes growing up in an alcoholic family will make the children swear off the drink because they have seen what it can turn people into. It turns them into the basic raw human emotion of grief. They are miserable for alcohol is the only thing that can make them feel normal after awhile, their entire bodies ache for it. Even when they have given up drinking, their bodies can revert back after having just one drop again. Yes, alcoholism is truly a terrifying disease of the mind and body—not just to the addict, but also to the loved ones

Do you understand the true meaning of the term alcoholism? Or do you just assume you comprehend this quite difficult situation. Millions of people every year suffer from this tragic disease and its only getting worse as society goes on. The true meaning of alcoholism can be described as a “chronic disease characterized by uncontrolled drinking and preoccupation with alcohol”. Specifically, a notorious writer known as Stephen F King was significantly affected by alcohol abuse. As outstanding and successful of writer King may seem writing over 63 books over 35 years; in which selling over 350 million copies over the years, he still struggles with his addiction. A spark of his addiction started all began when he was only a little boy, living

Alcoholism is a major issue that still plagues our nation to this day. Jeannette Walls experienced this issue first hand through her father, Rex, as depicted in her memoir The Glass Castle. Jeannette’s father was an alcoholic, evident of him always disappearing for days at a time to go on drinking binges and always spending most of the money that the family earned (Jeannette included) on alcohol. Jeannette was not the only one subjected to one’s alcoholism; my wife was also a victim of alcoholism. She was not the alcoholic though, I was. My alcoholism almost destroyed my marriage on numerous occasions. I was verbally abusive toward my wife and I made our day-to-day lives extremely unbearable. Are Rex and I the only ones who affect our worlds and our loved ones through alcoholism? Unfortunately no, we are not. Our nation and our world is filled with people suffering from this pandemic of alcoholism and it has thrived since the early days of alcohol’s discovery. What can we do as a society to better understand and prevent alcoholism? What is it going to take to get control of our lives back from alcohol that has had

Dependance on alcohol has been around ever since its creation and records of writing existed. From Biblical commandments clearly restricting the drink due to its destructive and addictive nature to the celebrities on tv screens and music devices glorifying the substance, alcohol has always been part of various cultures. Being the number one drug problem in the U.S with over 12 million people reportedly being alcoholics and of those 7 million being binge drinkers between the ages 12-20, it comes as no surprise that beneath its shiny and glamorous exterior, this drink comes with its set of problems ("Alcohol Abuse Statistics."). In American society today many people think that being an alcoholic simply stems from laziness and the lack of will to “simply stop.” There is much more to this disorder than having one too many drinks at a bar that people are either ignorant to or just ignore for the sake of judging other individuals. Just like famous English philosopher,William Penn, said: “All excess is ill, but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous and mad.”( "Alcoholism Quotes."). So with all these consequences associated with alcohol, why do people drink? What is alcoholism? Who does it affect? Why does it happen? How can it be solved?

Alcoholism, in some way or another, affects everyone, as it is ever-present in nearly every aspect of American culture. Although there are numerous different opinions on the true main influence that causes alcoholism in an individual, it is an undeniable fact that alcoholism is an addiction, which is a disease of the mind. Alcoholism cannot be fought and cured in just a few days, it takes support from loved ones, willpower, and a competent treatment center. Alcoholism is not a game to be toyed with, is is a very serious issue, which affects many individuals and their families like mine throughout the U.S. I hope that you, whoever reads this essay, learned the biological factors that influence alcoholism, as well as the social and biographical

In the United States alone, there are 28 million children of alcoholics - seven million of these children are under the age of eighteen.   Every day, these children experience the horrors of living with an alcoholic parent. 40%-50% of children of alcoholics grow up and become alcoholics themselves. Others develop eating disorders or become workaholics. Children of alcoholics receive mixed messages, inconsistency, upredictability, betrayal, and sometimes physical and sexual abuse from their parents. They are made to grow up too fast because they must help keep the family structure together by doing housework and taking care of siblings since the alcoholic is not doing his or her part. Children form roles that

A lot of times, people drink because nobody likes them, or because they are constantly around a group of people that don’t like them. “If you’re walking into a room feeling like everyone hates you, and if you do not drink whenever you feel that way, you never learn to check out your [Potentionally Biased] assumptions and just numb the thought” (Szaalavitz). This quote goes along with alcoholism in how it tells the reasons why someone may drink when others are. Many health problems can also come along with Alcohol Abuse or excessive drinking. “Alcohol Abuse can cause many health problems, and become a social and physical problem in your life.” People abuse alcohol, for reasons such as stress or problems in life, another reason people may abuse alcohol is because it has been passed on to them through genetics.

When my father got help over these years I wondered why some people who suffer from alcoholism do not get help or it just doesn’t work for them. In the United States statistically the cost for alcoholic substance abuse is 224 billion according to the national instituted of drug abuse. (National Institute Of Drug Abuse, 2014). The main age groups that starts drinking range from 12-17. This tells me that many people who have this problem of alcoholism really don’t care about their health or they don’t have any guidance in getting help after they turn 18 and continue drinking obsessively. This shows that it does not bring down the population of alcoholics. From the people who use alcohol only, drugs and alcohol, or just drugs only, alcohol comes

Alcoholism is not a disease that effects just the drinker. In time alcoholism will literally tear apart a family. At first communications in a family will be disrupted, then hatred will develop toward the abuser(s), and sure to follow is the physical abuse. In today’s society children suffer a great deal of emotional, psychological, and physical pain due to parental abuse of alcohol.

     There are four phases of alcoholism which take a period of five to seven years to develop. Some of these stages can be skipped or not gone in the same order depending on the person. The first stage is called the warning stage. It happens when the user consumes alcohol as a form of relief for tension to make them feel better. The person’s drinking habits can increase from often to daily or regularly in which he or she will seek more reasons and occasions to drink. Lastly during this stage a tolerance is built from the larger consumption of alcohol. The second stage is dangerous to the person. The drinker has larger quantities of alcohol to obtain relief. More frequent and

Alcoholism is a chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors. The disease is often progressive and fatal if left untreated. It is characterized by impaired control over alcohol use despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking.

particularly forms this addiction. Yet, all research has led to three very distinct components that

The thing about alcoholism, is that it can be defined in multiple ways. One definition, the literal one, expresses that alcoholism is an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency. Now although this is a valid definition, alcoholism can also be interpreted as the disease that makes you too selfish to see the havoc you created, and care about the people you shattered. This definition alludes to idea that addiction can have very negative effects on a family dynamic and relationships. Through the personal experiences lived through by author Rick Bragg and myself, two people who lived with alcoholic fathers, emotional effects of having a parent with alcoholism can be recognized, understood and ultimately sympathized.