Relapse Of Therapy In Kinney's 'Loning The Grip'

An author’s purpose is often revealed through the rhetorical strategies that he/she uses throughout their piece. David Sheff uses anecdotes and emotional appeal in order to achieve his purpose: to give a different view on the disease that is addiction. Similarly, Caitlin Alifirenka, Martin Ganda, and Liz Welch use emotional appeal and contrast of perspective in I Will Always Write Back to convey the message that standard of living should not limit a person’s capabilities.

“Under the Influence” by Scott Russel Sanders is a personal essay about Sanders’ father and specifically, his alcoholism. As the title of the essay suggests, his father is under the influence of alcohol, but this essay will argue that Scott Sanders is under the influence of his father. Sanders uses the structure of the personal essay to reflect on how his childhood was negatively impacted by his father, and to reveal to himself how his childhood affects his present adulthood. Sanders writes that “the story ends” for his father but that “the story continues” for his siblings, his mother, and most significantly, for himself. (Sanders 733). He continues to write that “for all this grown up knowledge I am still ten years old” and “as that boy I

Alcoholism is a chronic brain disease that affects all walks of life and does not have any bounders (Gossop, Stewart, & Marsden, 2008). I choose to attend an Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) meeting since this disease is prevalent among adolescents and adults. The meeting was held in the first-floor forum at Pilgrim Congressional Church in Queens New York. The goals of the AA meeting were stated explicitly by the leader conducting the meeting. The mission of the organization is to maintain sobriety by helping alcoholics achieve recovery. The organization provides clients with relevant materials such as pamphlets and flyers and states that all information shared in the meeting will remain confidential and will not be shared with anyone. The statement of anonymity was read to the members at the beginning of the session to ensure confidentiality.

“Under the Influence” by Scott Russell Sanders is a poignant essay relaying Sander’s struggles with his father’s alcoholism. Sanders’ essay is revealing in ways that statistics and studies on alcoholism cannot possibly contain. Sanders’ essay is like a catalog of the devastating emotional effects of his father’s alcoholism. In his essay, Sanders convincingly counteracts misconceptions about alcoholism and supports the argument that alcoholism is more like a disease rather than the common misconceptions of alcoholism.

Alcoholism is a significant problem in American society. About 20 million people in the United States abuse alcohol and out of that number, around 10 million are addicted to alcohol and considered an alcoholic ("Alcoholism" 1). In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette's father, Rex, shows signs of being an alcoholic. His disease puts a lot of strain on the family and relationships within the family and eventually, Jeannette's father dies from heart failure, a common disease caused by alcoholism. Rex Walls can be identified as an alcoholic father by most of the six identifiers of an alcoholic from the American Addiction Center.

If you look at The Shining by Stephen King, Jack Torrance became an alcoholic in his young adult life and saw a need for it during any situation. During one night of drinking, his young son, Danny, made him mad and he then accidently broke his son’s arm because there was nothing being done about his alcoholism. That night became a defining moment in his family’s life, he continued to drink and almost lost his entire family because of his addiction. Luckily, he stopped because he was so terrified of a car ride/accident that happened one of the nights after he had been drinking with a friend, if this hadn’t happened his wife would have most likely divorced him. Every day, Jack’s wife, Wendy, looked and could not forget what he had done to their innocent son because of alcohol and his anger issues. Jack had only one friend – who was also an alcoholic – and had no social life because alcohol had driven him away from everyone and everything else; his job included. This addiction destroyed his life in the end and his family barely made it out alive. Another example of the effects of addiction, is Mary Tyrone’s addiction to morphine in Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill. Her addiction tore apart her family for over a decade and treatment barely helped, granted that was back when less was known about addiction. People that struggle with addiction are often all alone because their addiction has driven people away and then they use the substance even more because of

He/she must feel compelled to completely change their lifestyle and work every day to complete their task. The next thing a recovering addict must do is explore treatment options to help cope with the stress and feelings that may happen. Another way an addict can recover is by reaching out for support from family, friends, or therapist. Lastly, the addict needs to base their new life on a meaningful addiction free life. He/she must always focus on obtaining their goal to ensure they will be addiction free. In the story “A River Runs Through It” Norman was able to understand that overcoming the wrath of addiction is not an easy task. “To him, all good things- trout as well as eternal salvation- came by grace; and grace comes by art; and art does not come

My brother has been clean and sober for about a year. During the two years of his addiction I found it difficult to live with him and even be around him. I was never able to talk to my brother about his addiction because the drugs had transformed him into a completely different person as if someone else was living in his skin. I lived in complete fear of my brother. I didn’t feel comfortable at home whenever my brother was there, so I stayed out late to avoid being at home. My grades slowly dropped because I didn’t have time to do any schoolwork and I would miss out on lessons because I would sleep in class. I knew that I couldn’t blow off my schoolwork, so instead of staying out late I would stay in school to finish any work that I had left.

Children who are in the care of alcoholic parents suffer the idea of shutting out what they feel towards the events that go on around them. As the article “ Growing up with Alcoholism: alcoholism is a disease that affects the entire family” says, “They continue the role of being good or bad or funny or lost to keep

Sanders’ essay, Under the Influence, forced me to understand the complexity of alcoholism by painting a graphic picture of a horrible situation. I will no longer accept society’s whimsical terms for drunks, alchohol, or alcoholism. I will see the disease as the ravaging monster Sanders’ suffers through. I found Sanders’ honesty to be appealing and the reason I enjoyed the miserable narrative. Sanders’ essay was an wonderful persuasive piece that did its job of forcing me to understand the true horror of

An article by Newsweek which was from September 22, 2008 called "A Son Finds His Way" by Dennis Milroy. It is about a man talking about what happen during his childhood. He explains that his parents were never there for him when he needed them. His parents were alcoholic but they never doubted their love for him and sister and certainly they were not abused. He did many things that got him into trouble but it was him to be blame for all his reckless behavior. He wanted discipline and guidance from his parents but never got it and that they both raised themselves. The parents and the son were both to be blamed.

The a Angela’s ashes portrayed the growth of a boy, Frankie, as he said: "Even more unfortunate than usual is the Irish tragic childhood: even more unfortunate than the Irish tragic childhood is the Irish Catholics Childhood. "However, he did not despair, decadent, but in a

The study found that those who had stronger family ties were far less likely to consume alcohol

Family systems theory is a framework for understanding families and their strengths and dysfunctions. The strengths identified among family relations can be used to help solve existing problems. The same applies with problems identified. The family system theory is based on Bowen’s theory which argues that people cannot leave independent of each other’s network of relationships. People within a family are connected emotionally, which affects their overall well being and social relations and behaviour. There is a growing complexity and diversity in families. Family systems theory provides a foundation for analysis of such complex and diversified families, making it easy to understand for effective therapy (Zastrow &

Gwen exhibits several different coping and defense mechanisms throughout rehab. Gwen deals with her life by drinking, smoking and abusing Vicodin. Schub (2016) states, “Women who abuse alcohol often drink as a coping mechanism for social problems, mood disorders, trauma and stress related disorder, and low self-esteem” (p. 1). Gwen displays denial, displacement, rationalization, and compensation as coping and defense techniques in her life. She is trying to cope with events and things in her life that her mind wants to protect her from.