Today in class we watched a video from a show called Intervention which featured an alcoholic named Jill. It was interesting to see how from the very start of the video it was established that Jill knew what excessive drinking had done to her, yet she still kept on drinking. A good point was brought up that she was doing that as a way out but also to justify her actions. In Jill's head, she was thinking that if someone really cared for her they would stop her and "save" her.
Despite all that, the part that made me think a lot was seeing how Jill did not wake up one day being an alcoholic, but instead the chain of events that took place for her to get to that point. The divorce had a huge impact on her because she grew up without a dad and consequently she would seek the attention from boys. However, I think the most impactful moment would be her ex-boyfriend leaking her sex tape.The reason for that, is because I believe that in her mind she might have thought "A lot of people already saw me naked, no point in trying to act 'decent'".What made matters worse was the fact she was in a place where 90% of the population was Mormon. Now not only was she ashamed in her school, but her entire community looked down on her which I think contributed to her falling addicted to alcohol.
You bring up an interesting point: she was waiting for someone to "save" her. I think this a really good example of not taking responsibility for her actions. She understood that what she was doing was bad for her (cognitive dissonance), and yet she continued to blame it on other people: her dad for leaving, her mom for never saying "I love you", her sisters for enabling.
ReplyDeleteGood point; I think that her alcohol problem could also be a cry for attention from the people she cares about, as well as a way to escape her pain and hurt. In addition, she has spent her entire life trying to get her mother to pay attention to her and tell her she loves her, and in a way, this could be a desperate attempt for attention and saving.
ReplyDeleteThere is 2 ways people can respond in life; they either can overcome or live life with regrets, but in this situation it seemed as if there was no way for Jill to escape leading to her alcoholism.
ReplyDeleteI think you all make good points and I agree. I also think that, as a result of her boyfriend's betrayal, she felt helpless. She could undo that traumatizing event and she learned to feel helpless. She is an example of learned helplessness because she was saw no way for her to fix her problems, so she did not deal with them. She further learned helplessness when her family supported her alcoholism. When she needed them, they came running, and so she learned that she never needed to help herself.
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