The Typical Alcoholic?

Alcoholism is an addiction that is possibly the most portrayed in all of media. It is usually associated with a character people would consider a bum. Such characters like those in crime shows that are always lurking in alleys behind bars or others like Frank Gallagher from the show "Shameless" who constantly fluctuates between degrees of homelessness and spends the majority of his income at the local bar. It is also sometimes portrayed in more comedic ways through characters such as Homer Simpson or Bender from "Futurama" who make drinking to excess seem fun including activities like drunk driving. Media sets up those two extremes in their portrayal of alcoholics making it hard to see someone who does not fit the mold and may need some help.

My freshman year I met a guy through a friend of mine who quickly became my friend as well. Now considering I did not know this person very well and that he never seemed "off" in anyway while we were with each other I was surprised when he told me some time later that he had been drunk through almost all of our encounters since we met. This did not just include going out on the weekend, but during events such as the 9 am three days a week lecture we shared that freshman year. Nothing struck me as wrong until he picked up his first DWI. We had a chat about this as it is a terrible and stupid thing to do and he said that it was a one time mistake and I had no reason not to believe him... until he totaled his vehicle and nearly died two weeks later while once again driving drunk. This is when I found out about his drinking problem and he told me how hard it had been since coming to college citing influences such as the fake ID he had obtained and his fellow fraternity brothers. After this second incident he went back home out of state and went through a treatment facility there. He has done pretty well since then with some exceptions, but is has now been sober for well over a year.

When I think back to when we first met I ask myself how could I not see that there was a problem. I realized that I may have noticed as excess of drinking, but freshman me was just like "it's college, it's what students do". Where did this thought come from? It came from portrays of alcoholism I had seen growing up and none of them had included the college student that went out and drank 5 times a week. It is ingrained in the culture, it is not unusual to drink four times a week with "Wine Wednesday", "Thirsty Thursday", Friday, and then Saturday. This culture is glamorized in media through shows like "Blue Mountain State" which I remember watching a couple episodes of and thinking "Am I not having enough fun in college?".

There is no stereotypical alcoholic. To be an alcoholic one does not need be a grizzled old man that drinks their family into squalor or gets into bar fights every weekend as portrayed by media. They can be anyone, and if others realized that then more people that are struggling with alcohol addiction could be identified and helped.