My mom and I love watching the TV show This Is Us and recently on the show, drug and alcohol addictions were discussed. Kevin, an aspiring actor, misuses pain killers and alcohol, and it turns out his dad and grandpa were alcoholics. He had the pain killers because he had two knee surgeries, one in high school and one after an accident on the set of a movie, and he was taking too many pills because he thought that would help him get better. When he could no longer get the pain killers prescribed, he turned to alcohol. So, the show represents addiction as a hereditary thing that starts with pain control, and affects everybody, but celebrities are more susceptible.
In media in general, there is always some celebrity that is doing some type of drugs or is in rehab for something. Is this because celebrities live their lives in the spotlight, or because they end up turning to addiction to deal with the spotlight? The writers for This Is Us easily could have written Kevin's twin sister, Kate, as the alcohol addict, but they chose Kevin, the celebrity. Also, you hear more about males with alcohol addictions rather than females. When bad things happen to others and its in the media, normal people always say "that won't happen to me", so I think they made Kevin the addict because normal people, like Kate, don't have these problems, only celebrities do. Celebrity Kevin with the alcohol addiction will sell more magazines than Nobody Kate with the eating addiction. Also, celebrities can bring awareness to addictions because of all of the attention on them.
People always find some way to make addictions hereditary, this is a common-sense thing. I know my parents always told me "So-and-so's dad was an alcoholic, so it makes sense why so-and-so is one too." We know that people who have parents that were addicts are more susceptible to becoming an addict, but Robin is an example that not everyone with this addict gene expresses it. Some people are able to control themselves (free will?) and not drink if their parent(s) was an alcoholic, but some aren't able to. So, I think the portrayal of addiction in This is Us was an accurate construction of what we currently know about addiction.
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I wasn't even thinking of addiction brought on by doctors themselves when I wrote my post, so I think it's interesting that you opened with that! I think it's easy to view addicts, whether it be drug or alcohol addiction, as "bad people," but it's just as easy to forget that some addicts end up innocently addicted because of prescription medication.
ReplyDeleteI also appreciate that you brought up the concept that women aren't as commonly talked about in terms of addiction. I also wrote about a TV show in my post (Shameless) and notice after your post that the main character, who is addicted alcohol, is a man; and all of the characters that seem to be constantly drinking are men. I know you're focusing on the fact that your male character is a celebrity, but I wonder if the situation would still be as crucial to the plot line if Kate were the celebrity with the alcohol addiction...
I love This Is Us as well, but I haven't thought deeply on the reasoning behind the decisions the writers made as to which character has which affliction. It is interesting that the perpetuity of celebrities dealing with addiction is portrayed in the show. You bring up a good point when you asked whether celebrities seem to have more addictions because they are in the spotlight, or possibly if they develop these addictions to deal with the spotlight. It's a chicken-and-the-egg dilemma it seems. I wonder if the writers of the show will continue to write any commentary on why Kevin has addiction issues while his brother, who comes from two parents riddled with addiction, has never had an issue (or if it will be shown that he also struggles but has found a way to healthily avoid it). Maybe they are trying to shed a light on how often celebrities fall prey to addiction struggles. Interesting... Thank you for making me think more deeply about the show and addiction, I'll be watching more closely from now on.
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