The Illusion That TV Shows And Movies Often Portray With Alcohol

It is estimated that there are over 140 million people worldwide who are alcoholics that are either active in their addiction or in recovery from it. Sadly, that number only seems to be growing each year. And lately, I’ve been wondering if this is the case partially due to the way the consumption of alcohol is continuously being portrayed in television and movies.

I watch various fiction based television shows and movies quite a bit. While I believe they can be a healthy escape at times from life, they often show alcohol to be a healthy escape from life too, even though it’s not.

How many television shows and movies can you think of right now where you saw someone use alcohol to numb some type of pain they were going through? I’ve already lost count and there are too many scenarios where I see alcohol being used now to help the characters in these scripts cope with the tragedies that can come in life. Here are just a few of them:

A loved one dies and the character pops open a bottle of liquor to deal with it.

A bad breakup occurs and the character gets mega drunk at a bar to deal with it.

A character is abused in some fashion and they turn to booze to deal with it.

A financial disaster happens in a character’s life and they drown sorrows in alcohol to deal with it.

Some would say that art imitates life and that television and movie scripts are only being modeled after what really happens in the world. But what if life is really imitating the art instead? What if the people who never drank alcohol start drinking because they saw it being portrayed in those fictionalized television shows and movies as a way to cope with the misery that can come in life. I can speak from personal experience to know that there is some truth to this statement.

I didn’t consume any alcoholic beverage until the age of 17. For years prior to that age I saw many programs on the television as well as movies in the theater where actors and actresses drowned their sorrows of life through a heavy consumption of alcohol. I never quite understood why they did nor did I ever quite get why my parents liked alcohol so much. That all changed though when the day came where I completely consumed my first 12 ounce beer.

Alcohol is truly a great relaxing agent. It helps to numb one’s senses and thoughts about all the pains and stressors that come in life. The night I had that first beer, I was able to forget about the mental and emotional abuse I dealt with at home. I was able to forget about the man who molested me. I was able to forget about all the bullies who had ever picked on me. And in general, I was able to forget about everything that wasn’t a good memory. While alcohol was a great inhibitor of pain, it took me five years to see how much of an illusion that was. Unfortunately, those fictionalized television shows and movies never showed me this and I spent those five years doing what most of those characters did when something bad happened to them, I drank alcohol to drown it out.

Unless a scripted program or movie is about a person who develops an addiction to alcohol, normally a viewer will never see the downsides that can come with drinking it to numb one’s senses. They rarely show the domino effect of complications that can happen in life from repeatedly doing it such as getting a DUI, developing serious health issues, getting arrested, losing a job, becoming broke, etc. By the end of the five years I drank excessively, I finally realized that no matter how much booze I shoved down my throat, my pain was never going to be fully drowned out. Scripted TV shows and movies back then, and even today, rarely show this. What they show you instead is how a person will use alcohol to deal with a tragedy for a brief moment of their life and then move on. But what they don’t show you is that there are over 140 million of us out there who wouldn’t be able to put the alcohol back down once it’s picked up to deal with that tragedy. Regardless of whether a person falls into that 140 million or not though, the only thing alcohol really does for a person when a tragedy strikes besides making them feel numb from it, is to delay its healing process within them.

I’ve chosen not to delay my healing process anymore from any of the tragedies I’ve dealt with in life. I don’t want any more decades of my life to pass by with me using alcohol or any other agent to numb me from dealing with the downsides of life. I not only prolonged my healing for years in doing this, I became chronically addicted to just about everything just to numb me from the pain in life. Sometimes I wish those scripted TV shows and movies I grew up watching could have shown me this. Maybe it would have made a difference or maybe not. Either way, they created an illusion that I bought into pretty easily that took years off my life and for many others today they still do.

So it’s my prayer for anyone who reads this that you’ll realize much more quickly what took me years to arrive at. While television shows and movies may glorify drinking and lead you to believe it’s a good agent to use for coping when a tragedy strikes, the reality is that heavily consuming alcohol to deal with them will only do two things for you. One, it will numb you and delay your grieving and healing process. And two, it could lead you to a life of alcoholism. Thankfully, God has shown me both and hopefully those scripted television shows and movies will start doing the same.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

All Isn’t Lost…

Have you ever been in that place in life where continuing forward seems like something that’s too difficult to surmount? If you have, then you’re not alone as I too have felt that way so many times throughout my life, especially in the past three years. There is a piece of irony though that always seems to come during those times and it usually arises at the precise moment when I’m really beginning to question whether my Higher Power has totally forgotten about me. What is that irony? It’s the fact that something always seems to come along my way to inspire me to keep going and not give up.

I’m not lying when I tell you that the idea of giving up is something that I’ve thought about frequently over the past year. If you’ve been reading any of my earlier posts, then you’ll know by now that I’ve been enduring chronic pain and have had little relief from it for quite awhile. Doctors, science, and medicine were unable to do anything for it except to offer me some pills to try to numb the pain. But I made the choice almost two years ago now to walk a path free from all of those pills and maintain the belief that my Higher Power will deliver me through and beyond this pain. Sometimes this decision really challenges my sanity, mainly when my pain levels remain heightened for days or weeks on end. But it is definitely true, at least in my case, that something always seems to come along to inspire me to keep going just when I feel like I can’t possibly care about living life anymore.

Today, happened to be one of those days where the thing to inspire me was a movie titled “All Is Lost” and starred only one person for its entire running time. While it’s not based upon a true story, the film is a gripping and almost completely silent tale of a man played by Robert Redford, who is lost at sea and battles one tragedy after enough until it appears he’s lost everything and has nothing left to live for. As I sat and watched him lose one thing after another, I squirmed in my seat thinking of my own life and how I’ve felt a lot like that in recent times. I began questioning why I came to see such a depressing movie given how I’ve been feeling lately, and that’s when the moment arrived where I was suddenly inspired to keep going. As the character Redford was playing cashed in his remaining chip in a last ditch effort to be saved from perishing at sea, it appeared to him it was done to no avail. But as he began to let go and let the ocean become his final resting place, his rescue arrived.

My Higher Power has rescued me time and time again during so many moments of my life where I have started to let go and follow in the footsteps of my father’s tragic demise. Living with constant chronic pain of any kind is something I would not wish upon anybody in this world. But for whatever the reason, my Higher Power always seems to know how best to communicate to me when I’m feeling so overwhelmed by that pain and enveloped in too much darkness. And it always seems to appear in the weirdest of ways, like it did with this movie “All Is Lost”.

If you are like me and suffering with any type of pain right now in life whether it’s spiritual, mental, emotional, or physical, please take a moment, breathe, and know you are not alone. It’s my hope and prayer that these words might become your inspiration to keep going through your own trials and tribulations. My Higher Power hasn’t abandoned me yet and I know that yours won’t either. So remember, just for today, that “All Isn’t Lost”.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Solomon Northrup And 12 Years A Slave

Every now and then a movie will come along that really gives me great sadness when it depicts how poorly people have treated each other in this world throughout its history. This was especially true of 12 Years A Slave when I saw it the other day in the theater.

Based upon the true story of a man named Solomon Northrup, who was a free black man kidnapped and sold into slavery on a visit to Washington, D.C. in 1841, 12 Years A Slave was very painful to watch. While I studied rather intensely the history of the black culture in the United States through several courses in college, never did I see back then such a realistic depiction of the horrors that came with slavery as I did in this movie. The film was so superbly directed by Steve McQueen and acted by Chiwetel Ejiofor playing Solomon, that it made it one of those rare movies where I felt as if I were watching a documentary.

While Northrup was one of the few people who escaped a life of slavery and lived to tell about it, 12 Years A Slave showed how so many others never did. As I watched the movie, I was truly horrified at the beatings, rapes, and gross mistreatments that black men and women went through during those days. It depicted a period in United States history that I find to be rather shameful on our part. Watching some of those horrific beatings and rapes take place made me feel sick to my stomach at how people of the same color as me once thought that this was acceptable. Not too long ago in this country, black men and women were thought of and treated as animals even though they had hearts and souls just like me. It baffles me how the hearts of these slave owners were so cold and ruthless as they beat their slaves senseless, constantly used the “N” word, and kept all of them so deeply oppressed. Thankfully, our country woke up and abolished slavery, but the sad reality is that minorities, like blacks, still aren’t being treated equally in this country.

How many times do you think minority based people are on the receiving end of police brutality these days?

How many times do you think minority based people are refused service at various places of business these days?

How many times do you think minority based people are passed over for promotions even though they were more than qualified these days?

The answer to each of them is a lot more than you think.

While America may have evolved to a country being run by a black man, there are still tremendous examples of gross mistreatment of minorities going on all around us every single day. We may not have slavery anymore, but many Caucasians still do their best to oppress minorities, like black men and women. Many Caucasians still try to retain some status of being the dominant race in this country. But in all reality, we are all equal. We always were in God’s eyes, but the fear of many white men and women led them away from that to practicing things such as slavery.

I’m thankful today I’m doing my best to treat EVERYONE equally no matter what their race, sex, age, disability, language, nationality, religion, or sexual orientation. I wish that could be said true for everyone else in this world, but many are still living in the shadows and darkness where they don’t treat minorities equally. Hopefully, movies like 12 Years a Slave will do a lot more than just entertain people. Maybe it will help to move the hearts of many of those still practicing racism and start leading them far away from any of that type of behavior.

Regardless, I’m just grateful that I don’t try to oppress people like the slave owners once did. I’m also grateful that God has given me a compassionate heart for all types of people. The bottom line is that there is no difference between any of us in this world when it comes right down to it. We all are brothers and sisters to each other as well as children of God. We all have have hearts and souls worthy and deserving of giving and receiving love equally to each other. And if you are practicing anything else in your life than this, then you are no different than some of those slave owners who were depicted in 12 Years a Slave…Now that’s some food for thought isn’t it?

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson