ADDICTION: SDOCIETY'S PROBLEM

In the film Bright Lights, Big City, the focus is on a highly competitive life-style. Keeping up with peer pressure and the drive to succeed at all costs. For generations, various entertainment media, including films, have always portrayed the "lovable drunk". Performers from Dean Martin to Foster Brooks have garnered laughs from their portrayals of drunks. It was really not until Lost Weekend, Days of Wine and Roses and Panic in Needle Park, that addicts to drugs or alcohol were chillingly shown. Addicts were no longer "lovable" but often victims of the fast-paced life-style of the 20th Century.

Jamie Conway is an addict to so many different substances, alcohol, cocaine, pills, sex, and the crowd of his peers. He is easily maneuvered, and even though he tells his friend (and fellow abuser) "Do you ever think of spending a quiet evening at home?", he himself doesn't do that. We are left wondering "Why?" He is trying to write, but unsuccessful, or not

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f the criteria for substance dependence: "A great deal of time is spent in activities nec3essary to obtain the substanceà.use the substanceàor recover from its effects" (Substance dependence 131). Even at the very end of the film. Jamie is not in complete denial but "rather in a state of ambivalence" (Trimpey 199). New York, the big city with the bright lights, is not conducive to substance abusers' trying to right their own ships. Jamie certainly needs to get away from his current peer group, who spend the workday waiting for night and party-time. Whether returning home with his brother to Bucks County is the first step is difficult to imagine. Getting out of New York, finding a quiet place where his imagination could begin to work so he could attempt to write again, would be a big first step. He does not seem to get along too well with brother or father, so some sort of open-ended medical treatment in a facility might be the answer. He needs a role model, guidance, and a strong personality to help him avoid substance abuse, or even the reason for it. Inpatient treatment, therefore, would seem to be recommended. Frankly, the idea that substance abuse is a brain disease is somewhat off-track, especially after viewing B
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1276
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)