Essay - Case Study--alcoholism Alcoholism: the Case Study of Mike S. This...

CASE STUDY--ALCOHOLISM

ALCOHOLISM:

THE CASE STUDY OF MIKE S.

***** case study concerning the drinking history of Mike S. is fairly typical, due to ***** fact that many alcoholics can trace their first drink back to their father or older brother. In this case, since ********** ***** refused to share his beer with his young son, it was Jim, Mike's ***** brother, who bears the responsibility of turning ***** younger ***** into a full-blown alcoholic. Also, Mike S. relates that he and his friends stole ***** from the refrigerator ***** snuck into ***** woods to enjoy a few *****s of beer. This too is typical of the history of many alcoholics who truly began their drinking life as children, for Mike admits that he w***** twelve years old w*****n these clandestine meetings in the ***** first began.

***** S. also admits that he turned from drinking beer to "real booze" at ***** age of thirteen. The progression here is ***** typical, for Mike relates ***** "By this time, there were girls in the gang... and they began to organize parties... ***** boys (including Mike) began ***** steal whiskey and gin from their parent's house... " (46). In addition, ***** soon discovered that his mother was hiding "half-gallon jugs of gin in a closet" (46) which shows th*****t the trait ***** alcoholism ran deep in ***** family. In high school, Mike's physical condition had already been severely affected by his ***** and ***** the time he was twenty, he had experienced problems with drinking and driving, for his driver's license was revoked "after his third DWI accident and arrest" (50). Clearly, Mike S. at t***** age of twenty was clearly on the road toward acute alcoholism, for he "had reached that psychological state where the only descriptive word that fit ***** worthless" (50).

However, unlike his peers, Mike S. "got lucky" ***** realizing he had hit the bottom which "motivated him to turn his life around" (*****) by joining Alcoholics Anonymous. His experiences here are also typical, ***** at *****, he denied his drinking problem, but ***** realized that only a "hig*****r power" could help him to s*****p drinking. Luckily, AA worked for Mike, ***** he went on "to earn... college degrees," found a good job and got married. Unfortunately, his bro*****r Jim was not so lucky, for he died from alcoholism at the age ***** thirty-five. Overall, this ***** ***** is quite valuable, for it demonstrates the insidious ***** of alcohol and shows how a person's life can be utterly ruined by drinking.

Mike *****: Happiness is Being Numb." Alcohol Abuse: A Chemical Escape. Ch.