My Friend Leonard
The book “My Friends Leonard” was written by James Frey. It is a sequel to “A million Pieces.” The novel takes place in an Ohio prison with James. James gets sent to rehab by his parents, because he is an active drug user and is told if he uses drugs, he will die. Since he cannot be with drugs he says he is going to kill himself, but later decided not too. James has always had an odd relationship with his parents due to the fact James never really grew out of his teen rebellion phase. On the day of his release from rehabilitation, he goes to visit his girlfriend and finds out she had committed suicide due to her grandmother's death. The theme of this book is too never give up, he shows us how he dealt with alcoholism and drug abuse. He wants show his readers to keep going in their darkest times.
James, is our narrator in this “My Friend Leonard.” I think that it helps the readers understand the main theme in this story, James captures pictures with readers eyes by explaining
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It can turn your world upside down. So James portrays the effect of drugs and alcohol and shows its young viewers what can happen if you abuse drugs and alcohol. “ I look at pastries and cakes, tarts and pies. My body craves sugar, always craves sugar. Years of alcoholism and the high level of sugar in alcohol created the cravings, which i feed with candy and soda.” ( James Frey, 112 )
This book is one-hundred percent worth reading. It is an exciting, informational story that really captures how to correctly deal with problems we in our everyday lives. “ My Friend Leonard” is one of the best fictional stories there is out there, targeting the teens of today's day and age. Gives kids a bit of a scare when it comes too the thought of drugs and alcohol and what doing them can change your life forever, overall and amazing, page turner for anyone who is trying too see how to deal with
From interviewing celebrities such as actress Kristen Johnston and politician Bill White, the film identified substance abuse can happen to anyone. I found more sympathy to those once I learned the facts, not opinions, of substance abuse users. It was interesting to find how the physiology of ones’ brain may change over time, thus proving it is not always a person’s free will of choice to use. People of addiction are like anyone else who may have fallen down the wrong path. Some who have found substance abuse for coping, did not realize they were becoming addicts. Others have found the media and advertisement placing pressure on them because it looks entertaining and fun. With limited outreach programs, it is crucial to increase the awareness among young groups for prevention. With fear of being judged, the stigma and health disparities of addiction cause many to not seek help. Equal opportunity should be available to everyone. As a future nurse, I find an important role for me is to lead in educating and being opened minded to the struggles of each one of my patients. My job is to refrain from stereotyping and being an advocate. As healthcare is always evolving to provide the most adequate care, I look forward towards the future as more people are educating and trying to eliminate those struggling through addiction
Gabor Mate 's essay “Embraced by the Needle” addresses important issues on the negative effects that childhood experiences have on the development of addictions, and the long term effects that drugs play throughout an addict 's life. The author states that addictions originate from unhappiness and pain that is often inflicted upon addicts at early age such as infancy. In Mate essay, he uses many patients past childhood experiences to help create a picture of the trauma that an addict faced as child and the link it plays with who they are today. Mate builds an impressive argument based on the way he organizes his ideas on what addiction is, and how it corresponds to a person 's childhood experience. The author does this effectively
The Confidence Alcohol Gave Me: “I believed the people who romanticized those years, the ones who told me to embrace irresponsibility before I was slapped with the burdens of corporate adulthood” (23). Zailckas’ alcohol binging started at a very young age and followed her for nearly a decade. She turned to alcohol because of her peers who told her to live it up while she was still young and before she had to take on all these adult responsibilities. In the novel, “Smashed: The Story of a Drunken Girlhood,” Koren Zailckas opens up about what caused her alcohol addiction and how it left her with lifelong physical and emotional effects. Alcohol is very commonly used because it distracts the mind from the problems we face in life.
The book opens with the narrator, James, waking up on an airplane. He is bleeding, missing four teeth, and has a broken nose. He doesn't know how he got these injuries or where he is going. They tell him that a concerned friend of his contacted them and that his injuries were the result of a fall down a fire escape. James has no recollection of this. James's parents and brother drive him to a rehabilitation clinic. James has three roommatesLarry, Warren, and John. James believes that it's better if no one gets too close to him, since he views himself as a destructive, damaging force with very little to contribute to anyone's life. He is convinced that believing in AA is just exchanging one addiction for another. He embarks on his journey in rehab, always thinking at anytime that he will be leaving because rehab is not for him'. Not a good start seeing how badly he needs some kind of help.
The book “A Million Little Pieces” by James Frey is a heart wrenching story of James’ time in drug rehab. In this book Frey is trying to inform the reader about what it is like to go through rehab. He describes his entire time, from the day before he arrives until the day he leaves. He describes all his feelings and the routine life they give him at the clinic. The main themes of this book are holding on and love. He has trouble making any progress with the program until another patient, named Leonard, gives James a talk about holding on. He also falls in love with a girl named Lilly and finds a new love for his family. This book really illustrates a look at the drug culture and entails a history of James Frey’s stay at the clinic. He begins reading a Taoist book and learns to control his temper better. He sometimes has dreams about a bottle in one hand and a crack pipe in the other. He describes one girl blabbering on about nothing after smoking the rock. It focuses on his progression in his mind and his outlook toward life. In the beginning he hates himself and wants to die, but by the end of the book he is strong enough to smell alcohol and still choose not to drink it.
Alcoholism is one of the most common disorders in the world today. It is a disease, a sickness that harms the body and the mind in the most violent ways possible. The body is racked by a need to suffice its desire, and this leads addicts to do anything to get the alcohol into their systems. In Angela’s Ashes, alcoholism is a major theme, and becomes the destroyer of the families and loved ones that are involved.
Drugs is one of the themes in this story that shows the impact of both the user and their loved ones. There is no doubt that heroin destroys lives and families, but it offers a momentary escape from the characters ' oppressive environment and serves as a coping mechanism to help deal with the human suffering that is all around him. Suffering is seen as a contributing factor of his drug addiction and the suffering is linked to the narrator’s daughter loss of Grace. The story opens with the narrator feeling ice in his veins when he read about Sonny’s arrest for possession of heroin. The two brothers are able to patch things up and knowing that his younger brother has an addiction. He still buys him an alcoholic drink at the end of the story because, he has accepted his brother for who he really is.
The emotional tale of James Frey’s journey in rehab is told in the memoir A Million Little Pieces. Born in Cleveland but living in New York, James Frey was an alcoholic for ten years and a drug addict for another three years before he decided to finally receive treatment at the age of twenty-four. Since his doctor told Frey that he would surely die at the age of twenty-four from his habits of drinking and doing drugs, his family checks him into the oldest rehab clinic in a last effort to change his ways. He fights his evil, or as he calls it the “Fury”, throughout the entire book as it begs for another drink or anything. It begs for anything in his six weeks in rehab. A Million Little Pieces tells the author’s struggle as he attempts to get clean in his treacherous six weeks in treatment.
While both alcoholism and child abuse are prevalent issues in today's society, alcohol is a more prevalent issue at hand. The Glass Castle clearly illustrates the reality of the effects when we as adult abuse our children, and the everlasting effects it has upon our children’s children; domino effect if one must, or vicious cycle that is difficult to break free from. Whatever the case maybe alcoholism and child abuse go hand in hand like fuel and fire, when both combined and united, both are extremely combustible, and deadly. Thus, as we go into depth into the effects of alcoholism and child abuse, we will analyze how people’s lives are impacted from a social, emotional, physical, psychological, and economical standpoint by relating our personal effects to successfully analyze a controversial topic.
This is then followed by insightfully examining the treatment process, specifically through grace as a key focus of overcoming addiction. May focus heavily on desire as the main cause of addiction. He sees addiction as a way to fulfill a universal need that all people have. The text focuses on how we all have this need we want met and that we desire to have more in life. The author looks at how through our desire we all fall victims to addiction because of the fall.
“HE’S GOT THE WORLD ON TWO STRINGS”(pg21). Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers go through a lot since Steve met Nathaniel a homeless man whole plays the violin in downtown Los Angeles. Nathaniel is a homeless man who has paranoid schizophrenia travels downtown Los Angeles pushing his cart with his violin in it. Steve is a writer works for the Los Angeles Times and is always looking for a story for he can write for his column. Both Nathaniel and Steve create a friendship even though with all the challenges but in the book The Soloist it shows how they created a friendship. Even though in The Soloist they talk about how mental illness is a choice, force medication to treat the illness, and the way people treat you.
“For every family that is impacted by drugs, there are another 10 to 15 families impacted by alcohol abuse. It's a pretty big deal. We have a tendency to only look at part of the puzzle.” (Kevin Lewis). As a society we tend to categorize the severity of addiction in a way that drugs are the most dangerous and alcohol being just a problem. Because alcohol addiction can be a slow progressive disease many people don’t see it in the same light as drug addiction. An addiction to drugs is seen as being a more deadly and dangerous issue then that of alcohol because a drug addiction can happen more quickly and can kill more quickly. Alcohol is something that is easy to obtain, something that is found at almost every restaurant. People with an alcohol addiction can not hide from alcohol as easy as a drug addict. Approximately 7 million Americans suffer from alcohol abuse and another 7 million suffer from alcoholism. (Haisong 6) The dangers of alcohol affect everyone from children with alcoholic parents, to teenagers who abuse alcohol, then to citizens who are terrorized by drunk drivers.
This same culture also advertizes alcohol as fun and pleasurable through movies and commercials. This kind of culture clash between the negative effects of addiction, and the implied positive effects of alcohol through marketing, can cause both adolescents and adults to misinterpret society’s stance on addiction. It is no wonder that our society has behavioral problems with young adults when the culture that we live in sends mixed messages about its stance on addiction (Zastrow, 2010). To study this effect on our culture we need to look at all approaches to the problem.
Drug abuse dates as far back as the Biblical era, so it is not a new phenomenon. “The emotional and social damage and the devastation linked to drugs and their use is immeasurable.” The ripple of subversive and detrimental consequences from alcoholism, drug addictions, and addictive behavior is appalling. Among the long list of effects is lost productivity, anxiety, depression, increased crime rate, probable incarceration, frequent illness, and premature death. The limitless consequences include the destruction to personal development, relationships, and families (Henderson 1-2). “Understandably, Americans consider drug abuse to be one of the most serious problems” in the fabric of society. And although “addiction is the result of voluntary drug use, addiction is no longer voluntary behavior, it’s uncontrollable behavior,” says Alan Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Torr 12-13).
Drug abuse and addiction not only has negative effects in the lives of the people involved, but also in the lives of their close relatives, friends and immediate society. It leads to disintegration, failure in school, loss of employment and violence. Although intake of drugs is a voluntary and conscious decision initially, continuous intake of drugs changes the brain and challenges the self-control of the “addicted person” and inhibits the ability to resist extreme desire for drug intake.