Family Therapy Involving an Alcoholic Parent Essay

One in five adults can identify with growing up with an alcoholic relative and Twenty-eight million Americans have one parent abusing or dependent on alcoholic (Walker, Lee, 1998). There are devastating and ubiquitous effects of alcoholism, which vary from psychological, social, or biological problems for families. Counselor’s treating this problem all agree that the relationships within a family, especially between a parent and a child is one of the most influential within a system, but what are the effects on the family when a parent is an alcoholic? Contemporary research has found there is a higher prevalence of problems in the family when alcohol is the organizing principle. In addition, there is copious research on the roles†¦show more content†¦Children of alcoholics (COAs) frequently take on roles of parents and feel responsible for their parent’s problems. Young children often exhibit problem behaviors because of high levels of tension and stres s at home. These behaviors may range from younger children having nightmares, bed wetting, and crying to older children, displaying signs of depression, obsessive behaviors with perfectionism, hoarding, or self-consciousness. COAs have no consistency in their home life, which results in learning from their parent’s behavior. This often leads to significant behavior problems because they are unable to control themselves at home or school. Typically, COAs develop pervasive problems that significantly affect their abilities to learn, communicate, and develop friendships. COAs are exposed to more crime and violence due to their alcoholic parent. COA’s have a higher rate of becoming alcoholics themselves and a lower rate of graduating college. Children of Alcoholics (COAs) in Therapy Previously discussed were unfavorable outcomes for COAs, but this should not be treated as absolute because there are many factors involved that may prevent the negative effects of parent alcoholism (Walker Lee, 1998). 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Michelle Remembers recounts Smith being taken to satanic rituals and raped, saw baby murders, cannibalism and other depravities. During these ceremonies, she claimed Satanists rubbed her with blood and the body parts of dead babies and other horrific

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood - 583 Words

Margaret Atwoods novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, satirizes the movement of religious conservatives that was occurring during its time of publication in the 1980’s. The beliefs expressed by these conservatives are taken to the extreme in the book when a totalitarian government creates a new society that reverses all advancements of women. Through these reversals and formed hierarchies, Atwood creatively makes a statement about the unfair molds in real life that both genders try to break free from. In other words, the story inflates the roles of men and women through the creation of strict regulations in order to show the discriminatory stereotypes that are a reality today. One role that is exaggerated greatly is the portrayal that women are mainly wives and mothers. In the new government, the wives are the top social level of women. This shows that being a wife is what is most desired and respected. Lower down on the hierarchy are the Handmaids who are solely meant to bear children, making women seem as if that is all that they are useful for. â€Å"I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will†¦ Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping.† (Atwood, 95). Offred’s change in perception of herself truly displays the twisted societyShow MoreRelatedThe Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood954 Words   |  4 PagesImagine growing up in a society where all women are useful for is to reproduce. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is an excellent novel of what could potentially be the fate of the future one day. 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Whisperof Aids Essay Example For Students

Whisperof Aids Essay Whats New | Top10 Essays | Login or Signup # Read User Comments# Rate/Comment on this essay# Cite this essay: MLA, APA# Print this essayIndex: Social Issues: AIDSAIDSWritten by: UnregisteredSomewhere among the million children who go to New Yorks publicly financed schools is a seven-year-old child suffering from AIDS. A special health and education panel had decided, on the strength of the guidelines issued by the federal Centers for Disease Control, that the child would be no danger to his classmates. Yet, when the school year started on September 9th, several thousand parents in two school districts in the borough of Queens kept their children at home. Fear of plague can be as pernicious, and contagious, as the plague itself(Fear of dying 1). This article was written in 1985. Since then much has been found out about AIDS. Not enough for a cure though. There probably will be no cure found in the near future because the technology needed is not available. AIDS cases were first identified in 1981,in the United States. Researchers have traced cases back to 1959. There are millions of diagnosed cases worldwide, but there is no cure(Drotman 163). There are about a million people in the United States who are currently infected with HIV(HIV/AIDS 1). It infects the population heavily in some areas of the country and very lightly in other areas. No race, sex, social class, or age is immune(AIDS Understanding 10). AIDS has killed more americans than the Vietnam War, which killed 58,000(AIDS Understanding 10). AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Acquired means that it is not hereditary or introduced by medication. Immune indicates that it is related to the bodys system that fights off disease. Deficiency represents the lack of certain kinds of cells that are normally found in the body. Syndrome is a group of symptoms and signs of disordered function that signal the diagnoses(Hyde 1). You dont catch AIDS, you catch HIV. HIV is the virus that leads to AIDS. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency virus. HIV severely damages a persons disease fighting immune system. There are two viruses that cause AIDS. They belong to a group called retroviruses. The first virus is HIV-1. It was isolated by researchers in France in 1983, and in the U.S. in 1984. In 1985, the second one was identified by scientists in France. It is closely related to HIV-1. It is called HIV-2. HIV-2 mainly occurs in Africa but HIV-1 occurs throughout the world(Drotman 163). There are three stages of the infection. The first stage is acute retroviral syndrome and asymptomatic period. This is the flulike or mononucleosislike illness that most people get within 6-12 weeks after becoming infected. It usually goes away without treatment. From this point on the persons blood tests positively for HIV. The second stage is symptomatic HIV infection. This is when the infected persons symptoms show up. It can last anywhere from a few months to many years. The third and final stage is AIDS. This is when the immune system is severally damaged and the opportunistic diseases set in. The progressive breakdown of the immune system leads to death, usually within a few years. HIV causes a severe wasting syndrome. A general decline in the health and in some cases, death. The virus infects the brain and the nervous system. It may cause dementia, a condition of sensory, thinking, or memory disorder. Infection of the brain may cause movement or coordination problems(Drotman 164). HIV can be present in the body for two to twelve years without any outward sign of illness. It can be transmitted to another person even if no symptoms are present(Drotman 164). When HIV picks up speed, a variety of symptoms are possible. The symptoms include unexplained fever, fatigue, diarrhea, weight loss, enlarged lymph glands, loss of appetite, yeast infections of the mouth and vagina, night sweats lasting longer than several weeks, breathing difficulties, a dry cough, sore throat caused by swollen glands, chills, and shaking(Quackenbush 23). Pink or purple, flat or raised blotches or bumps occurring under the skin, inside the mouth, nose, eyelids or rectum are also symptoms. They resemble bruises, but dont disappear. They are usually harder than the skin around them. White spots or unusual

Vampires, Obsession Throughout Eternity Obsession Essays - Fiction

Vampires, Obsession Throughout Eternity Obsession Vampires, Obsession Throughout Eternity Obsession. A persistent, disturbing preoccupation with an often-unreasonable idea, feeling, object or person; broadly: compelling motivation (Collegiate Dictionary). Many stories have been told of obsessed men and women who waste their lives on lost causes, calling them tragedies. But what if you were immortal? What if you were forever? Then your life would not be wasted, but instead a reason for living would become instinctive. And what if having an obsession, something criticized by mortal humans, was the only way to keep your sanity and appetite for life through eternity? When looking through the vampires eyes in film and literature, we see that the foremost vampires have an obsession, a calling that drives them. Without this obsession, it seems, vampires would be lost through time, wandering the earth with no motivation, and though this may sound redundant, with no life. Vampires, it seems, are more capable of going through time when they have a passion. Whether this passion come s from love, knowledge, or power, vampires such as the ones from Blade, Bram Stokers Dracula, and Interview with the Vampire are all driven by their own obsessions, without which they become lost, empty. According to the film Bram Stokers Dracula (1995), Count Dracula was a man who had sworn to protect the church from its enemies until he found out that his beloved had committed suicide because she thought he had been killed in battle. His love and obsession for her, Whom he prized above all things on earth, was so strong that he then swore off the church and thus became vampire. When we again see Count Dracula, he looks old and weak, and has become very eccentric and seemingly insane. But when by accident he discovers that his beloved is alive in Mina, the fianc? of Jonathan Harker, he embarks on a quest to be with her. He becomes youthful and cunning; his mind seems to be that of a charming and intelligent nobleman; instead of that of an elderly recluse. We see the undead come to life, with powers that overwhelm the imagination. But when Mina decides to leave him to wed Jonathan Harker, he again turns into a monster, a shadow of his former self. The life seems to have drained out o f him. This proves that it was his love for Mina, his eternal infatuation with her that had kept him going through the ages. It is this obsession that forced him to become a vampire, and he then hoped that one day he would be reunited with his love, because he knew that she would not have been able to join him in heaven. And though he knew of the dangers that surrounded him, he risked everything to be with her, for he would have rather die than to lose her again. Love also drives Louis, the hero (or victim, depending on the point of view) of Interview with the Vampire. Louis was a sad person when Lestat turned him into a vampire; his sole reason for living was his own guilt and misery. He did not even allow himself the ultimate pleasure a vampire has and needs, human blood. He feeds off rats and other animals, and wanders the street aimlessly, lost. As he puts it after Lestat tells him that there is no hell, But there was a hell, and no matter where we moved to, I was in it. But when Lestat gives him an undead companion, a young girl named Claudia, his whole world is turned upside down. He has a new thirst for life, literally. He begins to enjoy the very things he had denied himself. As he put it when narrating his story, Time can pass quickly for mortals when theyre happy. With us, it was the same. But when his search for knowledge leads to Claudias death at the hand of other vampires, he loses his spirit and once again becomes lost. As he d escribes his new life: For years I wondered: Italy, Greece all the ancient lands. But the world was a tomb to me. A graveyard full of broken statues. And each of those statues resembled her face. There was another driving force for