Random media triggers
 

Reflecting back on my life, I realize what a powerful influence certain TV and movie scenes have had on me. I am 100% not blaming the actors nor the folks that make these films- It's on me. But as a younger man I realize these things did send a message that drinking alcohol was normal and expected. Some of these are really obscure, but I remember them so well. Please feel free to add yours.

- Good Will Hunting bar scenes

- Happy Gilmore "Hey how bout a beer" bar scene with Shooter M.

- Shawshank Redemption rooftop beer drinking scene

- Regal Beagle bar scenes Threes Company

- Tommy Boy, David Spade character drunk in car

- Dumb and Dumber "lets get a bowl of loudmouth soup"

- Beer commercials esp "Hey Beer man!" and "Real men of Genius"

- Any TV show where the guy tells the bartender "Make it a double"

- The Hangover movies...pick a scene

- Homer Simpson. He's brought me a lot of laughs over the years...but I think his constant Duff beer drinking did sink into my thinking a little. Yeah that's a little embarrassing I admit...

- To Live and Die in LA. Main character "Let's go get drunk and play cards"

-The Exorcist bar scene

- Bad Teacher various scenes about getting wasted

-Rambo bar scene, big cop drinking Wild Turkey

There are hundreds more, I am sure. But these stuck out.

Seems as though Alcohol is portrayed as either:

1.) The only way to have a good time. Or

2.) The poor sad sap has to have a drink to relieve his miserable life.

Thanks for reading, I realize this is a bit of a strange post. But I know these images affected me.

Back in the day Cheer's was a big trigger for me, I was a fairly level banker at the time and had a bar downtown that basically everyone knew your name, but today movies are not one of my triggers as I learned to let go of those thoughts.

All the best
Andrew

I noticed a lot of refrences to drinking in songs and music videos too.
And my favourite soaps have everyone boozing! Even supposedly during their lunch breaks when they work in a machine factory...sure that would be against health and safety now!

In the UK we have a popular soap called EastEnders that goes out four times a week. Every episode features drinking whether at the pub, the bar or at home. It used to trigger me, now it just annoys me. It normalises drinking every day and I think this is unacceptable for a nationally funded program.

Yeah thats one of the soaps I watch..and Corrie...I mean who drinks in their lunchtime now and then goes and operates machinery? It can't even be deemed to be realistic. At the BBC with Eastenders normalising everyday drinking..it probably is what the dodgepots at the BBC do with all that lovely free licence money, boozy meetings, luncheons etc

I was too busy drinking to bother with movies. The cinema cost too much and I did not own a tv.

that tv show on netflix jessica jones got me how she'd just put a bottle up on the desk and drink like an alcoholic would. and i was idolizing how she drank a bit too much while watching the show. everytime a she'd drink you'd think it was a scene with naked lady or somethign how i'd perk right up and be like oh yeah there is !

and ya know if it wasnt a good show I probably woulda just quit watching it becuase i was idolizing that aspect of the show way tooo much for my liking.

I don't believe in "triggers" in specific things, really, but I'll add to this completely accurate summary of our celluloid world that in recent years (past couple decades really) a TON of media/advert/TV/etc drinking culture "promotion" has been aimed at women.

There is a lot of research on the fact that womens' drinking (and alcoholism) has continued to climb (well outpacing mens') and among influences cited, particularly for "early drinkers" like teens and 20s are shows from the 90s (Sex and The City "cosmo culture") to Scandal (Olivia Pope lives on wine and popcorn and the occasional Ghetty's Burger) etc....the popularity of things like Skinny B*tch wines, "mommy's sippy cup" play group culture....so many behaviors around drinking have been greatly normalized - and these are definitely not "normal" drinking behaviors.

yeah one other thing that drives me nuts is i've watched a few tv shows where they are all getting drunk one night the next morning all going out for a run all happily. and i'm ilek this is a load of crap no one drinks like that one night then just happily goes for a run the next day. and top it all off they are all attractive fit and trim and drinking like this too? I watched one show and was liek ok I call BS no one can drink like that remain fit thin healthy etc...

they basicly paint this incredibly FAKE picture of what drinking like that does to someone. They make it look fun and great like you too can go drink like that all ngiht long and simply wake up the next day happy and go for a run and feel just fine and be slim and trim and beuatiful. Thats BS the reality is you wake up feeling like trash and TICKED off that you cant be like those folks on tv or like everyone else who in your head you seem to think can do all these things but you cant. When its not true. No one can do that stuff routinely long term etc... no one can!

This is random but I always notice how the Presidents in TV shows drink scotch. From Jed Bartlet to Fitz Grant, there are ALWAYS scenes where a tough day leads to opening that decanter on the end table in the Oval. Not that they get drunk, but it's Stiff Drink Time. Makes me happy to think that Obama or whoever would be throwing back a couple before he talked to, oh, the Russians. What's next....Hillary's 2.5 size goblet of wine at her desk? I am being a bit facetious but....

Fortunately for me, the way my drinking ended was so traumatic that that is usually what I recall when confronted with what might have once been a trigger. What I am more aware of now is anxiety brought on by scenes of someone who is obviously alcoholic being suddenly separated from alcohol. Withdrawal is something I never wanna have to go through again!

I am always amazed at how, on fictional camera, someone can down a bottle of vodka, be falling down drunk, and then theres some crisis, and they instantly sober up! Cool trick!
Even the scenes of someone meant to be in withdrawal on Eastenders was incredibly easy and short lived.
And how come hardly any drunk women fall over on the dance floor, revealing all..walk out of the loo with their skirt tucked into their tights, be sick into the glass they are drinking out of, or on the floor, or on the person sitting next to them..or have mascara halfway down their cheeks and lipstick halfway up them?
If you are going to show someone getting chemist, at least keep it real

Honestly, I think there's a lot of media that sheds the correct light on alcohol abuse. I remember a lot of times drinking, and being confronted with the abuse on the screen, and getting very uncomfortable. I had preferred to watch things that had nothing to do with alcohol.

It's romanticized for sure, but there's a flip side to it. Probably more so than most other things that get romanticized but actually have very dark sides to them. I don't feel all that lied to.

It's not so much the films that confront alcohol abuse, like Leaving Las Vegas and other films like that. It's how it's getting neigh on impossible to watch any TV (in the UK at least) where someone doesn't regularly reach for a drink.
Celebrating? Lets have a drink Sad? a drink will cheer you up Had a bad day? Lets pick a bottle of wine up on the way home. The number of times on TV programmes I hear someone say "I NEED a drink" defies belief

If the media portrays alcohol in these two ways, it's because us alcoholics use it this way.

I'm of the same mind. Our addictive minds will find anything they can to justify even thoughts of alcohol.

I drank every day all the time, no matter what the media said or didn't say, nor what anyone else around me did or didn't do. The problem was ME and how I dealt with life around me. Alcohol and drugs will always be "all around", that's just the nature of life. The true solution is learning how to change ourselves to deal with it, vs trying to make the world change for us - which is not possible.

*Schindler's List
*Sophie's Choice
*Twelve Years A Slave
*The Wizard of Oz
*How to Train Your Dragon

Not a trigger for me.

If you want the ultimate anti-trigger, watch Leaving Las Vegas with Nicholas Cage. Or Flight with Denzel. I mean, d*mn.

NCIS.

Gibbs is always drinking bourbon in his basement after work.