Addiction Dilemmas Summary

The first few stories in the book Addiction Dilemmas contain quite a few things in common, as well some major differences. Addictions are not fun to deal with and tend to get extremely messy. These stories testify to this issue, leading us to examine not only the situations of addicted people around us, but also ourselves. These stories all in all portray a mighty picture of the overall theme in the lives of people where addiction is prominent in one’s life or home. One similarity that is obviously depicted in these three stories is the lack of hope the family has for the person that is addicted. In story one, we see Bob who is an alcoholic. His wife Wendy is exhausted with trying to change him, and believes that this is just the way life is. Wendy’s children and Bob’s stepchildren, David and Karen, also lack hope and faith in Bob, though they portray it in different ways. They have both participated in drinking alcohol with Bob and were both equally embarrassed by him. Karen’s approach included pouring out his liqueur or …show more content…
Tim is the son of Peter, who was interviewed for a show called “Tough Love.” In the interview, Peter explained how he reported his son to the local authorities and that he ended up being sent to prison. Peter felt that this was the best choice for his son, though it was “tough love.” Tim, though, was hesitant to agree with his father’s statement. Apparently, as we learn later on in the story, Tim’s father was unable to give Tim his job back at his father’s firm. This made getting a job extremely hard for Tim, due to his criminal background. You can hear the lack of hope in Tim. Even though his dad feels that he did the right thing, he isn’t listening to his son’s own opinions on the matter. Tim makes the statement that addicts already feel lousy about themselves in response to that throwing a child out of the home or into prison leaves them in a worse