The Heroin Addiction: The Panic In Needle Park

Drug addiction is a serious issue that affects many people; the sad reality to a drug addiction is that not everyone is able to get proper help they need to get better. Many times, these drug addictions only escalate into something much more serious like death due to an accidental overdose. In the film, The Panic in Needle Park, the main character Bobby is a heroin addict who lives in an apartment with his new girlfriend named Helen. They live on the West Side of New York and it is officially known as Sherman Square, but to the heroin addicts it is best known as Needle Park. Helen does not use heroin, but after she spends so much time with Bobby she soon becomes just as dependent on this drug as Bobby is. This film portrays heroin addiction …show more content…
Alcohol is a depressant because it reduces the activity in the central nervous system. This drug is one of the most abused due to its easy access. Alcohol affects everyone differently, but for many it causes sleepiness and reduces anxiety. This is seen in the film because whenever William would drink excessively he would tend to fall asleep and just stay in bed doing nothing. Many times in the film, he would wake up in random places where he had fallen asleep without knowing it. I think that this was a good representation of the fact that alcohol has that effect on the human body of making one sleepy. One thing that I do not feel that the film got was the withdrawal symptoms of alcohol. William gave up drinking twice in the film and each time there were not any withdrawal symptoms shown. When someone is going through alcohol withdrawal they experience delirium, hallucinations, they vomit or shake. This was one thing I did not like about the film because I felt that it was important to show these withdrawal symptoms because it was crucial in showing why William would continue to fall back into his alcoholism. The film overall, had a good a representation of what an alcoholic must deal with in their daily lives, but the accuracy was not the same as with the accuracy displayed in The Panic in Needle Park