The limo is borrowed by Gwen Cummings and crashes it when she was busy on her cell phone trying to replace he had destroyed due to her drunkenness. She is taken into a rehabilitation centre but very reluctant to undertake offered programs at the start. But latter reexamine her life and decide to change, though this complicates her relationship with Jasper her boyfriend.
She moves ahead befriending a recovering heroin addict who harms himself occasionally. All other inmates assisted her to realize herself as she tries to come back to her senses and deal with her alcoholism, at the end, she tries on giving up the alcoholism (‘28 Days’).
The movie shows demographic factors played a role to alcoholism; such factors included race, age gender income level and culture. From the movie, people of all ages were drinking, for instance Andrea was 17 years but much addicted.
All men and women were alcoholic, for instance Gwen and her mother were women, while men were Jasper and Eddie. Race and cultured played a role in predisposing to the alcohol dependence. It was like Native Americans who were rich drunk more. The main character was matched the description and the difference was not there with what was discussed.
The effects of alcohol include being prone to making decisions that are not good due to immature prefrontal cortex, this is seen when Gwen ruined her reception at her sister’s wedding. Makes people drink more over time. This effect might lead to alcohol dependence and abuse.
It might also make individuals take risks that need to be avoided, during the accident; she was drunk, on phone while driving (‘28 Days’). Alcohol ends up damaging memories as the area of the brain that store the brains might be damaged. It also leads to self denial, this was seen when she entered recovery as she was reluctant in taking up recovery programs claiming that she was not an addict.
When she decided to have sincere desire of getting out of the condition, it let to a stigma of being rejected. This is because; it ended up complicating relation with Jasper who was her long-term boyfriend. She also suffered abuses, as she was raised by her mother who cared less, hence provided conditions that led to the current conditions that Gwen was passing through (Wolz par 6)
Jellinek’s Alcoholism Types include: Alpha alcoholism; which forms the earliest of the disease. Gwen falls under this category. The reason being that clearly depicted that she time and again dependent on alcoholic drinks to control her physical as well as psychological feelings; these was what Japer believed in.. She is the problem drinker, as she creates social and personal problems as in the case of destroying her reception at the wedding, and the accident issue, (‘28 Days’).
When she really wanted to, meaning that she had not lost control, hence she had no disease. Other Jellinek is Beta alcoholism; this involves drinking every day. Has no addiction and show no sign of suffering at the time of withdrawal.
It is apparent that one notable factor that instigates alcoholism is genetics; there are a number of genes in human beings that make some persons to be at higher risks of being alcoholism. This is among the causes that led to the addiction of Gwen. Looking at her family background, her sister was just recovering from addiction.
Her mother was also a drunkard (Wolz par 12). This shows that she comes from a family that drinks much. Another factor is emotional state. One’s emotional pains like these Gwen had, of being abused in her young stage, led her to drink alcohol to Prevent turmoil. Psychological factors like depression make people to become addicted. Gwen also had a partner, who was a criminal and drank regularly (Hubplace par 10)
Gwen became obsessed with alcohol; she always thought of drinking and never cared about anything else, this can be shown in the case where even on her sister’s wedding, she is drunk. She always engaged in drinking behavior of drinking even if it was causing harm to her, this can be shown when she ruined the reception at her sister’s wedding.
She even goes a head driving the limo, while knowing that she was drunk. When taken to the rehab, she thinks that, she is not the problem; this shows that she was denying her problems, hence too difficult to leave the habit (‘28 Days’).
The slogan of her friend Jasper that defines meaningful life as minimization of pains let Gwen to drink to gain comfort. The fun that her mother made of life by raising children in similar conditions that Gwen finds herself in, her mother didn’t care what her children were doing (Wolz par 8).
Her recovery was affected by the complexities in her relationship with Jasper. It was also affected by her engagement with a heroin addict which makes her more addicted. The factors that led to her recovery include; the mess that happened during her sister’s wedding. This let to her being taken to the rehab. Another factor was the encouragement she got from her friends in the rehab (Wolz par 8).
Gwen had reached the crucial stage. This is because when told to chose to either go to the rehab or jail, she is ready to go to the rehab, meaning that she wanted to change. At that time she was imbibing heavily though not always. She ended up losing control to the extend of drinking on the day her sister was to wed. She felt ashamed after the mess she did on a wedding day and felt sorry. The incident at her sister’s wedding that left her ruining her reception by destroying the wedding cake (‘28 Days’).
Her treatment program involved: detoxification and withdrawal; involved taking medication to prevent withdrawal seizures. Followed by medical assessment and treatment; this involved assessing medical problems associated with alcohol like blood pressure (Hubplace par 12) Psychological support and psychiatric technique; it was carried out both in groups and individually to deal with psychological effects of alcoholism, (‘28 Days’).
There were emphasize on abstaining and acceptance to enable her accept that she was an addict and control her drinking. Drug treatments; aimed at producing worse physical reactions. Family therapy involves her sister to understand her past. (Hubplace par 14).
During recovery she wanted to hang herself “When she realizes that she is not able to just stop drinking any time she wants” (Wolz par 12). After showing some signs of recovery, Jasper continues drinking and even fighting. She accepted her condition and become friendly to her fellow patients, who helped her much.
Though her past conditions never gave her peace, she stopped her relation with Jasper, but he continued following her to an extent of after therapy, her new courtship with Boone meant new life. They left their irresponsible and egocentric life. Though she was stressed up and struggling on how to let the past go. (Wolz par 12).
Work Cited
‘28 Days’. Dir. Thomas, Betty, Prod. Costas D. & Topping, DVD. USA: Columbia Pictures, 2000.
Wolz, Birgit. Therapeutic Movie Review Column. Web.
Hubplace. Alcoholism – Alcohol Addiction. Web.