Alisan Porter is actress, dancer, and singer who is best known for appearing in the 1991 movie Curly Sue. She was a child star who, like many young people who become involved in that lifestyle, ended up developing problems around substance abuse. She recently announced on her blog that she is a recovering alcoholic. Alisan is now 33 years of age and has been sober since 2007.
Alisan Porter’s Road to Alcoholism
Alisan was born in Massachusetts, in the United States. Her mother was a dance coach, so Alisan began performing publically from around the age of three. She started appearing on TV shows (Pee-wee’s Playhouse and I’ll Take Manhattan) at age 7 and appeared in her first movie age 8. She appeared in a number of hit films including Homesick, Parenthood, and I love you to Death, but she is most famous for playing Curly Sue in the movie of the same name (she played alongside Jim Belushi). At age 18, she paid more attention to her music career, releasing her first album in 2009.
Alisan opened up about her alcohol problems in a recent post on her blog Lil’ Mamas. She predicted that many of her readers would probably not be surprise to hear the news given that child stars tend to have a reputation for this type of thing. Alisan did not go into too many details about her alcoholism, but made it clear that she did not have a particularly low rock bottom. She just realised that her drinking was out of control and that she needed to stop. In 2007, she entered a treatment programme and has not touched a drop of alcohol since. Alisan admits that there have been times when the pressures of being a mum have made her think about getting drunk, but she knows that this just cannot be an option for her anymore. She also appreciates how much better her life is now that she does not drink.
No Need for a Low Rock Bottom
One of the problems with admitting to being an alcoholic is that most people will have an inaccurate perception of what this involves. This is why it can be so hard for people such as Alisan to go public about their problems. The image of an alcoholic is somebody who is completely out of control and willing to do almost anything to get his or her hands on more booze. The reality is that most alcoholics do not fit this stereotype at all. These can be people who appear to be highly successful outwardly, yet are miserable inside because of their addiction. Alisan did not stop drinking because she was getting into the trouble with the police or behaving embarrassingly in public – she did not even seem to have ever drank to blackout – yet she was still an alcoholic all the same. Her symptoms of addiction involved feeling unhappy, helpless, and scared.
Alisan Porter stopped drinking because she hit her own rock bottom. There is a dangerous myth about addiction that hitting rock bottom means losing everything, but this is not the reality of how things are at all. It is up to each person to decide when he or she has had enough, and this is then their rock bottom. Addiction tends to involve a downward spiral; if Alisan had kept on drinking, she would almost certainly have seen a deterioration in her life. By getting the help she needed, she avoided a great deal of suffering. Some people refer to this as a high rock bottom. The fact that individuals these days are far more aware of the dangers of addiction means that more people are tending to have a high rock bottom.
