My Name Was Bette: The Life and Death of an Alcoholic

With a remarkable talent, courage and generosity, Sherri VandenAkker became a first time filmmaker who brings to light a reality that is dismissed by our society. In the United States, the most socially acceptable way to cope with stress and depression is the use of alcohol. Physicians and health care professionals know (or are supposed to know) that alcohol is a CNS depressant. However, when a person is under alcohol influence, it feels just like the opposite! Women are much more vulnerable than men to the destructive effects of alcohol. The shame and guilt of women who drink, is frequently covered by their denial, hence the taboo of Female Alcoholism.

Unfortunately, the vicious cycle between depression and alcoholism, like the egg and hen, over a lifetime can snowball into a complete disaster of what was once the life of somebody who, like Bette, a skillful nurse had it "all": A beautiful gifted mother of two adorable daughters, who was full of life and intelligence.

This one hour documentary is a must see for everybody who like "booze" or has a friend(s) or family member(s) who are "enjoy" it too much. Therefore, a documentary for each one of us.

Written and directed by Sherri Vandenakker, the youngest of Bette's two daughters, "MY NAME WAS BETTE" is one of the best and most poignant documentaries ever made on alcoholism. Furthermore it specifically addresses the taboo topic of female alcoholism. The film confronts the audience to the indescribable shock that Sherri, a professor of literature at the School of Human Services at Spingfield College in Boston, faced the day of her tenth marriage anniversary in 2007.

My Name is Bette is a documentary that is both deeply personal and extremely informative. Sherri VandenAkker tracks her mother's descent into alcohol use and how it affected her own life (as well as the lives of her sister and father). VandenAkker is unsparing but never brutal in her portrayal of her mother's life and alcoholism. The film also presents rich documentation of the effects of alcohol use by women. Weaving together the honest personal story and facts within the framework of visual detail and a surprisingly suspenseful narrative makes this an excellent and captivating documentary. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the family and gender dynamics of alcohol use--as well as anyone who appreciates strongly informative filmmaking with powerful emotional implications.

This film was not only informative, but brought feelings to the surface for me regarding my family's relationship with alcohol. The combination of statistics, medical facts, and diagrams along with pictures and stories of Bette through the different phases of her addiction were a great balance of fact and feeling. I still get emotional thinking about this movie weeks after viewing it. My thanks to Bette's family for their strength, honesty, and openness. I heard somewhere that the disease of alcoholism includes secrecy and shame. There is no secrecy and no shame in this documentary. Every subject is handled with tact and and person is allowed to be as they are, both in their strengths and weakness. If our society allowed for more support and less shame for addictions and mental illness, such as depression and anxiety, I believe that all of us could shed embarrassment and become stronger even though our weakness. This documentary is a step in that direction.

This film is brilliant and vital to all, but particularly to practitioners, addiction counselors, family members who love and support an alcoholic, and to those who are struggling to overcome this addiction. The film hit very close to home for me, as my mother succumbed to the disease this year. Watching the trajectory of Bette was very much like witnessing the struggle of my mother, particularly in the final years of her life. The film is definitely heart-rending, but the detailed exposition of how alcoholism impacts and slowly destroys the female body is extremely informative and powerful. Bette's life is shown in important detail in this documentary, and the memories shared by film maker Sherri VandenAkker, her sister, and other family and friends of Bette are poignant and extremely touching in so many ways. The film also highlights the need for more education on alcoholism by practitioners and the court system, which is often too quick to sentence offenders with incarceration instead of rehabilitation services which would be of true assistance to those struggling to overcome this illness. The same way that someone would ensure that a family member receives the best care to overcome cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses, so should they work to find the best care for the addict. Thanks to Sherri for shedding light on this disease in such a powerful way.

I chose to watch this documentary after it showed up in my Amazon Prime lists a few times.

Roughly 35 to 40% of this documentary was focused on what alcohol does to female bodies, in comparison to men. Although extremely important, I would have rather seen a little bit more emotion regarding the subject, rather than an anatomical recitation of alcohol's effects.