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

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.

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.

Really surprised at some of the lower reviews here. Especially a man commenting on "woman" focus. Having lived my life around alcoholism...all you ever hear about is the "external" facing issues...this walk though what happens inside the body is excellent. And needs to be highlighted. That picture of a 62 year old woman says a lot about the internal damage.

Living with severe alcoholics is extremely difficult. You can't judge these daughters. This documentary was making amends and giving back...for tears of abuse and neglect. An addict yes...but their pain is still very real.

Sorry men that a woman's body was the focus...get used to it!

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.

As important as it was to hear about the devastating effects that alcoholism can have on a woman, especially a woman like Bette VandenAkker, the aspect missing was Al-Anon. Not once did any of the individuals interviewed in the film talk about how they coped with their loss of Bette. It is fine to reminisce about the deceased person but in order to truly recover a person must seed recovery for themselves. The fact that they did not mention this crucial step in a person's recovery from the effects of the terrible disease of of alcoholism showed how much more is needed to understand the effects of these disease and what is needed to really recover. I speak from personal experience as my father, aunt and uncle all died from effects of alcoholism and Al-Anon saved my life.