As an over-thinking Adult Child of Alcoholics, I’m pretty good at honing in on people who have been affected by alcoholism, addiction, and dysfunction. I can sniff them out better than Hagrid’s boarhound, Fang! 🕵️ As an over-thinking but also NERDY Adult Child of Alcoholics, I pay particular attention to characters in books, movies, & TV shows who have been affected by the same struggles. I’ve been keeping a little running list in a google doc for years just because I do stuff like that. However, I thought it might be fun to finally flesh out the list and share it with you!
Now, I’m definitely a big nerd but I haven’t read and watched everything that’s out there. I also probably haven’t listed every single character in the fandoms below. So, if you have any additions that you’d like to add to the list, you can do that! Just click over to the contact page and send me a quick message. I’ll update the post with the info and the list will continue to grow. I think it sounds like something fun to do together. I’ll hope you’ll help me out! 😁
This goes without saying but there could be spoilers below. If you read a fandom name and you aren’t up-to-date on content, PLEASE SKIP OVER IT! You’ve been warned, my friend.
***Last Updated March 2023***
Game of Thrones
⚔️ Robert Baratheon – The unhappy, overly-indulgent fighter who becomes King and realizes it isn’t at all what he wanted. He drinks excessively to escape the grief of losing his betrothed and the confinement placed upon him by the throne.
⚔️ Tyrion Lannister – The character who drinks and knows things. His constant alcohol consumption is only matched by his constant sarcasm and wit. I know that all of the characters are drinking wine but Tyrion takes it to another level. Can you ever imagine this character without alcohol? I can’t.
⚔️ Cersei Lannister – Not to be outdone by her husband Robert OR her little brother Tyrion, Cersei relies more and more on alcohol to carry her through the day as the story goes on. She becomes more manipulative and hateful at the same time. Funny thing is, she used to berate Robert for his drinking. It’s a lot easier to call other people out on their behaviors than it is to face up to our own, isn’t it?
The Lord of the Rings
🍃 Gollum – Would it surprise you to know that many people have drawn correlations between Gollum’s obsession with the ring of power and substance addiction? The internal struggles between the different sides of himself and the very visible progression of his illness definitely seem similar! I’ve often felt like the alcoholics and addicts in my life are like two completely different people and you never know who you are getting. That feeling of uncertainty and, very often, unsafety, does a ton of damage to your nervous system regulation and often your relationship with the person. It’s hard to live in the limbo of someone else’s personalities.
🍃 Denethor/Boromor/Faramir – There is a VERY unhealthy family dynamic going on here. Faramir is essentially Lord Black Sheep of the Family and Boromir his big brother can do no wrong in the eyes of their father, Denethor. These unhealthy family dynamics and role assignments happen far too often in families – whether they’re from Gondor or the modern-day.
Harry Potter
🧙 Professor Trelawney – Spotty divination skills and large quantities of cooking sherry – that basically sums up Sybil Trewlawney the Divination Professor at Hogwarts. Professor Trelawney’s drinking seems to progress as the story continues. At one point, she starts hiding empty cooking sherry bottles in the Room of Requirement where no one else will find them – a classic sign of a drinking problem.
🧙 Hagrid – You often find Hagrid drowning his sorrows in some type of liquor throughout the book. He often ends up drunk when he’s feeling sad. Do you think he has a healthy relationship with alcohol or do you think Hagrid’s desire to drink is something he struggles to tame?
🧙 Winky – Loyal and traditional, Winky is a house elf who takes the fall for an event that wasn’t her fault at all and is fired by the Crouch Family she serves. She considers this a terrible failure and shame and begins to drink at this low point in her life. The description of the pain and problems Winky faces is quite sad in the books. She is unfortunately one of the characters who didn’t get the screen time she deserved when the movie adaptations came around. I wonder if the alcohol consumption of a house elf was a topic they didn’t want to deal with on the big screen.
The Hunger Games
🏹 Haymitch – Any Adult Children of Alcoholics who have read and/or watched The Hunger Games trilogy probably had some big feelings toward the character Haymitch. Raised in the destitute District 12 and made to fight to the death in The Hunger Games as a young man, Haymitch was already dealing with prolonged and severe trauma before the Capitol killed off his mother, little brother, and girlfriend as an extra power move. My bookworm heart! 💔 Want to hear a story? After the first couple of The Hunger Games movies had been released, my dad randomly started to let his own blonde hair grow out. Unbeknownst to him, he actually started to resemble Haymitch’s unkempt style. I will never forget attending an event at my little brother’s school which my dad briefly showed up for and hearing some of the kids sniggering and calling my dad “Haymitch” among whispers and smirks. I was an adult woman but I still remember feeling my cheeks flush. I’ve always remembered that day when I look at the character.
🏹 The Morphlings – Morphling is a narcotic pain killer that is super addictive in the world of The Hunger Games. People who develop dependency waste away physically until they are yellow, sagging skin and bones with haunted eyes. Sounds familiar. It seems that many people in this dystopian landscape turn to narcotics to get through the day and you can see why they feel like it’s the only option.
🏹 Katniss – Obviously, we can’t forget to include Katniss Everdeen, the Girl on Fire on our list of people affected by alcoholism, addiction, and dysfunction. Katniss is a poster child for Adult Children of Alcoholism and Dysfunction! She grows up in poverty and traumatically loses her father at an early age which forces her to become a pseudo-parent to her younger sibling. Been there, done that. She struggles with her mental health and even experiences some potential dependency on morphing during the series. At one point she explains that the drug “dulls the extremes of all emotions, so instead of a stab of sorrow, I merely feel emptiness. A hollow of dead brush where flowers used to bloom.” The words seem to really hit home, don’t they?
Star Trek
🌌 The Jem’Hadar – a race of aliens bred to be warriors and also deeply dependent on the drug, Ketracel-White. They were genetically engineered to require the ketracel-white and experience terrible withdrawal and eventual death if they do not receive it. The Jem’Hadar receive “the white” from the Vortas who are the people that essentially serve as drug dealers.
🌌 The Ornaran People – Tricked and manipulated by their neighbors the Brekkians, the Ornaran people were led to believe that the felicium they were being given by the Brekkians was a medicine keeping them from succumbing to symptoms of a terrible illness. However, the felicium was nothing more than a narcotic keeping the Ornarans addicted and unwell.
🌌 Synthehol – This isn’t an actual character but I think it’s worth mentioning that bars mainly serve Synethehol in Star Trek. Synthehol is a non-alcoholic replica of real liquor. It has a similar taste but comes without the hangovers and other unpleasant side effects of modern-day alcohol. I’ve just always thought this was an interesting idea. As a little Trekkie growing up, I would’ve loved to be able to switch out my parents’ drinks with Synthehol. No such luck. It was the 90s – long before the creation of the stuff. 😉
🌌 Holo-Addiction/The Ktarian Game – Again, these aren’t characters but ideas that I’m glad the writers included in the show. Holo-Addiction refers to the diagnosis given when an individual becomes obsessive about living in a holo-story instead of living his or her real life. Holosuites allow you to create holographic environments and play out holo-stories where you actively take part in the 3D world of the story. The Ktarian Game was an extremely addictive game introduced to the crew of the Star Trek Enterprise which quickly spread and caused the entire crew to stop performing their duties or taking care of themselves. They only cared about the game.
🌌 Legate Damar from Cardassia – A Cardassian man of power during the Dominion War. He drank exceedingly larger quantities of kanar (a Cardassian liquor) as the war raged on. Weyoun, his Dominion ally, started making snarky, underhanded comments about Damar’s drinking as the series went on and they honestly made me squirm a little in my seat. Why? Because it sounded so familiar! I always say that my family members (grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.) were the ones who taught me to shame and look down on my parents for their addictions so this banter sounded like a regular day at home. Red Alert: No one has ever been shamed into healing.
The Walking Dead
🧟 The Greene Family – Let’s just state the obvious: the Greene family has a long line of alcoholism and dysfunction. Herschel Greene suffered from alcoholism which means that his daughters, Maggie and Beth, were Adult Children of an Alcoholic. Herschel’s father also suffered from the same disease and it caused a huge rift between the two Greene men. Alcoholism and addiction are family diseases which means that Herschel’s mother as well as his first and second wives would’ve been affected too. In fact, we know that even the grandchildren of alcoholics are touched by the disease which means that Maggie and Glenn’s son Herschel wouldn’t have gotten off scot-free either. Murdered father? Alcoholic and dysfunctional family lineage? AND a zombie apocalypse? The little guy can’t catch a break!
🧟 The Peletier Family – I know the characters are fictional but the levels of illness and dysfunction here truly turn my stomach. Ed Peletier was extremely abusive to his wife, Carol, and their daughter, Sophia. He physically abused Carol and, realistically, I’m sure that was only the tip of the iceberg. The show also implied that Ed sexually abused his own daughter, Sophia. The levels of domestic violence, sexual assault, verbal abuse, control and manipulation, and the fear of Ed portrayed by Carol and Sophia are highly uncomfortable to watch. Ed and Sophia both die early on in the series and Carol isn’t quite sure who she is without her roles as wife and mother. However, as the TV series goes on, she goes through miraculous character development and growth. Carol develops a ton of skills, gains confidence, and arguably becomes the biggest protector of her people. Probably because she needed someone to protect her who never came. Well, until she became the protector she had required so desperately.
🧟 The Dixon Family – Merle and Daryl Dixon had a harsh and traumatic upbringing. Their mother died in a house fire which was caused by her lit cigarette. Their father suffered from alcoholism among other things. Mr. Dixon severely neglected and abused his sons, leaving scars that were visible and invisible on both of his boys. As they grew, Merle was in and out of juvenile detention and Daryl was often left on his own. Both brothers got involved with substance abuse themselves which can often happen. By the time the dead took over the world, Merle and Daryl were already used to surviving in brutal conditions. One of my favorite aspects of The Walking Dead was watching Daryl adapt – not to walkers – but to humans and experiences such as friendship, belonging, respect, and trust. Daryl and Carol become very close because they were both surviving long before the others. They “get” each other.
🧟 The Clark Family- Now, I definitely prefer the original Walking Dead show over Fear the Walking Dead and some of the other spin-offs. HOWEVER! I love the story surrounding the Clark Family. The series starts out immediately showing the turning of the world through the eyes of a family suffering from the disease of addiction. Nick Clark is a young adult who struggles with drugs and is the first one in the family to get introduced to the zombies. This absolutely makes sense to me that the darker sides of society could be the people to notice something wrong and also the most likely to be dismissed. Nick’s mother, Madison, has tried everything she can think of to get Nick help before the dead begin to rise. Once they do, she is not only shown trying to protect her son from the dead but also how to keep him from dying from withdrawal and symptoms related to drug addiction. Talk about a double whammy of stress! I also love the relationship that is shown between Nick and his sister, Alicia. Alicia loves her brother but she’s also pissed at him and she grapples with her dual feelings when in Nick’s presence. I’m really glad that the writers showed this side of family dynamics and struggles within the zombie apocalypse.
🧟 Bob – Do you remember when Bob was supposed to help bring antibiotics back to the prison? There were a lot of highly ill people counting on him and the other survivors who were well enough to fetch the medicine. Do you also remember how Bob stuffed his bag with alcohol instead of the antibiotics and Daryl found out? He was livid! Considering Daryl’s childhood, I’m sure he was super triggered by Bob’s actions. And I’m sure Bob was super ashamed of himself. Alcoholism and any type of addiction are pervasive and progressive. Everyone ends up hurting.
🧟 Princess – Princess is such a fantastic character who is also so relatable for many Adult Children. When we first meet Princess, she’s a little out there and you wonder if the isolation of living alone has made her a little bizarre. As we get to know her more and more, a dark past filled with abandonment, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect is revealed that will break your heart. Princess grew up not being able to trust or rely on the people she should’ve been able to trust the most – her parents. Her father left her. Her mother allowed a terribly abusive stepfather and stepbrother to hurt Princess. She was made out to be the scapegoat and the “bad kid” when she was honestly probably the healthiest person in the bunch because she knew what was happening was wrong. Princess was so sweet and inviting to the group members when we first met her. She seemed so bubbly and fun! Now, the isolation and stress of the world could’ve made Princess a little quirky and super friendly to any new people. But you know what? I’m betting she was already a little like that beforehand. Why? Because I’ve often found that the people who have been through the most pain in life will often seem to be the happiest and smiley-est people in public. Someone whose life story could easily bring tears to your eyes is the person you would’ve never guessed had ever cried a day in their own life because they seem so shiny and happy. Have you ever seen this happen? Have you ever been this person? Princess is a phenomenal character who was silly and cute but also showed amazing depth and courage. I’m so glad we were able to meet her before the TWD ended.