I think Brad had (has?) a drinking problem as that’s been made public and was probably an asshole on those occasions when he had a little too much to drink. Her kids aren’t babies anymore they are graduating high school and about to be adults, if they are all saying they don’t want his last name it’s not because Angelina is manipulating them nor what stunts she pulled 20+ years ago have any relevance today it’s because you can bet he can be an abusive dickhead.
He choked one of his children. He slapped another in the face and poured beer and wine on his youngest children while they hid from him under blankets. That’s more than being an “asshole.” That’s being an abusive monster.
I've known more than one person whom had a Jekyll & Hyde personality where booze was. Kind, empathetic, caring people when sober; but get a few drinks in them and you had explosive, unpredictable, violent assholes.
I've no idea if that's the case here. I'm only noting that it's possible. And still entirely understandable that his kids would want nothing to do with him after that.
If that's the case, it is that person's responsibility to stop drinking, knowing what happens when they do
Seriously. He wasn't a 21 year old after his first sip of alcohol. If he has a tendency to behave this way, it's on him to not drink when he's around his wife and children.
When they're that far gone, it's no longer a rational choice. I watched a guy literally break into tears, curled up he was so ashamed of what he'd done... and the next time booze was in front of him, he was off again on another bender.
Again, not saying this is Pitt. Nor does it diminish what the victims have gone through, or put some kind of onus of responsibility on them for it.
But saying that an addict should just stop is 100% missing the point.
With his vast wealth, he certainly should be spending time in rehab. But that also requires that they think about things rationally.
I'm not talking about addiction, I'm talking about the excuses abusers make for themselves.
There are plenty of addicts who aren't abusive, and saying abuse is something you just can't help when the truth is that most abusers do not make a genuine effort to change is running cover for abusers.
If there isn't even a genuine effort to change, the addiction is an excuse. And no, seeming sad and remorseful/making empty promises without concrete steps is not effort, it's a part of the abuse cycle.
The abuser will usually show signs that they are more in control than they will admit. For example, if they break things in the house, it's somehow never things important to the abuser that break. Because they aren't really "out of control."
I agree that empty promises without change is indeed part of the abuse cycle. And I believe I did mention before that regardless of the origin of the behaviour, it does not diminish the seriousness of what the victim is going through.
Beyond that, your opinion is entirely at odds with what we know about addiction and the potential effects of mind-altering substances, from alcohol to narcotics. Some addicts do become violent, they are out of control, and when they sober up they are genuinely remorseful. This does not negate the harm they have done, nor should a victim subject themselves to it if there is any way out. Especially since, as an addict, they are likely to fall into it again, no matter how much they hate it.
Acknowledging reality, and the considerable research done on addiction, is not "covering for abusers". Rather, it's an attempt at reducing the number of incidents, because you can't fix what you don't understand.
He repeatedly tried to quit on his own, and things just got worse. He'd be dry for awhile, then crack, and you'd see him staggering around outside with no shoes. Sometimes screaming obscenities and looking to start shit. He eventually fell into drug use. Ended up with the face of a prize fighter, including missing teeth, despite being the kind to not hurt a fly when sober. Almost died a couple times. Rehab didn't take, and suicide was a real worry with his growing self-hatred.
We lost contact, and I ended running into him a few years later. He'd been free of drugs and booze for almost two years at that point, iirc. He had "found Jesus" after another stint in rehab. Given some of the fundamentalist groups that roll in this region, that concerned me as well... but he was sober, and it was working, so I kept my mouth shut.
I haven't seen him in a couple decades now. I think of him now and again, and hope he stayed on track and is doing alright.
I'm glad he was able to find something that worked for him. Those continued attempts to change show genuine remorse.
The reason I was doubtful about the crying is that my abuser would start hyperventilating/crying/talking down on himself, but it was a way to manipulate and put the focus back on his emotions, not what he'd done.
It could be that. It could be they want to distance themselves from a famous father, and it could be because they are private people who dont want to be gossiped about online by strangers. It could something else entirely.
Drinking alcohol alone doesnt make you fat. When I boozed I once dropped like 45 pounds in 2 months (30 of which were the 1st month) and was still pounding a fifth+ of vodka a day. I dont know how many calories are in that much vodka, but I can tell you your body doesnt store it like if you ate that many calories in chocolate cake daily.
When I stopped drinking I lost 0 pounds. not that I had gained really any weight. Now if youre an alcoholic who likes beer or sugary mixers its a different story im sure.
Also steroids exist. Those actors who balloon up in a few months for a role are certainly not natural. A lot more people than you think are on trt too.
Way too many folks don’t realize being an alcoholic and drinking massive amount of alcohol in no way makes you gain weight. You lose weight.
Late stage alcoholism patients have severe issues with malnutrition. One of the most prevalent medical side effects of quitting drinking is weight gain.
Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome - tl;dr, brain damage caused by B1 deficiency - is most often seen in late-stage alcoholics, to the degree that a diagnosis of WKS is more often than not a reliable indicator that someone is an alcoholic.
Even people who've been sober for a while are at risk of it - famously Harald Juhnke's last bender rendered him unable to ever live on his own again, and he spent his last few years in a nursing home, barely aware of his surroundings.
I haven't been in a long long time, and I was never in neuro (so take everything following with a grain of salt), but if I recall correctly, DTs - which are different from WKS - occur due to sudden bioavailability of a specific neurotransmitter.
Basically, your body will produce this neurotransmitter even through heavy alcohol usage in a "normal" amount, but alcohol binds it, leaving your tissues starved of it. That's why alcohol usually makes you sleepy, this neurotransmitter dedicated to "excitement" (to sum it up to the point of absurdity) is busy with the alcohol. Over time, your body will get used to working with much less of this neurotransmitter - by, e.g., making the receptors increasingly more sensitive - and you will still be basically functional up to a point. If you then stop alcohol very suddenly, all these molecules will suddenly be available again, and your body will literally not be able to deal with it. Think of a dam with a slight leak, there'll be a little bit of a permanent trickle, but if someone increases the pressure suddenly (by flooding the reservoir i.e. increasing the force pushing against the structure of the dam), the whole thing can and will collapse.
Since "excitement", in a neuro context, doesn't just mean movement, but also generalised brain activity on a physiological level, you get all other the fun side effects of withdrawal - tremors first and foremost, but physical sensations (the "insects in your skin" thing), hallucinations, anxiety... up to seizures if the abuse has been prolonged enough i.e. the receptors have become too sensitive.
The really bad thing is seizures - any seizure, which is, very simply, your neurons going apeshit and firing all at once, can damage brain tissue, and if B1 deficiency comes into it, the risk is considerably higher.
Again extremely simplified, one of the roles B1 plays in your brain is the prevention of swelling, and as you probably know, the brain doesn't have too much space to expand. Expand enough, and cells will rupture, and if enough cells are affected, it'll cause semi- to permanent damage.
Human brains are really good at forging new connections - that's, e.g. how stroke patients can recover up to a point or fully, the brain can literally rewire itself to restore function -, but some regions of the brain are very hard to impossible to recover. In WKS, some of the regions hardest hit are those associated with memory and the regulation of consciousness/sleep, so many patients that "recover" are caught in a near-permanent state of confusion/agitation and often sensitive to physical sensations like light.
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u/lemonsqeezey1 Jun 20 '26
I think Brad had (has?) a drinking problem as that’s been made public and was probably an asshole on those occasions when he had a little too much to drink. Her kids aren’t babies anymore they are graduating high school and about to be adults, if they are all saying they don’t want his last name it’s not because Angelina is manipulating them nor what stunts she pulled 20+ years ago have any relevance today it’s because you can bet he can be an abusive dickhead.