Basic HTML Version
26
deaths due to cirrhosis of the Jiver.
• One in every 13 employees is an
alcoholic. Losses in industry because of
alcoholism have been computed at $6
billion (sorne say
$7
billion) per year.
The total cost, including the human loss
to individuals, breakup of families,
suffering and heartbreak, is incalculable.
• Every problem drinker adversely
affects an average of four other persons
in his family, and more than 16 friends
and business associates in the commu–
nity. Therefore,
al
ieust
130
miiiion
Americam
are directly or indirectly
affected by alcoholism - in addition to
the alcoholics!
• Shockingly, the familiar, oft–
depicted "skid row" alcoholic represents
less than 5% of the total number of
alcoholics - the other 95% are still
functioning in society, and are found in
homes, factories, offices, and communi–
ties - the neighbor next door or clown
the street, if not in your own home!
•
Eve1·y third anest
(
or over 2 mil–
lion arrests annually) in the United
States involves public drunkenness.
• More than 95% of short-term pri–
soners are serving time in jail because of
drunkenness or alcoholism.
• One in three suicides involves an
alcoholic.
• The blight of alcoholism ranks with
heart disease, mental illness and cancer
as a national health problem.
A recent issue of
Medica/
!IV
orld
N
etvs
called alcoholism "America's
Most Destructive Drug Problem." Alco–
holism has been tied in with numerous
other diseases. For instance, a study of
341 tuberculosis patients revealed that
nearJy half of them were alcoholics. Of
a group of patients with cancer of the
pancreas,
75%
were alcoholics, coro–
pared to 14% of a matched control
group.
CAUSES of Alcoholim
But why such a great tragedy? What
leads a person to alcoholism and how
can it be avoided?
Declared Dr. Marvin A. Block, for–
mer chairman of the committee on alco–
holjsm of the American Medica!
Association, "Many causes of alcohol–
ism have been enumerated, but these are
actually only suspicions of causes. The
actual cause of the disorder is not
Tht
PLAIN TRUTH
known." He continues: "Many people
would like to blame alcohol for alcohol–
ism, but if this were true, everyone who
drinks would become alcoholic. Alcohol
cannot be considered the cause of alco–
holism any more than gasoline can be
considered the cause of automobile acci–
dents" (Block,
Aicohoiism: lts Facets
and
Phases,
p.
40) .
Says this world renowned authority
on alcoholism, many theories have been
advanced - theories about hormone
g lands, the dietary regimen, and heredity
- but none have been proved satis–
factorily.
Recent research done by Dr. Halmuth
H. Schaefer, professor of clinical psy–
chiatry, and his associates at Loma
81(10 ROW
The term "skid row" probably
originated in Seattle, Washington
at the turn of the century. Yessler
Street, which sloped clown to Puget
Sound, was greased; and logs were
skidded clown into the water.
Along this "skid row" were many
taverns, bars, honky tonks, and
hotels frequented by men who
carne to Seattle during
th·~
log–
shippiog season. Yessler Street was
the "original" skid row, though
most majar cities now have their
own, including New York's in–
famous Bowery, and similar aceas
in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Amster–
dam and Paris. Flophouses, cbeap
restaurants, pawn . shops, religious
missioos characterize the typical
"skid row."
Linda University School of Medicine in–
dicates that "alcoholism stems primarily
from a conditioned response to anxiety,
and therefore is
NOT
a physiological
conditioo as many believe." Dr. Schae–
fer observed that contracy to tbe opin–
ions commonly held, alcoholics are
not
"weak-willed" iodividuals; rather, they
are self-willed people who are stubborn
enough to do what they want.
What part does heredity play in alco–
holism? Experiments by Dr. Jobn Nich–
ols, professor of psychology and social
October
1971
science at Penn State University, indi–
cate that sorne inherited physiological
constitutions are more susceptible to ad–
diction if exposed to drugs such as mor–
phine and alcohol. However, he pointed
out, this does not prove alcoholism is
hereditary. He cmphasized that what–
ever it is that is transmitted is not neces–
sarily bad - the addiction-prone ani–
mals he tested were also
smarter
than
the others and learned mazes more
readily.
Psychological Factors
Dr. Nichols agrees that alcoholic ad–
diction is primarily based on psy–
chological factors. Drinking brings
pleasure, eupboria, reduces the biologi–
cal drives of the individual. Sorne
become through habit and desire
gradually conditioned to using alcohol
to satisfy these basic human drives. Al–
coholism, he says, is tbe result of people
usiog this means to gain the "rewards"
- the "payoffs" - which come from
drinking excessively.
Drs. Halmuth Schaefer and Mark So–
bell of Loma Linda essentially agree,
calling alcoholism a psychological ail–
ment, a leacned response to stress. Alco–
holics have simply learned to find
"relief" through reaching for a driok!
Dr. Blythe Sprott, assocíate professor
of health studies at Cal State declared
that many physicians emphasize faulty
metabolism as a primary culprit in alco–
holism, especially a liver dysfunction.
But says Dr. Sprott, "Metabolism is
certainly iovolved in alcoholism, it is
upset by drinking too much - but
metabolic upset does not explain alco–
holism." He also believes alcoholism is
rooted in social and psychological
conditions.
Said one man who had overcome al–
cohol addiction: "The alcoholic is an
immature man or woman who takes the
easy way out, alcohol, when he can't
cope with reality." His comment strikes
clase to the heart of the problem of
alcoholism!
The basic root cause of alcoholism
was pinpointed by Elizabeth Whitney
in her book
Living With Aicoholism.
Sbe wrote: "A half century ago it was
easy to fmd medical authority in agree–
ment that alcoholism was hereditary.
Scientific investigation has proved this