OCR Text |
Show i I j I' l ' ;' I mi no ntmNCKvi : ' I Ml NIAL HCALTH j J ' v" ' 4 111 M M liMi 1 S I I N K" : v : N - . . : (i ) j Kl.lmid I . Sliniiimu, M.l). ; . '. ft Ucoholisiu . . . I Chronic illness ikvhol ,uul loss ot Vfr US consumption. V to IojJ l'-,1U M .jnon if J nn k.in ft in (,y chrenuuv; 1'V n; inJ t' t'''"' '.Vnrlipsf. li iM-'-'Hv WfJ ilh physical jnJ imp-""-'1 emotion- jntsjs direct conse- of persistent .in a use of alcohol. C hort. alcoholism i- Mii.-noeof pathological ,t tai pattern, which .."jr'Jv interferes seriously ese"pjtients total health kis jjjpution 1 ,MS . tiK'e ro p-r.igr.'ph jl.-n frem the Amencm . . l ... vi.f.Mw' l ITHl.il - 11 alcoholism. While no - avil agreement evsts on ' fcr-irion of alcoholism. iSe broad statements-.. statements-.. tfy ule in most ol the t le-s seen in people ho -- By suffering from . vsm. One of the key i$ is the definition is that is 1 loss of control oer . ise of alcohol oi .e the ;.; t.i has begun. Other ."icithe definition .ire not .ilv in n found iii every person who has a real alcohol problem. Some people seem to escape physical prohlems and seem to manage their occupation occupa-tion or family life fairly well oci long periods of time. The iletmilion only points to the iiumc typical things seen with someone suffering from chronic chron-ic abuse of alcohol. Many of the sterotypes about alcoholism, alcohol-ism, such as the skid-row bum. the cluoiiic iuebriant, the man in his foities of fifties ami so loiih are all just that, su i t pes. and have little ability if one thinks that this is the only type of "true" ale. 'holism. There are a glo ving number of teenagers atul young adult alcoholics in his country as well as women w ho stay at home and drink hum e or less secretly during the d.iv. What is the extent of this problem? Again no one can s.i for sure what the absolute extent of it is since the del nitidis of the problems .i: widely. However there arc probably at least million alcoholics, in the L'nited States at a conservative guess. A roi nt news release pointed to the probability that as many as 10 to 15 percent of upper-level executives in New York suffer fio'M alcolholism. Such indivi-', indivi-', du.il figures mean very little J but taken all together can ' hci in to give only a picture of ho a important a problem it is ', in the L'nited States. For ' instance, a common figure '.given is that half of the i auvrtiobile accidents in this y country are directly contribu-.' contribu-.' ted to by the drinking of one of i the drivers involved in the accident. W'e all also know the f. i. Yrt unpredictalbe behavior V of an intoxicated person and in.inv very destructive fights take place largely because a f person is intoxicated with ) .il.ohol. Judgement is impair- V ed. family relationships are f. seriously or permanently dam- aged, and physical health cleariv declines with chronic f( us- of alcohol, it A later paper will discuss the physical consequences of long-term abuse of alcohol. The remainder of this article w ill focus on the psychological make-up of people who drink to excess. An important point to be made here is that there is a very clear distinction between be-tween use and abuse of alcohol. Alcohol is the most prevalent drug used for social events in this country aside from coffee or tobacco. For every outright alcoholic there are probably ten other people w ho drink but w ho w ill never have serious problems w ith its consumption. They use alcohol in a social, recreational way without ever getting into problems requiring professional profess-ional attention or imposing in anyway a burden upon society at large. Many people w ho are teetotalers fail to make this distinction and express a great deal of prejudice or bias against anyone who consumes alcohol in any amount of form. This 1 believe is destructive of human understanding. The chronic abuse of alcohol by an individual must be seen as an attempt on that individual's part in coping with a difficult life situation. People w ho abuse drugs of any sort are using them to fill in the gaps in a life which is otherw ise not completely satisfactory. satis-factory. The drugs at least temporarily give them a sense of power and w ell-being w hich they find missing in their day-to-day life. There are many reasons why this is so, such as having come from a family full of chronic conflict and in which the individual was belitled and made to feel inadequate at every turn. Also many alcoholics suffer from chronic depression (such as a manic-depressive slate), and drink to help compensate for this chronic painful mood that they experience. In fact many of these people inherit their problem, as il has been show n thai both manic-depressive illness and alcoholism are inherited in some cases. It has been speculated that one inherits the manic-depressive illness and the drug abuse is used as a coping mechanism for this intolerable depression. Often times the use of alcohol is a passive-agressive maneuver within the relationship relation-ship with another person. That is, a person who drinks excessivly expresses agression towards their mate, family members, or their employers indirectly by getting drunk. This infuriates the male or the family member or the employer employ-er and the inebriant can disclaim any responsibility for this action. "I'm sorry -1 was just drunk". He or she has therefore expressed anger in a passive-agressive way. This is of course not a healthy way to do it and aside from the physical problems of alcohol abuse usually il destroys this person's respect in the eyes of society. It is an unhealthy-coping unhealthy-coping mechanism but it certainly is an attempt at coping. The problem therefore becomes be-comes one of showing the chronic abusers of alcohol new ways to cope with their problems. This is quite difficult diffi-cult often as alcohol is a very powerful drug and its use has primary reinforcing qualities. That is. being drunk is fun for these people and they learn to associate it with the only good things that occure in their life such as friendship, laughter, parties and so forth. So when one attempts to structure the alcoholics' life-without the bottle he or she is faced with replacing nearly an entire social system for the person. This is complicated by the fact that alcohol is universal in our culture and the temptation is presented daily to the reforming reform-ing alcoholic to drink again. Many systems have been devised for approaching the problem drinker. Some pro-i pro-i grams use antabuse. a drug I which when administered reg-' reg-' ularly causes a person who I drinks to become violently ill. Other programs use combina-' combina-' tions of group and individual ! counseling and education a-bout a-bout the perils of drinking. Many inptient programs exist I around the state and country solely for the treatment of the alcoholic. Some programs attempt at-tempt to teach alcoholics to drink only in sips instead of gulps so that they might continue as social drinkers and avoid the problems of alcohol r abuse. This is relatively new I and uses punishment of the 5 drinker w henever he takes too j big a drink as its primary I technique. Perhaps the most successful program in the I country is that conducted by 5 Alcoholics Anonymous of I which a very good chapter 1 exists here in Moab. lnforma- tion about any aspect of I alcoholism and its treatment J may be obtained through your I local AA chapter, the Alcohol A Infromation Counselor in the i Arches Building, the Mental J Health offices, local M.D.'s or |