ONE DRINK IS TOO MANY AND A THOUSAND IS NOT ENOUGH

Whenever one hundred Americans are gathered together, twenty to twenty-five of them will have been affected by alcoholism. On any given day, one out of four hospital patients in the United States are hospitalized due directly to alcoholism or complications related to it. As a result of the pioneering work of William Silkworth, M.D., the Chief Physician at a hospital specializing in the treatment of alcoholism, alcoholism is understood among health care professionals today as essentially an allergy. An allergy is an abnormal reaction.

Most people experience an unpleasant sensation when they have had enough alcohol at any one time. This is the body’s signal that they have had enough and they stop drinking. This bodily feedback is similar to the experience of knowing when you have had enough to eat. People who suffer from the disease of alcoholism react abnormally to alcohol. Once they start to drink alcohol, they experience an intense craving to continue drinking. Often an active alcoholic will drink until passing out, although their original intent was to have just one or two drinks.

This abnormal reaction to alcohol can be avoided by not drinking. In this respect, alcoholism is like any other allergy. Once a person becomes alcoholic, however, alcoholism is a chronic and progressive disease. It is characterized by continued and increasing use of alcohol despite grave physical, emotional, social and financial consequences. Without recovery, the end stage of alcoholism is typically long term psychiatric hospitalization or death.

The risk for development of active alcoholism involves genetic, psychosocial and environmental factors. Like almost all diseases, it runs in families. If you are a child of an alcoholic, you are four times more likely to become alcoholic than someone who is not.

Here are some helpful web resources to determine if you or someone you love is becoming an alcoholic:

“CAGE TEST” (MEDICAL/PSYCHIATRIC SCREENING TEST FOR ALCOHOLISM) http://www.dhfs.state.wi.us/substabuse/Education/Teleconference/Session9...

“TWELVE QUESTIONS ONLY YOU CAN ANSWER” (ALCOHOLICS ANONOMOUS) http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/english/E_Pamphlets/P-3_d1.html

If your score on the Cage Test or “Twelve Questions” suggests you have a problem with alcohol, you need to attend meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics rarely recover on their own. However, almost all alcoholics who thoroughly follow the AA program do recover. There are no dues or fees for AA membership. The only requirement for membership is the desire to stop drinking. If you live anywhere in the United States,you are not far from an AA meeting. Just phone, call information & ask for AA. Go to http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/CtrOff_d1.html 24 hours per day, select the state you live in & you will find many AA group telephone numbers to call. If you know you are an alcoholic, you know you are in great pain and causing great pain to those who care about you. Don’t delay. Alcoholism is often fatal.