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The pattern is familiar: each evening offers an excuse for wine. Countless sips mark the hours, with you enjoying them all. It’s a way to battle the tedium of the day, to offer pleasure (however fleeting). A career demands so much; obligations forever accumulate. Alcohol allows you to simply… relax.
And you eventually become dependent upon that sensation — requiring more and more swallows to achieve it. Earning even a pleasant aftermath demands entire bottles.
You think nothing is wrong with this. You think there is no problem.
There is, however — and you are one of the many individuals who refuse to seek the necessary treatment.
Alcoholism (which is a reliance on excessive amounts of any form of liquor to sustain normal functions) is a common disease. As of 2011, it’s estimated that 25 million Americans suffer from it — with the majority of these individuals being age 40 or older. The effects of this illness are wide-spread and well charted: costing millions of dollars in health-care demands and unemployment.
These concerns are often dismissed, however — and that is proven in the startling low statistics of those who try to seek aid for their disease. Only an estimated five percent of alcoholics will enter rehabilitation centers; and just half of these patients will maintain their programs, continuing with counseling and detox treatments.
These numbers disturb, representing a disregard for alcoholism and its effects. The majority deem themselves free of all symptoms, and this is a mistake that must be corrected — now.
