More people are addicted to alcohol than all other chemicals combined with the exception of nicotine and caffeine.

Approximately 7 percent of alcohol drinkers will develop alcoholism.

Skid row type alcoholics, like most people picture when hearing the word, only account for about 5% of all alcoholics

Alcohol is America’s third largest health problem (following heart disease and cancer).

In most cases, alcohol abuse grows over a period of 5–15 years before a person completely looses control over alcohol. The disease grows so gradually that it gives a false sense of control to the alcoholic, and many times, friends and family.

Drugs and alcohol are related to most deaths in people aged 15-24.

People who drink at least 30 oz. of alcohol per month are 3 times as likely to suffer a brain hemorrhage.

No one starts out to be an addict. No one plans for it to destroy their life.

People get hooked because even though they think of themselves as rational beings, they make decisions based on feelings. Drugs and alcohol make them FEEL good for a while.

Addiction comes from the unhealthy choice of using drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism to escape the pain of living. Pain is a normal and necessary part of life. It motivates us to grow and change. How we deal with pain is a key point in determining our future.

The causes of alcoholism are many and varied and consist of psychological, social, physiological problems. There are as many “reasons” for alcoholism, as there are alcoholics.

Dysfunctional or absent family

Lack of self esteem

Peer pressure

Curiosity/experimentation

Cultural influences

Parental drug/alcohol abuse

Lack of moral or spiritual values

Learning the mood swing—Finding out the drug gives you a mood swing into euphoria. There is usually experimentation to make sure the swing comes each time the drug is used, and varying the intensity by varying the intake.

Seeking the mood swing—Use of the drug at “appropriate” times and places

Harmful dependence—experience loss of control over the substance which leads to guilt and pain. The addict begins to rationalize increasingly abnormal behavior to both themselves and others. (They try to blame outside people or factors, etc.)

Using the drug to feel “normal”—Tolerance to the substance is increased, the substance needs to be maintained at a high level just to feel “human” instead of looking for the occasional high. The person becomes paranoid and unpredictable.

Many people make the mistake in thinking that getting an alcoholic medical help is enough. In most cases, it is not. Most alcoholics need to go through a thorough detox. program and counseling to learn how to avoid situations where they may fall back on the familiar drinking pattern.

The best treatment is to emphasize the person’s responsibility to get the help they need to learn to live without the alcohol.

Make sure they know that you love them, but that they have a problem and need help

Do not take the blame for anyone else’s actions. Don’t call in sick for them, don’t clean up after them, don’t make excuses for them, don’t lend them money, etc. They made the mess of their life, it is NOT your duty to fix it!! You are not helping them take responsibility for themselves.

.Al-anon and Ala-teen are very helpful for family and friends of alcoholics These groups can help innocent victims of alcohol and drug abuse even if the user is not seeking treatment for themselves.

 

Proverbs 20:1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler; and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

21:17 He who loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.

23:20 Be not among winebibbers, or among gluttonous eaters of meat;

23:21 for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.

23:29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

23:30 Those who tarry long over wine, those who go to try mixed wine.

23:31 Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.

23:32 At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.

23:33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind utter perverse things.

31:4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to desire strong drink;

31:5 lest they drink and forget what has been decreed, and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.

31:6 Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress;

31:7 let them drink and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more.

Deuteronomy 21:18 "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they chastise him, will not give heed to them,

21:19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives,

21:20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, `This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.'

21:21 Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall purge the evil from your midst; and all Israel shall hear, and fear

1 Corinthians 5:11 But rather I wrote to you not to associate with any one who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber -- not even to eat with such a one.

6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts,

6:10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.

John 2:7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim.

2:8 He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the steward of the feast." So they took it.

2:9 When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward of the feast called the bridegroom

2:10 and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first; and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now."

2:11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Isaiah 5:11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening till wine inflames them!

5:21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!

5:22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink,

5:23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!

28:3 The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot;

28:4 and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer: when a man sees it, he eats it up as soon as it is in his hand.

28:5 In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people;

28:6 and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

28:7 These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are confused with wine, they stagger with strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in giving judgment

28:8 For all tables are full of vomit, no place is without filthiness.