Drug Addiction Help San Francisco: Addictions Help – Alchohol is a Drug

I’m not exactly a fanatic on statistics. Ever hear the story of the two statisticians in World War I? They were infantry rifle-men at the front, and one day they spotted an enemy crawling a few hundred yards away. One said to the other, “Watch me plug this guy!” He carefully aimed and fired. The bullet hit four feet to the right. The other statistician took aim and fired. He hit four feet to the left. The second turned to the first and said, “Well, we sure got that one!”

Statistics are a necessary evil. People tell me you can prove anything with statistics, and, for that reason, most of us tend to look with jaundiced eyes at figures. When one looks at the statistics about alcoholism, however, it doesn’t matter how prejudiced you are against this type of information. The statistics are absolutely frightening.

Let’s get one thing straight before we start throwing numbers around. This fact should be imprinted indelibly on the mind: Alcohol is a drug. Most people do not think of “good old booze” as a drug, but it is; and it is a dangerous one. Heroin, barbiturates, amphetamines, cocaine, LSD – all are mood-changing drugs. So is alcohol. The chronic alcoholic is a physical and psychological addict.

How gross is the problem? In the United States, there are around 100 million drinkers. Almost 10 percent of these have serious problems with alcohol; it is estimated that there are between 9 and 10 million alcoholics in our country. Every fourth one is a woman. Alcoholism is ranked third as a national health threat. The U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare has termed alcoholism as our most neglected disease. The average American thinks of an alcoholic as a guy hanging from a lamppost or puking his guts out in the gutter. Phooey! The average alcoholic has a good job, comes from a good home, and is around 40 years old. Less than 5 percent are skid-row caliber. There are an estimated 3.1 million alcoholics in industry. Twenty-five percent are white-collar workers; 30 percent are manual laborers; and 45 percent are professionals or in managerial positions. Loss in their productivity is estimated at 10 billion dollars annually.

Alcoholism represents one monumental headache to industry. The alcoholic is absent 16 times more than his co-worker. He has 2.5 times more absences of 8 days or more. His accident rate is 3.6 times higher. He receives sick benefits 3 times more. He files 5 times more compensation claims. He is regularly involved in grievance procedures. He functions at about 67 percent of his work potential. Fifty percent of all fatal automobile accidents occurring on our roads involve alcoholic drivers. God only knows how many routine accidents should be attributed to booze.

Forty percent of all male admissions to state hospitals suffer from alcoholism. Hospital care and welfare costs for alcoholics and their families and dependents exceed two billion dollars a year. The incidence in veterans hospitals is tremendous. The American Hospital Association recently declared that 25 to 30 percent of all adult medical-surgical patients in metropolitan hospitals, regardless of the diagnosis, were found to be suffering from some drinking problem. One out of four hospital beds in our cities is taken by a person suffering from alcoholism. One large hospital in San Francisco reported that 50 percent of all fracture cases have resulted from drunkenness.

Thirty-three percent of those who commit suicide are alcoholics. The suicide rate among alcoholics is 58 times worse than the general public. Alcoholism is the number-one cause of divorce. There are literally thousands of statistics about alcoholism. They should scare the hell out of the average drinker, but they don’t. The average drinker looks at the guy next to him and says to himself, “You poor S.O.B.,” and lets it go at that. The point of all this is that the problem of alcoholism is horrendous. It is far and away our worst drug problem. Other drug problems are serious; I do not mean to minimize them, but, in sheer numbers, they are relatively insignificant compared to alcoholism.

San Francisco Drug Rehabilitation, Alcohol Treatment, Oakland Drug Addiction – www.reliancecenter.com The Reliance Center of San Francisco focuses on a harm reduction based treatment for prescription drug addictions as well as alcohol and marijuana addictions. Serving the entire Bay Area from Walnut Creek to Burlingame, Concord to San Rafael and Berkley to Tiburon, our unique system is both based in medical and therapeutic solutions using Buprenorphine Treatment (suboxone). Call our specialists today to start treatment for your drug addiction.

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