Financial Woes Can Lead to Alcohol Abuse
The crush of financial woes that has our economy teetering over the brink into recession could have unexpected negative consequences for casual drinkers. Medical experts warn that the extreme stress caused by accumulating financial problems could easily lead to a marked increase in alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction across broad sectors of American society.
From board room CEOs to laid-off auto workers to dual-income families to grandmas on fixed incomes, everyone is feeling the strain of the current economic meltdown. Failing banks, plummeting stock prices, plundered retirement accounts, plunging IRA values, increasing company failures, massive layoffs, soaring credit costs, skyrocketing home foreclosures, and growing bankruptcy rates have Americans reeling. For many, and particularly retirees relying on retirement funds, the strain caused by cascading financial problems is becoming intolerable.
When people are inundated by problems over which they feel they have no control, the extreme stress can turn casual drinkers into alcohol abusers. Reports from economic experts that it could take a minimum of two years for the economy to show any real signs of recovery only exacerbate the current feeling of hopelessness. Extreme stress, excessive worry, loss of control and hopelessness are a recipe for alcohol abuse.
Casual drinking can so easily turn into abuse and alcoholism. A drink after a long workday, wine with dinner, a few beers during the game, a hot toddy at bedtime — alcohol is an ingrained and acceptable part of American life. Alcohol has become an inseparable part of our most basic social traditions. We use alcohol to celebrate life’s milestones. We raise a glass of champagne to toast the newlyweds, have a drink to seal the business deal, toast our friends at birthdays, spike the Christmas eggnog with a shot of bourbon, and ring in the New Year with a champagne flute in one hand and a noisemaker in the other. Unfortunately, the problem is that we also use alcohol to drown our sorrows.
So inured are we to casual drinking that we may not even notice when one drink becomes two, when a glass of wine becomes a bottle, when a couple of beers becomes a 12-pack, when the before dinner drink is followed by an after dinner drink or two or three. Serious drinking doesn’t usually happen overnight. It creeps up on us gradually, quietly until, too late, we realize that we or someone we love has a serious alcohol problem.
Tomorrow: How to tell if you or someone you love is abusing alcohol.
