Nearly 90,000 people each year die of an alcohol-related accident in the United States alone and about 2.5 million people worldwide(Kelly Fitzgerald). Although that number has lowered slightly since the 1970s it still is not low enough. Until that number reaches zero there will always be more work to be done to prevent and cure alcoholism. In the past 40 years, there have been great strides in the statistics, treatment and the view of alcoholics however that is still not enough. This can be represented by Rex Walls in The Glass Castle.
Alcoholism is a mental illness. Though, the peculiar thing about alcoholism is that it is one of the few mental illnesses that is directly caused by the sick person’s actions. The thing is, though, up to 60% of people in the US in the 1970s weren’t certain if alcoholism really was a mental illness (Kelly Fitzgerald). However, the answer is yes, alcoholism is a mental illness. And the 17.6 million alcoholics in the US today would agree (NCADD). “Alcoholism is a serious, chronic, potentially fatal condition in which individuals have difficulty controlling their consumption of alcoholic beverages.” (Amy Blackwell, Elizabeth Manar) Not only is alcohol dangerous but it is also the most devastating one too. In the United states today, out of those 90,000 people who die each year of an alcohol related accident, 13,000 of them came from some sort of motor vehicle crash.
Out of those 13,000 motor vehicle crashes at least half of them involved the death or injury of someone who was not under influence (Kelly Fitzgerald). When someone consumes alcohol they are not only hurting themselves but they are destroying other people’s lives too. In the 70s the story was even more horrific. It is speculated that up to 20% more people died each year in the 1970’s than people do today (NCADD). Although there is not a specific number, many experts agree that it is likely that many more people who were not under influence died due to alcoholics’ actions as well (NCADD). Since the 70s, the consumption of alcohol alone has slightly improved, moving down from 29 million gallons consumed to 24 million gallons in 2011(Frank Newport). This may appear to be a huge improvement but that is still enough alcohol for every person in the US to drink 1.5 cups of alcohols. Over the past few decades, the statistics of alcohol has become slightly more reasonable it is still far away from an acceptable number.
Treatment Now vs. Then
The treatment of alcoholism is different than the treatment of many other illnesses because it directly relies on the motivation of the sick person. A person’s’ family might get the sick person to attend therapy but if he doesn’t try to overcome the illness himself then he will never get over it. You cannot force abstinence. In the 70s, however, this was a common belief. “In the past [70s], many experts believed that the only recourse for an alcoholic was to stop drinking forever” (Amy Blackwell, Elizabeth Manar). This belief could not be any more false. “Today, many people with drinking problems have found that they can, in fact, continue to drink socially” (Amy Blackwell, Elizabeth Manar). Alcohol is not the villain in the crime, but an accessory used by the alcoholic. A person who is recovering from alcoholism should be allowed to intake alcohol in reasonable and managed amounts. In addition to the poor social treatment of alcoholism in the 1970s people also believed in medicine and dangerous therapy to force the person into abstinence, as mentioned by the author of Alcoholism in the 70s. Thankfully today people do not believe in such treatments.