America has a drinking problem. According to a study released by the NIAAA, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Americans are started drinking more by the end of 2016 and have continued to consume higher levels of booze since then. There’s little masking the uproar of change which started to take place in our country toward the end of 2016. By the end of 2016, Americans were drinking more than a healthy amount of alcohol and more total alcohol consumption than in the year 2015 before. As Men’s Health points out, there was quite the change in American cultural climate by the end of 2016. An unexpected and deeply emotional political climate has created a severe amount of stress for millions of people. Interestingly, the last recorded time Americans were consuming this much alcohol was in the year 1990, another election year.
As any man in recovery from active addiction and alcoholism knows, there are a million and one reasons to drink. Men who attend treatment programs like the one offered here at Tree House Recovery in Portland, Oregon learn that mind altering substances are more like mind numbing substances, and using these substances to numb out less than pleasurable sensations is an unhealthy coping mechanism. Whatever contributes to the overwhelming need to check-out, still the choice to cope with life by bowing out of life isn’t living much at all. The political upheaval of 2016 seems to have triggered a tremendous amount of stress for millions of Americans. Ill-equipped to cope with such shock, Americans are turning to alcohol to “make it all go away” or at the minimum, attempt to deal with brand new feelings.
Problematically, American drinkers see the consequences of their alcohol consumption differently than Americans who don’t drink. According to a Gallup poll released in July of 2018, “…the majority of Americans 55% think that drinking in moderation makes no difference to their health…” and that “…the percentage who say it is bad for one’s health outweighs those who say it is good, 28% to 16%.” Yet, as the release reports, “37% of Americans say drinking has been a cause of trouble in their families”.
Alcoholism and alcohol abuse is often shamed and criticized as a personal problem. We are alcoholics, everyone else is a “drinker”. In America, as this new information shows, alcohol abuse, that is drinking high amounts of alcohol as a way to cope, is also a cultural problem. Blaming alcohol abuse on American culture doesn’t cut the cake when it comes to taking responsibility for our personal lives. However, we can learn to see the American drinking culture as a priming contributory factor which leads to our misunderstandings regarding a relationship to alcohol and use that knowledge to build a stronger foundation for a more sustainable recovery.
Alcoholism doesn’t have to run or control your life for one more day. Make the decision now to change your life, for the better. Tree House Recovery in Portland, Oregon offers men a path to finding freedom from addiction by transforming their lives inside and out. For information on our programs, call us today: (503) 850-2474
