Addiction in Society

Hmmm. Is this a joke? Maybe I missed the point. I'm a little confused as to what you're really trying to say. (Irony always escapes me. I'm a little slow)

I completely agree with your sarcasm. It would be just to much for people to wake up and educate themselves and their children about responsible behavior. With all the religious nuts who try to scare children away from drinking instead of teaching responsible behavior including responsible drinking so that children are educated.

My husbands family allowed drinking when he was a teenager and we are not talking responsible drinking they seemed to approve and almost completely ignore their passed out son on the basement floor laying in puke and never taught him responsible drinking. Now he is a 43 year old struggling to over come his bad behavior with drinking.

Teach your children people that a glass of wine at dinner is totally different that 20 glasses of wine!!!!

When I was in treatment, one of the staff members called my attention to my use of sarcasm. The word comes from a Greek word that means to tear the flesh. He suggested that my use of sarcasm was anger coming out sideways.

I was glad to find your blog because I found your book very interesting and helpful at a difficult time in my life. But you seem much angrier here than in your book.

Hi,

I don't agree with you. You are attacking thousand of years cultures linked to moderate wine drinking. People in this cultures would teach you americans about peace and how to sanely enjoy life. You sure thinks is better for health drink coca-cola than a good spanish red wine at lunch?

Regards.

Paco,
I suggest you look up both "sarcasm" and "satire" in a dictionary, then read the posting again.
Salud!

I laugh now with your sarcasm sharing with my little 16-year sister a big cup of red wine, she thinks wine is good for farting. Grapes will resist your radiactives nukes and next harvest I will send you a bottle..

Although Europe invented alcoholic drinks thousands of years ago, many European countries have much lower levels of alcoholism than the US. There are many reasons for this. Because alcohol has been around so long, many people don't regarded it as a dangerous drug - it is. But it tends to get out of control in societies where there's lots of pressure. The big danger comes when someone starts using alcohol to numb negative feelings rather than enhance positive ones. In societies where many elements are telling people 'you're no good, inadequate, a failure, etc' the danger of resorting to alcohol is great. I leave it to you to conjecture which societies those are.

The pressure to succeed, perform, be attractive, etc has never been greater and it's killing us - either directly or through drug adiction. Some elements of society say that competition is good -well, yes, up to a point. But for many, that point was exceeded long ago.

People are losing sight of what makes them happy and are resorting to drugs - particularly alcohol - trying to get it that way. It never works because happiness comes from events in the real world, not changing your brain chemistry with drugs.

Combine this with genetic predisposition and you've got a big alcohol problem.

So the cure is - reduce the competitiveness of society so that more people feel better about themselves. Warn young people that alcohol is a dangerous drug and if you start taking it cover up negative thoughts and feelings, that's a very bad sign.

However reducing competitiveness means reducing greed and I'm not sure we'll ever be able to that.

These are my thoughts, Ian (a recovering European alcoholic)

What you focus on is what you get more of. The US is so focused on drugs and alcohol and the woes of both, that they keep digging a deeper hole than necessary. The issue is that US Americans don't take responsibility for themselves. It's the parents fault, it's the gov't fault, it's society's fault, blah blah blah. Poor me, pour me another shot....

Get over it and make your own decisions for your own life. Have an original thought for once. We hear something on Oprah or Tyra or in a commercial or in the paper, and then we keep repeating it until it is a truth for us.

We lack ORIGINAL THOUGHT !

And what I get from the article above is... Quit blaming outside sources... Italy and Spain did not hold you down and pour the wine down your throat, dingbat. If you react negatively toward alcohol, then make a decision and put it down for a while. And I was in "recovery". 4 years and then 7 years.

I now drink wine on occasion with dinner or social events. I don't drink at home alone or get into trouble or go into druken stupors anymore.

WHY? Because I make the decisions for my life and take responsibility for what I put into my mouth and for my SELF and what I do and for my behavior. Not anyone else's fault.

Once you take on that responsibility, you can do or be anything you want in life. Because know one else can stop you from that once you quit blaming them for your failures, you can take all the credit for the successes. So just get smart and quit whining.

I am shocked by what I just read!
That article was decidedly prejudiced (and even bordered on racist in certain parts) against European people. I agree with Anna's post, it is utterly senseless to blame any of the problems you mentioned on entire nations and years of culture and tradition- take some responsibility!

On top of this, I am all for opinions and obviously this is yours. However if you're going to mouth off about Europe the least you can do is get your facts straight. I don't agree with anything you have written in this article, however from your point of view if you wished to attack European drinking habits so vehemently why have you not mentioned the UK, which has the highest levels of binge drinking amongst young people in Europe???? And I also totally disagree with your statements concerning the Irish nation's opinion on alcohol, they are a nation renowned for their excessive drinking habits! I don't think anyone could ever count the number of Irish themed bars all over the world! You lack understanding and insight into this subject and your article is more offensive than enlightening.

I was also very surprised at what you said about your daughter drinking wine...oh no! How terrible! An ADULT drinking what was probably an incredibly small amount of alcohol! Your daughter is now an adult and you should allow her to drink all the alcohol she likes- if you think you've done your job right as a parent she won't have to be controlled by you and will decide to consume alcohol with caution.

People who live in the European countries you have mentioned lead vastly healthier lifestyles than many Americans, and I am in total agreement with Paco. You also neglect to venture a counter arguement to your own and the fact that red wine has been proven to be beneficial to ones health when consumed in small amounts.

But of course all this coming from a 19 year old British university student (of British/French heritage) who regularly drinks won't matter to you at all, I need to 'get with the programme', I'm just too 'dumb' to understand.

Ok! I am an European here, and I must say I am not offended at all with your statements. Please, all the Europeans forgive me for this unpatriotic act!!!

All my training was in Portugal and in Spain, I actually grew up in those countries we should explode and all that bla bla bla, and I am actually offended with the narrowed mind some people here have.

Fact: my friends got drunk when they were 14!!!
Fact: I don't drink and I almost was put aside by them!!!
Fact: not even in college they were able to accept that I dont want to drink.
Fact: Europeans tend to difficultly accept some framework outside their conceptualization

So what is the problem here? Arabs created alcohol (found it out) for medicinal purpose and European decided to drink it (not so lineal as I put down here, I know). Cultural? There were cultures who killed and ate other people. Bullfight is cultural! Offending others is cultural! Homeviolence is cultural (from the point you tend to learn from your parents, when you were assaulted by one or both of them. Anything called culture is not necessarly a synonim of accepted and good! We, Europeans, should learn that!

The only thing I don't get, is how come with all these alcoholic problems in the Iberican Peninsula, we are the lowest of the rate?
I am sorry not all people commenting here were interested in thinking about it.
Two analysis were made, and I must incline to agree with the: lack of responsavility and too much competitivity.
When we have to many competetivity among people, when coordination and friendship go to second place and runing over the other becomes the objective, we get into an emptyness in our lives, we start noticing (even in some less conscient level) that we are lacking of sense of meaning/purpose. So what could we do on that? Southern Europeans are cooler in everything (I once made a 200km trip to my classe -- since I lived far from it and went every week there, by bus, through the night -- and when I got to the place, it was, simply, closed. When I asked people why they didn't tell me upfront, they smiled and said: so what? we forgot!) and this is how they get on. They don't worry, they keep on, they are what they are and are gooooing... So, maybe, they are too calm to stress with competition and are too cool to go into alcohol, as often as others would, to carry on their lives.

On sarcasm, well, if we disagree: we shouldn't be sarcastic ourselves ;)

Kidding. :)

"many European countries have much lower levels of alcoholism than the US" thank you Ian!

Ok first of all I would like to say I like how Europeans raise their kids, giving them access to alcohal. This way, they won't abuse it.

Like ok, the more you don't have acces to something, the more you want it. When its there its normal. Take for example milk or something. Im not gonna go crazy with it; because its always there.

Kids nowadays like to experiment around, so its better to let them have it at an early age...15 or so.

Thats my opinion. And im 15 =]

I agree with u . we should stop drinking alcohol.
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nisar
Alcohol abuse affects millions. This site has a lot of useful information.
http://www.alcoholabusecenter.com

Alcohol addiction is one of the major facts that could lead to immune death in a persons life.
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bird.lavonne
Alcohol abuse affects millions. This site has a lot of useful information.

Alcohol Abuse

Is alcoholism a chronic disease or a moral defect? I hope it is a disease. I need to believe that it is. Because if it isn't, I am a horrible person. From the age of 19 to 27, whenever I drank and I couldn't stop drinking. I stole, lied, blacked out and punched police officers. If it isn't a disease, then I chose to do it. I decided to spend my 20s with my face down a drain.
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williamgeorge
Alcoholism Treatment

Well, in my opinion, alcoholism is a choice. It doesn't matter if you are European or American, it is a choice that an individual makes on they're own. I have never had a European force me to drink, or even influence me to drink, and i'm sure my alcoholic father didn't either.

And if you are so completely against alcohol, why would YOU be drinking it in Europe? I'm sure you wouldn't have to explain your whole life story and beliefs to your waitor. I think it would have been quite alright if you would have asked for a glass of water, and set the wine aside. I bet he sometimes recieves some european guests who don't drink alcohol on a regular basis.

This is just my opinion, that we people have brains of our own and make it a choice to make silly decisions.

I had to read twice the paragraph claiming that your daughter was too young to drink a nice glass of wine... at 20! You meant 20? Not 2? 20 years old? (Are your years of 365 days?)

Prudish attitudes towards enjoyable practices are a mistery to me. Self-righteousness can get to be really dangerous: no practice, bad information, premature pregnancy/nasty alcoholism.

Being an awful European, I love sarcasm. Thank you so much for your article: I've had a great time.

The problem of writing with sarcasm is that the web is full with dim witted page skimmers. The upside is that the comments are also hilarious, in a car wreck kind of way.

You don't understand Europeans . Guess what they don't understand you. It seems your solution in the states is to Make a Law for everything and if you can not control it with a law, because your education Sucks big Wind, then the usual solution that comes to a person who surely considers himself Intellectual ... is To Bomb everyone that doesn't think like you into oblivion. :) Don't ask why people elsewhere think of Americans as they do , its because of minds like yours that prove their Intellectual solutions are simply Barbarian Thought , nothing else.

I used to live in the states, till I felt like everyone wanted a law for everything any one else did,
that they didn't like others doing. Democracy HA

I left when it was obviously ridiculous to say it was a free country, it was more like the communist Soviet Union . Either you are with the Screaming Freaks and Ferries or
with the Screaming anti whatevers "logical crowds" which are a large majority of uneducated block heads who only promote tyranny rather than democracy.

Their ought to be a law for this , for that , then at baseball games you sign "Land of the Free"
(What a terribly Sad Joke that country has become)
The Native Americans were right about the white man
they do speack with Forked Tongue to this day !

If Alcohol is bad for Youth, what about 1.5 million abortions a year, How is that for beneficial !
What about them they do not even get to suckle their mothers milk and we Kill them off, because of Uneducated Animals we call the Children of the US.

The problem is in that societies thinking not alcohol.

I was raised in European homes and United States Homes lived and worked in both worlds and saw a Once Great Nation turn into A bunch of Victims in the street asking for more laws and someone to whipe their behind for everything, allowing to grow a Fascist State, my way or ... the Jail cell..
Viva Freedom :) and the land of the Brave

You confuse issues here in your original statement.

Drinking can be done responsibly if instead of Prohibition or Bombing, children are Taught to be Responsible Men and Women by their Parents, not government, nor schools like lazy US citizens do but their very own parents.

Instead that once great country is a nation of people who want to be babysat by Governement since the people do not have the character to do what is simply right in an advanced and educated society, act responsibly.

You people are so brainwashed for the most part, if it was up to folks like you, we would call congress to ask which hand to use before we wipe ourselves.
No thanks I came to Europe where Responsible people are responsible and none responsible people are not, each pays its own consequences accordingly.

Instead of everyone paying by loosing their freedoms from God to do as they please, for one or 2 idiots who can not control themselves.
Bomb Spain :) that's a good productive way to wipe out alcoholism.

Well then why aren't all Europeans all alcoholics ?
Guess where your Great great grand daddy came from ?
Why is their life span 10-20% longer than US Citizens ?
Why do doctors say a glass of red wine with meals is beneficial ?
Why is it one of the most mentioned things in the bible and Christ used to drink it with his apostles, if its so bad ?

Maybe whats bad is anything that isn't done in moderation, like US Invading sovereign nations under the excuse of its state organized terrorism to get more laws past to put more people in a lawless condition because people like you disagreed with their thought process and gave up your freedoms for security destined to have neither...

Is it the Alcohol, or is it
the White Bread Lilly levered baby immature north Americans.Who need some sort of a daddy to tell them what they can do or not do in their God Given Life, because he can not be responsible for his actions.
Its always someone else s fault, what a bunch of Pansies
and since he can not do it any other way, out of spite and or jealousy you resort to Let s Bomb Spain !

Yeah you do not need alcohol you need your head examined.

Good thing Spaniards do not think like you and come and Bomb you for writing such irresponsible text as your statement that I m responding to.

You remind me exactly of why I could no longer believe that the US was ever going to amount to much more than a pile of brainwashed people good for nothing and not even themselves, always wanting to impose on others the Minority view rather than a democracy which states, Majority rules.
Not the weak Spineless irresponsible minrities that clain their needs to be a law to tell other Countries how they should live in their societies when your own is n absolute mess, in everything.

Be glad the Europeans (your probable ancestors)
do not think like you. And Haven't bombed you for your
incessant way of allowing tyrannical government to eat your constitution into oblivion and do whatever they want, invade whomever without even congress voting, killing innocent US babies by the millions a year, Invading illegally other sovereign nations and countries, allowing for Fraud and Individual debt grow to the Insurmountable ammounts for your grandchildren to pay from birth to death,
no real justice or freedoms left, and now you want to Bomb spain to solve your Alcoholic Paranoya with a preemptive strike on some folks who know how to drink
and then you probably Sing, God Bless America at your favorite ball game.

Man I think you need to brush up on what that God you ask to bless you, might be thinking of your reasoning ? I am sure his answer is Kill everyone that doesn't think like you even if they are and teach their children how to be more responsible than you. Great Demo of US citizens solutions , Bomb Spain !

Simply stated , Pathetic !
May God Bless you Immensely with a bit of wisdom
and those that think like you, I leave with this little quote:
"First take the Beam out of your own eye, before you tell your brother to remove the small splinter from his."
and
"If someone does things with better results than you,
the answer would be to learn from them , not bomb them like a rabid spoiled child !"
and
"Love your God above all and Treat others as you wish to be treated yourself" ruminate on those for a bit and see what you can come up with that might be an improvement on your original barbarian and backwards proposal we are commenting on.

Of course you are 100% free to decide how you would like to be treated by others for your perfection.....

May the God of Abraham Bless you with Much more wisdom , your a little short. My opinions and only that my Opinions commented. And I tried to be short about it :)

God did Bless America , yet many have obviously been missing it for quite awhile now, this ain't the way to thank him for his blessings, by bombing others out of spite and Fascist Barbarianism imposed by force. Wait till your weak and someone doesn't think like you , you will love watching your loved ones being blown away by a bomb, wouldn't you ?

Very nice article and it is very informative. The prevention of alcohol abuse should start at early age of every person and along with it proper education about the bad effect of alcohol abuse.

My guess is that either I am to be corrected in that you are being serious, or a lot of other commenters are not getting it and they need to be enlightened.

But anyway, if a country like America, wraps so many things up in taboo then of course those affected by these taboos are going to exploit them at every possible opportunity. Remove the clandestine ideas behind such devilish activities and replace with education, enlightenment, and facts then people will drink themselves into an informed stupor.

I digress; my main complaint about this is that Malta is a country you ignoramus - they drink at an 'early' age too.

I came upon this title via twitter. What a find. Psychology Today should go the way of many magizines, end printing.

Why on earth would someone with alcohol issues or addiction issues come to you for help. You have just admitted that you would bomb a country to change it to your way of thinking, not even accepting that
you are a walking paradigm salad that Europeans wouldn't eat.

Europeans are dumb? Who is your audience? Are you expecting people to agree with you, or do your editors know that people respond with comments to filth at a greater rate than they would to 'brilliance' or something healthy and valuable.

You need to retire the rest of the way, and keep your illness away from others. Psychology Today lost my readership while I was still in High School; I'm 45. Psychology Today is no more than a Cosmo Mag dressed up a little with images of the brain or a neuron for effect.

Why don't you do the right thing and experience a major growth in interpersonal skills, intercultural respect, and perhaps consider anger management.

I am happy to see that most of these comments find your writing distasteful. Mayo Clinic.... ????

I've incorporated your delicious comment in the body of the post!

You complain that people don't get your sarcasm, but you know what? It's a pretty poorly written piece. Being European, I read until the end of your post before I realized, "Oh, it's supposed to be a joke." I merely shrugged it off as the usual American self-centeredness. Work harder on your sarcasm next time.

is this man brain dead who wrote this article? oh yea he's just american hahah... not only is he racist but brain dead too

The reason why teens drink so much in the USA is becuase its not allowed. I agree that if you dont want your child to drink then educate them that way and Europe has the better idea on dealing with alcohol. i just came back from spain and when the teens do drink its only a couple times a year and they do it to get the craving out of their systems. Why is it that only the USA has a drinking age at 21 its just another way the goverment is controlling out lives, next think you know this country will be the center of a dystopian society. Its people like this writer that Europeans hate Americans they think we are ignorant and you are proving them right.

Thank you very much - what a different style perception.
http://www.soberliving.com