European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 15, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By Kay Bartlett associated press Mel liked to drink in College and he had an enormous he was the one usually deemed sober enough to drive the others he advanced rapidly in his career in advertising and soon was on the two More Martini lunch As the years rolled Mel occasionally worried about his he noted he  sleep without a few stiff night Caps and every now and then his hands Shook so much in the morning he took a sip of Vodka to steady them before he went to his wife complained about his but he assured her his High stress Job made it he occasionally  remember the Content of a Telephone Call after a particularly liquid but he laughed it some of his colleagues joked about the same thing happening to is Mel an alcoholic what will happen to him if he keeps drinking like this can he just Cut Back on his drinking and Stop the Telephone blackouts will he develop cirrhosis of the liver or end up in a mental institution As a wet the problem with alcoholism the second most prevalent disease in the United states and the fourth most fatal is that nobody really knows the answers to those questions about this an expert could say that Mel is probably an that he probably wont be Able to curtail his drinking for a Long period and that total abstinence May be the Only but he May be one of the the sad part is that with a determined National policy on mels troubles could have been prevent we really believe that alcoholism can be says George spokesman for the National Council on it will be within today life time that we will be Able to prevent it from there is also an enormous number of recovered Alco Holics in our Many of whom Are members of alcoholics the Granddaddy of All self help a celebrates its 50th anniversary this june and its membership is on the the two hottest items in alcoholism today Are biology and Public says Sheila Psychia Trist and International consultant on the biological research eventually May provide an Early warning to individuals at High risk of turning a Strong Public policy would Foster much greater wariness of the most widely abused drug in the United our attitudes on drinking Are not very Marcelle we believe were a social drinking society and were he is supported by evidence that 10 percent of the alcohol Consumers drink 50 percent of the the Good news is that Public awareness is increasing Marcelle Many More doctors detect it even though it is still not taught in medi Cal its harder and harder for doctors to be completely ignorant of the you no longer have to wait for the alcoholic to scream Uncle it Doest have to be self diagnosed any at one it was widely believed that an alcoholic  be helped until he hit there is stress on getting people into treatment before they have lost spouses and suffered physical intervention centers sprung up about 10 years aimed at getting an alcoholic to admit he or she needed a wife would go to a Center such As the Freedom Institute in Manhattan and a Counselor would guide the family and maybe the mans Boss on How Best to Deal with the we have coached the family so that they say things with but recite the hard facts of what the persons drinking is doing to says Connie executive director of the Freedom the alcoholic is asked to a meeting in the when Hes More Likely to be As the session goes he May suffer withdrawal symptoms that make him admit the need for help More eight out of 10 of the alcoholics thus confronted do agree to seek if his Boss or the company is that goes up to 10 out of Murray action is the family is prepared for the alcoholic to go into treatment that very the bed at the rehabilitation unit is the air plane ticket is in the wife pocket and the suitcase is a certain percentage will Back out if they have much time to think it she treatment programs Are springing up All Over the the family is now More often involved with the treatment states Are raising drinking tougher Laws against Drunken driving have been and since 1976 when 52 prominent Ameri cans publicly discussed their alcoholism for the first time the message is being sent out that its not All right to be a drunk More something can be done about recovery is alcoholism remains one of the most enigmatic afflictions to diagnose once it is still shrouded in some including dispute that Alco holism is a others consider it but a Dis ease that takes As Many forms As there Are a Pioneer of alcoholism research in the divided alcoholics into five two j which Are a recent study which Foi Lowed individuals for 40 years found that alcoholic moved Back and Forth in these Pigeon holes during drinking a Gallup poll in 1982 showed that 79 percent of americans consider alcoholism a but it retails a alcoholism still conjures up visions of skill Row although Only 5 percent of inhabit those that image is slowly when Betty former first publicly admitted her chemical Depeau Dency and later founded a clinic to help it directed attention to a different View of Eliza Beth Mary Tyler Moore and Tony Curtis mad 5 headlines when they checked Sammy Davis talked at length on the tonight show about his first alcohol free an estimated 10 million adults and million agers in America Are through alcohol re lated car it is the leading killer of Young people aged 15 to it is the third leading cause of r mental retardation due to birth it is estimated to be responsible for the deaths of americans a the economic Cost is billion a second Only to the Cost of heart and vascular the ravages of alcoholism Are documented in study after some samples on any Given up to 33 percent of adult patients in americas hospitals Are Likely to have problems related to alcoholism is diagnosed in 20 to 30 percent of first admissions in state mental More than 30 percent of suicide victims had been drinking at the half of All arrests in the United states Are alcohol alcohol is involved in 50 80 percent of All Homi 70 percent of serious 50 percent of forcible rapes and 72 percent of alcohol is involved in half of the family dispute cases police each americans Are killed and an additional injured in the More than one alcohol related car the statistics dont begin to Tell the stories of the men and women who Lead painful lives like dont know that alcohol is not relieving the it is causing when does heavy drinking Cross Over into alcoholism some say when physical dependence sets when stopping abruptly brings withdrawal symptoms Edge the ultimately a More embracing definition favored by Many experts is that alcoholism has set in when drinking interferes seriously with any aspect of the persons although everyone is born somewhere on the Predis position a person on the Low end could become an alcoholic by drinking hard enough Over a Long time and a person High on the predisposition Chart May wind up in a Teet Otaling for religious or other Rea and never become an some promising research is under Way on possible detection of alcoholism before drinking but there is no Way now to predict who will become an it is known that one out of 10 people who drink will become an alcoholic and that children of alcoholics Are s v a likelier to become alcoholics than children of Nona co research has also shown that the predisposition to alcoholism is genetic As Well As children of alcoholics who were adopted and raised by nonalcoholic had a greater Chance of becoming alcoholic than children of nonalcoholic who were adopted by George Vaillant offered much new information when he published the results of a study that followed 600 people for More than 40 beginning his observations before the Onset of drinking his the natural history of follows the lives of More than 200 Harvard students and More than 400 inner City Boston it is the Only longitudinal study of that Vaillant effectively put to rest theories that said Alco Holics had personality problems and instability before they except for a family history of alcoholics and ethnic he was unable to predict which of the participants would become an they were not different in psychological it was the alcohol that caused the the personality not the other Way he also found that the disease was not always As progressive As previously believed and that some of the Alco Holics experienced spontaneous that they recovered from alcoholism without a professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth med ical did the research while he was co director of the Cambridge Hospital alcohol affiliated with Harvard he found that some Young alcohol abusers without physical dependence were Able to return to drinking without but that Middle aged alcoholics who had required detoxification could their he was to driving a car without a spare tire disaster was usually Only a matter of nothing has engendered More controversy thai the question of whether alcoholics can Ever safely drink a spokesman for the National Council on once called promotion of controlled drinking theories a serious ethical because at least 97 percent of if you let them could Stanton writing in the december 1984 Issue of american argues that the disease notion of alcoholism and abstinence As the Only path to recovery have not led to an improvement in society drinking More attention should be focused on controlled drink ing or behavioural he controlled drinking approaches Are now endangered by dominant treatment attitudes in the Peele he contends that since abstinence remains such an elusive the individual sufferer could be Able to show More improvement in a therapeutic setting of controlled he became dominant because of the Hegemony of alcoholics Anonymous in alcoholism treat ment in the United in no other Western country have a and the recovering alcoholic attained such a Central role in the formulation of alcoholism policy and alcoholism treatment As in the United he most experts say that the number of alcoholics who can safely return to controlled drinking is so the instances of Success so a treatment pro Gram with social drinking As its goal would be treatment and rehabilitation efforts to change the social attitudes toward drinking Are Laws have been toughened in Many sometimes prodded by mothers against Drunken driving More and More colleges Are taking Steps to reduce drinking on new York City has passed a Law requiring bars to Post signs warning that an expectant mothers drinking May endanger her a coalition called smart Stop marketing alcohol on radio and television is trying to take wine and Beer commercials off the claiming they Are aimed at the Young and make drinking seem the notion of third party responsibility is also making taverns May be liable for patrons after getting drunk cause a car in new a court recently held the hosts of a private party liable for an Auto Accident caused by a guest who drove off in no condition to in hosts Are held liable by one thing that Hast changed in the Effort against alcoholism is alcoholics How does it work the answer today is the same that Aas Bill gave 50 years ago just r i i i i i Page 14 the stars and strikes april 1985 the stars and stripes Page 15