The cost of a drink

Photo by Cheryl Tinsley

By CHERYL TINSLEY

Pink elephants are funny. Alcohol abuse is not. There are many statistics on alcohol abuse. Most of them are startling. Alcohol abuse involves teenagers and adults, men and women, senior citizens and, most tragically, newborn infants

THERE'S an elephant on the loose, causing auto accidents and domestic disaster and costing Illinoisans about $1 billion a year. As a symbol for alcohol abuse, the (pink) elephant has many humorous associations, but the facts about problem drinking and alcoholism are grim.

Nationally, alcoholism is the third leading cause of death and is our most serious drug problem, with an annual cost of $42.7 billion. There are about 10 million alcoholics in the U.S. and half a million in Illinois alone. Most alcoholics are employed, and about 6 percent of employed persons are alcoholics.

Liquor consumption on a per capita basis has increased steadily at all age levels since 1943, according to figures compiled by the alcoholism division of the Illinois Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (DMHDD). In addition, a significant number of children begin imbibing before birth because of their mothers' drinking habits during pregnancy. Many of these children subsequently suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS).

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, FAS is "that combination of physical and emotional anomalies found to consistently occur among children of heavily drinking mothers and to occasionally occur among children of moderately drinking mothers." Symptons of FAS vary. Severely affected children show marked growth deficiencies, multiple birth defects and severe mental retardation. Most children with evidence of FAS are not as seriously affected, but display some of those symptons. Many children with FAS exhibit hyperactive behavior, learning or behavioral problems and short attention spans.

Researchers disagree on the amount of drinking that will cause FAS. Isolated instances of heavy drinking or moderate daily drinking can contribute to FAS, as can occasional light drinking. The safest course for a pregnant woman seems to be abstention.

If you are a resident of Illinois and are less than 21 years old, it is illegal for you to purchase alcoholic beverages. But liquor laws have never stopped anyone who wanted to drink

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from doing so. The resounding failure of Prohibition suggests that it is impossible to legislate either "morals" or common sense. And although we have established a legal minimum drinking age, the actual age at which people begin to drink has been dropping steadily.

In the U.S., 74 percent of adolescents (ages 12 to 17) have had more than two alcoholic drinks; 54.8 percent drink more than once a month, and 23.3 percent drink once a week or more. Adolescents consumed $16 million worth of alcoholic beverages during 1974 and 1975. The proportion of high school students who say they have been drunk has risen from 19 percent in 1966 to 45 percent in 1975. The proportion of those who say they get drunk at least once a month was 10 percent in 1966 and 19 percent in 1975.

IDPH statistics for 1975 also show that the proportion of drinkers — and of problem drinkers — among the adolescent population rose with each succeeding grade for both boys and girls. The largest increase occurred between seventh and eighth grades for boys (5.0 to 15.6 percent) and between eighth and ninth grades for girls (9.1 to 16.2 percent). Almost 40 percent of twelfth-grade boys and 21 percent of twelfth-grade girls were problem drinkers.

While these national statistics may not be applicable to some rural areas of Illinois, DMHDD says they are generally valid indicators of drinking and alcoholism levels in Illinois as a whole because the state tends to conform closely to national trends.

Teenage drinkers

DMHDD estimates that 300,000 students in Illinois have alcohol-related problems. And where there are minors with drinking problems, there will be violations of the Liquor Control Act. The Illinois Department of Law Enforcement (DLE) reported 8,913 violations of the act by minors in 1977. Of these violations, 5,803 were made by youths between 17 and 21; the remainder were made by persons under 17.

In 1977 according to DLE statistics, nineteen-year-olds committed the greatest percentage of alcohol-related motor vehicle offenses (driving under the influence of alcohol and transporting alcoholic beverages). Eighteen-year-olds were responsible for the largest number of Liquor Control Act violations (sales to minors or drunkards, illegal possession by a minor, illegal consumption by a minor, misrepresentation of age by a minor and solicitation of alcoholic beverages). The most common causes for arrest of a minor were illegal possession and illegal consumption of alcohol.

About 11,500 children were born in Illinois in 1976 to women who drank heavily. Of those children, about 70 percent can be expected to show symptoms of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

The number of arrests of minors for liquor-related offenses is not, in itself, alarming, but the implications are. The statistics on teenage arrest testify as to how widespread youthful drinking is; medical reports indicate how detrimental to physical, mental and emotional health those drinking habits are.

The general pattern is for young drinkers to imbibe less frequently than their older counterparts, but in much greater quantity. Alcohol poisoning, sometimes resulting in death, is not uncommon. In addition, according to DMHDD reports, "the risks of incurring negative consequences associated with the acute effects of alcohol are greater in late adolescence and in early adulthood than at any other point in the lifespan."

The U.S. Department of Health and Welfare estimates that 20 teenagers a day are killed in motor vehicle accidents caused by alcohol or drug impaired driving. While that figure is disturbing, the implications of problem drinking for those who survive to adulthood are even more pessimistic.

Alcoholics are seven times more likely to die in fatal accidents than non-alcoholics. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), there were 2,535 alcohol-related deaths in Illinois in 1976.

Alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver accounted for the largest number of deaths due to alcohol abuse. The Illinois mortality rate for alcoholic cirrhosis in 1976 was 15.8 per 100,000 persons, which was higher than the U.S. rate for that year (14.5 per 100,000).

Other alcohol-related causes of death listed by IDPH include alcoholic psychosis and alcohol addiction, as well as various accidents caused by alcohol abuse. Alcohol is a significant factor in 10 percent of all falls, 15.5 percent of occupational accidents, 22 percent of home accidents, 30 percent of suicides, 33 percent of family court cases, 34 percent of all rapes, 40 percent of transportation accidents, 41 percent of assaults, 45 percent of drownings, 50 percent of homicides, 58 percent of fire deaths and 71 percent of accidental poisonings. Alcohol abuse seems a likely factor in crime, though authorities stress the need for more research before the relationship between crime and alcohol can be fully understood. Nonetheless, 43 percent of state prison inmates surveyed in the U.S. in 1974 were intoxicated at the time of the offense for which they were imprisoned.

To many, the term alcoholic brings to mind a red-nosed, stubble-cheeked figure with smelly clothes. Some alcoholics fit this caricature well enough, but most do not. Most alcoholics are working people who look much the same as their fellow employees and neighbors. Most alcoholics are men, but an increasing number of problem drinkers and alcoholics are women.

Alcoholic women

There is heated debate over whether the changing role of women has contributed to more alcoholism among women or whether new roles and self-images are freeing more women to confront their problem and seek help. Both seem likely.

According to public alcoholism treatment clinics, approximately one-third of the nine to ten million alcoholics in the U.S. are women. An Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) survey reveals

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that the proportion of women members has risen from 22 percent in 1968 to 29 percent in 1977 and that 33 percent of new AA members during the last three years were women.

There is a dearth of data on alcoholic women. Treatment records are one of the best sources of information. Based on treatment records, the ratio of men to women receiving treatment for alcoholism in state hospitals is 6:1; from private physicians the ratio is 3:1. In 1976-1977 women comprised 11.9 percent of those being treated in Social Setting Detoxification Programs; in Illinois during the same period, women comprised 7.3 percent of the total treated.

Approximately 2.2 million women of childbearing age live in Illinois. Of those, 150,000 are heavy drinkers. Women between the ages of 20 and 24 bear the most children (55,499 in 1976) and also have the highest rate of heavy drinking (9 percent). In 1976, there were over 170,000 live births recorded for Illinois residents. Of those children, about 11,500, or 6.8 percent, were born to women who drank heavily. Of that number, 8,000, or 70 percent, can be expected to show symptoms of FAS.

According to researchers, the onset of alcoholism in women often accompanies or immediately follows crisis/depression states, including the surfacing of sex-role conflicts. Women cited several factors as being of prime significance in their becoming alcoholic. In order of frequency, those are: divorce, death of a family member, child leaving home, miscarriage, abortion, infertility, hysterectomy, menstrual difficulties, menopause and post-partum depression. The fact that counseling can help women face many of these problems lends some hope to female alcoholics and their families.

Alcoholism is also an increasing problem for the elderly. Each year a larger proportion of our population is comprised of older people, and the alcoholism problems of the elderly promise to become more difficult and more complex to deal with. Among persons 65 or older, 48 percent of the men and 32 percent of the women are drinkers; about ten percent of the men and two percent of the women have a drinking problem.

Alcohol problems among the elderly are often precipitated by the following, in order of statistical importance: loneliness, loss of spouse, physical or emotional separation from children, poor health and lack of meaningful employment.

About 10 percent of alcoholics in treatment are 60 or older. Unless they developed drinking problems earlier in life, older people are the easiest to treat because their abuse of alcohol seems to stem from attempts to deal with stress rather than from compulsive behavior, as is the case with many younger alcoholics.

Alcohol problems among the elderly are often precipitated by loneliness, loss of spouse, physical or emotional separation from children, poor health and lack of employment

The single image of alcoholism that comes to mind most often is the drunken driver. This is not surprising: not only has drinking increased, but our population is far more mobile than it was a few years ago. As in every other area, men outnumbered women in drunken driving. For calendar years 1975-1977, 80 percent of drivers involved in fatal accidents were male, and 67 percent of those drivers were legally intoxicated. Of the female drivers involved in fatalities, 33 percent were legally intoxicated.

Alcoholism is a huge problem and it is getting bigger. At present there seems to be no solution in sight. There are many public and private groups addressing the problem, but more money and more workers are needed to keep pace with the rampaging elephant. Our greatest hope may lie in educating people — children especially — to the dangers (and danger signals) of alcohol abuse and in teaching them how to drink. That may be the answer to the problem: tame the elephant.

Cheryl Tinsley is a student in the Communication Program at Sangamon State University, and is a free-lance writer.

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