June 16, 2019
Jellnick's Disease is also called Alcohol Use Disorder.
Myth # 2 Drinking is a private decision, and no one else’s business.
How many stats do we need on drunk driving, abusive homes,ruined careers, and failed marriages to confront this myth?
Every person’s alcohol abuse affects at least five other people. A conservative estimate! Add that to the enormous cost to our health care system and alcohol-fuelled crime and yes, it likely affects all of us to one degree or another.
We require prescription drugs to have clearly listed potential side effects, and cigarette packages to do the same. However, the booze industry is where tobacco industry was 50 years ago: a lot of denial and resistance to the documented, clearly publicized truth.
We live in an alcogenic culture, one that glamorizes drinking as a good, desirable activity without mentioning that:
Alcohol is a depressant and a carcinogen.
Jellnick’s disease has been rightly called a “family disease” and it is usually easier and quicker for alcoholics to become truly sober than it is for the family members to recover good emotional health and dynamics. A lot of time and therapy is needed.
May God help us to be wise and compassionate about this issue, so we can relate well to others who struggle with it.
