page 8

High Potential Alcoholism At University

"Since alcoholism is more prevalent amongst the more intelligent and successful, the proportion of potential alcoholics amongst university students is twice as large as normal." This was an opinion expressed in a recent panel discussion in the SUB common room.

The discussion was between Doctor Mirams, a medical practitioner of some experience with the problems of alcoholism, and "Ian," the founder and president of Alcoholics Anonymous in New Zealand. Doctor A. J. Taylor took the chair.

Doctor Mirams began the discussion by saying that he himself liked drinking whereas the alcoholic usually hated alcohol. He went on to deal with two commonly held views on drink. Both the idea that "you can't come to any harm if you stick to beer" and that "mixing drinks is the sure way to trouble" were wrong. The alcoholic content of beer was small but if enough was drunk it could cause harm. Mixing drinks in itself was not harmful; it was the proportion of alcohol in the drinks that was the only significant factor, he said.

Doctor Mirams defined an alcoholic as a person who "gets drunk at the wrong time in the wrong company." The alcoholic usually liked to drink by himself and often attempted to rationalise about his drinking.

Doctor Mirams estimated that there were at least 10,000 alcoholics in New Zealand at present and probably twice as many as that. Out of every 100 social drinkers there were about six actual or potential alcoholics. There were four times as many male alcoholics as female but this might be because women had a greater opportunity to hide the fact and were often never discovered.

The discussion was then handed over to "Ian," the leader of Alcoholics Anonymous in New Zealand. He immediately dispelled the notion that alcoholism is mainly the problem of the weak willed, out and out bum. He himself had been successful in sport and business and had had a good education, including a university degree, but this was reasonably common amongst alcoholics.

When he had started drinking he had no real problems and drank normally for about 14 years, but in the four years after that he had rapidly gone down hill, losing his job and his home. One of the danger signals which he had not recognised at the time, but which was a reasonably common sign of the potential alcoholic, was an enormous capacity for drinking without becoming drunk. Alcohol was a depressant and an anaesthetic and it should make a person drunk if enough was consumed. If it did not do so there was something wrong.

The status of alcoholism in the community today was the same as that of Tb 50 years ago. It must be recognised as a disease like any other and brought out into the open before it could be combated. Alcoholism did not stem simply from drinking but it was usually the result of tension and problems. The alcoholic was often in a high income bracket—he had to be to finance his drinking—and he tended to prefer the more expensive forms of drink in the more expensive surroundings.

Alcoholics Anonymous was an organisation devoted to the rehabilitation of alcoholics, but they must actively want and seek a cure before they could be helped for Alcoholics Anonymous did not solicit members. Neither did it offer them any quick surefire method of curing their disease.

"Ian" said that when the alcoholic approached AA he had usually been drinking heavily in order to gain the courage to enable him to take this step, and the first thing AA did was to help the person "dry out," which might take up to three days and was a difficult process. The alcoholic was then introduced to the 12 point plan for rehabilitation that AA used.

This plan was generally a moral doctrine which acknowledged the existence of a God and asked for His help. It had been found that a return to full church membership was necessary before many people could be cured.

Once the alcoholic was cured there remained the difficult problem of staying cured because the rehabilitated alcoholic could never return to social drinking, which was likely to cause a relapse.