The Center for Alcohol and Disease Control classifies heavy drinkers as men who have more than two drinks per day and women who have more than one drink a day. With four years of a weak economy, high unemployment rates, high gasoline prices, and high foreclosure rates, alcoholism continues to be a serious issue in the U.S. It’s a problem that affects not only the individual who is overindulging, but society around him. Families are scarred by the unstable and reliable behavior and our streets are unsafe when they get behind the wheel. Each year various organizations take polls to see where the highest rates of alcoholism are and why. Although the numbers vary from year to year, it’s interesting to take a look at which cities in the country generally have the biggest problems with high rates of alcoholism. Is heavy drinking an issue where you live?
According to the 2007 Behavioral Risk Surveillance System Survey by CDC, Austin, Texas came in on top among the cities in the US with highest rates of alcoholism. The survey further revealed that at least 61.5% of adults who reside within Austin had a drink within the last 30 days, and a whopping 20.6% of the residents of Austin admitted to have participated in binge drinking or having had more than 5 drinks in a single occasion! This has mostly been attributed to the sizable number of college students that reside within the city. Austin boasts a number of different universities, including The University of Texas, which is considered among the largest in the nation.
Austin, Texas is closely followed by Milwaukee, Wisconsin that has been referred to many times as 'the nation's watering hole'. This city has a reputation of being a city that is built on beer. Milwaukee is proud to be the home to four breweries that are considered the worlds largest. They are Schlitz, Miller, Blatz and Pabst. This city even has a baseball team called The Brewers reflecting the drinking habits of this city's residents. The fact that it is home to such breweries makes beer consumption in this city part of the residents' daily routine in turn causing many cases of alcoholism.
Looking further down the list, we find San Francisco, California which had 59.4% of its residents having at least 1 drink in 30 days; Providence, R.I which had 64% of its residents admitting to have had a drink in the last 30 days; and Chicago, Illinois which had at least 62% of its residents admitting to have a at least one drink in the last 30 days, and with 20.4% admitting to have had at least 5 drinks in one occasion.
Most of the rates are due to lifestyles of the people living in these cities and social issues including stress due to lack of jobs. Dealing with alcoholism has always been a touchy subject. Many alcoholics are either in denial or just won’t make the effort to take a comprehensive 24 hour alcohol awareness class. It’s easy to have the excuse that AA meetings are too publicly embarrassing, or private therapy is too expensive and time-consuming. In this vain, one path that can lead to sobriety is to take online alcohol awareness and education classes. Classes are available from any web-based electronic device and can be accessed with a click of a button. High quality programs that are designed by licensed and practicing therapists, can be taken at your convenience, at any time of the day or night. The student will spend time learning about the risks and repercussions of alcohol or drug addiction, and skills to use to overcome the abuse. They are a highly effective, private and inexpensive way to get the conversation going with the ultimate goal of complete sobriety.