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Informationen zum Autor James E. Royce, S.J., Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Addiction Studies at Seattle University. He is the author of Alcohol Problems and Alcoholism and coauthor of Ethics for Addiction Professionals. Klappentext "Alcoholism and Other Drug Problems" offers a balanced and comprehensive account of the nature, causes, prevention, and treatment of the nation's number one public health problem. This edition of Royce's award-winning text, "Alcohol Problems and Alcoholism," has been extensively updated throughout by Royce and his coauthor David Scratchley, with new chapters on drugs other than alcohol to reflect the most recent research in the field.Part I, "Alcohol and Other Drugs," examines the nature and impact of alcohol as a drug and discusses historical and contemporary cultural attitudes toward drinking in America. A new chapter on the effects that other drugs can have on the user and on the family, and treatment methods, has been added to this section. Part II, "Addiction," describes the patterns and symptoms of this complicated phenomenon. The authors also use new data to illustrate the impact that addiction can have on special groups such as children, minorities, and the elderly. Part III, "Prevention and Intervention," looks at the various techniques that have succeeded or failed in curbing drug abuse. Finally, Part IV, "Treatment and Rehabilitation," surveys the range of available treatment approaches with chapters on various twelve-step programs and new information on drugs and the law. Leseprobe CHAPTER I Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Most are aware that drugs are a major factor in our biggest social problems: violence, crime, poverty, AIDS, family disintegration -- but many do not think of alcohol as a drug at all, only as a social beverage. We shall see that alcohol causes immense problems, of which alcoholism is only one. (The other drugs are dealt with in Chapters 2 and 5.) The facts about alcohol are distorted by our emotionally charged attitudes toward drinking, drunkenness, and alcoholism. Those attitudes are the result of many factors: family situation, sociocultural experience, biological differences, prohibition, differing religious beliefs, and political, economic, and personal feelings unique to each individual. Obvious as they may seem, we must spell out some distinctions that are ignored in most arguments on the subject. Drinking. Abstinence from alcohol is the opposite of drinking. Technically anyone who drinks alcoholic beverages, however rarely and moderately, is a drinker. About 60 percent of Americans over eighteen drink at least occasionally (down from 71 percent a dozen years ago); most are neither drunkards nor alcoholics. In fact, about 11 percent of drinkers consume 68 percent of our beverage alcohol, whereas many of those technically classed as drinkers have only a New Year's toast or the like. Less than half of American "drinkers" use alcohol more than once a month. Drunkenness. Temperance is the opposite of drunkenness. In Chapter 3 we shall see how the prohibitionists created untold confusion by assuming that everyone who drinks is a drunkard. Actually, anybody can get drunk on a given occasion; they might not even be a drinker in the usual sense of the term. To the naïve guest at a wedding reception or the person honored at a retirement banquet, the champagne seems much like ginger ale; a subsequent arrest for driving while intoxicated is not presumptive of alcoholism. However, intoxication even by nonalcoholics is a major source of both civil and criminal problems: battered spouses and children, rape, fights, homicides, unwanted pregnancies, poor health, suicides, lawsuits, family disruptions, job loss, and a sizable share of accidents -- not only traffic but also home, boat, small plane, and industrial. The degree of intoxication need not be that re...
