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| Alcoholism Stats | Alcohol causes cirrhosis, a disease of the liver. Nevertheless, it has many other harmful effects on the health. It is a major cause of deaths and injuries due to accidents. It can have bad effects on a baby during the pregnancy. Some drinkers use alcohol to relieve anxiety, depression, tension, loneliness, self-doubt or unhappiness. Researches have shown that over time (with regular alcohol use) the body adjusts to having the chemical in its system. The body becomes normal only with alcohol. Then the alcohol is required for the basic functioning and many alcoholics need a drink in the morning just to get out of bed. 
The physical nature of alcoholism is also seen in compulsive behaviors such as the inability to stop drinking once started. This is what is referred to as uncontrolled behaviors of the alcoholic. One of the psychological aspects of dependency is the obsessive thoughts about drinking. Another one is the use of alcohol to relieve tension and anxiety. Typically the heavy drinker difficult copes with negative feelings and discovers that alcohol relieves worry and stress. A pattern of drinking to ease daily tension and life problems escalates leading ultimately to physiological dependence. So in this way the problem drinker becomes an alcoholic.
Alcoholism often happens when a person grows up with one or more alcoholic parents. The researches showed that a complex interaction between forces such as availability and price of alcohol, genetic characteristics and life experience implicates in alcohol addiction.
Countries where alcohol is more available have higher rates of alcoholism. The changes in availability affect the number of people with alcohol problems.
About 15 million Americans are dependent on alcohol. Men become alcohol dependent five times more than women do. White men have the highest rates of alcoholism in the U.S. Black males experience less alcoholism than white males, but still have rates high enough to be of concern (15% in 1984 and 1995 surveys). Black women have a much lower rate (5% in both surveys) which is equal to white women.
Every year the alcohol industry spends about 2 billion dollars on encouraging the consumption of alcoholic beverages and advertising. The highest percent of heavy drinkers is found among unemployed adults between the age of 26 to 34 and it is 12.2%. The statistics shows that nearly one out of four Americans admitted to general hospitals have alcohol problems or are undiagnosed alcoholics being diagnosed for alcohol related consequences. Over 2.8 million people in the UK may be classifying as dependent on alcohol. It is not possible to estimate the total number of alcohol dependants in Ireland, but one source suggests that as many as 95,000 of the estimated 1.9 million drinkers will go on to develop a problem with alcohol.
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