The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence has since declared April to be National Alcohol Awareness Month. This month is said to create awareness of struggles that: families, couples, teenagers and children have with alcohol, and alcohol related issues, each and every day. This year, 2011, will mark the twenty-fifty anniversary of the first Alcohol Awareness Month, ever.
What is National Alcohol Awareness Month? This is a time, when the NCADD encourages communities to post, inform and share information on alcohol, alcoholism and statistic that involve alcohol use and/or abuse. With this, the hopes are that more individuals can be informed about the harsh realities and heavy dangers alcohol can result in, if not dealt with in a careful and knowledgeable manner.
The month of April is also supposed to recognize alcoholism as an illness that can be treated with the care and assistance of professionals. This encourages the recognition of: drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, rehab programs and rehabilitation celebrations for those that have been sober for any amount of time.
In two thousand and nine, a survey was conducted to find where most of the nation’s alcohol use fell. At that time, almost four percent of alcohol users consisted of children twelve and thirteen years old. Over one million teen-aged children were seeking treatment, or currently in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center for alcohol abuse. Sixteen-year-olds were also marked as holding over twenty-five percent of the nation’s alcohol use in this survey.
There seems to be a trend for alcoholism that is beginning at a younger and younger age each and every year. By informing children of alcoholism as an illness, and deterring them from alcohol use at such young ages, some believe it is possible to lower rates of alcohol abuse by a large sum.
Also, in congruent form, children of alcoholics are seen to suffer harmful side-effects from living within such traumatic lifestyles. Such children may be subject to: verbal violence, physical and/or sexual abuse, as well as possible neglect in some cases. These traumatic childhood events can lead to a teenager or young adult abusing alcohol in their futures, thereafter.
Researchers have studied genetic links to alcoholism, family lines of learned traits, as well as those without families at all. It is all a linked circle that is in need of awareness and education from all angles. With this, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence gives us this month. To share, to be aware and to educate ourselves, our friends and our family.
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