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Curious observation: in discussions about the causes of alcohol dependence, all the blame is usually assigned to the drinker himself - they say, a weak man, could not survive some grief that befell him and therefore washed down, trying to find peace of mind at the bottom of the glass.
This is partly true - the inability to accept and overcome the "blows of fate" of so many good and worthy people led first to "bow" to the bottle, and then to the clinic, where are they alcoholism treatment. But still there is another reason, because of which this phenomenon occurs, like alcoholism, Are cultural traditions.
Imposed rules and regulations
For many centuries, there has been an unwritten rule in society to mark various "good reasons" with the use of alcoholic beverages.: birthdays, weddings, funeral, state and church holidays, anniversaries, christening, dating, etc.. d. Of course, Traditions do not call to get drunk half to death and even condemn such behavior, but still, with such an approach, the social assessment of alcohol is distorted: from the category of unconditional evil, it is transferred to the rank of a kind of conditional "norm" - if in measure and with regard to, then you can.
The ritualization of alcohol consumption and a certain tolerance for it - this is the root cause, which not only creates fertile soil for the formation of alcoholism, but also complicates the subsequent treatment of this disease many times over. A paradoxical situation arises: scientific medicine, one side, approves, that alcohol is definitely harmful to the body, and society, on the other side, speaks imperiously, what in some situations you need to drink, because "it is so accepted".
The vagueness of public attitudes towards alcohol, passed through the prism of the individual characteristics of the worldview of a particular person, and leads to the development of alcoholism, as well as other grave consequences, deal with which narcologists have to deal with.
3 the main dangers of drinking traditions
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Alcohol tolerance. As already stated, since it is considered, that sometimes you can still drink (and even "need"), an alcohol-dependent patient can take a very long time to think, that you should never drink alcohol at all. Actually, even addiction treatment does not cause such difficulties, since there is no tradition in society to drag on a joint of marijuana for the health of young people at a wedding or to roll a portion of heroin into a vein on the occasion of the New Year.
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Devaluation of claims about the dangers of alcohol. Elementary logic works here: if alcohol is poison, but sometimes it is allowed to drink it, it, possible, it is not that bad?
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Public censure for refusing to drink. Depending on the characteristics of a particular social environment, refusal to "take a little sip" on an "important matter" can cause great tension in personal relationships, and therefore a person repeatedly gives in and does not notice that moment himself, when his previous aversion to alcohol is replaced by a gratification or even a destructive need…
How to break a vicious circle
The centuries-old traditions cannot be broken by an outwardly imposed strong-willed decision - and have been repeatedly adopted around the world (and then failed miserably) "Dry laws" are a clear confirmation of this. But if each person starts with himself, stopping drinking "on holidays" and teaching the same to their children, then already after 2-3 generations "drinking rituals" will become archaism, causing only a sympathetic smile from others.
And who knows, maybe one day these words will cease to be just a dream…
