What is An Alcoholic?
Have you ever known an alcoholic? Have you ever tried to help such a person? Almost everyone reading this page can answer the first question in the affirmative. Many can do the same for the second. For few problems are as widespread as alcoholism. Directly or indirectly, most adults have had some experience with this perplexing sickness. It may have touched one’s immediate family; or it may have been experienced in an employee, a fellow worker, a friend or the friend of a friend, a distant relative, or a chance acquaintance. In a survey conducted in the state of Washington, 72 percent of the sample population had known at least one alcoholic. 1. Of these, 40.5 percent had been related as close friends or relatives of the alcoholic they had known. Anyone whose work brings him into intimate touch with people is painfully acquainted with the problem of alcoholism. Ministers, physicians, psychotherapists, social workers, and others whose work includes helping people in trouble have the pro
