Since the publishing of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939, a breakthrough piece of literature on the disease of alcoholism, there has been relatively little development in understanding the disease. Alcoholism was described as the phenomenon of obsession, a peculiar mental twist, and many other terms which could be defined in one way: nobody knew what caused alcoholism. More specifically, no one has been able to identify what causes one person to become an alcoholic when another person exhibits nearly identical drinking habits.
The Main Contributors To Alcoholism
Many of the contributing factors to alcoholism have been widely understood and how alcoholism functions in the brain has become common knowledge, as have the effects of alcoholism on the self and others. Still, the answer behind why one person becomes addicted to alcohol while the other doesn’t has continued to confound professionals, loved ones, and friends. The Atlantic reports that a landmark study of alcoholism offers some answers for that question.
Only 15 percent of people who regularly drink alcohol will become dependent, the article explains. Researchers at the University of Sweden found that in mice who have an option between alcoholic beverages or sugary water, four will choose to continue imbibing alcohol. At first the sample size of rats was what one of the researchers called laughable. However, as the research expanded over six hundred times, it was obvious the evidence was the same.
“Consistently, 15 percent of them choose alcohol over sugar—the same number as the proportion of human drinkers who progress to alcoholism.”
Rats continued to seek the consumption of alcohol even when the alcohol was spiked with especially fatal consequences- much like human behavior.
What The Study Means
We don’t have a causation as to what specifically causes one person to develop alcoholism while another person does not. We do have just one more clue into figuring out the peculiar phenomenons which contribute to the development of alcoholism.
In our next blog, we’ll talk about how to help someone struggling with alcoholism.
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