'No stereotype alcoholic’

Press, 29 September 1979, Page 12

'No stereotype alcoholic’

Alcoholics hate being “hooked” but they hate having to do without their drug even more, a seminar has been told. Many of the estimated 60,000 New Zealanders who suffer from alcohol-related problems either cannot, or refuse to, recognise their disease and this “sweep-it-under-the-carpet” attitude is reflected on a national scale, according to the associate dean of the Christchurch Clinical School (Professor John O’Hagan). Professor O’Hagan was addressing management and union executives at a seminar sponsored by the Alcoholic Liquor Advisory Council. The council is holding a series of seminars throughout New Zealand with the theme, “Alcoholism in Industry,” to try to acquaint people with the potential dangers of alcohol, and the

' various methods of combat- > ting the problem. Alcoholics were not confined to the shop floor, and the “skid row” stereotype I accounted for only 5 per cent 1 of the total number, said • Professor O’Hagan. The higher the income, the ‘ greater the risk of contract- • ing the disease. ’ It was very difficult for ; the alcoholic to come to ' grips with his problem, and . medical and counselling staff had trouble dealing with . him. [ Denial 'of the problem . often found in the alcoholic . was part of the disease it- . self, and strategies had to be found to combat it, said i Professor O’Hagan. Another part of the dis- : ease was the track back to the bottle after a period : without alcohol, he said. I This was often used as an ' excuse by people to point the

finger and the fallen alcoholic suffered greatly from the prejudice of others. Alcoholism tended to run in families. Environmental influences were now accepted to be only one cause, and there was a genetic predisposition for some people to become alcoholics, Professor O’Hagan said,