Article from Reformers Unanimous Here are some frightening statistics from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse: Alcohol Statistics: - More than 100,000 U.S. deaths are caused by excessive alcohol consumption each year. Direct and indirect causes of death include drunk driving, cirrhosis of the liver, falls, cancer, and stroke.
- At least once a year, the guidelines for low risk drinking are exceeded by an estimated 74% of male drinkers and 72% of female drinkers aged 21 and older.
- 65% of youth surveyed said that they got the alcohol they drink from family and friends.
- Nearly 14 million Americans meet diagnosticcriteria for alcohol use disorders.
- Youth who drink alcohol are 50 times more likely to use cocaine than those who never drink alcohol.
- Among current adult drinkers, more than half say they have a blood relative who is or was an alcoholic or problem drinker.
- Across people of all ages, males are four times as likely as females to be heavy drinkers.
- More than 18% of Americans experience alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence at some time in their lives.
- Traffic crashes are the greatest single cause of death for persons aged 6–33. About 45% of these fatalities are in alcohol-related crashes.
- Underage drinking costs the United States more than $58 billion every year — enough to buy every public school student a state-of-the-art computer.
- Alcohol is the most commonly used drug among young people.
- Problem drinkers average four times as many days in the hospital as nondrinkers — mostly because of drinking-related injuries.1
- Alcohol kills 6½ times more youth than all other illicit drugs combined.
- Concerning the past 30 days, 50% of high school seniors report drinking, with 32% report being drunk at least once.
First Peter 5:8 tells us that the Devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and alcoholism is one his most successful forms of attack. It is an attack that has destroyed men, women, children, blacks, whites, Hispanics, rich people and poor people. Most people who are under this kind of attack spend their lives trying to beat it off with willpower, discipline, and the help of other people, missing out on the power that defeats and destroys the power of not just this sin, but ALL sin: the power of Christ. John 4:13-14 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Why is alcoholism such an effective attack of Satan? Because it allows people to fill the void in their life with something that makes them temporarily forget the emptiness inside. Christ called Himself the living water: the only thing that satisfies and gives real life, and life more abundantly! |