Sobering facts must be addressed - Alcohol abuse

IRELAND’S unhealthy love affair with alcohol is well documented. While nobody likes being lectured about their lifestyle, two alarming reports published in today’s and yesterday’s Irish Examiner demand that people sit up and heed some alarming facts of life — and death.

These reports show clearly that instead of getting to grips with the nation’s booze crisis, Irish society is at risk of slipping rapidly down the slippery slope of alcoholism, a disease that wreaks havoc on the lives of its victims and destroys relationships with loved ones throughout the extended family.

Today’s report from the Rutland addiction centre reveals eight out of 10 people admitted for treatment there had alcohol-related addiction problems. The frightening thing is that, according to the centre’s chief executive Maebh Leahy, 93% of women who presented at the centre last year had an alcohol problem. What is worrying about this is the proportion of women being treated for problems associated with alcohol addiction has climbed from 73% in 2006.