What is the history of alcoholism? Alcoholism has been present in human civilization for 12,000 years. Dr. Ally Bloom, a medical director and owner of Pasadena Recovery Center, is psychiatrist with four...
Dr. Ally Bloom, a medical director and owner of Pasadena Recovery Center, is psychiatrist with four years experience in treating alcoholism. He gives a short history of the disease known as alcoholism:
"Alcohol has been present in civilization since 10,000 B.C., 12,000 years ago when man first planted grain and grain fell in water and was fermented by yeast. It's been a consistent problem throughout human civilization. The drug culture is new from the mid-sixties, but alcohol has been present from the dawn of history, and alcoholism led this country to have prohibition in 1919 until 1934 when it was finally repealed as a new deal. So alcoholism as a chronic problem has been present from the dawn of civilization.
"It's not an easy thing to cure because it becomes totally integrated into the person's lifestyle, and most people begin their alcoholic behavior and/or drug addiction somewhere around the age of 14. So if they are 24, they have been doing it for 10 years; 34, 20 years and so on. It's very hard to break. There is no drug that will ever substitute for AA sponsorship and meeting attendance. There is a new drug called Campral, which claims to decrease cravings and seems to be somewhat effective. The drawback is that it requires people to take two pills three times a day for the rest of their lives, which is somewhat of a heavy job for people to do."
