“Our Creator has provided us with every thing we need to stay alive…”1 We do not care about it when it is far, when it is too distant, when it does not happen to us. We are men and women of many different social, economic and cultural backgrounds, and with different characters and kinds of willpower as well.
Why do we start drinking? Edward W. Gondolf, the professor of sociology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania holds to the idea that “drinking is one more symbol of neurosis” and it is meant for those “who are empty inside, looking for happiness at the bottom of the bottle.”2 Natural pain-killer, alcohol gives a sense of relief, but it is usually a short-term one, besides it does not provide comfort both moral and physical. For many alcohol is the only thing that makes life bearable. When there is no one who would take care of, no one to love, drinking becomes a major interest, the only source of happiness. “Then trust me, there‘s nothing like drinking so pleasant on this side the grave; it keeps the unhappy from thinking…”3 according to Charles Dibdin, the English poet. Nevertheless, Thomas De Quincey argues pointing that “if once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing, and only then from robbing he comes next to drinking…”4 In other words, the psychiatrist Douglas Bernstein from the University of Leeds, England makes a corollary to the previously mentioned statements explaining that “alcohol is one of the oldest, and certainly the most widely used drug in the world.”5 It was John Selden, the English medieval lawyer and philosopher, who wrote: “‘Tis not the drinking that is to be blamed, but the excess.”6 Thus, the majority of us tend to think that another little drink would not do us any harm, and the idea itself, doubtlessly, is the crucial one. At once, about two ounces of alcohol usually bring feeling of relaxation, happiness and well-being. Bit it is not far from the moment when later on they begin to depress, or “temporarily knock out.”7 It is not only that drunk people begin talking too loud, acting silly, or telling others exactly what they think of them. The catastrophy is definitely beyond that.
…
