ALCOHOLICS
Sir,-It was surely with a sad heart that every listener heard the broadcast "The Portrait of an Alcoholic," and will be grateful to the organisations which seek to alleviate those afflicted. It is appalling to be told authoritatively, not only that there is a reliable estimate of 12,000 people in our small country suffering from this dreadful disease, each with a background of misery endured by wife, children, parents, but that every year sees an addition of 600 to these ruined lives. It has been said that this is the greatest unsolved health problem of our day; yet the simple, practical and complete solution is here all the time. "J started with social drinking," says the alcoholic; and no one can tell, no father or mother can tell, who is doomed to become one of those 600 yearly victims. They all think, "I can stop when I like," but example is better than precept, and the infallible remedy lies in the A.A. motto: "Just for today I will not drink." What useless, fabulous sums are spent in drink in New Zealand-and what a harvest igs reaped on the roads alone! Sir, there are hundreds of thousands of people in this country who have found that they can live full and satisfying lives without liquor. It may require courage for a young man or woman to say "No" to social drinking, but those who do so will lose nothing in the respect of their fellows, and will probably be envied for their pluck.
A. H.
REED
(Dunedin).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1053, 30 October 1959, Page 18
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257ALCOHOLICS New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1053, 30 October 1959, Page 18
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