COVID, Opioids, and Some Other Facts - Numbers Don’t Lie
By the time you finish reading this, someone in the U.S. will have died from alcohol. There is something that I have been having a hard time with – still processing, actually – even though I know the answer already. The stats say that one in every 8 Americans meets the criteria for alcohol use disorder. Being one of four Americans who exercises regularly is cool. Being one of 20 Americans over 40 who can run a mile in anything under 9 minutes makes me want to beat my chest and grunt – Tarzan style. Being one of the 8 with the alcohol thing – I want to buy a disguise.
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Stats don’t lie. It's tough to refute anyone who says Tom Brady is the best quarterback ever to play in the NFL. Aside from the Super Bowl thing, his total passing yards add up to more than 51 miles. With numbers like this so readily at our fingertips, on Google, which is now old school, and AI, the new hotness – we can all be statisticians. That’s what this is about – just the facts. I did some light poking around, and I have some not-so-good news.
As of this month, COVID-19 has been the culprit behind the deaths of 1.2 million Americans. Alcohol related deaths in the US during the same period of time come in at around half of that. But here is the kicker…the alcohol related deaths have been a constant for as long as there’ve been drinks, with around 5 million Americans dying from it over the past 50 years – that’s nearly 275 people every day. The opioid death figures that get so much media and political attention are less than half of the death toll that alcohol puts on American families.
If there were a competition between booze, COVID, and opioids, alcohol wouldn’t just win – it would lap the field.
COVID shut us down. We put on masks. We punctured our bodies with the newest products from Phizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna. Then we went back again for a second round of shots. On the opioids, NARCAN can now be found in public libraries, public schools, in churches, and CVS. The pharmacies can whack you with a dose and bill you later. I don’t know if they actually exist, but I heard about some cities offering safe injection sites. There, people would be free to inject their massively illegal Class A substances under the supervision of life-saving professionals and blind-eyed law enforcement.
Like the news stories, I am leading with deaths. Death is as bad as it can get with viruses like COVID, drugs like heroin, and alcohol. Wait. I am confused. Is alcoholism a disease? That’s what I’ve heard – a lot lately. If it is a disease, where’s the vaccine? Or would a mask help? No. Wait again. It’s a drug. And it is responsible for more deaths than heroin, actually all opioids combined. I think a NARCAN product for people who have had too much to drink would do quite well on Shark Tank.
If you are reading this, alcohol…or anything else out there hasn’t killed you…yet. It is equally important that the stats for the living make this post as well. I read that alcohol is involved in 40% of ALL violent crimes, with domestic violence leading the list. I also read that fewer people are getting married, which makes sense when we consider that half of marriages end in divorce (Tom and Gisele included). And…half of all divorces cite alcohol as a contributing factor. But the most heartbreaking stat of all is this one. In 2022, just under 50,000 people committed suicide in the US. 11,000 of those who committed suicide were drunk when they did it.
They Never Saw it Coming - The Trojan Horse
Look, alcohol has taken its toll on me. Anxiety and stress were keeping me up all night, leaving me tired, unable to experience joy. Alcohol took the anxiety and stress away. I thought we were friends. Alcohol was the Trojan Horse of my life – I let it in, and it tore me apart from the inside. It didn't show up swinging. It showed up soothing. Fortunately, I am still here and was able to call off our relationship.
We broke up.
Many things have happened – been happening, not around me…but inside me because of what I’ve experienced. One of them is that I’ve become a sponge for learning about this liquid, and about myself. Before the downfall of my OUI I felt alone – and now, facing the uphill climb of my future, I don’t feel alone anymore. I wasn’t the only one going through this. I didn’t know that.
As you read this paragraph, know that somewhere in our country, a kid lost a parent, a husband lost his wife, or maybe a parent lost their child. The loss may have been unexpected – alcohol poisoning, suicide, a car crash, homicide, or a terrible fall. The loss may have been expected – painful and prolonged – like liver failure, the disintegration of the esophagus, heart disease, or cancer.
A drug? A disease? It doesn’t matter. The stats are what they are, and the numbers don’t lie. Phizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and even our nosy government are leaving this alone.
We know the numbers. We just don't want to feel them. But some of us don’t have that choice anymore.