MAY 2004

Alcohol and the Veteran and the Family

I was asked to write something concerning the problems of alcohol abuse. For me the big thing about alcohol abuse is that it not only affects the person who is drinking too much, but it impacts on the family and friends and indeed on occasion strangers. We have all seen and heard the information on drink-driving, but that certainly is not the only area of concern. I can remember one WWII veteran who would happily drink a lot each evening, and more at the weekend, simply because he was at home then and the drink was available. He would fall asleep during his roast dinner on a Sunday evening and his head would be on his plate. His wife was very embarrassed about this and certainly tried to curb his drinking habit, but without any outside support.

Luckily that man was never abusive to his wife or children or those, like me, visiting his home. However I have heard of a number of New Zealand veterans who are abusive to their families when they drink too much. I have heard of veterans who use alcohol to help them to sleep, some who prefer to use alcohol to prescription painkillers. This might work for a time, but as time goes on more alcohol is needed for the same relief, and the steady spiral into alcoholism has been started. The drinking can also start due to stress and can hide underlying problems that should be checked out by a GP or a psychiatrist. The underlying problems could in themselves attract a War Disablement Pension.

It is not easy to say just how much alcohol is too much for each individual, but if, on a regular and frequent basis, you are drinking more than the level for which you could be arrested if you started driving a vehicle you might like to take stock. Many health professionals would not worry if you had an odd glass of wine, or beer or spirits most days of the week, but they would encourage you to have at least a couple of alcohol-free days each week.

What damage can alcohol abuse do? Apart from liver damage that most of us know about there is pancreatitis, which can lead to diabetes; atrial fibrillation (a heart problem); cardiomyopathy (another heart problem) Cerebro-Vascular Accident (stroke), haemochromatosis (too much iron in the blood, causing tissue damage); peripheral neuropathy; porphyria cutanea tarda; subarachnoid haemorrhage (where a brain artery bleeds into the space beneath the arachnoid membrane covering the brain; and gout. If you have any of these problems and you have a history of drinking too much alcohol you should test your eligibility for a War Disablement Pension and you should consider obtaining help for you alcohol problem through Alcoholics Anonymous (0800 229 675). In some area there are other organisations that can help partners and children of people who have a drink problem. All these services are confidential.