Alcohol substance abuse is a common condition. About 76 million people in the world suffer from a problem with alcohol substance abuse. About half of all Americans have a close relative with a drinking issue with a total cost of about $220 billion dollars of cost to the public.

Teens are not immune to this issue either and they often cite their parent's drinking habits as influential in their habits as teens. About three million teens suffer from this, most of them between the ages of 14 to 17 years of age. About 26 percent of teens involved in this drink a total of 47 percent of all alcohol used by underage drinkers.

More than 500,000 million people are injured in automobile crashes related to alcohol . This means that one person is injured every two minutes in an alcohol substance abuse related crash. Most problem drinkers are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine and the fewest problems with alcohol substance abuse are in the elderly, over 65 years of age. When it comes to driving fatalities, there are about 17,000 alcohol substance abuse related fatalities every year.

This problem affects relationships as well. It is a major risk factor in violence among loved ones involved in a relationship. Fifty percent of total homicides are related to alcoholic problems. About 40 percent of assaults on others are related to alcohol.

More than 100,000 deaths occur in the US because of this issue. The deaths are due to cirrhosis of the liver, falls, stroke, cancer, and drunk driving behaviors. About 75 percent of all prisoners cite alcohol substance abuse as one of the major factors leading up to their arrest and conviction of various crimes. Women tend to die more often than men from cirrhosis or alcohol-related violence and die eleven years younger than men who drink. Even so, men are 4 times as likely to be involved in alcohol substance abuse when compared to women.

Work stress is related to this issue as well. Those in high stress jobs are more likely to drink heavily and require treatment than those in low stress jobs. Even non-drinking members of the families of those who drink heavily use ten times more sick leave to take care of their alcoholic family member as those who didn't have an alcoholic family member. Eighty percent of the families who have a person with
alcohol substance abuse report that their ability to do their work is impaired because of their alcoholic relative.