Results of The Alcohol Survey
April 30th, 2009I am very happy to report that so far 143 people have taken the Alcohol Survey. It has been really eye-opening to understand the real life problems people are experiencing. All over the world some of the major issues crop up again and again.
The first thing which surprised me was the age profile of people with issues. In the media we are so used to reading about teenage or college student binge drinkers. But in the survey, 38% of people were between 45-54 years of age. The next biggest group was 35-44 years of age. A quarter were in the younger 25-34 and then the 55-64 age categories.
Let’s get onto the main issues concerned.
The first question was an open-ended question:
What is your main problem/concern with alcohol?
The top 3 responses with over 20% of people responding were:
1. Can’t Stop Drinking When You Have Started or have had one drink
2. Feel The Need To Drink or you are drinking too much
3. Worries and concerns about your physical health
There were also many comments about worrying about what happened when you were drunk and the guilt and remorse felt the next day. Many people also just wanted to cut down and stop alienating their families.
What Are Your Reasons For Drinking?
Surprisingly by far the biggest response was Boredom. I had a multiple choice question and over 50% of people across age groups mentioned this as their number one issue.
Here are the main issues with the number of people who mentioned them:
1. Boredom - 65 people mentioned this out of 143
2. Low Self-Esteem 52
3. Relationship Issues 45
4. Work and Economy: 40
5. Family Issues: 24
Others
6. Stress Relief
7. Because Alcohol is Fun
8. Habit
People who had suffered from abuse also had an issue here. Grief was also an issue for some of the older participants in the study.
Please could you let me know your thoughts about everything above. Does this make sense to you? Do you have the same issues or are there other things which make you turn to drink?
Please leave a comment so other people can learn from your experiences and we can start a discussion around this. If any of these areas touch you - e.g. boredom and relationship issues please post a little about what your specific situation is here so others can learn from you
Thanks,
Rahul
P.S. If you want to still take part in the Alcohol Survey, please click here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=JadJvps7S_2f_2bqN6kl8U30iA_3d_3d
