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“Alcohol use among U.S. adults has fallen for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to a new Keck Medicine of USC study published Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine. Gen Z and millennials led the drop.” - Relevant

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Discussion

Tue, 09/29/26

My son-in-law has noted that Bavaria has a number of really good NA beers. It's hard to do right, since each flavor compound has different chemical characteristics, but apparently, they've done it.

That said, I don't think that's what's going on here. Rather, it's that many young people in Gen. Z and millenial age groups--1981-2012 births--coped with the COVID lockdowns by drinking heavily, among other things, and now that we're not locked down anymore, they have other things to do.

It's a lot like what happened in the Vietnam War; people were terrified because something like 20% of soldiers were using heroin there, and they figured that because heroin was so addictive, they'd bring that pathology home with them. It turned out that when they got back to ordinary family and community life, they didn't feel the stress, and therefore they didn't feel the need to use heroin anymore. Only about one of twenty Vietnam addicts remained addicts when they got home.

Moral of the story; if you're ministering to someone with substance abuse problems, take a look at the other stresses in their life. You might find that there's something that can be done to show them the way out. To use the COVID analogy, living in community can help.

(not an academic question for me, as my sister-in-law has bipolar syndrome and cirrhosis)

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

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