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The under-21s are not the only ones who are drinking more. Reversing past patterns, which showed middle-aged men the most prone to alcoholism, there has recently been a marked increase in alcoholism among people in their 20s and 30s and among women. In the '50s, by National Institute of Mental Health estimates, one of every five or six alcoholics was a woman; the ratio is now one woman for every four men. These figures may in fact be understating the problem for women, because a nonworking woman, who does not have to punch a time clock or stand scrutiny in the office, finds it easier than her husband might to hide her habit. One alcoholic housewife in Miami admitted stashing Clorets in every jacket pocket and downstairs drawer to disguise her liquor breath from unexpected callers. Others try to hide their alcoholic breath by sipping Listerine, Scope or vanilla extract.
In some places the ratio between men and women problem drinkers is already equal. For example, in Florida's Dade County (pop. 1,385,000), authorities estimate that there are 78,000 alcoholics—and almost half are women. At the Women's Alcohol Education Center in South West Miami, patients can relax in a pool or on a patio and their kids can play in a garage full of toys and live animals. The center is open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., and has a daily average of 18 women visitors.
Who is an alcoholic, and who is "merely" a problem drinker? The definition depends on the definer. Thus Mrs. Fred Tooze, head of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, maintains that an alcoholic is "anyone who drinks alcohol. As soon as they start to drink they're on that road downward." By that definition many of the researchers in alcoholism would be practicing alcoholics themselves.
Quantity consumed is only one criterion—and not necessarily the decisive one. "We see little old ladies who drink less than a pint a day who are dying," says Harold Swift, of the Hazelden Foundation's model treatment facility in Minnesota. "Yet we see men who go through better than a fifth a day and still function well."
An alcoholic does not necessarily know that he is an alcoholic. The stereotype of the stumbling, mumbling Bowery bum applies to no more than about 5% of the alcoholics in the U.S. Most alcoholics hold jobs, raise families, and manage to hide their addiction from everyone, often even from themselves. An alcoholic may go on for years, imbibing three martinis at lunch, two more on the way home and three when he gets there. One day, however, he may wind up in a hospital with a broken leg and, deprived of his daily quota, may suddenly find himself in the middle of the DTs (delirium tremens), which are characterized by extreme agitation, confusion and frightening hallucinations.