Benjamin rush full#
Benjamin rush professional#

Still, it was a long road to get here and took another 40 years before any real help or treatment was set in place for those suffering from the disease. This forty-year period was later deemed to be the period of the highest alcohol consumption in American history.īy this point, more Americans were willing to accept the concept that alcoholism could be a disease and thus were more willing to abstain from drinking it altogether. From 1792 to 1810, alcohol consumption doubled per capita, and by 1830 it had tripled. All of his hard work seemed to fall on deaf ears, though. This was 100 years before the concept of alcoholism was developed in the 1870s.

Benjamin rush professional#

How Benjamin Rush Paved the Way For Alcoholics Anonymousīenjamin Rush was the first American medical professional to write on alcoholism and suggest it might be a disease.

Needless to say, he had his work cut out for him.

Benjamin rush full#

Mind you this was a good 100 full years before anyone backed him up with proof. Maybe it was a combination of all three, but Benjamin Rush did all he could throughout his lifetime to inform his nation of the dangers of alcohol. He said, “A nation corrupted by alcohol can never be free.” A Founding Father Fighting AddictionĪs one of the Founding Fathers, he was worried about the future of the newly free nation, one that seemed dependent on alcohol. Others say it was because he was a devout Christian and drinking spirits was a sin. That his experiences of seeing first-hand what alcoholism can do to people and their families. Some believe it was Benjamin Rush’s humble beginnings that led him down the path that would revolutionize the way the world now sees alcohol. This marriage didn’t turn out to be much better for Benjamin or his mother as he saw his stepfather abuse her. At the age of five or six, his father died from what Benjamin was convinced was his drinking problem.īenjamin’s mother married again. It wasn’t long before his parents filed for divorce. Rush eventually saw the stress his dad’s drinking put on his marriage with Benjamin’s mother. Today, his father would be considered an alcoholic, but during this time, no such word had been created. Benjamin Rush grew up with a father who favored drinking.