Alcoholism is nothing new to modern society, but we have only recently begun to understand it in the past century. Alcohol has been a part of human culture for thousands of years, and alcoholism throughout history has often been portrayed as silly, stupid or even an endearing characteristic. We’ve all seen the movies or read a book where a funny drunk is stumbling about saying ridiculous things in broken speech patterns. However, we’ve come to realize it is a much more serious issue than that would suggest. Alcoholism is a chronic disease that affects 15 million people in the US alone, and 88,000 deaths are attributed to excessive alcohol use each year according to the Center for Disease Control.