The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy had an interesting " explanation " for alcoholism

The most interesting " explanation " for alcoholism , I think, was given by the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy . He said in so many literary paragraphs that people drink habitually because it dulls their conscience and enables them to continue leading foolish, miserable, " sinful " lives.

 Another Russian writer ( Dostoyevsky ) has a character say " If God does not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him ".

The experience of existential meaninglessness plays a role even in the lives of affluent alcoholics. Remember Albert Camus' " Judge Penitent " lawyer in his novel " The Fall " ? Often drunk, he would think : " I felt absent when I took up the most space ".

The woman alcoholic in the movie " Days of Wine and Roses " ( Lee Remick ) says she must drink because the world just looks too ugly when she is not drunk .

When drunk she can sing along with the happy song " It's A Wonderful World ! "

What role does pernicious boredom with work play in making alcoholics ?

[Why Do Men Stupefy Themselves? Leo Tolstoy on Why We Drink

“The seeing, spiritual being, whose manifestation we commonly call conscience, always points with one end towards right and with the other towards wrong, and we do not notice it while we follow the course it shows.”

The cause of the world-wide consumption of hashish, opium, wine, and tobacco, lies not in the taste, nor in any pleasure, recreation, or mirth they afford, but simply in man’s need to hide from himself the demands of conscience.]