Alcohol Addiction

Alcohol Awareness Month 2026: What is National Alcohol Awareness Month?

Posted on by Angus Whyte
alcohol awareness month banner
08
Apr

Summary: National Alcohol Awareness Month is a month dedicated to increasing knowledge about alcohol, alcohol use, alcohol addiction, and the facts about how alcohol affects your body, mind, and overall health and wellness.

Key Points:

What is National Alcohol Awareness Month?

According to SAMHSA, the sponsor of NAAM 2026, the primary goals of alcohol awareness month include:

  • Increasing awareness of the negative physical, psychological, and emotional consequences of alcohol misuse
  • Raising awareness about treatment for alcohol addiction, a.k.a. alcohol use disorder (AUD)
  • Decreasing stigma, correcting misinformation, and reducing fear about treatment for alcohol addiction/ alcohol use disorder (AUD)

If you’re in recovery from alcohol or currently in a treatment program for alcohol addiction, here’s something important to know:

You are not alone.

That’s relevant to you and your recovery because it means at least three things:

  1. You can learn from others who share your experience.
  2. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel: there are approaches that work and people who’ve tried them who can share them with you.
  3. When you have a bad day in recovery – which everyone in recovery does – you can seek solace and support from people who’ve walked the recovery road before you and have experience with the ups and downs.

Believe us about that last point: if you go to an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting and are lucky enough to meet or listen to an old-timer share, then you’ll quickly learn how much there is to learn and grow. When you know you’re not alone, and know you have support, it makes a big difference: having a strong recovery community and sense of connection with people who have a shared goal – working toward a full and fulfilling life in recovery – can be the component that keeps you on track when you feel like you may be at risk of relapse.

We’ll share statistics on the number of people in recovery in a moment, alongside the latest data and statistics on alcohol use, binge alcohol use, heavy drinking, and alcohol addiction/alcohol use disorder. First, if you’d like to learn more about Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), please read the following article on our blog:

Does AA Really Work?

Now let’s take a look at the official numbers on alcohol use, misuse, and treatment in the U.S.

Alcohol Consumption in the U.S.: Facts and Figures

The following data is available in the publication 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2024 NSDUH), published annually by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). We’ll share the data on past-month alcohol use, which experts define as current use. To understand these figures, you’ll also need to understand the following drinking types/levels of consumption, as defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA):

 

Binge drinking means:

  • Having 4 drinks in less than 2 hours (women)
    • 4 or more drinks in one two-hour period in the past 30 days
  • Having 5 drinks in less 2 hours (men)
    • 5 or more drinks in one two-hour period in the past 30 days

Heavy alcohol use means:

  • 4 drinks or more in one day/more than 8 drinks in a week (women)
    • 5 binge drinking episodes/month or more
  • 5 drinks or more in one day/more than 15 drinks per week (men)
    • 5 binge drinking episodes/month or more

With those definitions in mind, let’s take a look at the data.

Alcohol Use in the U.S: Past Month, Heavy Drinking, Binge Drinking, and AUD Age 12+

  • Current use: 134.3 million (46.6%)
  • Binge drinkers: 57.9 million (20.1%)
  • Binge drinkers, by age group:
    • 12-17: 3.5% (900,000)
    • 18-25: 26.7% (9.3 million)
    • 26+: 21.0% (47.6 million)
  • Binge drinking among underage people: 7.6% (2.9 million)
  • Heavy alcohol use among underage people: 1.5% (576,000)
  • Alcohol use disorder:
    • Overall: 9.7% (27.9 million)
    • Age 12-17: 3.0% (775,000)
    • Age 18-25: 14.4% (5.0 million)
    • Age 26+: 9.7% (22.1 million)

Now let’s look at the data on treatment for alcohol addiction/problem alcohol use, also available in the 2024 NSDUH.

Treatment for Alcohol Use or Alcohol Addiction

  • Received treatment for alcohol use:
    • Total: 4.1 million people age 12+
    • Includes people without alcohol addiction/alcohol use disorder
  • Among the 134 million people who reported current alcohol use:
    • A total of 3.1 million received professional treatment:
      • 2.2 million received outpatient treatment
      • 900,000 received inpatient treatment
In addition, the NDUH data shows that 6.1 million people engaged in a peer support group for alcohol or drug addiction.

Those figures tell the story clearly. Although millions of people sought support for problem alcohol use in 2024 – confirming that if you’re in treatment, you are not alone – only eleven percent of people diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD) received professional support.

That’s why we still need articles like this one. When people ask, “What is National Alcohol Awareness Month,” and follow up with “Why is it important?” you can reply with those figures. Or with the information below, which may be even more alarming than the raw statistics on alcohol use, alcohol addiction, and treatment for alcohol addiction.

The Health Risks of Drinking Alcohol

For years, we lived with the myth that moderate drinking was safe, and possibly even healthy. Most of us remember hearing something like “a glass or two of red wine with dinner is good for you.” We’re here to debunk that myth. Not only does alcohol increase risk of premature mortality, i.e. early death, but experts on alcohol consumption also agree that no level of alcohol consumptions is truly safe, and that both binge drinking and heavy alcohol consumption can increase risk of alcohol use disorder.

With those facts in mind, let’s look at what we know – our new, updated knowledge – about the health risks of alcohol.

Alcohol and Your Health: What You Need to Know

  • Annual deaths associated with alcohol:
    • 178,000
    • 488 per day
  • Cancer associated with alcohol use:
    • Mouth
    • Throat
    • Larynx
    • Esophagus
    • Breast
    • Liver
    • Colon/rectum
  • Organs and physiological systems harmed by alcohol use:
    • Heart and cardiovascular system
    • Brain and nervous system
    • Muscles, nones and the musculoskeletal system
    • The gastrointestinal system
    • Lungs
    • Pancreas
    • Endocrine system, i.e. hormones
    • Immune system, i.e. our natural disease defense system

We’ll reiterate that these negative effects are associated with levels of drinking defined as moderate, which most people – experts included – considered safe. The CDC defines moderate drinking as two drinks or less a day for men and one drink a day or less for women. However, the CDC also indicates the following:

“Even moderate drinking may increase your risk of death and other alcohol-related harms, compared to not drinking.”

The alcohol-related harms are those we listed above, which include damage to the essential systems in your body that keep you healthy, strong, and thriving. If you drink every day, or have a drinking problem, please read the following article on our blog:

Why is Early Treatment and Support for Alcohol Addiction Important?

Find Your People, Find Your Support, Find Hope for a Healthy Future

National Alcohol Awareness Month is – among other things – about reminding people with alcohol problems that we know they’re there, they’re not alone, and if they want help, they can find it.

If you or someone close to you needs help and support for alcohol use disorder/alcohol addiction, please refer to the following government resources:

For community and peer support groups, please refer to the following:

National Alcohol Awareness Month is also about helping people without a drinking problem learn more about alcohol, which is more important now than ever, and helping people with a friend or loved one with a problem understand this basic fact:

The earlier a person with alcohol addiction gets evidence-based treatment, the better the outcome.

Finally, if you’re looking for a residential treatment center for alcohol addiction that’s committed to holistic healing and located in an island paradise that’s ideal for recovery, please call us here at Honu House. To learn more, please read our treatment pages:

What We Treat – Honu House Hawaii

Alcohol Addiction – Honu House Hawaii

Drug Addiction – Honu House Hawaii

If you or someone you know need help, please call us today.

We’re here, and we’re ready to help you find a path back to a life without alcohol and drugs.

Angus Whyte

Speak with Admissions