Hungary's Alcoholism: Cultural Roots and Recovery Challenges

Hungary's deep-rooted alcohol culture stems from historical trauma and social norms, making change a complex challenge.

### Understanding Hungary's Alcoholism: Culture, History, and Change
* 🍻 Mark Manson explores the staggering alcohol consumption in Hungary, which contributes to **nearly 30% of total deaths each year** and has the highest rates of alcoholism in the world at **21% of the adult population**.
* 🍷 The early introduction to alcohol, with kids starting to drink as young as **12**, plays a significant role in the country's drinking culture, as highlighted by studies linking **early drinking to future alcoholism**.
* 💵 Alcohol is remarkably affordable in Hungary, often **cheaper than water**, which contributes to **higher rates of consumption and addiction**.
* 🍏 Pálinka, a traditional fruit brandy, is a staple in Hungarian culture, consumed during holidays and family gatherings, symbolizing **solidarity and identity** amidst historical oppression.
* 🏰 The history of Hungary, marked by **invasions and loss of territory**, has fostered a **collective trauma** that influences the nation’s relationship with alcohol and contributes to a **pervasive external locus of control** among its citizens.
* 🧠 This external locus of control, often rooted in trauma, leads to a **culture of victimhood**, making it challenging for Hungarians to perceive themselves as **in control of their lives and choices**.
* 🌱 Initiatives like Sober November are gaining traction, as more individuals recognize the **benefits of sobriety**, indicating a **slow cultural shift towards healthier relationships with alcohol**.
* 🕰 Ultimately, the journey to healing and change in Hungary is complex, requiring **generational efforts to address deep-rooted issues** while fostering **open conversations about addiction and emotional well-being**.

- My name is Mark Manson, and I'm trying to stay sober in the drunkest country in the world. (crowd yells indistinctly) Alcohol, the most addictive substance in the world. - Woo!

- But which country is the most addicted of all? Well, it depends how you measure it. The country that consumes the most alcohol, that's Romania. It's 17 liters per person. The country that binge drinks the most often, Ireland,

with roughly 48% of its population binge drinking at least once a month. The country with the most alcohol-related hospitalizations, Belarus. The most drunk driving accidents, South Africa. But there is one country that outstrips the drinking

of all these other countries by a mile. And this country flies under the radar on these official statistics. And that's because nearly half of all alcohol made in this country isn't bought in bars, but it's made by citizens right in their own homes.

I wanted to see this drunkest country in the world for myself. I wanted to understand why they drink so much, what's driving that alcoholism and why they can't seem to stop. And that's why I visited Hungary.

Hungary's drinking problem is absolutely staggering. Chronic alcohol consumption contributes to nearly 30% of its total deaths each year. And according to the World Health Organization, this country tops the world in rates of alcoholism with a shocking 21% of the adult population diagnosable

I was diagnosed with alcohol abuse disorder. I came here to understand why. What is it about Hungarian culture that makes it so people drink so much? What social factors lead to rampant addiction, and what can be done to address it?

Why do you think Hungarians drink so much alcohol? - I don't know. It's a good question. - Are you drunk right now? - Kind of. - (laughs) It's okay. You can be honest. - Kind of.

- I feel like in Hungary, kids usually start drinking and smoking around age 14. - Okay. When did you start drinking? - When I was 12, maybe. - 12? - Yes. - Oh, wow.

Do you know that Hungary has the highest percentage of alcoholics? - Yeah. It's understandable. Many people find happiness in alcohol, so, yeah. - And what time today did you start drinking? - It was two o'clock in the afternoon.

- Two o'clock? - Yes. - So you've been drinking for 12 hours. - Yes. - And you're still, you're very functional. - Yes, yes, yes. (Mark laughs) A 2006 study published in the Archives of Pediatrics

and Adolescent Medicine showed that the earlier someone has their first drink, the more likely they are to become an alcoholic in adulthood. Another 2010 study by Ryan et al. found that growing up with parents who encouraged alcohol consumption

resulted in more alcoholism later in life. But it couldn't be that simple. Plenty of countries start their kids drinking early. I'm doing a YouTube video about Hungary. - Yeah? - And the drinking culture in Hungary. - Oh yeah.

- Hungary has the most alcoholics in the world. - Yeah, we know that. - Yeah. (laughs) What are you drinking? - I'm drinking, it's called Fröccs. - Fröccs? What's in it?

- It's wine and sparkling water. - Oh, nice. How long have you been drinking tonight? - Me personally, I started at about 4:00 PM. - Okay. - It's really cheap to drink here, so I guess-

- And other things are expensive, right? - Yeah. We can buy a beer or even a wine cheaper than water. - Wow. And this was another data point. A study in 2002, published in the Journal of Alcohol and Health Research,

found that places where alcohol is more affordable produce significantly more alcoholics. But then this raises another question: Why is alcohol so cheap in Hungary in the first place? According to some studies, Hungary has the most alcoholics in the world.

- Really? - Yeah. - I didn't know that. - Why do you think that is? (bell chimes) - Stress. (both laughing) - It's mostly because of party time. Mostly because of party time. Party time.

- Every answer up until now is an explanation that is not unique to Hungary. Lots of countries are stressed out, lots of countries have cheap booze and have kids drinking at a young age. But Pálinka, now we're talking. This is something unique to Hungary.

- Ooh, wow. - Pálinka is a traditional fruit brandy and the national drink of Hungary. And as I would soon come to find out, it was everywhere. - Pálinka. - Pálinka. - Pálinkas. - Pálinka.

- Pálinka. - Pálinka, it's an alcohol that's drunk at every holiday, every special occasion and every party. Oh, there's like a spice to it. - Yes. Yes. (Mark laughs) - Pálinka is gifted between family and friends

and neighbors, shared between parents and children and grandparents and grandchildren, and this was a key to understanding Hungary's alcoholism. - Everyone has to drink Pálinka, because if you don't drink Pálinka, you're a pussy.

(Mark laughs) - So does your family support it? Like when you're young? - Mostly in family occasions. Grandparents support. - Yeah. - They are the most passionate about drinking on these occasions. - If I think about my grandparents,

every single morning they woke up and they drank Pálinka instead of coffee. So it's the first thing in their waking-up routine instead of coffee. - So it's a waking-up routine. You hear that, Huberman? It's Pálinka in the morning.

Pálinka was everywhere. Everyone drank it, and seemingly everyone felt obligated to drink it. I discovered that, by some estimates, Hungarians brewed and drank 60 million liters of Pálinka each year. In a country of only 9 million people, that's a lot.

But why? Where did Pálinka come from, and why was it so ubiquitous? Well, to understand that, we have to go back into Hungary's history, to an unlucky king and a ruthless invader. In 1526, King Louis II of Hungary marched his army south

to confront the invading Ottoman Empire. The Hungarian forces lost the battle. But during the retreat, while crossing a shallow stream, King Louis fell off his horse. Now, normally this wouldn't have been an issue, but his armor was so heavy that he drowned.

Louis's unexpected death threw the kingdom into disarray, allowing the Ottomans to walk uncontested into Budapest and take control. Being Muslim, the Ottomans had strict rules around alcohol. And as a form of quiet rebellion,

Hungarian peasants began collecting their excess fruit and quietly brewing it into brandy inside their homes. This was the birth of Pálinka. Pálinka became a signifier of solidarity, of Hungarian pride. For the next 400 years, Hungary would be ruled by the Ottomans,

then the Austrians, and then the Soviets. Yet, through all of that time, Pálinka was core to Hungarian identity and culture. It connected the people to each other and symbolically united them against their oppressors. Now, if you two have been suffering

From centuries of intergenerational trauma, then you might consider therapy. Which brings me to the sponsor of this video, BetterHelp. BetterHelp is a teletherapy service that you can access anytime through your phone, through video chat, text message, or phone call,

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by using the link in the description or going to BetterHelp.com/MarkManson. And you know what? You're cut off. Get yourself together, man. ("The Blue Danube Waltz" by Johann Strauss) You were telling me earlier about Palinka.

- Yeah. - Like, what are the laws around like brewing? - You can brew your own Palinka; 50 liters of your hard liquor at home. - Every year? - Every year. I think it's up to 50 liters.

- Which is a huge amount. - It's a lot. I mean, 50 liters of Palinka,
that's like one liter a week. - You could kill a horse with that much. - Easily. Easily. - How common is that?

- With 50 liters? I don't know. But making your own
Palinka is very common. - Super common. - And it sounds like Palinka
is also very common for family occasions, special occasions.

- Yeah. Just yesterday, I sold my
house and from the buyer, I got a bottle of Palinka
as a gift of gratitude for the deal. - It's incredible that
even centuries later, alcohol continues to define
Hungarian identity and culture.

So I started to wonder, will
it ever be able to change? - You have to understand Hungarian
history, right? The Mongols were here, the Turks were here, the Russians, not long ago,
like 30, 40 years ago.

So Hungary has never been independent. Hungary has never had the chance to decide what it wants as a people. There was always somebody dictating, "You have to do it like
that, you have to be like this,

and you have to be like
that in the future." But also after the First World War, when Austria was one country,
the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, they negotiated really badly. So Hungary lost about two
thirds of its territory.

- After losing World War I
with the Treaty of Trianon, the Western powers divided
the Hungarian empire into half a dozen different countries. This crippled the country economically and led to political chaos. The loss of territory and industries sent the country back
to pre-industrial times.

Communists came to power,
then the Nazis came to power, then they lost World War
II, and on and on. Hungary was like the neglected
middle child of history. - We had a lot of
misfortunes during history.

And often these things are phrased as things which happen to us. Like, you know, like even
our national anthem has this, what's the direct translation? (choir sings in foreign language) - It is interesting
because the word, I think,

that describes the best
Hungarians, it's apathy, I think. Yes. And not pessimism. I mean, pessimism is a thing,
but apathy is a feeling of, we don't even have control over things. - Very interesting.
- You know?

And I think the opposite is true. I mean, we do have control. - In psychology, there's a popular concept known as locus of control, and
it refers to how individuals perceive the causes of their life events. People who have an internal
locus of control believe

that they have control
over their life's outcomes, through their own actions,
decisions, and abilities. People with an internal
locus of control believe that they are responsible for
what happens in their lives, and as a result, they tend
to achieve more success,

exhibit better mental health and better deal with adversity when it arises. Now, people with an external locus of control believe the opposite. They believe that external factors, such as luck, fate, or other people, are the primary determinants of their lives.

They feel that they have little control over their circumstances, and that outcomes are dictated by forces beyond their power. As a result, they tend to be more impulsive, anxious, depressed, and achieve less throughout their lives.

But here's what's interesting: research going all the way back to the 1980s has consistently found that people with an external locus of control are much more likely to struggle with addiction, including alcoholism. Now, in conversation after conversation,

locals I spoke to kept referencing what could only be described as a Hungarian external locus of control. Do you think Hungarians see themselves as in control of their own lives? Or do you think they're... I don't think so. I really don't think so.

What's also worth noting is that research finds an external locus of control is often caused by trauma. People who suffer significant traumas tend to spend the rest of their lives seeing themselves as powerless to the outside world. And this causes them to resign themselves to their fate.

I don't want to sound too bad, but at some point, it's a bit of a loser mentality. "Yes, we're going to lose anyway. Oh, we are shit anyway." Right? So I don't think they're really thinking, Hungarians,

that we are in control of our own lives. It's interesting because, yes, you can kind of see a chain, right? So you have all these terrible historical events, which caused generations of Hungarians to actually be victims.

So they develop a culture around victimhood. And then when you move into the future and they're not victims anymore, that culture still exists. How do you change that? (bells chiming) (gentle music) (birds chirping)

- In an individual, trauma will cause people to obsess over the past and see themselves as completely out of control of their lives and to give up all hope for the future. The more time I spend here, the more I think trauma is a useful metaphor

for Hungarian culture in general. After centuries of war, suffering, and oppression, there is a neurotic, obsessive focus on the past here, a constant sense of victimization and a real lack of hope. I think it's no surprise then

that the best-selling self-help book here in the country is about intergenerational trauma. Now, I'm here in the thermal baths in Budapest, and the bath represents rejuvenation and healing, like a rebirth of sorts. They're all over the city,

and they've been here for hundreds of years. But it's kind of ironic because rejuvenation and rebirth is the one thing that seems to constantly be right outside of Hungary's grasp. Now, to be fair, dealing with trauma is really fucking hard.

Even in an individual, it takes years of therapy and introspection and lots of work and self-discovery, and it's a really messy and ugly process a lot of the time. So how do you even start that process with a culture?

with an entire country? Culture is tricky. Because it is so ever-present in every event, every interaction, we strain to even notice that it's there. It's like asking a fish to notice the water it's swimming in. I've come to believe that alcohol is a part of the water

that Hungarians are swimming in. They don't even realize that it's there, much less that they can do something about it. So this leads to the question, how? How do you confront this as a culture? As a people?

("Liebestraum No. 3" by Franz Liszt) - I was the type of alcoholic who didn't drink every day, but when I drank, I drank a lot. - You couldn't stop. - And then, you know, I had several attempts to limit,

because I was always told, it's not the problem that you drink. The problem is that you cannot control your intake, which at the time seemed sensible to me. But then I realized that it's not sensible. - What inspired you to stop? Was there a moment?

- A few years ago, there started a campaign on Sober November. - Okay. - It's kind of like, you know, the Movember thing. Yeah. So, it's like a Hungarian version of that in November to, you know, stay sober for one month.

I also did that a few times, and I think it's getting more and more popular. The reason it's more and more popular is because people realize that, "Oh, that's a good thing," you know? After even just two or three weeks

of not drinking, your mental clarity starts to improve; you can function much better if you're not putting poison into your body. - Yeah. Who would've thought? (both laughing) Surprise! Embracing change is hard and complex.

It's never as simple as stopping this or starting that. Everything is interconnected. So solving a problem like addiction is more like untangling a knot than flicking a switch. To do it correctly, you have to untangle some of the fibers

of who you are as a person, or, I guess, as a nation. What happened when you stopped drinking? - Yeah. At the time, I had some problems with my marriage. I had some problems at work, and I felt like,

drinking was one cause of these issues. So if I stopped drinking, I would be able to resolve all of those problems. Turns out, it was the opposite. I divorced, I resigned, I went on a five-month unpaid break to figure out my life,

and I kind of rebuilt a sober life. But it wasn't in a way that I left all of my friends behind, all of my previous life behind. I needed to figure out which elements of my drinking life were compatible with my non-drinking life.

- And this is where Hungary sits as well. They're stuck, trying to solve an issue that's centuries old, that wasn't necessarily their fault to begin with. With initiatives like Sober November, the country is trying to fix itself,

but the road to recovery isn't as quick and easy as they hoped it would be. It never is. It starts with people, everyday people like us, talking, being open about the process, alleviating that shame, coming to terms with our emotions,

choosing better ways to channel them. And it's not something that is done in a day, a week, or a year, but over many generations. As they say, it takes one day at a time. - It's not just me who stopped drinking.

I have several friends around me who went through a similar path of, like, being a habitual drinker as a young adult, and now completely stopped drinking. So I think it could be a gateway to a healthier relationship with alcohol. - Do you think it's getting better, the culture?

- I think for younger generations, it's getting better. Yeah.
- That's good. Cool. Thank you. - Thank you very much.

Understanding the Most Alcoholic Country in the World

#1 NY Times Bestselling Author. World Champion Non-Fuck-Giver.

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Mark Manson

Hungary's high alcohol consumption and the reasons behind it

Mark Manson's goal is to understand Hungary's high alcohol consumption and the reasons behind it.

Different countries lead in various alcohol-related statistics (consumption, binge drinking, hospitalizations, drunk driving).

Hungary's high alcohol consumption is largely due to homemade alcohol production.

Hungary has a staggering alcohol problem, contributing to a significant percentage of deaths annually.

Hungary has the highest rate of alcoholism globally, according to the World Health Organization.

Factors contributing to Hungary's alcohol problem

Early exposure to alcohol (around age 12-14) is common.

Parental influence and encouragement of alcohol consumption contribute to later alcoholism.

Studies link affordable alcohol to higher rates of alcoholism.

The role of Pálinka in Hungarian culture and alcoholism

Pálinka, a traditional fruit brandy, is ubiquitous in Hungarian culture and consumed at various occasions.

Pálinka is often gifted and shared within families and communities.

Some consume Pálinka as part of their daily routine.

Hungarians consume a large amount of Pálinka annually.

Historical context of Pálinka and its significance

Pálinka's origins are linked to Hungarian resistance against Ottoman rule.

Pálinka became a symbol of Hungarian identity and solidarity throughout various periods of oppression.

Individuals are allowed to brew a significant amount of Pálinka at home annually.

Hungary's historical trauma and its impact on national identity and alcohol consumption

Hungary's history of oppression and loss of territory has contributed to a sense of victimhood and lack of control.

The Treaty of Trianon significantly impacted Hungary's economy and political landscape.

Apathy is described as a characteristic of Hungarians, potentially linked to a sense of powerlessness.

The concept of locus of control is discussed, relating external locus of control to a higher likelihood of addiction.

Many Hungarians seem to have an external locus of control, believing they lack control over their lives.

Addressing Hungary's alcohol problem: challenges and potential solutions

Trauma is presented as a metaphor for Hungarian culture, highlighting the impact of historical events.

Alcohol is viewed as an ingrained part of Hungarian culture, making it difficult to address the issue.

Personal experience of overcoming alcohol abuse is shared, highlighting the challenges and process of recovery.

Initiatives like Sober November are gaining popularity, suggesting a potential shift in attitudes towards alcohol.

The long-term and complex nature of addressing Hungary's alcohol problem is emphasized.