NORWAY – Ninety-seven percent of alcoholics in the nation die without knowing or acknowledging they have the disease, according to the chairman of Substance Abuse Services at Stephens Memorial Hospital.

“Three will get some kind of treatment, and only one will truly recover from this disease,” William Stockwell wrote in a handout distributed at a recent conference on alcoholism and drug addiction at the Norway hospital.

He said children ages 8 to 15 can become addicted in five to 15 weeks; those 15 to 21 in five to 15 months; and adults can become addicted in five to 15 years.

Last year the hospital supplied about $1.2 million in charity care to people struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, Stockwell said. The hospital does not have a detox ward for drug or alcohol abusers, but will do a medical detox for patients who are referred for that purpose by their primary physician.

“Years ago when people who were drunk were presented in the emergency room, they were told to sleep it off. Now they get an assessment,” said Stockwell, and referrals to places locally and in the Lewiston-Auburn area where they can seek further treatment.

Detox is only the first step, Stockwell said. Counseling must follow, and the patient should be encouraged to begin attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. “AA is not treatment; it’s recovery,” he said.

Another presenter at the conference, William Lowenstein, associate director of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse, said, “The 12-step recovery programs are absolutely essential. They are a major source of support” to the person recovering from alcohol or drug addiction, or both, he said. “It becomes for many a new social group. The 12-step programs are a mentoring group in the same way we’ve started mentoring groups. Only (AA’s) been doing it for 50 years, and offers free 24-hour access to help.”

A list of local AA meetings is available at the state Web site, www.aamaine.org. Information is also available online at the state’s office of substance abuse Information and Resources Center, www.maineosa.org/irc, or call 1-800-499-0027.

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