Here Is What You Need to Know About WNS

For the last ten years, I have been trying to raise awareness about Whiskirexia Nervosa Syndrome, or WNS.

WNS is a whiskey buying disorder characterized by a false whiskey inventory image and an obsessive fear of running out of whiskey. Individuals with WNS tend to already own more whiskey than they can ever drink, even as they continue to buy more. News about whiskey shortages and out-of-stocks aggravates the condition, leading to imprudent case lot purchases. Persons with WNS have been known to empty store shelves of particular products they fear will soon be scarce, thereby producing the very scarcity they dread.

A typical WNS sufferer can be told repeatedly that he or she (although most sufferers are men) has plenty of whiskey, really more than enough, by persons who they ordinarily trust, and they may even in moments of clarity acknowledge that fact intellectually, but still they can't stop buying.

Many marriages are at risk.

Whiskey manufacturers have not addressed the problem. Instead they release more and more line extensions and new brands, more than ever before. New producers are proliferating. WNS, which had only a few sufferers when my campaign began a decade ago, has reached epidemic proportions.

As WNS takes hold, sufferers tend to seek comfort from other similarly afflicted individuals, but rather than supporting recovery, these groups tend to enable the condition.

What can you do? If you do not have WNS yourself, find someone who does. Help them drink their whiskey. It's the least you can do.