# Alcoholism in Amish communities (No, seriously) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 22, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163 "2010-06-22T20:53:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163/21 "2010-06-24T02:04:23Z")
As other people have said, “the Midwest US” is a pretty poor description of where the Amish live. Here is a list of the American states and Canadian provinces where the Amish live: > **[Elizabethtown College - Page Not Found](https://www.etown.edu/errorpages/ec404.aspx)** > > 404 error A better description of where they live is the following: Draw a north-south line through the U.S. so that it touches the westernmost point in Minnesota. Draw another north-south line through the U.S. so that it touches the easternmost point in Maine. Draw an east-west line through the U.S. so that it touches the southernmost point in Missouri. Draw another east-west line through the U.S. so that it touches the northernmost point in Maine. Inside the area of the U.S. and Canada that the rectangle that you’ve drawn covers are nearly all the Amish. This square includes maybe a fifth of the U.S. and a small part of Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163/22 "2010-06-24T02:35:02Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > We were nevous about playing \*Amish Paradise \* at my friends wedding. We just waited until his side of the family left. Don’t go saying I was insensitive; he was dancing along with it. > > Darn, now I have it stuck in my head. _“As I walk through the valley where I harvest my grain . . .”_ You should be scared. Do you know what goes clip clop, clip clop, BOOM!, clip clop? An Amish drive-by shooting ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163/23 "2010-06-24T02:48:34Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > I heard from a friend that there is a higher rate of alcoholism In Amish communities than in the general public. First, can someone confirm this? Second, does anyone have any answers/theories as to why this is? > > Third, has anyone outside of the Midwest US heard of the Amish people? Amish are all over Canada. I have also run into communities in Paraguay and British Honduras (now Belize). ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163/24 "2010-06-24T03:08:03Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > I can debunk it: > [From here.](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,963725,00.html) The problem with that, like most reports on the Amish, is that its hard for English to get good data. Having worked with a few various Old Order communities they look to have about the same rates of alcohol and drug abuse as well as domestic violence as anyone else. Maybe somewhat less but I don’t know that it would be lower enough to be really significant. Divorce and unemployment are another story. One way to get more info would be to hit one of the Lancaster PA or Holmes County Ohio newspapers and track the DUI or D&D reports in the police sections. ---
**Author:** ![Terry\_Kennedy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@Terry\_Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terry_Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163/25 "2010-06-24T05:51:52Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > He did once give an interesting tale of alcohol in Amish life. It’s hard to say with a straight face but he was in a buggy accident. :eek: They got hit by a car. My friend (and the beer they had just bought) were thrown from the buggy and he got a concussion. His friend got a DWI. 😕 I guess you could argue he was “driving” the buggy. My imagination painted a picture of a police car pulling over a buggy and saying “License and registration, please”. But then that morphed into a Amish person in a police buggy pulling over an automobile and saying “License and registration, please”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163/26 "2010-06-24T15:59:41Z")
OK, OK, so maybe saying “Midwest” was a bad idea. I was trying to think of a way to describe the Ohio-Pennsylvania-Indiana-Illinois-New York-Missouri area. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163/27 "2010-06-24T17:19:58Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > OK, OK, so maybe saying “Midwest” was a bad idea. I was trying to think of a way to describe the Ohio-Pennsylvania-Indiana-Illinois-New York-Missouri area. Rust Belt is close… ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163/28 "2010-06-24T20:36:58Z")
There are Mennonites in Mexico–in fact, they are quite renowned as cheese makers–???. I met a few, and they spoke only German and Spanish. There are quite a few Mennonites in Mississippi (I went to college with two). Yes—I realize it isn’t quite the same as Amish. My brother said he saw a couple of Amish-looking guys playing craps at a Tunica casino. He said they were throwing back drinks and having a great time. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163/29 "2010-06-25T01:15:53Z")
There was an episode of Grey’s Anatomy featuring two young women of Amish heritage. One got mortally ill and her parents came to take her home. Her friend was the one who was shunned because she had already been baptized, but had left the Amish life, so she couldn’t go home with her friend to be with her at the end. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163/30 "2010-06-25T13:21:37Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > I have a formerly Amish friend who isn’t shunned because he decided to not join the church when the time came. I guess at least in his community people who leave after they have joined the church are shunned. Do you think your friend would register here and do an “Ask the formerly Amish man” thread? I would love that. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163/31 "2010-06-25T15:08:10Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > OK, OK, so maybe saying “Midwest” was a bad idea. I was trying to think of a way to describe the Ohio-Pennsylvania-Indiana-Illinois-New York-Missouri area. “Great Lakes” for us here, minus the Missouri. “Great Plains” a little farther west. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163/32 "2010-06-25T15:18:46Z")
The Rust Belt isn’t a great description of where the Amish live either. A lot of them live in Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky, Iowa, Ontario, Minnesota, and Tennessee (and some even further west), outside the states of the Rust Belt: > **[Rust Belt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_Belt)** > > The Rust Belt is a region of the United States that experienced industrial decline starting in the 1950s. The U.S. manufacturing sector as a percentage of the U.S. GDP peaked in 1953 and has been in decline since, impacting certain regions and cities primarily in the Northeast and Midwest regions of the U.S., including Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Jersey City, Newark, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Toledo, Trenton, Youngstown, and other areas of New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Upstate Even the ones who live in the same states as the Rust Belt live well away from the cities that really constitute the Rust Belt. The square that I described earlier catches most of them, but there are others west and south of that area. There’s no easy way to explain the distribution of Amish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcoholism-in-amish-communities-no-seriously/544163.md?page=1)