The Problem With Alcohol: South Korea's Increasing Alcoholism and Mental Health Deterioration

South Korea's pervasive drinking culture, fueled by intense social expectations, hierarchies, and the tradition of company dinners, creates a dangerous environment for those who are struggling with mental health. The society is strongly based on superficial yet traditional values such as university prestige, class division, patriarchal norms, and rigid social ladders that stimulate a wave of mental deterioration. With the cheapness and normalcy of alcohol, people tend to rely on it as a coping mechanism to escape from the harshness of reality-- especially since mental institutions and practices like therapy is heavily frowned upon by the general Korean public.

My mission is to create a safe space for people to recover from alcoholism, as well as build a path to a stable, healthy well-being. I co-created a prototype for an app with a classmate where people can anonymously participate in self-help activities, such as journaling, goal-tracking, chatting and connecting with other users, and more. I wanted expand it and add a feature for group therapy sessions, where zoom links of joint therapy meetings from bigger recovery NGOs could be added as well. I reached out to multiple organizations about potential collaborations, but unfortunately, I was rejected. In the future, I hope to connect with people in college and find a way to follow through with my project, and impact more people than just those in South Korea.