a fourth of the population is an ethnic minority. Impacts Alcoholism The intensity of workplace harassment is positively correlated with the level of alcohol use. One of the motives that people drink is "to self-medicate distressful feelings resulting from problematic social conditions". Thus, the negative social distress faced in workplaces is linked with increased consumption of alcohol. Moreover, because workplace harassment cannot be clearly delineated like sexual or racial harassment, victims do not counteract by legal and institution responses. Rather, they rely on drinking to cope with the emotional distress. Nolen-Hoeksema and Harrell's 2002 study shows that while both women and men are at risk of alcoholism under workplace harassment, men are more likely to cope by drinking than women do, as women use their relatively wider social connections to attain the emotional support. However, a 2004 survey of a random sample of employees at a heavy machinery assembly plant shows that women are more sensitive and receptive of workplace harassment, and therefore women have "a greater propensity to drink". The negative drinking effects are more severe for women than they are for men. One mail survey that was completed at four points in time by a cohort of 1654 employees has shown that the positive correlation between consumption of drinking and levels of workplace harassment continues after retirement. Even when the immediate stressors are not present, the victims still retain the increased use of alcohol. The study attributes the reason for the lasting effect is that "appropriate alcohol consumption may have functioned to somewhat inhibit the self-medication of stress-induced distress during work role occupancy". PTSD PTSD is commonly known as a "war wound", yet it also affects workers, "when a worker suffers PTSD, the workplace for that person has become a war zone". Several studies show that many workplace harassment victims experience posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For example, a study that interviewed about 100 victims of workplace harassment shows that "a majority of the respondents exceed recommended threshold-values indicating PTSD". The study also demonstrate that based on the duration and persistency of the workplace harassment, the levels of PTSD differ. The more recent and frequent the workplace harassment occurred, the more severe their symptoms of PTSD were. A study by Mikklesen and Einarsen also reports that 76 percent of its respondents experienced PTSD. Nevertheless, Mikklesen and Einarsen qualify the idea that workplace harassment directly leads to PTSD. They argue