WOMEN DRINKING IN THE DANGER ZONE.
If you see "WOMEN DRINKING TOO MUCH" in the headlines again you have an
automatic mental image of half-dressed teenage ladettes binge drinking,
behaving appallingly, spewing and crumpling in the gutter. So it may surprise people to learn that new
statistics are revealing that women at the point of mid–life are now showing
the highest rise in alcohol over consumption.
In fact the latest research by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation
and Development says that the problem is rife amongst well educated women who
now outdrink their less well educated counterparts by two to one.
One explanation for this could perhaps be the stress levels women are experiencing
now as they expand into senior managerial positions in a previously male
dominated workplace. Or perhaps it’s
lonely, divorced empty nesters who need a little bit of relaxation and company
in the evening, as the indicators reveal that wine, more than spirits, is what
is tipping the balance, possibly because wine drinking is seen as sociable and as
acceptable.
It’s very easy to understand how a glass of wine with dinner can morph
into two or three glasses across an evening until what was a harmless habit
becomes a problem dependency that she’s struggling to conceal from friends and
family. But the shocking fact is that
the female body which has a lower water content that the male equivalent is far
less able to deal with high levels of alcohol.
Scientifically they are simply not so well adapted hormonally and
metabolically and so are at higher risk because they are not capable of
dispelling it from the body so quickly and are therefore more prone to liver damage.
It’s become a common conception that alcoholism is a ‘disease’. But, while that to some extent lets drinkers
off the hook by removing the responsibility from them, thereby making it
tolerable at worst or acceptable at best, it’s actually a misconception that
has crept into the received wisdom of the common collective because medically
speaking being an alcoholic is not an illness.
Why has this myth grown up around the misuse of alcohol? There are those who seek to support the
‘illness’ theory from the point of view that when heavy drinking reaches a
certain point something within the brain of certain individuals flicks over into
addiction. But does this in any way go
towards helping the alcoholic by the inference that they will not be judged and
they are devoid of responsibility for circumstances which in reality are of their own creation. Does it simply encourage them to continue the
alcohol abuse, by labelling them a victim and thereby removing blame from them
and suggesting that in the face of a ‘disease’ they are disempowered and cannot
resist the sequence of events.
After all those who drink to excess, choose to drink to excess, it is a
choice. This truth is supported by those
who go into recovery and have chosen not to drink and have gone through
withdrawal to reverse the dependency. So
while it is true that many people are in need of help and there is help
available, it will be acceptance of their situation, leading to advice and counselling that assists them, not
medication.
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