Category: Sober living

As rates of anxiety and depression rise among young adult women, alcohol misuse is also going up—along with related health risks. Women who drink during pregnancy put their babies at risk of being born with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). The characteristics of this syndrome include abnormal facial features and learning problems. It can also lead to permanent and severe developmental and learning disabilities. Many babies born with FASDs will need some type of assistance for the rest of their lives.

Women are statistically more likely to experience childhood abuse or sexual assault than men. In recent years, studies have found rates of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and suicide are climbing among teenaged and young adult women. A review of the worldwide literature about women and alcohol contradicts many sterotypes and raises some new questions, interpretations, and practical implications. Norms, values, attitudes, and expectations may be at least as important as physiological differences between the sexes with respect to patterns of drinking and their outcomes. In nonindustrial societies, women usually have more easy access to alcoholic beverages; in fact, they often monopolize production and predominate in the distribution system. In addition, according to the NIAAA, alcohol stays mostly in body water and women have less body water pound by pound than men.

Women and Alcoholism

In fact, women are now the main target for alcohol advertising, with beverage companies introducing more and more sweet, low-calorie cocktails. Social media ads and influencers often promote alcoholic beverages as a must-have for a party or sophisticated life. Cooper says enrolling in a 90-day residential treatment program in 2018 drastically changed her own perception of who is affected by addiction. “It was the first time in a very long time that I had not felt alone,” she says.

Many women struggling with alcohol issues do not realize they have a problem. It’s also possible that they are in denial about https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/women-and-alcoholism-how-to-recognize-an-addiction/ how severe their alcohol dependency is. Women are half as likely to report excessive alcohol use when compared to men.

New Research on Increasing Alcohol Abuse in Women

Perhaps most concerning is that the rising gender equality in alcohol use doesn’t extend to the recognition or treatment of alcohol disorders, Sugarman says. By the time Victoria Cooper enrolled in an alcohol treatment program in 2018, she was “drinking for survival,” not pleasure, she says — multiple vodka shots in the morning, at lunchtime and beyond. In the treatment program, she saw other women in their 20s struggling with alcohol and other drugs.

This phenomenon causes ovulation to occur out of sync with one’s menstrual cycle. Alcohol abuse can have many other effects on one’s menstrual cycle. Much like with other drugs, it’s easy to develop a tolerance to alcohol.

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Current U.S. guidelines advise limiting alcohol to two drinks or less per day for men; and one drink or less per day for women. It might be better to be conservative and stick with one drink per day or less for everyone, Aragam noted. That nightly glass (or more) of wine many people rely on to relax at the end of the day is getting new scrutiny from health experts — especially if you’re a woman. It’s time to make a change and reclaim your life from addiction. Despite the differences between how alcohol impacts men and women, many of the treatment methods work well for both groups. When seeking treatment for alcoholism, there are a few items to consider.

“There needs to be just more overall public awareness of the concerns around women’s drinking, and I don’t think we’re there yet,” Sugarman said. But even before the pandemic, women’s drinking levels were concerning experts. TODAY reported in 2018 that women were drinking almost as much as men, closing a historically wide gap.

Women and men are equally capable of recovery

There are many possible reasons why alcohol may have more of an effect on women than men. When women drink heavily, their fertility can be affected. They may not menstruate anymore or may fall into early menopause. This is because alcohol appears to affect a woman’s hormonal cycle.

• It will annihilate your body and cause devastating health conditions.
• Because alcohol travels via water in the body and women have less water in their bodies, they will likely become more intoxicated than men who drink the same amount at a faster pace.
• Women have increased their alcohol consumption at a higher rate than men, particularly their heavy drinking days — those when they have four or more drinks within a couple hours, she noted.
• “That’s when I got scared, when I tried to not drink and only made it two days,” says Cooper, now 30.

But people are diagnosed with these diseases every day, and if you abuse alcohol or drugs regularly, chances are high that you’ll eventually be one of them. When you’re sober, you don’t have to worry about developing life-threatening complications from your habits. By seeking help and attending support groups like Refuge Recovery, Smart recovery, Celebrate Recovery, Alcoholics Anonymous…, individuals can learn to live a fulfilling sober life. It may be difficult at first, but the benefits of sobriety – improved health, relationships, and overall happiness – outweigh any temporary pleasure from alcohol.

Yes, living a sober life does require that you abstain from using drugs and/or alcohol. That’s because so much more goes into sobriety than just staining from a particular substance. We publish material that is researched, cited, edited and reviewed by licensed medical professionals. The information we provide is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

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Our vision is to transform the culture of addiction through inspiring, effective treatment. At Sober Life San Diego Treatment Center, we believe in providing a strong clinical program that utilizes evidence-based practices. We use a resiliency model that focuses on your strengths, the ones which helped you survive your traumas. We address attachment theory sober house in individual and group settings to free you from limiting beliefs. We have a one-of-a-kind facility with bright vibrant custom art painted on the walls, a large entertainment and lounge area that’s conveniently located in downtown San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood. At Sober Life Recovery Solutions, we’re in-network with many different insurances.

• After finishing my treatment program I realized how many other people there are out there who are struggling with situations similar to mine.
• After all, you can’t hang around your drug dealer or old drinking buddies and expect to remain sober for very long.
• Individual, family and couples therapy may all help you and your loved ones recover from the ravages of addiction.

Adults aged 55 and older are the least sober-curious, but also the most likely to say they already abstain from alcohol altogether. Having ups and down is a part of life and we all go though it. We go through emotions and try to live our lives to the fullest. Don’t let your thoughts take control of you, because your thoughts are not supposed to control you. So if you feel bored you have the power to change that, don’t sit and just be bored.

Ways Life is Better When You’re Sober

People who struggle with addiction will generally find each other. By definition, we have a shared interest in alcohol and drugs. The pleasure-reward system of the brain is heavily affected by the dopamine that is released by drinking and drug use. Al-Anon’s basic book discusses the mutual-help program of recovery, including personal stories. A beginning approach to the Twelve Concepts of Service is included. Just 24% of drinking-age respondents express any interest in NA beverages.

Men and women with lower income or education levels are more likely to develop medical conditions related to alcohol abuse compared to similar individuals with a higher socioeconomic status. Alexis Edwards of Virginia Commonwealth University, US, and colleagues report these findings in a new study published March 19 in the open access journal PLOS Medicine. Some types of dementia and alcohol-related brain damage develop as your brain cells shrink.

This can lead to immediate risks, worsening health conditions, adverse reactions with medications, and much more. Adults of all ages who drink alcohol and drive are at higher risk of traffic accidents than those who do not drink. Drinking slows reaction times and coordination, and interferes with eye movement and information processing.

Conditions

Feeling better inside almost always means looking better on the outside. However, another study that assessed individual variations in the ability of aged rats to navigate a maze (a task that depends on hippocampal function) found a relationship between nerve cell degeneration and cognitive performance (Issa et al. 1990). Some aged rats performed significantly worse than did younger rats, whereas the performance of other aged rats did not differ from that of the younger ones. When the investigators examined the brains of the cognitively impaired aged rats, the animals exhibited significant nerve cell loss in the hippocampus compared with that of both the unimpaired aged rats and the younger rats.

It also affects the healthy functioning of your digestive system, making it harder for you to absorb essential nutrients. This includes vitamins A, B, D, and E; minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc; and even basics like proteins and carbohydrates. Alcohol’s all-around negative effect on nutrition means that heavy drinkers often become malnourished. This limits the body’s ability to maintain itself, resulting in faster aging. This hormone “cascade” becomes activated whenever CRH-producing nerve cells (i.e., neurons) in the hypothalamus are stimulated by neural input from other brain regions, usually in response to a stressful situation.

It Can Dry Your Skin

However, by convention, the term “tolerance” is used for a diminishing response to drugs, whereas the term “habituation” generally is used with nondrug stimuli, such as stress or repeated sounds. In general, young adult rats are 4 to 5 months old, whereas aged, or “older,” rats are 22 to 24 months old. Most medications and alcohol don’t interact well with each other.

• It is important to point out, however, that the hippocampus also exerts a crucial inhibitory control over the HPA axis (Saplosky et al. 1986).
• The next time you feel a craving — or if you’re feeling one now — get up and go for a short walk and see if the urge to drink subsides.
• Reducing intake or stopping drinking may help a person feel more in control of their consumption and avoid experiencing a reaction or symptoms related to their alcohol use.

Various factors may contribute to age-related differences in a person’s sensitivity to the effects of alcohol. For example, a given alcohol dose—even a single drink—can produce higher BACs in older people than in younger people. The main factor accounting for these higher BACs appears to be the increase in body fat relative to muscle that generally occurs with increasing age. Thus, compared with 25-year-olds, the percent of total body weight consisting of fat increases an average of 50 percent in 60-year-old women and an average of 100 percent in 60-year-old men (Dufour et al. 1992). Because alcohol dissolves only in water, of which muscle has a high content, but not in fat, the same alcohol dose results in a higher BAC in a person who has proportionately more fatty tissue and less body water.

Age-Related Impaired Adaptation of the HPA Axis to Chronic Alcohol Exposure

Older females were more likely than any other group to be abstinent at followup. In addition to concerns regarding the misuse of alcohol alone, up to 19 percent of older Americans combine alcohol and medications in a way that can be considered misuse (NIAAA 1998a,b). Mixing alcohol and psychoactive medications such as benzodiazepines, sedatives, and opioid analgesics has the potential for very serious negative https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-cbt-for-addiction-and-substance-abuse/ outcomes that prescribing physicians should discuss with older adult patients. The rates of alcohol misuse/dependence in older adults are by far smaller than the rates of at-risk use. In 2002, over 616,000 adults age 55 and older reported meeting the criteria for alcohol dependence in the past year, as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM–IV).

However, later you notice that drinking has increased your sense of hopelessness and anxiety. If you’re trying to numb unpleasant feelings or relieve stress, drinking often only pushes your stressful obligations back a day or two, ultimately making them even more time-sensitive and stressful. Some evidence indicates that elderly people may be less sensitive than younger people with respect to the negative feedback control of cortisol levels. Furthermore, such an impaired response to dexamethasone occurs more consistently in older people suffering from major depression than in younger people with a similar degree of depression. Finally, older people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia also demonstrate a relatively high incidence of a blunted dexamethasone response (Seeman and Robbins 1994).

Impact of alcohol on aging

That conclusion was reached after they took blood samples from the volunteers to monitor chemical tags that regulate the expression of longevity-related genes. “There is a gene called mTOR which regulates how our cells sense nutrients and – depending on that – decide whether to grow or not,” explains does alcohol make you look older Dr Nick Ktistakis, group leader at the Babraham Institute, where researchers are studying the ageing process. If you or a loved one struggles to regulate or limit alcohol consumption, you don’t have to do it alone. Give your body the best chance at health and reclaim your youthful energy.

• For example, aged rats show an increased sensitivity to both the sedative and hypothermic effects of alcohol than do young adult rats (York 1983; Guthrie et al. 1987).
• Studies analyzing data from the National Health and Retirement Study (Bobo et al. 2013) found that, although overall alcohol consumption declined with age, for a minority of individuals, consumption increased.
• Glucocorticoid hormones have a wide range of regulatory effects on virtually every organ system in the body, including the central nervous system (i.e., the brain and spinal cord).
• You no longer need to disrupt your life in order to start drinking less.
• Feeling better inside almost always means looking better on the outside.
• The HPA axis and the aging body’s changing responses to glucocorticoids may serve as an important mediator of these processes.