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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.
View all posts by Dawn Sugarman, PhD
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.
Are women more likely to be alcoholics?
Epidemiological evidence suggests that nearly 20% of adult males have alcohol abuse or suffer from alcoholism-related complications. On the other hand, only about 5–6% of adult females are alcoholic or abuse alcohol on the regular basis (Devaud et al., 1999).
“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.