Women and Alcoholism

Alcoholism – is a dependence on ethanol (an active component of alcoholic beverages), which impact extremely negative on the human body. In addition, alcoholism – is a disease inherent the male population, so a separate problem is a female drinking, which is known to be particularly difficult to treat.

Despite the tendency to severe alcohol dependence, the female body is inherently much stronger than men’s: women are more tolerant to pain and carries the disease easier. The same is about the endurance. In addition to all this, women throughout their lives faced with a large number of family responsibilities, and the related stress, which does not prevent them to live longer than the average male representatives.

Therein lays the paradox: giving in only physical strength against men, women are much more difficult to deal with alcohol addiction. In addition, women alcohol abuse manifests much later than men’s, and symptoms are much more pronounced.

Statistics of women alcohol abuse

According to studies, a man needs about 7-10 years of regular drinking to become alcohol addicted, and women – 5 years. We can come to the first conclusion that female alcoholism is developing much faster than men’s and, as a consequence, the treatment process is complicated.

The number of alcohol-dependent women in our days has increased significantly, and the phenomenon isn’t uncommon for our time. If earlier the number of women, treated for addiction was 10% of the total number of patients, but now they are a third part of the total number of patients. But the worst thing is that 70% of women begin drinking alcohol before the age of 18 years.

The average age of female-alcoholic is in the range of 35-50 years, and originally alcoholism has an episodic nature when a woman takes alcohol for raising the mood and stress relief. As a result of such an innocent hobby, constant craving for alcohol develops, because it seems for a woman that her life with it is much carelessness and easier.

Swedish scientists have found that in constant to men, in a woman’s body a brain suffers from alcohol, first of all, areas, responsible for mood, motivation and. Such destruction occurs three times faster than in the male body. That is why a woman’s alcoholic character changes for the worse, which is manifested in nervousness, aggression, and brutality. Alcohol-induced liver and pancreas injury are characteristic for women-alcoholics.

Statistics also states that 25% of women drink alcohol regularly, and 44% – drunken periods. About 4% drink alcohol occasionally, 28% of women alternated periods of calm with the times of every day or binge drinking.

So, numbers make you take thought.

Background and features of female drinking

There is an opinion in a society and even among drug specialists that women alcoholism is incurable. Is this true and why the disease is so detrimental to a woman’s body?

If you compare male and female body, it is possible to identify a number of prerequisites that contribute to the rapid development of alcoholism among the fairer sex:

• there is 10% less liquid in a woman’s body than in men’s, and this contributes to a higher concentration of alcohol in the blood;
• decreased activity of enzymes that can quickly recycle the alcohol and its breakdown products;
• women’s abstinence syndrome or simply attraction to new dose of alcohol goes much easier and without pain, that makes it possible to postpone the visit to drug specialist for a long time;
• increased absorption of alcohol from the stomach of a woman during premenstrual syndrome leads to a more rapid and pronounced intoxication.

The situation is complicated by consumption large doses of alcohol.

The reasons for which women seek solace in the bottle can be a lot and you need to consider each case individually, but still the major ones include the following:

• strong emotional shock (death of a loved one, loss of social status, etc.);
• social problems (improper work, financial difficulties, lack of education and upbringing);
• circle of friends (especially if it consists of drinkers);
• mental problems, unstable nervous system, including exposure to another’s influence;
• prostitution and crime.

Another feature of women dependent on alcohol is uninhibited behavior. Being in a state of euphoria, alcoholic becomes the initiator of sexual intimacy often with unfamiliar men. Of course in these situations, we can’t talk about the hygiene of sexual intercourse. As a result, there are such complications as sexually transmitted diseases and infections of the genitourinary system. Against this background, the reproductive function of women suffers, and her chances not only to bring into the world but also to conceive a child are reduced to zero.

As noted earlier, because of the attachment to alcohol women’s mental condition suffers, which manifests itself in a significant deterioration of nature (roughness, hysteria, nervousness, self-serving), the early development of dementia and degradation of the individual. Besides the alcoholic begins to take her new way of life for granted and doesn’t see the difference between decent and indecent behavior.

The process of becoming alcohol addicted flows equally for everybody, regardless of gender. Hence, it becomes clear that the ways and methods of alcoholism treatment for women the same as for men. Although, we should make an important note about weaker sex: attention and patience of doctors and relatives will be needed much more than in the case of men.

Signs of alcohol addicted women

There are no much difficulties to identify an alcohol addicted woman among a certain amount of healthy women, but in this case, we are talking about a serious and long-term dependence.

A woman initially is afraid much more to be convicted in alcohol drinking than a man, because women alcoholism is still perceived in the community as something akin to prostitution, and the same man’s “defect” is not discussed by society so much. It is in these reasons that the fair sex will carefully hide their “weakness” as long as the situation is completely out of control. In addition, it is difficult for a woman consider that she is one of those whom she had once condemned, and got round. Based on the foregoing, it is clear that if there is any suspicion of alcoholism, you have to act, and such following features can cause you to fall on suspicions:

• face changes: the skin color is red, purple, or bluish spots appear, unhealthy glitter eye puffiness and dark circles under the eyes;
• hair look stale: greasy and matted; they turn gray sooner and begin to fall;
• the figure becomes angular because of disappearance of subcutaneous fat;
• there are problems with teeth: they become crumble and fall;
• changes of a temper;
• extremes in appearance: bright vulgar makeup or absolute absence of signs of femininity and self-care.

The changes, taking place in the women’s body, who drink, unfortunately, very quickly and irreversibly. That is why it is extremely important to identify and treat dependence at an early stage.

Treatment of women alcoholism

The main problem faced by doctors and relatives of female alcoholics is a rejection and a complete denial of the problem – alcohol dependence. The reasons for this behavior are explained not only by the fact that a for a woman is psychologically difficult to accept their degradation and subjection to the “green snake”, but also by the body’s physiological characteristics, described above.

The greatest difficulty of women alcoholism treatment is the fact that, unlike he Europe, in our countries it is a great shame for a woman to ask for a help in treatment of alcohol dependence – it is not only a stamp for life but also a shame for the family, accompanied by the universal condemnation. The desire “not to fall” in the eyes of others often leads to the fact that the patient’s relatives (husband, parents, children) turn a blind eye to the deteriorating condition of a loved one, considering that thereby relieve the family from a bad reputation. In fact, such a “disservice” and care about their own status may be costly for the whole family.

That’s the way the world wags, that if a man has problems with alcohol, then a woman (his wife) deems in duty to help him and is engaged in his treatment. But if a woman, mother, sister, daughter of the family has problems with alcohol, a family doesn’t eager to solve this delicate problem, and, worse, turns away from a dependent, condemning her lifestyle. This, perhaps, is the main mistake that exacerbates the situation and accelerates the degradation of women as an individual. But if the problem is detected, and the woman is ready to undergo a treatment, you should immediately go to a drug clinic and fix the result.

As for the treatment methods, then there are lots of them are practiced nowadays and a huge number of them are applicable to both: men and women. Among them, a lot of well-known techniques, such as:

• coding;
• inserting and torpedoing;
• detoxification;
• special pills;
• homeopathic remedies, etc.

You can also recall the methods of traditional medicine, but it is not desirable to use them, because treatment of women’s dependence is not easy, so you should use a qualified medical help.

During the course of treatment, you should remember that not only a patient’s health has to change, but also its environment and way of life. Social circle and environment should be changed if it is possible that the old habits involve a woman into alcohol captive again. It is particularly important to change lifestyle as a whole. This means that after the rehabilitation a woman should do soul-searching and figure out for what she should continue to live. And then a crucial role is played by the family, it is no secret that a family for most women is the meaning of life. Full support for relatives of people in difficult circumstances will be the best cure for addiction.

Do not condemn, and remind the former alcoholic errors of her past life, but on the contrary, help her to find a new life, free from the horrors of the past years. Then the appreciation of recovered woman will not take long in coming.

It is very important: in any way do not leave a woman-alcoholic alone with the problem and fight for her future.