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The difference between men and women
Alcoholism is often seen as a male problem. But alcohol abuse among women is on the rise. Highly educated women over the age of forty have been drinking more in recent years. Women do drink for different reasons and in different ways.
The guidelines are clear: a maximum of 10 glasses per week (preferably no more than two standard glasses per day) and do not drink at least two days a week. Yet more and more women exceed this amount.
Men drink twice as much as women and are three to four times more likely to have problems with it. But alcohol use among women has increased dramatically in recent years. Particularly among highly educated women, problematic alcohol use has grown by almost 50 percent and this trend is expected to continue.
Why do women drink?
Women often drink for different reasons than men. Where for men – certainly in the beginning – the ‘sociability’ comes first, women more often drink alcohol because of tensions within their relationship, or stress because of the many care tasks or because of the combination of work and family. Men also drink to relieve tension, but it is more often about work-related stress.
We need a lot
Women have to do a lot of themselves: put in a good performance at work, be the ideal wife and mother and then also make time for sports and social contacts. Parents and any in-laws also sometimes need extra care. They are ready for others a lot and have a tendency to neglect themselves for that.
In short, women often drink to cope with interpersonal tensions in their environment. In order to be able to meet all the demands that the environment makes of them, alcohol abuse is a lurking danger. A crisis in the family situation – such as a divorce, job loss or death – therefore increases the risk of binge drinking.
home drinkers
Because addiction is often accompanied by guilt and shame, alcohol use in women often remains a hidden problem. Women drink more alone and hidden, and especially at home. They are also more likely to try to hide their drinking. That shame forms an obstacle to asking for help, which accelerates the alcohol problem. Moreover, women with an alcohol problem are often judged more harshly than men by the outside world. This social taboo makes it more difficult to come out with an alcohol problem. Mothers in particular suffer unnecessarily long as a result, experience relationship problems and suffer more from depression.
Not just alcohol
It is striking that women with an alcohol problem also use drugs more often than men. This is probably because women are more likely to go to the doctor with alcohol-related problems such as sleep and stress complaints, without mentioning drinking. The doctor then prescribes them medicines to remedy these complaints, without knowing about the drinking problem, which in all probability is the cause of the complaints.
The consequences
Women are more sensitive to the negative effects of alcohol. They get drunk faster than men. Due to their lower body weight and smaller body fluid volume, the alcohol concentration in the blood quickly rises. The same amount of alcohol is distributed in a woman over an average of 36 liters of body water, while that of a man is about 42 liters. Women are therefore more likely to be under the influence. In addition, the female body breaks the alcohol less easily because fewer enzymes are produced. The liver is affected more quickly and – earlier than men with similar drinking habits – they are confronted with alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver. The brain is also more likely to be affected.
Research shows that women with alcohol abuse are more likely to attempt suicide and anxiety disorders appearance. Male alcoholics are more likely to have antisocial personality disorders. The question is, of course, whether these disorders are not precisely the result of alcohol consumption.
Typically feminine
The typical ‘female’ consequences of binge drinking also include disrupted menstruation and – when drinking during pregnancy – an increased risk of miscarriage or pregnancy. fetal alcohol syndrome. In addition, there are indications that too much alcohol can lead to the development of breast cancer promotes.
After all, both men and women who drink too much look ‘bloated’ and often have a shortage of certain nutrients, because they eat irregularly and poorly.
Therapy
The sooner an alcohol problem is treated, the better. Research has shown that female problem drinkers with shorter drinking histories, who are still socially stable and who have no additional drug dependence, respond even better to short treatment programs than men.
Moreover, it appears that it is important for women to be helped with their problem in a way that does not have too much impact on their job or family, while the family is involved in the process. In addition, women find it important to be able to share their feelings with fellow sufferers. For this reason, many addiction clinics today offer special programs for women with alcohol addiction.
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