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FeedAlcoholism: Are You at Risk?
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine and HealthDay News, there are five risk factors that make a woman more likely to become an alcoholic as an adult. They are:
1. A parent or guardian with a family history of alcohol abuse or dependence. Children of alcoholics are four times more likely to develop alcohol problems than other children.
2. Friends or peers who encourage heavy drinking. This can be done directly, or friends may drink around you to influence you. This is most common in teenage girls, who are beginning to drink at younger ages. By the early 1990s, 31 percent of 10- to 14-year-old females used alcohol. Girls who start consuming alcohol before the age of 21 are more likely to become alcoholics as adults than those who wait until the age of 21 to start drinking.
3. Feelings of depression, anxiety or lowered self-esteem. It is common that alcohol is used to ease the pain of these conditions or situations. Women who drink at home alone are more likely to have drinking problems later. Also, 40 percent of alcoholic women attempt to commit suicide, compared to 8.8 percent of nonalcoholic women.
4. Significant stress at home, at work or in relationships. Women who have trouble with close relationships, have never married, are living unmarried with a partner, or are divorced or separated drink more than other women.
5. Genetics. Some people really do have a genetic predisposition to alcohol dependency. Children who have alcoholic parents have the highest risk of becoming alcoholics themselves when they become adults. Also, children who are adopted into alcohol-free families but have biological parents who were alcoholics have a greater chance of becoming alcoholics themselves.
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Reader Comments:
So very true! I can say yes to each fact.
1. My mother and maternal grandfather were alcoholics.
2. My friends that I associate with are heavy drinkers.
3. I suffer from depression and anxiety.
4. I have never been married AND have lived unmarried with a partner.
5. I am predisposed to alcohol dependency.
I decided to make a change and went into Rehab for 30 days Dec. 2007. I attend AAA meetings and strive every day to make the right choice. It sucks and is very hard...but I want to live and learn to love myself again.
Thank you for letting me share.
Female, age 45, Michigan.
What sucks more is continuing to drink though! I am a recovering alcoholic and I have many of the risk factors listed too. I quite drinking over 10 years ago, thankfully! I quit by going to AA meetings. I had tried on my own to stop but it just didn't work. It WAS hard, but it does get better as time goes on. Hey, there are still problems and difficult times, after all, it's still life, and life can be difficult sometimes, especially if you have had a difficult family situation growing up. I started doing therapy about 2 1/2 years ago too and that has also helped tremendously. Going to meetings helped me to stop drinking and to start to feel better and more positive about life but the therapy has taken me much further than AA alone could - so, what I am saying is that BOTH have been good for me as AA can sometimes feel like it is supposed to be one size fits all, and it doesn't, and isn't. I am not a higher power believer, for example, so I can sometimes find meetings feeling a bit like some people are trying to brainwash other people into thinking that you MUST believe in a 'HIGHER POWER' to be 'SAVED'. That there is something 'WRONG' with you if you don't. In my experience, neither of these are true, and yet I still found - and find - the meetings tremendously helpful because there is so much support and so much opportunity to identify with what people are saying, how they are feeling/thinking/acting/reacting about and to LIFE. Anyway, good luck Female, age 45, Michigan from a Female, 48. Hang in there and take good care of yourself!!!