Why female alcoholism is not treated: 7 facts and myths

Statistics

The statistics are also inexorable. The critical risk for developing alcoholism for a woman is 200-300 ml of beer or 80-90 ml of wine daily or more than 5 times a week.

If in men chronic alcoholism (first-second stage) develops after 6-12 months of daily drinking, then for women 3-6 months are enough. Women are more likely to develop binge drinking - among men, about 60% of drinkers are prone to it, and among women - 82%.

According to rough estimates, more than 15% of women in Russia suffer from chronic alcoholism - but their loved ones are unlikely to know about it.

It is easier for a woman to sleep due to a neurophysiological property - the response to emotions, for example, sadness, sadness, low mood, is provided by neurons, the area of ​​which is 8 times larger than in men. Naturally, it is very, very easy to fall into depression with so many active neurons. And it is precisely this property of women’s brain tissue that causes the early transition of alcoholism to the chronic stage. Moral decline in women alcoholics develops 3-5 times faster than in men.

Why female addiction develops faster

There is a widely known version that the female body is naturally more susceptible to the negative effects of alcohol. This largely corresponds to the true state of affairs, and has a scientific basis.

Experts explain the accelerated development of alcoholism by the following characteristics of a woman’s body:

1. Low protective function of the blood-brain barrier, due to which alcohol and its breakdown products penetrate the brain in increased concentrations. This causes rapid damage to brain cells and destruction of neural connections.
2. The female liver contains a small amount of enzymes designed to break down ethanol.
3. Less presence of liquid (compared to men) necessary to dissolve alcohol.

The path from the initial stage of pathology to the acute state often takes a short period of time. The diagnosis of “alcoholism” often comes as a surprise both to the woman who drinks and to those around her.

Symptoms and signs of female alcoholism

What can and should alert a woman or her loved ones in terms of potential alcoholism?

• A daily (or slightly less frequent) need to relieve stress with alcohol - usually beer or wine. The more often a woman drinks, the faster tolerance to small doses of alcohol develops, and the severity of the antidepressant effect decreases. This leads to an increase in the dose of alcohol, but in large doses, alcohol inhibits the production of pleasure hormones, and a dose race begins. Usually, for women, the path to alcohol addiction begins with alcoholism - a bottle of beer after work, a martini with friends in a cafe...;
• A woman’s attempts to hide her craving (or already formed addiction) to alcohol;
• Lack of a critical attitude towards one’s behavior during intoxication;
• Justifications and attempts to find a more or less acceptable reason for drinking alcohol.

If you have at least one of the listed signs, you should try to see the symptoms of the stages of alcoholism. It must be said that in terms of stages of development, alcoholism in women is no different from alcoholism in men, however, there are some prerequisites for the signs of the stages to be alarming at earlier stages.

The woman herself will not understand how her alcohol addiction began. She will not attach any importance to it, and then she may be afraid to confess to her family because she will be ashamed. There are a number of features of female alcoholism in which the patient should be taken to a doctor and the problem should be solved immediately. All responsibility falls on the woman’s loved ones. At the first signs of female alcoholism, treatment should be started immediately and psychological support should be provided. It is very rare for a woman to admit to herself that she is an alcohol addict. Among the symptoms of female alcoholism are the following:

• The desire to drink without any particular reason and no matter what kind of alcohol. Patients look for any reason to drink alcohol.
• Denial and non-acceptance of the fact of alcohol abuse by a woman, a sharp reaction to comments.
• The doses of alcoholic beverages increase over time; a woman becomes drunk more slowly from small doses of alcohol.
• Loss of appetite and refusal of snacks when drinking an alcoholic beverage.
• Minor trembling of the hands, the face becomes more swollen, bags under the eyes, an enlarged abdomen due to cirrhosis of the liver.
• Apathy, loss of interest in everything around you and loved ones. Isolation and communication with actively drinking people.
• Rudeness, harsh behavior, cruelty towards loved ones.
• Slow reaction, decreased intellectual abilities.
• The patient appears at work less often and may take things out of the house to buy alcohol.
• Drinking alcoholic beverages alone.

Main types and methods of psychotherapy

For alcoholism, emotional stress, behavioral and cognitive psychotherapy is used. Of the recognized methods, individual sessions, group and family psychotherapy can significantly influence the patient’s condition. During Dovzhenko coding, a stable psychological attitude is created, aimed at long-term abstinence from drinking alcohol, which allows the patient to feel comfortable without alcohol.

• Hypnotic psychotechniques allow you to completely remove the craving for drinking alcohol for a long period of time. Abstinence allows a woman to recognize her problems and do what is necessary to maintain sobriety.
• Cognitive and behavioral psychotherapy works with beliefs and various kinds of expectations that influenced the formation of an attraction to alcohol. Changing these initial attitudes gives the woman the opportunity to make a different decision and abstain from drinking alcohol. Understanding exactly in what situations or under what internal states and experiences the craving for alcohol is intolerable allows you to avoid getting drawn into this whirlpool again. Educating not only the patient, but also loved ones helps significantly at this stage.

Psychotherapy can provide a woman with a return to a sense of security and comfort. The rules of confidentiality, the confidence that her secret will not be known to other people, work with the primary causes that formed the basis for the development of alcoholism, give the patient not only hope for recovery, but also the strength to fight the disease necessary.

Thus, women drink themselves much faster than men due to differences caused by a number of anatomical, physiological and psychological characteristics of their body. Timely contact with a psychotherapist or psychiatrist-narcologist can help at all stages of the formation of alcohol dependence.

Stages of alcoholism

Developing in stages, alcoholism takes a person from the stage of minimal dependence and small doses to a complete loss of self-control when consuming alcoholic beverages, personality disintegration, and the development of somatic pathologies.

The first stage (we are talking about already formed alcoholism, that is, dependence on alcohol) a person loses control over the dose, that is, what is popularly called “does not know the norm.” Intoxication - usually severe - accompanies every episode of drinking. At this time, there are still no psychoneurological disorders, at least minimal criticality is preserved, and yet, understanding the gravity of the situation, few women are able to say to themselves at this time - I’m becoming an alcoholic.

The second stage is characterized by the appearance of withdrawal symptoms and a hangover. Significant changes have occurred in the body, tolerance to ethanol has increased, and now in order to get the usual intoxication with its consequences, a large dose is required. The higher the dose of alcohol, the stronger the poisoning with acetaldehyde, the more severe the consequences of intoxication. It is at this stage that an alcoholic woman gets a typical appearance - a puffy face, slits in the eyes, swollen lips, hormonal changes begin, and fatty tissue rapidly melts.

And finally, at the third stage, almost everything is tied to alcohol: from emotions to physiological functions. A typical sign of the third stage is binge drinking.

Why the disease develops: main reasons

The reasons for the development of female alcoholism are almost always associated with the social component of the life of a modern representative of the fairer sex. Among the most common provocateurs:

• Boredom, a feeling of one’s own inferiority and the inability to realize oneself professionally

Not all patients have this reason. The routine of housework, childcare, solving small issues, constant repetition of the same thing with the impossibility of changing life, relaxing, or finding time for oneself leads to chronic severe stress. Then it all depends on how a particular person solves the problem of boredom. It's not always alcohol. Other options are possible. But drinking alcohol is a popular way to solve everyday problems and relax. It is not always female alcoholism. Depends on the frequency of ethanol intake. Relationships to this. Dos.

• Problems in personal relationships, lack of fulfillment in family terms

The opposite situation is when the patient chooses work rather than family. Psychologists speak of a greater need for family relationships among the fairer sex. This is due both to traditional gender roles and to one’s own desire, the socially conditioned maternal instinct. If it is impossible to realize one’s own biological functions, stress again arises.

• Severe stressful situations, nervous shocks

Often, again, they are of everyday origin. Spouse's infidelity, husband's leaving the family and other similar situations. Other cases of death of relatives and problems with children are also possible.

• Loneliness, lack of close relationships

Moreover, we are not always talking about potentially family relationships. This is both the lack of friends and the lack of understanding by the environment. A person may well be lonely when there are dozens of acquaintances and friends around him. In this case, drinks act as a way to forget and relax.

• Conditional induction

A relatively rare reason. In this case, female alcoholism is caused by the systematic consumption of alcohol by the spouse. The patient drinks for company, but control over the amount of ethyl alcohol falls, and the fairer sex herself does not notice how she begins to “drink herself.”

• Features of education

In many cases, female alcoholism is the result of the influence of a negative example during upbringing. The family model, where the father or mother drinks, or even both parents at once, is distorted. The child learns the postulate that drinking is not only normal, but also desirable, since it brings many pleasant sensations. Even an unfavorable situation with beatings and scandals often does not have the opposite effect. Children of drinking parents do not always become alcoholics. An example in the family can have the exact opposite effect.

Physiological reasons include an unfavorable family history. Genetic predisposition to excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages. Researchers have not fully figured out what exactly increases the risk of addiction. However, statistics show that the likelihood of female alcoholism is 25% greater than that of people whose parents did not have problems with alcohol.

Causes must be assessed in the system. Because without understanding the etiology, the impetus, the narcologist will not be able to develop the right strategy.

Consequences of female alcoholism

The negative effect of wine on offspring has been known since ancient times. Long before our days, it was noted that people who drink are more likely to have stillborn children and miscarriages. If a child is born alive, he often lags behind in development and grows up mentally handicapped. At the end of the last century, the French doctor Demme, studying the offspring of families of alcoholics, found that almost 50% of their children died in early childhood, and of the remaining 10% suffered from epilepsy and dropsy of the head, 12% grew up idiots and only 10% were healthy. It is no coincidence that the laws of Ancient Greece and Rome prohibited young people from drinking alcohol. It was forbidden for a drunken husband to approach his wife. A law was passed prohibiting newlyweds from drinking wine. In Rus', it has also long been considered a bad sign to drink wine at your own wedding.

A state of intoxication at the time of conception can have an extremely negative impact on the health of the unborn child, since alcohol is dangerous not only for maturing germ cells, but can also play a fatal role at the moment of fertilization of completely full-fledged (normal) germ cells. Moreover, the strength of the damaging effects of alcohol at the time of conception is unpredictable: there can be both mild disorders and severe organic damage to various organs and tissues of the unborn child. Doctors call the period from the moment of conception to 3 months of pregnancy critical in the development of the fetus, since during this time intensive organ formation and tissue formation occur. Alcohol consumption leads to disfiguring effects on the fetus, and the damage will be greater the earlier in the critical period the alcohol was exposed. A special term has appeared in the medical literature to designate a complex of defects in children caused by the damaging effects of alcohol during fetal development - fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), or alcoholic fetopathy syndrome. ASP is characterized by congenital anomalies of the heart, external genitalia, dysfunction of the central nervous system, low birth weight, and retarded child growth and development. Children with alcoholic fetopathy syndrome have characteristic facial features: a small head, especially the face, narrow eyes, a specific fold of the eyelids, and a thin upper lip. Drinking alcoholic beverages is dangerous throughout pregnancy, since alcohol easily passes from the mother through the placenta through the blood vessels that feed the fetus. The impact of alcohol on the fetus in subsequent months of pregnancy leads to prematurity, decreased birth weight, stillbirth, and deformities. Female alcoholism often manifests itself as an inability to breastfeed children. According to experts, this deficiency occurs in 30–40% of women who regularly consume alcohol. A nursing mother should remember that alcohol has an extremely harmful effect on the infant’s body and, first of all, on its nervous system. Even tiny doses of alcohol that enter the baby’s body through mother’s milk can cause serious disturbances in the activity of the central nervous system, and in some cases even have irreversible consequences. A child under the influence of alcohol becomes restless, sleeps poorly, may experience convulsions, and subsequently lag in mental development. If a nursing mother suffers from female alcoholism and alcohol regularly enters the baby’s body, then, in addition to the above-mentioned complications, the child may experience “infancy alcohol dependence syndrome.” A woman should not drink a single gram of alcohol until the day the child is weaned from the mother’s breast. There should be no exceptions.

Why does the problem of female alcoholism worry doctors and other specialists so much? First of all, because of the gender role of a woman - mother, wife. An alcoholic is not able to fully carry out these fundamental female functions; moreover, a woman’s alcoholism has a detrimental effect on her family, children, loved ones, and social environment.

Female alcoholism leads to early aging. A drinking woman of 30 years old, as a rule, looks older, and an alcoholic by the age of 40 turns into an old woman. Alcohol is merciless to the female body: early aging, decline of reproductive function, damage to the brain, pancreas, and liver.

Sequence of actions for home treatment of alcoholism

If a woman drinks and her husband managed to persuade her to give up the addiction, his help will be needed. In this case, hospitalization is not necessary. But rehabilitation will take a long time. All drinks containing alcohol are removed from the house. It cannot be bought at the request of the wife.

Her husband should not keep her company. Visiting people should be avoided. For the wife, the husband creates a period of complete isolation from others. It is necessary to temporarily refuse any guests who may come with alcoholic beverages. The rooms are ventilated daily. The brain cells must constantly receive fresh air.

During the period of treatment for alcoholism, a woman should not experience stress, shock, or any negative emotions. All domestic scandals are prohibited. At the same time, the narcologist prescribes the necessary medications and additional folk remedies.

Female alcoholism and heredity

The inheritance of mental disability from parents of alcoholics is beyond doubt. Statistical genetic studies have proven that alcoholism itself is not genetically transmitted, only the tendency towards it is transmitted, resulting from the character traits received from parents. Whether a person should be an alcoholic or not - this question is decided by a specific life situation, i.e. environmental conditions. In the development of drunkenness in children of alcoholics, the decisive role is played by the bad examples of parents and the environment of drunkenness at home and in the family. As soon as an authoritative member of the family, say a grandfather, convincingly condemns the son of an alcoholic, the chances immediately rise that the grandson will be a teetotaler. So, alcoholism is not inherited, and the fight against it depends on the will and behavior of the drinking person. The role of heredity in the occurrence of alcoholism can only be indirect: some character trait or disease that contributes to reduced resistance to “drunk life” is genetically transmitted.

If you want, you can always tell yourself “stop”

Unfortunately, patients themselves turn to me extremely rarely. In most cases, they are brought by relatives and friends. There is a thin, invisible line between the stage when a person can still understand that he has problems and turn to a psychotherapist, change his lifestyle, learn to relieve stress and lift his spirits in other ways.

In the process of treating alcohol addiction, we always work with relatives. There may be codependency and provocations - but this is a separate big topic.

Can female alcoholism be cured?

The most common opinion is no, female alcoholism cannot be treated. However, female, as well as male, alcoholism is curable. Naturally, this requires the desire and will of the drinker, support from loved ones and adequately selected therapy.

It should only be clarified that treatment of female alcoholism should begin as early as possible - at least because personality degradation in women begins earlier. Alcohol addiction in women grows faster than in men, making it very difficult to treat. In this state, a woman becomes unbalanced, vulnerable, and very difficult to reach. She withdraws into herself and her problems, forgets about her children, and can later become a real threat to them. One cannot write off a woman’s emotional involvement, for example, such a problem as a woman’s suggestibility, including self-hypnosis, and dependence on the opinions of others. It is no secret that alcoholic women are not particularly picky in sexual relations—alcohol easily removes moral and ethical barriers. In light periods, such behavior causes a woman to have the deepest feelings of guilt, self-abasement, and becomes the reason for plunging into the abyss of alcoholic oblivion... and the circle closes. If a woman has support in such a difficult time, it will be much easier for her to get out of the pathological web of alcohol. Female alcoholism destroys families, leads to divorce, violence, and mental disorders in children. In families where the mother drank, most often the children will also suffer from addiction to alcohol. If this disease is not treated in time, the consequences may become irreversible.

When to sound the alarm

The first signs of alcoholism in women are easy to see. As a rule, they belong to the initial stage. One of the typical manifestations is the so-called “widow’s alcoholism.” Usually develops from 25-40 years of age. Progressive craving for alcohol. Dependence can form over several years. Chronic use of alcohol as an antidepressant.

Friendships with bad girlfriends who almost never refuse a glass of good wine or beer. That is, the external signs of alcoholism in women are practically written on the face. If your spouse, mother or sister often disappears somewhere for a long time and returns home drunk, you need to involve specialists in the problem.

Alcoholism in the weaker sex, like in the stronger, has its own stages of development. Ladies, like men, don’t drink too much right away. At first, the disease manifests itself in a mild form. Moreover, the girl, as a rule, does not notice this, and certainly does not turn to doctors for help. Once the first stage has passed, the symptoms of alcoholism will become more pronounced. The woman becomes irritable and often skips work due to withdrawal symptoms.

Hard work is replaced by laziness and apathy. With this course of the disease, recognizing alcoholism is not difficult. The last stage, when a woman becomes an alcoholic in front of others, is indicated by indifference to herself and everything that surrounds her except drink. She looks bad and doesn't take care of herself. Her psyche is disturbed, her intelligence declines, and all desire to communicate with loved ones, without drinking alcohol, disappears.