One subject I never really thought about writing about in particular was the fact that women drink and are drinking more than ever. I can't use an excuse myself with regards to today, I drank before the craze for young women getting drunk in the streets became so popular.
I suppose that means I am not sexist !I just talk about the benefits and downfalls of drinking and stopping/reducing drinking for all of us, no matter who, what, why or where ....
I do know that mental ill health isn't helped by excess alcohol consumption. It's used to extinguish those deep down fears and nightmares that many people with mental ill health may have. Not only that but to moderate behaviour, and that just ends up increasing another ill health behaviour in return.
Women often feel powerless and vulnerable in society in general once they leave the full time workforce to have children, it can lead to alcohol abuse as a prop to coping with family life, depression, agrophobia, anxiety and possible domestic violence.
The opposite can be true for high-flying women attempting to break the glass ceiling, although mental health issues here are more likely to be stress and begins with the odd glass of alcohol to socialise or ''wind-down''.
It's very difficult in that situation to even recognise that you have an alcohol problem sitting alongside the mental ill health. Why I am saying about mental ill health under the subject women and alcohol is that more women self-diagnose and self-treat these problems with alcohol and pain killers than we are led to believe.
Firstly, the stigma and worries about family disruption and break-up if you admit to these problems, then secondly it's sometimes easier to retreat into the ''nice'' feelings you get when self-treating. The only real downfall is that your family is imploding from within and you are self-destructing. The final event might be set on a long timer but it will happen eventually if you keep drinking.
It's such a shame that resources aren't in place to support women before they hit the ground ..... and everything around them disintegrates ...