How Does Alcoholism Affect Women

Alcoholism and Its Effects on Women

Westchester Community College

Abstract
This paper will explore the effects of alcoholism on women based on the book “Drinking a Love Story” written by Caroline Knapp. Alcohol consumption is considered a rite of passage, a tool facilitating the transition from childhood to adulthood. Words like “wasted,” “smashed” and “trashed” are common adjectives to describe the after effects of a “great night out.” However, there is a line between social drinking and alcohol abuse. For some women the line becomes blurred and they become full blown alcoholics. This paper will examine the psychological effects of excessive drinking on the alcoholic and their lives.
Alcoholism and Its Effects on Women
For Caroline battling her own self-image played a major role in the onset of her alcohol abuse. She never felt a sense of belonging within her family. Her Father was a Psychiatrist, who she felt constantly analyzed her. There wasn’t any expression of outward emotion, not of anger or happiness. Her home life was a very structured environment, with her Mother, Father and Sister fulfilling their roles accordingly. However, Caroline always felt off-kilt. Not knowing if she was adequately fulfilling her role. Moreover, not really understanding what her role actually was.
Her parents never told her verbally they loved her, never cuddled or kissed her. This difficulty to express affection troubled Caroline greatly. The feeling of disassociation festered through-out her adolescence. Caroline became aware of the differences between her family and that of a childhood friend’s interaction with her parents. “Seeing her father scoop her up and give her a big hug, I was startled and envious-it seemed so odd. ” She goes on to mention taking inventory of another friends bathroom toiletries. “The array of stuff, the lotions and powders, the tubes and compacts, my Mother didn’t go in for comforts like that, she didn’t indulge in fancy beauty products” (p. 43).
Feelings of self-doubt, poor self-image and lack of emotional stability plagued Caroline. A report by Robert Reasoner titled “Review of Self-Esteem Research,” contributes alcoholism to low self-esteem. “Alienated from their family and peers, and overly impulsive. Low self-esteem, lack of conformity, poor academic achievement and poor parental-child relationships are also indicators of young children likely to end up using drugs” (Reasoner). Caroline always had a sense of unease, an internal sense of alarm that would never quiet. She defines it as “some external fixation. I obsessed about things, railed about them, and when I couldn’t have them, I felt misunderstood and bereft, this was a constant feeling.” In her search to calm her sense of “hunger” Caroline discovered alcohol. “For years it was party shoes, and riding boots, later it would be alcohol, same intent, same motivation, different substance” (p. 61).
Is alcoholism hereditary?
Caroline Knapp’s Father was a highly respected Psychiatrist who was a professor at an influential school.
Her Father was considered a functioning alcoholic. She mentions the correlation, “I can say that alcohol traveled in my family, and only from one direction, my father’s side” (p. 46). Knapp discovered her Father battled with alcohol as a young adult, being arrested for drunk driving twice. As well as showing up for his Harvard Medical school interview hung over. Caroline’s Father had children from a previous marriage. Her step-brother, Wicky suffered from fetal alcoholic syndrome. Drinking can be found in a pattern within families. Sometimes skipping generations, other times the connections are extremely evident. Within Caroline’s family the link between her drinking and her Father, is clear. “I seemed to have inherited more blood from my father’s side. I also drank like him, and took to liquor in much the same way”
(p.47).
A book on the correlation between alcoholism written by D. Goodwin, entitled “Is Alcoholism Hereditary?” determined that there is strong genetic predisposition to becoming an alcoholism if your biological parents where alcoholics (D. Goodwin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976. P. 171). The lack of parental connection was the vehicle and Caroline’s discomfort was palpable. “I sat on my hands. I remember an empty feeling, a wariness, something I often felt in my father’s presence, looking for a nod of approval, hoping for something to fill the gap between us” (p. 39). The fact that her father also suffered from the same discomfort only promoted the ease for them both to drink during personal interaction. “The wine gave me a melting feeling a warm light sensation in my head, and I felt like safety itself had arrived in that glass, poured out from the bottle and allowed to spill out between us” (p.40). This association with safety, the feelings of admiration mixed with inadequacy and Caroline’s predisposition to alcohol, ensured her footing down the path of alcoholism.
The feeling of being drunk has been described as “euphoric”, a sense of losing control.
The ability to escape, releasing the day’s stresses with a glass of wine is a socially acceptable behavior. Commiserating a loss of a sports game over pitchers of beer is the norm in any local tavern. Drinking is ingrained in society and has been since prohibition. Alcohol has been dubbed “liquid courage”, giving people an altered state of sureness. Alcohol suppresses inhibitions, giving people the false sense of confidence, bravery, and they may even become more sexually exploring. Men and women drink equally, however, women can become drunk much faster than men. A few reasons are: women are typically smaller than men. Women have less body fat and less of an enzyme called, alcohol dehydrogenase. Alcohol Dehydrogenase is found in the human stomach and allows alcohol to be broken down in the body. The enzyme is more prevalent in men than in women, causing the effects of alcohol to be felt much faster. But most people know when there limit is reached. But for an alcoholic, the limit is devoid. Caroline describes the feeling drinking gave her as, “its ability to shift my focus away from my own awareness of self and onto something else, something less painful than my own feelings” (p.
5).

References http://www.organic-chemistry.org/chemicals/reductions/alcoholdehydrogenase-adh.shtm Knapp, Caroline P. 22 http://www.self-esteem-international.org/content/5-research.htm http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1685234/pdf/ajhg00205-0117b.pdf