Middle aged women and alcohol consumption in New South Wales
Of Substance is the Australian national magazine on alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. The current April 2009 issue reports on the 16% of women in New South Wales age 35 to 60 who report drinking at high-risk levels.
It points out that women in this age group, with the multiple demands from juggling jobs, families, ageing parents, and their own as well as societal expectations, may discover that alcohol works well as a sedative because it effectively brings relief from the heightened stresses they are living with. Alcohol helps to keep them going, to cope emotionally, and to meet the various demands placed on them. But alcohol is addictive and takes a toll on its users’ physiology and cognitive abilities before they are even aware of it.
Also highlighted is the fact that self-medicating with alcohol in this way is not approved of, so the women inevitably find they must hide their actions. With this being the case, researchers believe that alcohol dependence is under-recognised and under-treated in this age group.
Women who had undergone rehabilitation took part in a study conducted by researchers at the University of Western Sydney, entitled, “Researching with Midlife Women in Recovery from Alcohol Dependence”, which looked closely at the issues surrounding their treatment outcomes. Most participants reported that they had experienced distress, confusion, frustration and self-deception when undertaking a controlled drinking program. Many had experienced various detoxification and rehabilitation facilities, and also attended Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings. Almost all of the women had been able to achieve or sustain abstinence only with the support of these kinds of services.
The women believed that their recovery could have taken less time if there had been better community, as well as specialist, understanding of their concerns and the challenges associated with the ‘accepted’ place of alcohol in Australian culture -specifically in relation to their gender.
The study found that support for respite, rehabilitation and ongoing chronic illness management needed to be recognised as crucial, as midlife women need much more support than is currently available. Provision of more women-oriented treatment centres was recommended by the participants.
Researchers maintain that it takes a long time for a healthy lifestyle to become the new habitual behaviour: 3 to 5 years just to get through the early stages. Then maintaining a ‘recovery lifestyle’ can develop over the next 3 to 12 years while sustained recovery occurs after 8 to 21 years of abstinence.
All would agree that prevention would be preferable, so screening for alcohol misuse should be part of an annual general check-up. Ongoing monitoring is essential, too, as alcohol dependence in midlife is more likely to be a co-morbid condition with diabetes, obesity, depression, or early dementia.
The study concluded that the most up to date educational materials on alcohol related accidents, injury and death in young and midlife women should be made available to female high school and university students, and early career women for whom alcohol consumption is the norm.
Despite the advisory guidelines regularly received from the health authorities, women simply do not believe that only two to four drinks can cause them damage. And none of the participants in this study were aware of the dozens of medical conditions directly attributable to alcohol misuse, particularly irreversible brain damage. For more information about the study please visit: http://www.ofsubstance.org.au/