Here's a couple articles

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/mommy-doesnt-drink-here-anymore-525962/

http://answerology.goodhousekeeping.com/index.aspx/question/2624757_What-makes-an-alcoholic-.html

FlyingSquirrel wrote:

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Think I might have read it in somebody's office, but can't seem to locate it online.  I know it's not the Brooke Shields one I found.  But here's an interesting link from Psychology Today, October 2009 entitled "Mothers Can be High-Functioning Alcoholics Too!"

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-high-functioning-alcoholic/200910/mothers-can-be-high-functioning-alcoholics-too

And a Chicago Tribune article on the same subject:

http://closethegapri.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/mom-businesswoman-alcoholic-10-11-20091.pdf

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Good finds FS.   Here's  the first page of the second story.



Mom. Businesswoman. Alcoholic.
Chicago Tribune Sunday, October 11, 2009
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/oct/11/health/chi-heatheroct11

Mom. Businesswoman. Alcoholic.
A mother climbs out of the depths of addiction

Heather, who entered a treatment program and has been sober for a year, walks her son home  from school.   She stood on the sidelines amid the blankets and camp chairs, a petite, brown-haired woman in a  monogrammed polo shirt, cheering as her 7-year-old son sprinted down the soccer field.  At halftime, she stepped up with a water bottle and pep talk. And after the game ended in a 4-0  loss, she circulated among the pint-size players as the designated "team mom," passing out apple  slices, pretzels and peanut butter crackers.  "Good job, guys," she said brightly as she tousled hair, patted shoulders and gave high-fives.  "You did really well."

The Saturday soccer game is familiar territory for many middle-class mothers. But for this 39-
year-old executive, the autumn afternoon felt like a gift. Last year she missed a lot of games.
When she did show up, she was usually drunk. An outgoing woman with a big smile and wry
wit, she would stand by herself because, she says, "I was afraid the other parents would smell
alcohol on my breath."

Her story -- of a nightly glass of wine that turned into a nightly bottle and eventually four bottles
a day -- reflects a growing national trend: Alcoholism, once largely considered a man's disease,
has become increasingly common among women.
At her most desperate, Heather -- who asked the Tribune to withhold her last name because of
the stigma associated with alcoholism -- was drinking around the clock, waking in the middle of
the night to pour herself a glass of white wine and regularly driving her son to school while
drunk. A doctor told her that she was killing herself with alcohol. She had gone to that
appointment drunk; a blood test confirmed that she was over the legal limit by 8:45 a.m. And for
weeks afterward, she kept drinking.

Now, after an intervention by her employer and her pastor, she has remained sober for a year.
But staying that way remains a daily, sometimes hourly, struggle.
"I know this disease is waiting for me. It wants to see me dead," she says. "It's like it's outside
doing push-ups, getting stronger and stronger and stronger. It's just waiting for me to have a
moment of weakness so it can take me back."

Drinking on rise among womenOver the last several decades, women have been drinking more
and getting drunk more often. Studies show that the rates of alcoholism have nearly doubled
among women born after 1954 when compared to those born earlier. And, over the last decade,
excessive drinking among women suggests that rates of alcohol dependence are continuing to
increase. The number of binge drinking episodes among women, for example, rose 31 percent
between 1993 and 2001, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Heavier drinking rates, in turn, seem to be resulting in higher rates of drunken-driving arrests;
the number of women arrested for driving under the influence increased nearly 30 percent
between 1998 and 2007.

 

-- Edited by StPeteDean on Saturday 13th of February 2010 08:03:59 AM