Just skimmed the article and found there were no alcoholics of ym type included. The first example moderated, one of the others just stopped with a little self help. They are talking about what AA would define as the hard drinker, the person with a problem who can stop or moderate, given a good enough reason.
The article focussed on the wrong things, how much and how often you drink. It really doesn't have much to do with it. No mention of control and choice, lack of which is the main feature of alcholism as I have experienced it. A lot of people drank more than me more often than me, yet were not alcholics.
Alcohol use disorder is a great way of defining the overall drinking problem in society. The rates of women, or anyone else will go up because the definition is so broad. AA used to have a rough statistic of about one in ten drinkers being alcoholic. The new diagnosis of AUD covers about 20% of the population. Sure there may be more problem drinkers around, and probably societal changes have meant more women are coming forward who were formerly sheltered in their homes.
I didn't see a definition of alcholism. That always seems to be missing from these sort of articles.
There is no question that excessive alcholism is bad for your health, but by the same token, hard drinkers, having been directed to AA, are not necessarily that good for the real alcoholc for whom AA was designed.
I thought it was a decent article IF it spurs women and men to step back and evaluate their own drinking patterns (if they have the capacity to be honest with themselves) ... at my worst, this article would have meant noth'n ... I couldn't go more than a few hours without a drink, much less a few days ... I was so sick I prayed for death and it wouldn't come ... I looked in the mirror and thought, you did it again, then spit at my reflection ...
If a person does not go to the rooms of AA, they never realize what condition they're in nor understand that there IS Hope to fix the problem ... Mike made a good point ... there was no definition of what alcoholism really is ... when a person becomes unable to complete simple daily chores or do their job at work in a satisfactorily way because of their drinking pattern, on a consistent basis, then they are alcoholic ... in my mind there is no doubt about it ...
Maybe this is a 'broad' definition, but it brought me into the rooms ... (Thank God) ...
Love you guys and God Bless, Pappy
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
