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.
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”
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.