Is It More Difficult for Women to Quit Drinking Alcohol? (Excerpt)
All the societal pressures that make going sober while female a challenge
Source: https://thebolditalic.com/
Ginny Hogan
Mar 6
Being a woman is hard. I know, I’m probably the first person to ever say that. While I could delve into all the reasons for this fact, I don’t have 17 lifetimes to kill, so I’ll focus on a subject near and dear to my heart: drinking.
While I don’t have an official drinking problem (per se), I also don’t have a perfect relationship with alcohol. Like many people, I’ve tried to give it up at various points in my life. When I have, I was always perfectly content to stay stone-cold sober throughout the day or by myself at night, but the same situation always pulled me back in: being in a terrible mood and being around other people. To avoid showing anyone my frustration, I’d have a drink?-?or three.
The other night, after performing stand-up comedy (as I do), I saw a male comedian clearly in a fit of open annoyance who had, apparently, no problem with being openly abrasive to those around him. Everyone acted as though this attitude was normal. Because it was. And then I had a strange feeling.was it jealousy?
If only I felt comfortable acting like that around other people sometimes rather than feeling an incessant need to be polite and friendly. Of course, I certainly don’t want to be in a visible (or invisible) bad mood all the time, but I also don’t like the feeling like I’ve been trying to mask any negative emotions when they arise just to avoid upsetting others.
The reality is that women often drink for different reasons than men do, and it’s not a stretch to think that those reasons often stem from social pressures that women face but men don’t.
I wondered, in this moment, if quitting drinking could be added to the long list of things that are harder for women than men. To be clear, I’m not talking about alcoholism, which is a complex disease caused by any number of factors; I’m simply talking about people who would like to drink less but stumble in trying to actually decrease their consumption.
As it turns out, the rate at which women drink in America has been steadily increasing. Sixty-seven percent of American women drink regularly (more than once a week), up from 45 percent in 2002, according to a CDC study. What’s driving this trend? The reality is that women often drink for different reasons than men do, and it’s not a stretch to think that those reasons often stem from social pressures that women face but men don’t. Let’s break those down.
https://thebolditalic.com/is-it-more-difficult-for-women-to-quit-drinking-alcohol-aaa718b322ce