I believe that alcohol has become the modern women’s steroid, enabling her to do the heavy lifting in a complex, difficult world. You know the picture: you race in from a busy day, knowing you need to put a meal on the table, knowing you face more work after the dishes are done, and maybe overseeing homework in between. You stand there at the chopping block and pour a glass of wine. Immediately, you feel your shoulders come down from your earlobes. Alcohol is how we self-medicate: stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, and more. It’s faster than speaking to your doctor, and easier to fit in than that online yoga class. It works—and then, believe me, it doesn’t. It’s an all- too-common reality to use alcohol for what ails us. Ultimately, given that we don’t view alcohol as a drug, we haven’t paid enough attention to the role this substance plays in modern living. We need to have a robust discussion
about this issue: how does alcohol play out in your community? In terms of suicides? Children being abused? Violence? Teenaged girls in emergency rooms? Are we having an adult discussion? I think not. In the end, it’s about changing social norms, getting the communities already aware of the damage to work together: the recovery community, the medical community, the FASD community, the violence against women folk; the road safety people; the breast cancer people. It’s about becoming savvy about how we market alcohol, and tax it, and make it available. It’s about becoming savvy about residential treatment options for parenting and pregnant women. It’s about having an open conversation—one which takes on the issue of stigma, and addresses the subject head on. I’m here to tell you there’s something in the water. And the sooner we start having an adult discussion about this fact, the better. With a convergence of voices, so much will be won.
Ann Dowsett Johnston is the bestselling author of Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol, and the driving force behind Writing Your Recovery and Writing Your Discovery , two popular memoir-writing courses .She is working on her first book of fiction. Click HERE
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