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More Young Women Are 'Drinking To Cope,' In A Dangerous Trend : Shots - Health News - NPR

More Young Women Are 'Drinking To Cope,' In A Dangerous Trend : Shots - Health News - NPR

More Young Women Are 'Drinking To Cope,' In A Dangerous Trend : Shots - Health News - NPR
Jun 09, 2021 2 mins, 19 secs

By the time Victoria Cooper enrolled in an alcohol treatment program in 2018, she was "drinking for survival," not pleasure, she says — multiple vodka shots in the morning, at lunchtime and beyond.

In the treatment program, she saw other women in their 20s struggling with alcohol and other drugs.

By the time Victoria Cooper enrolled in an alcohol treatment program in 2018, she was "drinking for survival," not pleasure, she says — multiple vodka shots in the morning, at lunchtime and beyond.

In the treatment program, she saw other women in their 20s struggling with alcohol and other drugs.

For nearly a century, women have been closing the gender gap in alcohol consumption, binge-drinking and alcohol use disorder.

data from 2019 shows that women in their teens and early 20s reported drinking and getting drunk at higher rates than their male peers — in some cases for the first time since researchers began measuring such behavior.

"It's not only that we're seeing women drinking more, but that they're really being affected by this physically and mental health-wise," says Dawn Sugarman, a research psychologist at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, who has studied addiction in women.

Perhaps most concerning is that the rising gender equality in alcohol use doesn't extend to the recognition or treatment of alcohol disorders, Sugarman says.

For people over 26, women are increasing their alcohol consumption faster than men.

That may sound like progress, says Aaron White, a senior scientific adviser at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

"We have a real concern that while there might be fewer people drinking, many of those who are drinking might be doing so specifically to try to cope," White says.

Research suggests that people who drink to cope — as opposed to drinking for pleasure — have a higher risk of developing alcohol use disorder.

"It's hard to get out of that cycle of shame, drinking and abuse," Cooper says.

That could be driving their alcohol use, White says.

"For us to address issues with alcohol, we also need to address these pervasive issues with mental health," White says.

Now, as women approach parity in drinking habits, scientists are uncovering more about the unequal damage that alcohol causes to their bodies.

"From less years of alcohol use, women are getting sicker faster," says Sugarman, of McLean Hospital.

Yet when it comes to prevention and treatment of alcohol-related health issues, "that message is not really getting out there," Sugarman says

As part of a research study, Sugarman and her colleagues gave women struggling with alcohol use information on how alcohol affects women differently from men

Research from Sugarman's colleagues found that women with alcohol use disorder had better outcomes when they were in women-only treatment groups, which included a focus on mental health and trauma, as well as education about gender-specific elements of addiction

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