Alcoholism is a chronic disease, progressive and often fatal; it is a primary disorder and not a symptom of other diseases or emotional problems. The chemical composition of alcohol allows it to affect nearly every type of cell in the body, including those in the central nervous system. In the brain, alcohol interacts with centers responsible for pleasure and other desirable sensations. However, after prolonged exposure to alcohol, the brain adapts to the changes alcohol makes and becomes dependent on it. For people with alcoholism, drinking becomes the primary medium through which they interact with people, work and life. Alcohol dominates their thinking, emotions and actions. The severity of this disease is influenced by factors such as genetics, psychology, culture, and response to physical pain (pg.223, Torr1974).

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous discusses the alcoholics�

In Goodwin’s studies, he identifies significant differences between female and male alcoholics. Women tend to become alcoholic at an older age. In contrast, if a man has not become alcoholic by his mid-forties, he probably never will be one. Women are also more likely to cite a traumatic event as the cause of heavy drinking. The event could be a divorce, rejection of a spouse or lover, abandonment or the death of someone close. Women alcoholics are also more likely to suffer from depression than men (p. 60, Goodwin 2000).

Society’s association of female purity with abstinence from alcohol still resides in today’s world. For example, how does society today, expect or think a woman should behave? When a drinking man gets drunk, he gets boisterous and society labels the behavior as “acting like a man”. Yet a drinking woman who gets loud or rude, who slurs her words or forgets to keep her knees together – well, is she really a lady (p. 43, Jersild 2002)?

People are often disgusted by a woman who is under the influence of alcohol – especially if her appearance becomes sloppy or she is openly sexual. Jersild explains that, if a drinking woman gets loud and garrulous, if she swears or gets crude or boisterous or angry, her behavior flies in the face of traditional femininity. She is not just bad or immoral. She is acting like a man-in a sense, unsexed. People are apt to respond with disgust. Their disgust punishes the woman for stepping outside her feminine constraints and reminds other women what will happen to them if they likewise indulge in the same behavior (p. 40, Jersild 2002).

Alcoholism develops insidiously; often there is no clear line between problem drinking and alcoholism. The only early indications of alcoholism may be the unpleasant physical responses to withdrawal that occur during even brief periods of abstinence. Sometimes people experience long-term depression or anxiety, insomnia, chronic pain, or personal or work stress that lead to the use of alcohol for relief, but often no extraordinary events have occurred that account for the drinking problem (p. 223, Torr 1974).

The alcoholic continues to succumb to the desire to drink, again and again. The phenomenon of craving then develops and they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful with a firm resolution not to drink again. Alcohol is a rapacious creditor to the alcoholic, bleeding them of all self-sufficiency and will to resist its demands (p. XXXVII, Silkworth, 1934).

Some topics in this essay:
Dependence Inc, Alcoholics Anonymous, Looking Roman, Dreams Cocktails, Anonymous AA, XXXVIII Silkworth, William Silkworth’s, XXXVI Silkworth, XXXVII Silkworth, North America, alcoholics anonymous, women alcoholics, male alcoholics, jersild 2002, heavy drinking, silkworth 1934, alcoholics anonymous 1939, blume 1998, 5 blume, tend alcohol, 223 torr 1974, 223 torr, drinking woman loud, 60 goodwin 2000, book alcoholics anonymous,