While it’s young men getting drunk and doing stupid things that tends to attract media attention, research shows over the last 25 years the number of middle aged Australian women drinking more than they should, continues to rise.
Counsellor David Bone from Straight Talk Australia Counselling says many women don’t even realise they’re drinking at harmful levels. ‘Look, everyone knows there’s no safe level of smoking, but plenty of people, including mums, want to pretend and defend their drinking.’
He says one of the biggest problems for mummy drinkers is continuous access. Unlike men who proudly stack and rack beer cans, women are much more secretive drinkers and can even forget how much they’ve actually had.
Women might start with a glass of wine over dinner, another while helping with homework, finding kiddy socks requires one more refill and eventually a glass becomes a bottle or more, every night.
‘Everyone drinks for a reason, women typically drink to ‘help’ them deal with their busy days, lack of partner support, demanding jobs, it’s a long list and because all your friends drink the same amount, it’s easy to socialise away the actual harm.’
David Bone says alcohol is a massive depressant. ‘The more you drink, the sadder you get, while it might press pause on some of life’s problems, it doesn’t fix anything. Drinking a bottle a night will definitely harm your health, ruin your relationships even risk your life.’
‘I’ve helped hundreds of people put down the bottle and bring joy back to their life. It’s not easy, actually it can be really hard, but it’s possible. The first step is often just realising and accepting you’ve got a drinking problem. One simple way to assess your drinking is keeping a drinking diary and record your drinks for a week.’
Reaching out for help is a vital step towards recovery – Straight Talk Australia Counselling are specialists in problem drinking and struggling relationships.
Take the right step for yourself, for your family and call STAC on 0432 567 637 or find out more online at STAC.AU
