Review is based upon the research of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (Ontario, Canada) about psychological aspects of women’s alcoholism and possible consequences.
To begin with, the relationships between mental health and substance use are complex and difficult to state. Some individuals with complicated mental issues such as: phobias, rage, anxiety, depression, mania, paranoid delusions tend to use alcohol to self-medicate for mental distress not only relaxation. However it is a fact that excessive alcohol consumption causes an opposite result - aggravates general mental condition.
It is an interesting fact that men’s and women’s alcoholism differs in general and carries different risks. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health tells that some psychologists state that alcoholism is a reflection of unresolved dependency conflicts, a striving for power (e.g. promotion at work) or a form of self-destruction (like deep depression, for instance).
Psychologically women are more impressionable to surrounding stressful situations. Facing heavy working stress, family problems, violence or being abused women hide feelings in alcohol. In general, alcohol is considered as the most widely abused drug among adults and teenagers (Cunha J., 2012).
A psychodynamic analysis has shown that human behavior in adult age is closely connected with childhood experiences and influences. As usual adult problems of today (in our case – alcohol consumption) are a result of unconscious motivation, emotions, self-esteem, self-regulation and relationships. Women are very sensible to surrounding impressions, especially, childhood experiences. Considering that ladies are naturally more emotional than men they perceive stressful situations close to heart which has serious impact on nervous system and general health condition. Experiencing stress and not finding support women find relaxation in alcohol. Unfortunately, excessive women’s alcohol consumption is a wider problem than it seems to be. Psychological and mental issues lead to serious physical disorders. Besides hormonal disorder and other physical problems that drinking woman has, there is still an important question – pregnancy and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome of children affected by maternal alcohol consumption.
Maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy has a serious impact on human development. The fetus being exposed by alcohol does not develop properly and as usual after birth the child has a diagnosis Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Besides specific facial features that indicate that mother was abusing alcohol during pregnancy, FAS children have physical and mental abnormalities.
Individuals with FAS have weak nervous system, which leads to troubles with perception such as: slow speech, bad memory and insularity. Studies of the National Academy of Sciences state that children prenatally exposed to alcohol showed behaviors characteristic of people with autism, such as impairments in social interaction and communication (Alcohol Research & Health, 2000). General problems include intellectual functioning and academic skills, deficits in verbal learning, spatial memory and reasoning, reaction time, balance, cognitive and motor skills. Pathologies listed above are serious and important, because they have an impact on person’s further life. Problems with social functioning may worsen as the individual reaches adolescence and adulthood, …