RE 68: The Stigma is Even Worse for These Alcoholics

Matt, sober since 12/11/15, who is the 4th lawyer to be interviewed on this podcast, shares how leaving a law firm to start a private law practice while drinking, can be tumultuous; to say the least.

 

I got the idea for this podcast from the a article I recently read in the Fix called My Top Five Female Recovery Memoirs by Regina Walker .

 

Statistically, women don’t recover from alcoholism at nearly the rate men do. A study in Germany concluded that alcoholism was twice as fatal for women as for men. The women in the German study with alcohol addiction were five times more likely to die during the 14-year period of the study than women in the general population.

 

As a culture, we often judge women with addiction issues far more harshly than we do with men. Alcohol advertising often portrays men drinking as a bonding experience, while portraying women who drink as sexual predators or, at the very least, sexually objectified (“if she is going to get drunk, she is asking for it”). Though it’s difficult for anyone with a substance abuse issue to ask for help, it is that much more difficult for a woman, who often bears an additional, gender specific stigma.

 

Turnabout, by Jean Kirkpatrick

Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood by Koren Zailckas,

Blackout Girl: Growing Up and Drying Out in America by Jennifer Storm

Drunk Mom by Jowita Bydlowska

Yellow Tale, by Tiffany Goik

 

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