A Warning Ladies — Here’s the Latest Scary Statistics About Women and Drinking

Even with all the hoopla around healthy living, women are still overdrinking.

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

Are you a woman? Are you still drinking? You might want to consider what the latest findings show. It’s not pretty.

In today’s OpEd section of the New York Times, a female writer gathered statistics about the increase in women’s drinking.

Not only has the drinking increased, but alcohol companies have targeted women with their advertising campaigns.

Also, the once-popular TV show Sex and the City made drinking appear fun and sophisticated.

I fell into the fad of the cocktail Cosmopolitan from that show. Not because it appeared fun and sophisticated but because it was inviting and tasty. And potent.

I had my first Cosmo in a restaurant before dinner, and I was hooked. I began assembling them at home. That was a part of my descent into serious imbibing.

Here are a few disturbing statistics the writer, Erika Andersen, compiled. By the way, Andersen attained one year of sobriety recently. She, too, had dipped down into that rabbit hole of overdrinking.

• The days in which women drank four or more drinks in a few hours increased by 41% during the pandemic — according to JAMA Network Open.
• Mothers with children under 5 increased their drinking by more than 300%, also during the pandemic — according to RTI International for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
• From 2001 to 2013 there was a 58% increase in women’s heavy drinking and an 84% increase in alcohol-use disorder.
• According to one study, emergency room visits increased by 70% for women and 58% for men due to alcohol-related issues from 2006 to 2014.
• Another study found that from 2009 to 2015, women’s cirrhosis related to alcohol rose 50% while men’s increased 30%.
• 85% of consumer purchases are made by women, alcohol included.
• Women have been targeted by advertising hard seltzers to them. From May 2020 to May 2021, hard seltzer producers claimed $4.5% billion in sales.
• From 1999 to 2017, alcohol-related deaths among women rose by 85%.

These facts are frightening and incomprehensible, yet it’s reality.

Fortunately, many of us realize we have been overindulging and are cutting back or abstaining completely.

I did. I recognized that retirement brought a considerable increase to my imbibing.

I no longer enjoyed one glass of wine while preparing dinner or one while dining.

I had begun concocting “creative” cocktails and changed them up frequently. My drinking had become a free-for-all.

I thought it was okay to finally relax and enjoy myself after decades of working, raising children, and caring for the home.

You know what I mean, I’m sure — most women worked exceedingly hard, shouldering the brunt of the chores and responsibilities of the home and children.

Didn’t we finally deserve a break? Yes, until that break broke us.

I gave it up — no, not easily, but I did it, and you can, too.

Andersen was helped by Laura McKowen’s company, the Luckiest Club, which offers several meetings a day via video. I read her book We Are the Luckiest about her struggles with drinking and her sobriety journey. I recommend it.

My primary aids leading to my sobriety were the books This Naked Mind by Annie Grace, Kick the Drink…Easily by Jason Vale and Stop Drinking Now by Allen Carr.

You can read about these and two others that helped me in my article “5 Amazing Life-Changing Books That Helped Sober Me Up,” published on Medium on December 1, 2021.

Finally, light is being shed on this epidemic of women overdrinking, mommy’s wine playdates, and advertising luring women into thinking their imbibing has been earned.

No one can save us but ourselves. We must take that first step. Once you have decided to quit, you can get assistance and guidance from many agencies and recovery groups that meet in person and online.

Everyone is familiar with the ever-popular Alcoholic Anonymous, and for a good reason. They have helped millions attain sobriety.

Or do as I did, read your way to abstention.

Help is only a Google away. Please do not delay — get the help you need today.