So many women under the influence 2/1/2010 12:30 AM By CASSANDRA SPRATLING McClatchy-Tribune
DETROIT -- This promises to be a good year for Renee Palmer. Next month, she celebrates 10 years of sobriety.
Looking back, Palmer hardly recognizes the woman she was in her 30s: a woman who would empty a 20-ounce bottle of Pepsi, leaving just enough to season a half-pint of vodka.
A woman who hid liquor bottles around her house so people wouldn't know how much she was drinking.
A woman who got so drunk that she barely remembers how her truck crashed into a car one February morning.
A woman who lost custody of her then 8-year-old son, Ryan.
"Temporary custody is granted to the father," the judge said. "The mother is ordered to seek treatment."
Palmer, now 43, didn't fight the judge's order. "I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I didn't know how to stop."
But her worst day marked the beginning of her best years. It put Palmer on the road to recovery from alcohol abuse, a problem that is trapping a growing number of women.
Reports indicate that the number of women battling alcohol addiction may be on the rise.
Some are busy moms, like Palmer once was, struggling to meet family obligations.
Some drink to fit in with friends or business associates. And some use alcohol to escape the complexities of life.
Other women just drink.
"There is a huge cause for concern," said clinical psychologist Sharon Wilsnack of the University of North Dakota, one of the nation's leading experts on women and alcohol.
"There has been a striking increase in the number of women who report getting drunk. And intoxication puts women at risk for many, many bad outcomes, including car crashes, victimization and many long-term health problems."
According to the latest statistics from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the number of women who reported abusing alcohol - having at least four drinks in a day - rose from 1.5 percent to 2.6 percent from 1992 to 2002.
For women ages 30 to 44, the number more than doubled, from 1.5 percent to 3.3 percent.
Wilsnack's studies also show the prevalence of intoxication among women rising significantly, especially among women in their 20s.
The percentage of women reporting being intoxicated jumped from 27.4 percent to 42.9 percent between 1981 and 2001.
Among women in their 20s, the numbers shot from 47.6 percent to 62.7 percent.
Alcohol abuse poses greater threats to women than men, experts said.
"Women are more likely to experience alcohol-related organ damage - that is damage to the brain, heart and liver - and recent studies show drinking even at low levels is a risk factor for breast cancer," said Dr. Deidra Roach, a spokeswoman for the NIAAA.
"In addition to the health risks, the risks of interpersonal violence increases for women," Roach said. "They are at increased risk for victimization.
"If a woman is intoxicated and in a situation where there is a potential for sexual abuse, it places her at greater risks for violence, for exposure to STDs. It impairs judgment," she said. "The consequences of that are extremely serious."
Generally, women and men drink for different reasons, said Beth Glover Reed, a University of Michigan psychologist who has studied alcohol abuse among women. Reed contends that women are more likely to use drinking as a coping mechanism, whereas men are more likely to drink as a social outlet.
Tanis, a 46-year-old Livingston County, Mich., woman who prefers not to give her last name, started drinking when she was 36. She was a mother of three children - the youngest, now 19.
She drove her kids while drunk. "I was driving but feeling like I had complete control," Tanis said. "I know now that's insanity."
Tanis sought treatment after her husband threatened to leave her. She's been sober since 2001 and attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at least twice a week.
One of the worst parts of her year-long addiction, she said, was thinking she was mentally ill.
The support of other women gives Renee Palmer strength.
She has grown from a woman who wouldn't even talk in therapy to a group moderator for Women for Sobriety, a national self-help group started in 1976 for women who battle alcohol abuse and addiction.
"Women have different problems," said Palmer, who began moderating WFS groups in 2001. "I can sit here and talk and share about what's stressing me" and a participant in the program will "understand because she's been there."
In February of 2000, Palmer landed in jail after she wrecked her truck. The judge gave custody of Ryan to her ex-husband, and Palmer spent six months in daily one-on-one and group therapy. She also started going to AA meetings and Women for Sobriety meetings.
A life unraveled by alcohol began to come back together. She remarried that November to a man who encouraged her recovery. In late fall of 2001, sobriety gave her two of her most treasured gifts - custody of Ryan in October and the birth of a second son, Robert, in November.
"My mom is the definition of a hero to me," Ryan said. "She overcame her addiction, worked on our relationship and now she's out there helping other women better themselves and realize they don't need alcohol."
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