Women On Drugs

This morning on CBS, a "new" report released says that women are more likely to become addicted to drugs and alcohol than men. They are also more likely to get depressed, gain weight, and struggle with self-esteem issues. Being a woman is a wonderful thing, isn't it? Not only are we expected to make sure the population continues, we're also more susceptible to just about every illness you can think of with the exception of testicular cancer. What I am also impressed with is that it's taken the FDA, or the AMA, or whoever, this long to figure out that the stress women are placed under every day affects their ability to function within society. Examples like Susan Smith and Andrea Yates are extreme, but there are thousands of other mothers out there who begin their day by making their children breakfast and then popping a pill to make sure they can carry on. There are thousands of other mothers who drink themselves to sleep at night and develop eating disorders and depression trying to carry the weight of an entire family on their backs.

I'm surprised that this comes as a surprise. They've found that addiction is more prominent in very transitional stages of life, such as adolescence, beginning a family, empty nesting, and other important places. These are times when women are expected to cope with everything from how their children and husband feel to how they are going to manage the physical aspects of feeding and raising their children. It's no wonder that life seems a little easier on Prozac or Xanax. I wonder if this can explain other happenings in the world as well. How many wars, battles, etc have been affected by a woman on a rampage, or a woman who was listless, or one who hadn't been eating lately. I wonder how many wars could have been prevented had someone noticed that the wife of the president, the prime minister, or whoever was depressed and helped them in whatever way possible. It was sad to hear that once we are addicted we're most likely going to stay that way.

I lived with a roommate last year who was a drug and alcohol addict. She popped prescription pills like there was no tomorrow, followed by bottles of wine and her drink of choice- vodka tonics- and on more than one occasion was kicked out of a bar or picked up late at night and dropped off at our house. I remember thinking that if her parents would only really take a look at their daughter they would see what was happening. In a "cofessional" mood, she told me that alcoholism ran in her family. Yet her stepfather was literally mailing her drug samples (he worked for a pharmaceutical company). It was one of the oddest and most educational experiences I have ever had. The pain and suffering she was going through must have been phenomenal to justify her actions. When I finally gave up trying to help her and instead tried to evict her she became angry, withdrawn, and her parents would not believe that their little girl was destroying her liver and her future with controlled and uncontrolled substances.

Sometimes it's that denial that leads to tragedy. In the case of Andrea Yates, her husband was well aware that she suffered from deep depression and yet kept pressuring her to have his children- at the expense of her sanity. Empress Sissi of Vienna suffered from anorexia and depression most of her life but was ignored except when she had to make appearances for the court. Virginia Woolf actually commited suicide shortly after finishing her last novel, explaining that while she adored her husband it simply wasn't enough. I wonder if these women had addictions that were aided or thwarted by the people in their lives. Now we know that depression is not as difficult to get under control as once thought. We know that eating disorders need and deserve treatment. We know that alcoholics must vow never to take another sip. We know that people who are addicted to Percoset must not be prescribed other painkillers.

So why don't we use this knowledge? Why do we always assume that people can recover on their own? I haven't seen my roommate in close to a year now, and have no idea what has happened to her, but do know that if she continues the way she did when she lived with me, she doesn't have a chance. The same goes for the anorexic and bulimic girls at the gym who claim they don't have a problem, just a fast metabolism. Instead of looking at what's real, we seem to prefer the masks, prefer not to hear the truth and live with the idea that most people are "normal". Which is why news like "women are more easily addicted to drugs and alcohol" brings a gasp.