In some of the least surprising news ever, people are really hitting the bottle hard during the pandemic. I mean, there are so many reasons why that could be. From existential dread, an impending sense of doom, fear, boredom, loneliness, it's not hard to find a reason to drink these days. That being said, stress is a huge factor when it comes to reasons people drink.
And who is likely the most stressed out bunch? Women. Specifically, moms are really carrying a hefty load right now. Between working from home and attempting to get kids through the horror that is Zoom school, we're just struggling to keep our heads above water. So, we drown our anxiety in a bottle of Cab Sav every night. No harm no foul. Except, oh yeah, heavy alcohol use is pretty unhealthy.
But according to new data, women are consuming a ton of alcohol right now.
It's no big surprise that we are drinking more right now. But holy smokes! We are really drinking a lot more than we thought. The rates of alcohol have risen sharply since just 2019. Pandemic or not, it's pretty concerning!
The new study talked to participants and asked them a series of questions about their current and past drinking habits. The study was released Tuesday by the RAND corporation and supported by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. It surveyed 1,540 adults and asked them if there had been any shifts in how much they were drinking.
The study's lead author, Michael Pollard, says it's pretty startling. "The magnitude of these increases is striking," he told ABC. "People's depression increases, anxiety increases, [and] alcohol use is often a way to cope with these feelings. But depression and anxiety are also the outcome of drinking; it's this feedback loop where it just exacerbates the problem that it's trying to address."
Of course, it's understandable that when people are overwhelmed, they'd want to drink more to numb their anxiety. And who is the most stressed of all? It appears to be women. While everyone's drinking rates are on the upswing (or up-swig, perhaps), women are really hitting the bottle hard.
Since 2019, men and women both reported increasing the frequency of their binge drinking episodes, defined as five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women within a couple of hours. For women, that count rose by half. That's a huge jump! "To move the average up by that much means that some people are really increasing their binge drinking," Pollard said. "For women in particular it can often be an overlooked issue, but it is a real concern."
What's even worse is that people are drinking so much, they're already feeling some intense side effects. Respondents were asked a series of questions about their current and past drinking habits. Some of those included questions life, "I have been unhappy because of my drinking," "I have felt guilty or ashamed because of my drinking," "I have taken foolish risks when I have been drinking," and "My family has been hurt by my drinking."
In just a year, the average number of the 15 questions women responded "yes" to nearly doubled. For men, In 2019, men said "yes" to four of the questions, compared to roughly five in 2020. No matter how we look at it, our alcohol consumption is definitely going up.
While it might be totally understandable why we're all engaging in this kind of behavior, it's important to realize that alcohol isn't actually a cure for stress. Many times, it can often compound stress. When we use booze to relax and overdo it, it can have major health repercussions and negatively impact our mental health.
"There is a history with events like 911, Hurricane Katrina, earthquakes and other catastrophes, that people then drink more, post-trauma," NIAAA Director Dr. George Koob told ABC. "Alcohol is a very effective pain killer. But when it wears off, that pain comes back with a vengeance."
For a lot of people, that definitely seems to be true right now.
Hopefully the study comes as a wake-up call. Perhaps we all need to find some better ways to cope because alcohol really isn't a coping mechanism at all. If anything, it creates more difficulty.
But oh my, if a few glasses of wine at the end of the day isn't tempting in these confusing modern times…
