Women, Addiction, and Recovery

• Citation: Vol. 78 No. 3 Pg. 14
• Publication year: 2009
• Pages: 14

Women, Addiction, and Recovery No. 78 J. Kan. Bar Assn 3, 14 (2009) Kansas Bar Journal March, 2009

Women, Addiction, and Recovery

By Anne McDonald, Kansas Lawyers Assistance Program commissioner, Kansas City, Kan.

I got my life back." I'm more willing to take risks." "I'm a more authentic person, less fearful." "It opened me up to another way of living." "I learned to take responsibility for my own life and not blame others." When I asked some women who had addressed their own alcoholism, that is what they said about being in recovery. "Being in recovery" — what does that mean? It means that someone in the grip of an addiction has admitted it, dealt with it, and no longer uses the addictive substance. Most believe they remain addicted so they don't use the words "cured" or "used to be"; they say "in recovery."

When I asked them if they thought alcoholism affected women differently than men,^[1] they said "Yes And no." In one sense addiction is addiction and gender doesn't make the condition clinically different. And there is strong evidence of a genetic component, which can affect both genders. (That was the "no.") But in another sense (the "yes") they have observed certain differences. There is some empirical evidence that women in general get drunk...