A qualitative study conducted by researchers at the University of São Paulo’s College of Arts, Sciences and Humanities (EACH-USP) in Brazil suggests that gender influences how people with alcohol use disorder deal with their condition.
The principal investigator was Professor Edmilson de Campos Who was he Powered by FAPESP and cooperate with Nadia Narci He is also a professor at EACH-USP. The results were reported in an article published in the magazine Drug and alcohol review.
Campos has been given permission to sit in women-only meetings in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group In the city of São Paulo, he interviewed the participants, and took notes on the testimonies made at the meetings.
“Women-only AA meetings are frequent in the United States but not in Brazil,” he said. “AA discourages this form on the grounds that alcoholism is a single phenomenon and affects both men and women. But women I interviewed disagreed, and told me they felt intimidated in mixed meetings. Some even said they were harassed and targeted with sexist jokes. In such meetings.
According to Campos, the city has 120 AA groups, but only two of the women’s groups hold meetings, one in the north of the city and one in downtown Santa Cecilia. “AA does not have a hierarchical structure. Groups have a lot of autonomy, and moderators work on a rotating basis. I asked to be allowed to sit in women-only meetings for both groups, but only the group in the northern part of São Paulo agreed,” he said.
About 15 women in this group met every Saturday. Some joined only a couple of months ago, while others have been to AA meetings for over 30 years. In general, they were from low-income families and had little formal education. Some of them were married to men who were also on the AA programme.
Notably, Campos explained, members of the AA consider alcoholism to be a “chronic, incurable disease” due to a physical predisposition combined with a mental obsession to drink, and believe that the disease cannot be fought by individual willpower alone. The support network formed by the group is indispensable for alcoholics to learn how to remain vigilant while living with the disease. The AA identifies itself as “the fellowship of men and women,” he noted, and is not “associated with any denomination, religion, political movement, organization or institution.” Membership is completely free. However, financial self-sufficiency is ensured by voluntary donations.
We have already studied groups with mixed meetings. In the women-only meetings we attended, we conducted a highly respected ethnographic study that included participants’ accounts of their families, work, and other relationships, as well as other parts of their lives. The phrase “wounded soul” was the way the women themselves referred to their condition, and to the rejection and loneliness they experienced due to social stigma.
He went on to note that while men in mixed meetings focused in their testimonies on work relationships and other impersonal aspects of their daily lives, participants in women-only meetings primarily spoke about their inner lives and feelings. “This is where the importance of meetings for women only comes from,” he said. “It provides a safe space for self-expression and enables participants to regain a sense of dignity.”
Socially conditioned thinking is usually permissive of fathers who ignore their parental obligations, but intolerant of women who are seen as bad mothers. “The feeling that alcoholism has prevented them from doing what society expects of them has severely affected these women,” Campos said.
The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), published by the American Psychiatric Association but also used in many other countries, defines substance dependence as a condition that meets three or more of the following criteria: Dealing with time in activities necessary to obtain on the substance, its use or recovery from its effects; taking the substance in larger quantities or for a longer period than intended; the need for significantly increased amounts to achieve intoxication; Desire to reduce or control drug use, but fail to do so; continuing to use the substance despite knowing that it causes or worsens physical or mental health problems; Giving up or reducing important social, occupational, or recreational activities because of drug use.
In the case of alcohol and other substances that cause chemical dependence, such as sedatives (benzodiazepines), stimulants (amphetamines), cocaine and crack, a seventh condition is added: to show a distinct withdrawal syndrome for the substance, in which case subjects are considered dependent if they meet three of the seven criteria.
These criteria apply equally to men and women, but the study led by Campos found that other than this general classification, the experience and treatment of alcoholism is strongly influenced by sex. “Contrary to the prevailing notion of AA,” he said, “we have found that women need a safe space to express their pain and treat their ‘injured souls’.”
a survey On substance use by the Brazilian population conducted in 2017 by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Viocruz, affiliated with the Ministry of Health), it found that about 2.3 million people between the ages of 12 and 65 years had suffered from alcoholism in the past 12 months. The proportion was 3.4 times greater among males (2.4% of the male population) than among females (0.7%), but scientists in the field believe the latter may have been underestimated due to the strong social stigma associated with female alcoholism. Many women may have hidden their alcohol addiction out of fear of what “others” might think, say, or do.
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