A qualitative study conducted by researchers from the School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities of the University of São Paulo (EACH-USP) suggests that gender identity influences how alcoholics manage their condition. The survey was coordinated by Professor Edemilson de Campos, with the support of FAPESP and the collaboration of Nádia Narchi, also a professor at EACH-USP. The results were reported in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review.
Campos says he got permission to attend all-female meetings of an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group in the city of São Paulo. And it is in these meetings, as well as in the interviews conducted with the participants, that he collected the first-hand accounts used in his study.
“A.A. groups that bring together only women are common in the United States. But not in Brazil. AA discourages this format, claiming that alcoholism is one and affects men and women equally. But the women I interviewed think differently and told me they felt intimidated in mixed meetings. Some even reported being victims of harassment and sexist jokes during meetings,” says the researcher.
He informs that there are 120 groups of Alcoholics Anonymous in the city of São Paulo. But only two of them promote strictly female encounters: one in the north of the city and another in the Santa Cecília district. “Because AA has no hierarchical structure, the groups enjoy a great deal of autonomy, including rotating coordination. I asked permission to attend the meetings of women from both groups, but only the participants from the northern zone accepted,” he says.
Campos reports that this meeting brought together 15 women, who met every Saturday: some recent participants, with only two months of AA; others with more than 30 years of participation. Typically, these were women with low incomes and low levels of education, some of whom were married to Alcoholics Anonymous participants.
It is important to clarify that Alcoholics Anonymous considers alcoholism to be a “chronic and incurable disease”, resulting from a physical predisposition combined with a mental obsession with the use of alcohol. And they believe that there is no individual will capable of defeating this disease. The support network formed by the group itself is an indispensable support for living soberly with it. Alcoholics Anonymous defines itself as a “fellowship of men and women” unrelated to “any sect or religion, political movement, organization or institution”. The “stock exchange” does not charge fees or fees, but is financially self-sustaining through voluntary contributions from its members.
“We had already studied groups with mixed meetings. What we did, with great respect, in this strictly feminine meeting, was ethnographic research, collecting individual reports on relationships, family, work and other topics of interest to the participants. The phrase ‘soul pain’ was how these women themselves characterized their condition, marked by a strong sense of rejection and loneliness due to social stigma,” explains Campos.
A notable aspect noted by the researcher is that, while in the mixed meetings the men focused their reports on work and other impersonal aspects of practical life, the participants in the strictly female meeting spoke much more about their intimacy. “That’s why women-only meetings are so important. To provide a safe space for expression. These meetings had the power to restore a sense of dignity to the participants,” he says.
In general, the socially conditioned thought is quite condescending towards the father who neglects his paternal obligations. But he is fierce with the mother who proceeds in the same way. “The feeling that alcoholism might have prevented them from achieving what society expected of them was something that weighed heavily on these women,” says Campos.
Criteria
In its fourth and most widespread revision, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) defines an individual as a drug addict who has met at least three of the following six criteria: spending a large part of his time to , using or recovering from the effect of the substance; used the substance more often or in larger amounts than intended; need larger amounts to achieve the same effect; failed to reduce or stop substance use; continued to use the substance even after becoming aware that it was causing or worsening physical or mental health problems; and stopped doing or reduced the time spent in social, professional or leisure activities due to substance use.
In the case of alcohol and other drugs that cause chemical dependence (such as benzodiazepine tranquilizers, amphetamine stimulants, cocaine, crack or similar), to the six criteria mentioned, a seventh has been added, defined by the manifestation of withdrawal symptoms, which vary according to the substance. In this case, the person is considered dependent if they meet three of the seven criteria.
These criteria apply equally to men and women. But what Campos found in his study is that in addition to this general classification, the experience of alcoholism and its treatment is strongly influenced by the social marker of gender. “Contrary to the prevailing idea in AA, we have found that women need a safe space to expose their ‘soul pain’,” he concludes.
Research conducted in 2017 by Fiocruz, on drug use by the Brazilian population, found that approximately 2.3 million people, aged 12 to 65, were dependent on alcohol in the 12 months preceding the outbreak. ‘investigation. The incidence was 3.4 times higher in men (2.4% of the male population) than in women (0.7% of the female population). But specialists on the subject believe that this last percentage may have been underestimated, due to the strong social stigma associated with female alcoholism. For fear of what “others” might think, say or do, many drug-using women may have hidden their condition.