timetohealguy

Hi Lonelyhearts2,

You are right about that. There is an article here about that ...

https://casapalmera.com/the-facts-ab...nd-alcoholism/


It gets more complicated as you dig into the data for substance abuse ...

NIDA NOTES - Gender Differences in Prevalence of Drug Abuse Traced to Opportunities to Use reads ...

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"According to the 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA)-an annual Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration survey of more than 25,000 respondents-8.1 percent of males and 4.5 percent of females older than age 12 had used illicit drugs within the past month, and this ratio has remained fairly constant throughout the 29-year history of the survey.

Research by Dr. James Anthony, a NIDA-supported scientist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore, shows that these gender differences in drug abuse are not related to gender differences in susceptibility. Instead, they have their foundation in the very first stage of drug involvement-the opportunity to use drugs. Once given the opportunity to use, males and females are equally likely to use drugs.

Dr. Anthony and his colleagues analyzed NHSDA data for 1993 to look for information that might explain the gender difference in rates of drug abuse. "Males are more likely than females to have an opportunity to use drugs. There is no male-female difference with respect to trying a drug once an opportunity to do so has been experienced," Dr. Anthony says."
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This section of that article is pretty interesting ...

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"Once presented with an opportunity to use drugs, 44.2 percent of males and 42 percent of females began using marijuana within 1 year; 37.7 percent of males and 33.2 percent of females began using cocaine; 50.5 percent of males and 50 percent of females began using hallucinogens; and 14.6 percent of males and 22.1 percent of females began using heroin."
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So there are significant numbers of both men and women who once they have an opportunity to try a substance becomes users of that substance.

I'm not denying that more men are abusing substances than women who are abusing substances, but there are similar numbers above in terms of that take up rate percentage genderwise once people have an opportunity to try a substance - it is clearly a serious issue for both genders.


Yes I understand and respect what you are saying.

I am absolutely not having a go in any way whatsoever at, nor genderizing, nor minimizing in any way, any of the comments that people have posted in this thread about abuse they have experienced. Abuse is wrong. Period. By males or by females.

All I am saying is that IMHO, it would help everyone, as the human species, to treat the problem of emotional, verbal and physical abuse of family members by alcoholics as primarily an alcoholism problem, and not primarily a gender based problem. ANY abuse of family members as a result of alcohol abuse, by women or by men, is a massive problem, and as a species, humankind needs to have a zero tolerance policy towards abuse of family members by male alcoholics and towards abuse of family members by female alcoholics - it is incredibly damaging to both male and female family members.

Within a given number of alcoholics, are there likely to be differences between the rates of male alcoholics who abuse their families and female alcoholics who abuse their families ? Absolutely.

All I am saying is that I believe that it benefits humankind more for both men who are victims of abuse by their spouses, and women who are victims of abuse by their spouses, to work together and treat that emotional, verbal and physical abuse by alcoholics as primarily a consequence of alcohol abuse, whether the alcoholic is male or female.

Doctors and academics can then drill down by splitting the male alcoholics who abuse their families and the female alcoholics who abuse their families into separate subgroups, to do things like figure out if abuse by males and abuse by females can be reduced more in total by applying slightly different treatment methods to each subgroup.

IMHO, it does no one much good to split victims into two camps based on the gender of their abuser.

There are clearly differences in the data between data about female alcoholics and data about male alcoholics.

Of course my opinion is affected by my own life experience. Had I not been exposed to abuse of me by my ex, I may have a different opinion about it.

That said, once I started speaking about my experiences, one of my male friends told me privately that his ex girlfriend who had alcohol problems had been physically abusive towards him. He clearly felt deeply ashamed about that and he found it extremely difficult to talk about.

It is a real taboo for men and many men feel deeply embarrassed, emasculated and humiliated by being abused by their female partners.

It is almost 3 years since I went through that stuff. It has taken me 3 years to even be able to discuss it like this.

Men feel exactly the same sense of outrageous betrayal of trust when abused by their partners as women feel when they are abused by their partners.

If you take a group of 100 male alcoholics and 100 female alcoholics, how many of those men and how many of those women are abusive to their families ? I don't know, so I ask that question with genuine curiosity. Does anyone know of any studies on that ?


Thanks - I appreciate your kind words.

The key part to your post is this "I can tell many people on this forum are compassionate, intelligent people".

We are all people, and the more that males and females work together as people to find solutions for these problems, the better it will be for everyone, both male and female.