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The demon in the drink

Cath Moore.Credit:

I’m not a big drinker but have always been fond of pubs. It’s the smell as I walk past – stale beer and old carpet. Not the most alluring aroma but one that brings anecdotes about my grandfather to life, though he died before I was born.

Grandad was a publican from the 1930s to the ’50s. There was nana cooking the counter meals and a front bar full of men downing pint after pint. "Have one for yourself," they’d say, but you can’t drink the profits so grandad would put the change in the till and keep serving. My mum and her siblings lived upstairs. Now in her 70s, mum can still remember screaming with fright at the drunken patrons who would occasionally stagger towards her on their way out.

Drinking, fighting, swearing to excess was the archetype of masculinity, and though challenged, still prevails. Nowadays our vernacular suggests a more inclusive attitude to immoderate consumption where anyone can "get legless" or "prop up the bar" regardless of gender. Strange how tribalism can turn ugly behaviour into some sort of entertainment. When you watch from afar, drinking to stay out of the past, avoid tomorrow or deny present-day sins isn't funny at all.

As a kid I used to think alcoholism was an unfortunate condition you caught if you passed by the wrong pub at the wrong time. Just bad luck. When I was in my early 20s I lived in Edinburgh, and a stroll past one of the breweries would make me homesick. That warm malty aroma, like Vegemite toast. Harmless. Endearing.

Sure I’ve drunk to escape from myself or the world for a while. Certainly now that I’m deep in the trenches of parenthood when "appropriate" drinking hours become arbitrary. When it feels at times like an endless, unwinnable battle and only a glass or two will help ease the strain. Often it does.

I don't like the term social lubricant – it makes me think of a bus stop full of people being doused in some oily cream so they can talk to one another. While alcohol lowers inhibitions it can quickly shift from a sometimes friend to an everyday companion. Like the "sandwich generation" of women aged 35-59 caring for both children and elderly parents in conjunction with all that other messy life stuff.

One study I read suggested that up to 624,000 women throughout Australia struggle with alcohol issues, putting them at a higher risk of breast cancer, dementia and alcohol-related ailments. Regardless of age or circumstance, it’s time to stop normalising excessive consumption, and find more supportive solutions for those who’ve drowned their sorrows, but desperately want to come up for air.

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