Brava Magazine Article “The Silent Treatment”
When Wisconsin women lead the nation in chronic drinking, why don’t we hear more about it? A look at the silence surrounding substance abuse, and the three local women working for change
July 1, 2011
By Meagan Parrish
Linda* says, describing the day that she—a successful professional and mother of two—walked haltingly through the doors of a rehab clinic to seek treatment for an addiction to alcohol.
She was far from home, literally, and even farther from the safe suburban existence where alcoholism was more associated with the homeless men hanging around the Capitol Square.
“You wonder, ‘How did I let myself get to this point?’” she admits.
By her early 40s, Linda had stitched together all the pieces of a full life: marriage, kids, career and a picture-perfect home. But when it began to unravel, a problem with alcohol quietly grew under the radar. Casual drinks with friends and nightly glasses of wine turned into a crutch.
“I was probably already drinking too much because I was pretty miserable in my marriage, but when I filed for divorce, it just got bad,” she recalls.
Soon, one or two drinks weren’t enough; she couldn’t stop herself from reaching for more. Eventually she would regularly drink until she blacked out. On the day Linda realized the problem had spiraled out of control, she started sipping wine at noon. The estimated number of glasses she downed that day? Between 15 and 20.
Her story is hardly unique. Though it’s tricky to pinpoint the precise number of women struggling with alcoholism—a progressive disease generally marked by the inability to stop oneself from consuming alcohol—indicators of overall use show that plenty of local women are putting themselves at risk.