Being a working mom has always been a stressful proposition, and with the high unemployment rate and the precarious state of the economy it has only become more difficult. According to a recent series of reports from Working Mother magazine, more and more working moms are turning to alcohol and illicit drugs to deal with the stress. The survey’s found that 5.3 million women in the United States drink in an unhealthy manner and that the number of women ages 30 to 40 who abuse alcohol has doubled in the last ten years. Even more disturbing, one in four children has an addictive parent, according to the research.
“What was most startling is that these are women who appear to be in total control, they hold good jobs, their kids are doing well in school and they’re not hanging out in bars at 2 a.m.,” Suzann Riss, Working Mother’s editor-in-chief told ParentDish. “But they are dying inside and are in serious trouble. Their kids depend on them and addictions are progressive.
The problem of drug and alcohol dependence among mothers, particularly working mothers, has been around for a long time. But the recession, and the added pressure it puts on moms who, in many cases, may be forced to become sole bread winners, is escalating the problem.
“Another ripple effect of the bad economy is that working moms and wives have unprecedented stress on them,” Riss, herself a working mother, says. “They don’t know how to handle that stress. We’re not saying that a glass of wine a night means you’re in trouble, but we are talking about women who are dependent on alcohol or drugs and cannot make it through the day without them.”
If you know someone who has a problem, or you think you might have a problem yourself, you can find more information on how to handle the problem at the Alcoholic’s Anonymous website, or by talking to your physician.
