The Risk Factors for Women and Substance Abuse
There are different risk factors involved when it comes to understanding why different people abuse drugs. For women, the stresses are more common and happen often at a younger age. So what are the risk factors for women?
While women and men can both grow up in dysfunctional homes, the way they are affected by them are quite different. Did you know that 70% of women who abuse drugs and alcohol have been sexually molested by the age of 16? Did you know that it will define their lives from then on if they do not seek help or therapy? They will go from being abused as children, often by a male family member, to abusive relationships with significant others.
Women who abuse drugs have little or no self-esteem. They do not have many friends, if any. They are withdrawn and do not stand up for themselves. They are often suicidal, believing they are to blame for everything.
On the other hand, women who seek help for their addictions and get therapy are more likely to recover in a shorter length of time. By getting the help they desperately need AND deserve, by getting professional counseling for not only the addiction but for the trauma or stress that caused it (even if she does not realize it until after therapy begins), then a woman can put the facts of what happened to her together and move on.
She will always know she was a victim of some trauma but she will be a stronger person after she gets counseling and gets rehab for her addiction. She will shake herself off, she will not dwell on the past but finally be able to concentrate on her present and look forward to her future. Short term treatment works more effectively for men than it does for women but aftercare is always just as available for women, too.
Women seem to suffer from the physical and psychological effects of substance abuse at greater levels than men but they also seem to thrive quicker when it comes to treatment. Whether this is because of the old adage that women are filled with strength from within and counseling helps them to bring that strength out, or whether it is because of some other reason, the fact is that therapy and counseling and drug rehab do work for the greater good, not only for the addiction or substance abuse itself and getting rid of it, but also for the risk factors underneath. Once they are brought to the surface and treated, the potential for a relapse for a woman dramatically decreases.