The wine drinking culture

As a child born in the 70''s I remember how the typical working man had the proclaimed right to go for a beer on his way home from work. It was almost as if, he''d done his days work as a man and he had earned/deserved to then have a few beers to close off the day. I''m sure in some cases that this still happens however due to many factors (drink driving laws, price of alcohol, closure of many pubs) I don''t think it is anything like as common as it used to be.

What I have however seen is a reversal of this culture across the sexes. However not so much a case of drinking in the pub, but an almost dependency on finishing the working day by getting home and cracking open a bottle or two of wine or the popular choice of vodka.

Just as I am sure that there were many relationships strained by men’s daily drinking habits in the 70’s & 80''s, I feel that there may be many relationships that are currently deteriorating due to some women’s daily dependency on wine. As a guy, I enjoy a glass of wine now and then….but it really isn’t a drink that I would want to take in either regular frequency or quantity. For many reasons it isn''t really a drink that should be taken in any sort of volume. It is often said that ‘beer goes to the legs and wine goes to the head’, and the last thing anyone wants is to be involved in within relationship discussions, is something that falsely influences the head/mind. I’d guess it is also worth mentioning the different character traits that can be brought out by alcohol…happy, angry, sleepy, depressive etc etc.

What do others think about the regular wine drinking culture amongst women that is so popular now? Has it been a factor in your relationship as either the male or female?

Excessive drinking shouldn''t be confused with the odd glass of wine on an evening. I enjoy a glass of Rioja now and again, but having previously lived (and married to) with an alcoholic, I am only too aware of not just the difference between excessive regular drinking and a social drink; but the effect that someone else''s drinking has on their own health and well-being, and their partner, family and friends can be devastating and far-reaching.

My ex would spend his day in the pub, consuming at least 10 pints of strong cider and his evenings would be spent drinking at least 2 bottles of cheap wine - he would drink until he fell into a comatose drunken state. Every day. For at least 2 years after the separation, I wouldn''t allow any alcohol in my home, nor would I drink any.

Alcoholism is a terrible disease, and isn''t fussy about where it strikes. I don''t think that the wine culture you speak of is indicative solely of women - it is across the board, and given that the dangers of excessive drinking and the repercussions are more widely discussed now more than at any other time, we are far more aware of it. Although, there are those that ignore the advice and research, and claim that they don''t drink that much and therefore won''t be affected...

I work in a job that involves speaking to people who are at the very start of separation, and that can at times be emotionally intense and stressful. But I don''t reach for the wine/gin at the end of my working day, simply because drinking doesn''t appeal to me much. Everyone has different coping mechanisms for dealing with life stress, and a glass or two of wine in the evenings isn''t always the demon that it is made out to be. It is crossing that line into actually needing alcohol each day, or on a regular basis that is dangerous.

Historically, wine has been drunk instead of water, during the Middle Ages, weak beer or watered down wine was present at every meal as the water was so filthy and diseased that it was actually safer to drink wine/beer than water!

I agree that it is almost impossible to have a sensible conversation or discussion with someone who is intoxicated, and a drunk will often display behaviour that is only present when intoxicated. Living with someone who drinks to excess is like living in Hell. But we need to be careful about labelling someone an excessive drinker or alcoholic, if that assumption is based only our own perception of an acceptable drinking level.

If you are affected by someone else''s drinking, Al-Anon are a support organisation who provide information, support, local meetings etc. www.al-anonuk.org.uk/

Ruby is so right ... Having Lived with an alcoholic & an alcohol dependent I too banned alcohol from my house for many years.

We all deal with stress in different ways, & often have obsessive traits be it alcoholism, drugs, OCD, etc etc.

Trying to converse with someone who is under the influence of alchol is a non starter, & I must admit bringing up 2 teenage boys in this time of binge drinking is also very difficult, it seems to be the norm -for both sex''s to drink often to excess. I think there is a happy medium, my previous ban on all alchol in the house in my opinion now was not healthy, now I enjoy a glass of wine of a weekend & I think it good that my boys can see that you can drink in moderation, you do not have to drink to excess to have a good time. Only time will tell if this works or not, eldest off to a festival this week .... Not looking forward to the fall out on his return.

JJx

I don''t disagree with either of the replies so far and the points raised are very valid. However, my OP was really in relation to the massive increase in wine consumption and in particular the wine being consumed by women on a frequent basis. Other than those who obviously have alcohol issues in general, I wouldn''t deny anyone a glass or two of wine. However, I get a feeling that with wine becoming more available and accepted in the household it has brought certain problems with it. There is a very large number of women who drink wine on a daily basis beyond just an odd glass and way beyond a healthy level. I''d be interested to hear if anyone has any stats on wine consumption figures and trends over the past 20 or 30 years.

On what do you base your claims? Do you have evidence/research to back up your claims that more women drink wine to excess?

NHS Statistics on Alcohol: England, 2011;-

In England, in 2009, 69 per cent of men and 55 per cent of women (aged 16 and over) reported drinking an alcoholic drink on at least one day in the week prior to interview. 10 per cent of men and 6 per cent of women reported drinking on every day in the previous week.

There has been an increase from 54 per cent in 1997 to 75 per cent in 2009 in the percentage of people in Great Britain who had heard of daily drinking limits. Throughout the period, differences between men and women have been slight.

In 2007, 33 per cent of men and 16 per cent of women (24 per cent of adults) were classified as hazardous drinkers. This includes 6 per cent of men and 2 per cent of women estimated to be harmful drinkers, the most serious form of hazardous drinking, which means that damage to health is likely.

Among adults aged 16 to 74, 9 per cent of men and 4 per cent of women showed some signs of alcohol dependence. The prevalence of alcohol dependence is slightly lower for men than it was in 2000 when 11.5 per cent of men showed some signs of dependence. There was no significant change for women between 2000 and 2007.

www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/alcohol11

My observations are based upon numerous friendships of which I know the women to drink perhaps 1 or 2 bottles of wine in one night, on a regular basis through a normal working week. I have numerous male friends, with whom we have discussed the growing trend of their female partners, friends and colleagues who also turn to wine after every working day. More often than not the admissions seems to come when women want to lose weight for a holiday or such.

Quote from Yahoo healthy living - '' In a new study, 61% of adults said alcohol was their number one way to unwind after a hard day-a number largely outweighing the 26% who preferred to de-stress with their spouse and 13% who opted for quality time with the kids.

On top of that, more women than men (73% versus 26%) hit the bottle at the end of the day and nearly 75% of us say wine is our drug of choice.''

So, looking at the stats of the 61% of adults drinking after work to de-stress 73% of them are women!!..... that gives us a stat of 44% of ''all'' women drinking after work to chill out and only 15% of men. From the 44%, 75% say their nightly tipple is wine. That''s approx 33% or 1/3rd of all women drinking wine every night!!!


I guess the key question is then how many are happy to stop at one glass? or how many like to finish a bottle once it''s been opened.


Here is one article www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/the-...oholism-1982431.html

Here is a second. www.ias.org.uk/resources/factsheets/women.pdf

A third example. www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-13741...rous-compulsion.html

Another www.marketresearchworld.net/index.php?op...d=1886&Itemid=77

As per my OP regarding the changing trend from the 70''s. The second link above goes a long way to explain why. Just do a Google search for ''women drinking wine every night'' and you may well be shocked or in some cases ''in denial'' about the results that you will see!!