The following article is a guest post by Julie Maida, founder of the Sober Mommies blog. I was extremely honored when Jennifer asked me to contribute a post to Crossroads for Women about the Sober Mommies blog. She asked me to write about how and why I started the blog, and I struggled a bit.…
We’re excited to start a new vlog (video blog) series on the Crossroads for Women Blog in 2014! Each month, Crossroads for Women executive director, Shannon Trainor, will publish a short video on different topics relating to addiction, mental health and gender-responsive treatment. In her first vlog for January 2014, Shannon talks about making resolutions…
The following article is a guest post by Dawn Clancy. I vividly remember sitting across from my stepfather, Joe, at the kitchen table. In his hands were a stack of multiplication flashcards about 2 inches thick. His impatient, beady eyes drilled right into the center of mine as he snapped each card in front of my…
April 5th is National Alcohol Screening Day in the US. The day aims to raise awareness about alcohol misuse and refer individuals with alcohol problems for further treatment. But who has an alcohol problem? Here are a few stats: Between 2001 and 2002, 8.5% of adult Americans (17.6 million) met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for either…
At the end of Children of Alcoholics Week, a new government report was released that showed 10.5%, or 7.5 million, children under the age of 18 live with a parent who has experienced an alcohol use disorder (i.e., alcohol dependence or abuse) in the past year. The report looked at data from the Substance Abuse…
New research shows us that the act of binge drinking is more prevalent than initially thought. First, let’s define binge drinking for men and women. For men, binge drinking means drinking 5 or more alcoholic drinks within a short period of time. For women, binge drinking means 4 or more drinks within a short period…
A recent article from the Scientific American discusses some very good reasons for gender-specific substance abuse treatment programs. The article talks about studies that have been conducted and illustrate the differences between men and women when it comes to alcohol, its effects and treatment. Among the findings that various studies have revealed: The difference in…
As we discussed in our last post, parents play a major role in their children’s choices about alcohol. According to three years of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 34% of youth aged 12-14 who drank alcohol in the past month got the alcohol they drank for free from a person…
Where would 709,000 American youth between ages 12 and 14 get alcohol? According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, almost all (93.4%) of them got it for free the last time they drank. What’s more, over 44.8% of 12 to 14 year olds who reported drinking in the past month say they…
Alcoholism affects everyone in the family, particularly children. If you grew up in an alcoholic family, you are not alone. You are also not immune to alcohol’s devastating effects. February 13-19 is Children of Alcoholics (COA) Week. According to the website, COA Week “celebrates the recovery of the many thousands of children (of all ages)…
