Quit Like a Woman summary

If you’re reading this Blink, it might be because there’s a question you want answered. A question that lurks, mostly unspoken, at the back of your mind while you’re counting down the minutes to “drink o’clock” and that first glass of wine. A question that nags at you during panic-filled 3:00 a.m. wake-ups or in the head-throbbing Sunday morning aftermath of Saturday night.

Am I an alcoholic?

Here’s the thing: you’re asking the wrong question.

Contemporary culture frames drinkers as a binary. There are “normal, healthy” drinkers. These drinkers are in the majority. They can handle their booze. They enjoy champagne at weddings, beers at the beach, and wine with dinner. Then there are the problem drinkers – alcoholics, who are only ever one sip of alcohol away from a disastrous multi-day bender. Underpinning this binary is the assumption – and let’s be completely clear, this is an assumption that big alcohol conglomerates like Anheuser-Busch don’t want you to question – that moderate alcohol consumption doesn’t negatively impact your health or your life. In other words, if you’re not an alcoholic, you don’t have a problem with alcohol.

But that is simply wrong. Any amount of alcohol is bad for you.

To begin with: alcohol is poison. The principal ingredient of alcoholic beverages is ethanol. Do you know what other substances list ethanol as a key ingredient? Paint solvents. Deodorants. Engine fuel.

Moderation can’t protect you from alcohol’s poisonous effects. Even one glass of wine can set off a host of negative processes in your body. Here’s a taster. One glass of wine will: disrupt your sleep; stoke your anxiety; impair your liver’s ability to flush toxins from your body; contribute to weight gain or impair weight loss; cause facial redness; compromise the centers of your brain devoted to memory, motor function, inhibition, and emotional volatility; disrupt your endocrine system and deregulate your hormones; and kill healthy gut bacteria and create conditions for bad bacteria to flourish.

And there are a whole host of negative side-effects specific to women. Women drinkers who are under 18 are eight times more likely to experience a sexual assault than their peers; women who do experience sexual assault are 50 percent more likely to binge drink. Drinking lowers defenses, standards, and the ability to make good decisions – all vital capabilities that women sadly need to keep themselves safe. And, yes, no woman – whether she’s been drinking or not – deserves to be assaulted or harassed. But, in light of the harmful ways alcohol impacts women's lives, the persistent way wine and cocktails are marketed to women as glamorous, as fun, as a shortcut to relaxation, as a mode of self-care – well, it all starts to feel rather sinister.

To recap. There’s no such thing as a healthy drinker. Alcohol, even in moderation, is wreaking havoc on your body and brain. And women, in particular, are vulnerable to the damaging effects of alcohol. All of this is true, whether you’re a full-blown alcoholic or someone who enjoys an occasional drink with friends.

So, when you ask yourself, Am I an alcoholic? you’re asking yourself the wrong question. Ask yourself this instead: Is alcohol holding me back from living the best version of my life?

Be honest. The answer is yes, isn’t it?