Alcohol abuse hits women hardest. They don’t have enough places to go in Kansas City | Opinion

Now that Dry January is over, a lot of women will resume imbibing alcohol on a regular basis while presumably living safe, peaceful and productive lives.

But it’s not that simple for women who want to conquer the disease of alcoholism. As a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for 40 years, I can personally attest to the fear, loneliness and confusion that often greet women in the infant stages of sobriety and recovery from drug addiction.

Many have lost everything: homes and jobs, families and friends, hope and confidence — and their dignity. They’re often left with a path of destruction and nowhere safe and supportive to live. For them, there is no resuming consumption without dysfunction. Not now, not ever. And that reality can be unfathomably daunting.

Recent data on women and alcohol use is grim: Where men once made up the vast majority of alcohol abusers, we women have significantly closed the gap. We develop alcohol-related problems earlier in life than men, and without drinking as much. Our disease makes us more susceptible to such health issues as liver disease, heart disease, breast cancer and brain damage. And yet we are less likely than men to make use of services to treat alcoholism.

Our untreated disease comes at a cost to all of society, particularly from an economic standpoint. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that excessive alcohol consumption alone cost the United States $249 billion in 2010 from losses in workplace productivity and expenses related to health care, criminal justice, motor vehicle crashes and property damage. That cost has likely increased dramatically during the past decade, and about 40% of those dollars are paid by federal, state and local governments.

In 2021, Dawn Sugarman, a research psychologist at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts who has studied addiction in women, told NPR that women with alcohol use disorder recover more successfully when they were in women-only treatment groups that focused on trauma and mental health. It’s no wonder. Women are more likely than men to experience sexual assault and childhood abuse, which researchers believe is often a driving force for their alcohol use.

Sadly, many women get sober or clean only to find themselves with no place to recover peacefully and safely.

I felt firsthand some four decades ago the intense desire to get my life back on track after a go-round with this disease. And I see today an acute lack of supportive living environments to help make that happen for women.

It’s why I founded Lorraine’s House, a nonprofit group of four local sober homes for women in Johnson County. There are not nearly as many beds in transitional housing for women as there are for men in the metropolitan area.

Many women coming out of treatment facilities have no choice but to return to homes with abusive spouses, unsupportive family members or where drug and alcohol use are ongoing. Others end up homeless, sleeping in shelters rife with chaos or in their cars.

The trauma continues and relapse often follows.

Lorraine’s House offers women in the early stages of sobriety warm beds in a clean, homey, well-managed environment. Lorraine was my late sister-in-law who served as a friendly, nonjudgmental rock for me during my early stages of sobriety. Lorraine’s House tries to emulate its namesake by fostering an environment of warmth, stability and respect. Residents agree to maintain sobriety and offer one another support while living together as a community. They are required to work and pay a nominal weekly fee, which helps them regain their dignity.

As a licensed addictions specialist, I work with one resident from each house who serves as a manager and counselor to the seven or eight women in her home. I train the manager to enforce rules against violent language and behavior, while leading regular 12-step meetings. The board of directors and I have created programs that foster health and wellness, financial stability and better communication among the residents.

The Kansas City area has a dearth of such facilities, due in large part to lack of awareness and funding. Lorraine’s House has expanded from one home to four since beginning in 2016, and has had a steady waiting list of women coming out of treatment since then. We hope to open a new facility in coming months and are certain that it, too, will fill quickly.

To fully understand the stability, opportunities, camaraderie and warmth that make Lorraine’s House such a successful jumping-off point for women in early recovery, I invite you to visit our website at lorraineshouse.org.

Lucy Brown is an addictions specialist and the executive director of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Lorraine’s House.