“And I think to myself, what a wonderful world,” sang the late great Louis Armstrong. A wonderful singer and trumpet player, the musician had a way with words that often make one want to look at the more positive side of things rather than the cynical frame that takes over for so many. He stood tall and he stood correct though- what a wonderful world we do live in.

From the national aesthetics of our beaches and mountains to the diverse culture of ethnicities living across the board, the United States is such a part of that wonderful world- yet we take so many things for granted over here. We as Americans have it good in this country, but at the same time, circumstance can unveil the ugliness that sometimes hides behind that veil.

As the big melting pot nation, we are, everybody comes from different backgrounds and struggles. We all are put to the test by life in differing ways and we all learn to cope along the way. This is just the nature of human beings. Sure everybody has their method, but in Appalachian areas of our country, binge drinking is the primary survival technique. Addiction and alcoholism are just the final stages of this coping mechanism. It seems more times than not we really are a product of our atmosphere.

Alcatraz is Not Our Reality

With the Appalachian Mountains extending from the southern points of New York all the way to the cluster of geography that is Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia, it’s strange how chemical dependency ranges in these regions. The range of opiate abuse as well as methamphetamines has always been accounted for, but in recent years, alcohol abuse primarily has increased in tremendous capacity. Rural areas like this tend to cling to the booze because of its costs, and naturally, the results are disadvantageous.

Most chemical dependency runs rampant as a way of avoiding one’s self usually. Often times we find addicts and alcoholics heaved into situations swarming with stressors that eventually break them down despite their intelligence or mental clarity. When the going gets tough and the tough gets going, putting a bottle to their lips seems to be the quickest route to a solution. Binge drinking is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the health concerns of some women in throughout these areas.

The Devil’s Elixir

As most of us know, alcohol is an over the counter beverage that you can acquire at most any grocery, gas, or convenient store if you are of legal age. Age, of course, doesn’t really mean much to an alcoholic though. Nothing will prevent us from the escapisms that we crave at the end of the day. Grandpa’s old cough medicine, as some may call it, is known to be an antidepressant and is used in most celebratory occasions, but at some spot on the timeline, the body becomes dependent upon it when having been drank in excess for periods of time. The issues that come hand in hand with alcoholism only start to build up as health starts to break down. Many women associated with binge drinking in the Appalachian areas are linked with other health distresses such as but are not limited to:

Narcotic usage
Tobacco usage
Sexually transmitted disease
Unwanted pregnancies
Abusive relationships

It’s believed through many studies that women choose alcohol as their deflection practice due specifically to their environment and the vulnerability they face daily because of it. Specific exposures like living in poverty or various forms of abuse are ultimately the supreme reason of blame behind the binge drinking in the mountainous sections of Appalachia.

The Community Awareness Resources and Education Project, also known as CARE, has investigated the situation and taken a number of surveys to study what seems to be less than mere coincidence with the topic of this rural binge drinking. More than 6,000 women over the age of 18 and representing 14 counties in the Appalachian parts of Ohio took place in such studies. Approximately 2,300 of those women gave information that could be used in relevance of this binge drinking study. At least one-fifth of these women reported multiple episodes of binge drinking or some form of a heavily induced alcoholic episode. Unfortunately, those statistics are ever growing year by year.

Addiction’s Smoke and Mirrors

With so many of these women being full-time mothers, it’s no wonder that alcohol has become the primary reason for women seeking addiction treatment services of some sort. For many women in these rural areas, the binge drinking is justified because of the rural placement or maternal rationalization that comes from being in such situational limitations.

There’s not a single doubt in the world that the mind likes to play tricks on people. Take that statement and multiply it by 10 for the alcoholic or addict maybe reading this article. Multiply it by another 10 for Appalachia being the catalyst for the following binge drinking that comes into play. Binge drinking for women is considered to be consuming four or more alcoholic beverages in a single sitting. Once again, this is something that puts environment very heavily into play. Limited resources are a huge indication of boredom that also leads to escape. It kind of goes back to the old saying of “idle hands are for the devil’s workshop”. For those with alcoholic thinking specifically, boredom only puts us in our heads mono e mono with the monster that is our addiction. Rural or not, it’s on us how we deal with this disease.

A Country of Appalachian Women

Life really is but a dream sometimes. Whether you’re a man or woman, or you live in the countryside or in the big city, the disease of addiction will take all the victims it can get. Situational circumstances always apply, but there is no running from it when it becomes your reality. If you or a loved one has been struggling with getting a firm grasp on sobriety or alcoholic tendencies and need professional treatment services, please call 1-800-481-8457 or visit oarcstaging.wpengine.com. Our teams of specialists are waiting by to help figure out what options are best for sending your life is a comfortable direction that you can proudly stand behind.