Physical Characteristics of Alcoholism
Physical Characteristics of Alcoholism
Caroline Knapp poignantly and profoundly reflects the problem of alcoholism in the book Drinking, A Love Story. The author details how she started drinking when she was fourteen years old, and spent almost 20 years as an alcoholic in denial, managing much of the time to hide her disease even from herself. Knapp’s very personal profile offers a glimpse not only into the world of alcohol addiction, its impact on families, potential treatments, but into the scope of the disease as it relates to women, as well.
A 36 year old writer from the Boston area and a talented high achieving female professional, Knapp explains how very difficult it was for her to accept herself as an alcoholic, primarily because she did not fit the characteristics of the stereotypical drunk. “You know and you don’t know”, she writes. “You know and you won’t know, and as long as the outsides of your life remain intact-your job and your professional persona-it’s very hard to accept that the insides, the pieces of you that have to do with integrity and self-esteem, are slowing rotting away” (Knapp, 1996). Yet, Knapp admits she spent 20 years driving under the influence of alcohol, suffering from blackouts, having sexual encounters with no memory of them, and even going through an abortion without knowing for certain who the father was.
However, as Knapp aptly points out, she failed to fit the standard demographics for alcoholics; she paid her rent on time and arrived punctually at work as an editor and columnist for an alternative weekly news magazine. Because she did such a good job at hiding her disease from other people, she was long-delayed in accusing herself of it. Such is the nature of alcoholism, perhaps especially female alcoholism, as Knapp spends most of this book pointing out.
While Knapp’s memoirs of her experience are personal and heart wrenching, they have much to say about the difficulty with facing the facts of alcoholism, especially for women in the United States. Knapp’s memoirs of her long journey through alcoholism reflect part of the missing narrative for women alcoholics in today’s social template, in general. Even in Knapp’s case, the plot widens as she exposes not only her addictions but also the behaviour of her parents, the sexual abuse she has suffered, the conflict between her ambitiousness and societal expectations...