Emily Kelley / Roundup
You come home to find all of your belongings spread out on your driveway, and your girlfriend is passed out on the lawn with a martini class in her hand.
For most, this is just a nightmare, but for millions of people across the nation, this is an all too familiar reality.
In a survey done in 2008, there are currently 3.9 million women are living with alcoholism in this country alone, the majority of which are between 15-35 years old.
There are many risks when women decide to drink, some of which can be deadly. We all know that drinking and driving are illegal. But some people still choose to put themselves and others at risk. For some people who have been victims of this sort of accident, knowing that you could get professional advice from a car accident las vegas lawyer, for example, could be what you need in order to get you on the right track, as no one asks for accidents like these to happen.
According to statistics provided by California State University Northridge’s Project D.A.T.E, 95 percent of all rapes occur when the victim, rapist, or both are under the influence of alcohol.
“I don’t think I would have ever gotten myself into a situation where I could have been raped if I hadn’t have been drinking,” said a former CSUN student, who asked not to be identified.
The female student dropped out of CSUN last semester to attend Pierce College after she was allegedly almost raped by a male student at a party.
“We had the same amount of drinks, but I got so messed up and he was fine. It just hit me like a bus,” said the student.
She remembers blacking out and then waking up in a strange room with the male student she had been with earlier. She also remembers him trying to take off her clothes and continued after she told him no.
Luckily, someone heard her yelling and stopped the male before he could do anything further, but she still bares the scars of the experience.
“I haven’t had a single drink since that night. I just realized that drinking can be really fun, but it can also be really detrimental. The risk just outweigh the benefits, if there are any benefits to alcohol,” said the student.
More than 60 percent of women affected with sexually transmitted diseases contracted them while intoxicated, and 70 percent of college students admit to having engaged in sex they wouldn’t have had if they were sober.
In the United States as of 2007, more than 100,000 women between 14-35 were reportedly living with the AIDS/HIV virus. It was also reported that 80 percent of those cases contracted the virus while intoxicated.
Unfortunately, it could be a women’s own body that can lead to problems with alcohol.
“The biggest way women are susceptible to alcoholism is their own bodies,” said local nurse Heather Lawler, a former Pierce nursing student. “Women are typically smaller, have more body fat, and higher hormone levels which makes alcohol affect them more then it affects men.”
Women become alcohol dependent “faster and the effects are more severe,” according to a study published in the May 2007 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
In a study done of 1,300 British women in 2009, researchers determined that “population-wide, 13 percent of those cancers in Britain may be attributable to alcohol.”
Not only does alcohol cause 100,000 deaths a year, 50 percent of traffic fatalities and 33 percent of traffic injuries also involve alcohol.
The number of deaths and injuries caused by female drunk drivers 21-24 increased by 116 percent from 1998 to 2007, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.
This year, Campus sheriff’s Officers Mike Shultz and Pedro Pineda responded to a reported drunk driver on campus. The female, who turned out to be a Pierce
College student, crashed on Victory and Winnetka Boulevard before the officers arrived.
The female’s car wheels were still spinning and Officer Pineda had to break a window in order to pull her out.
While many car accidents are just that, accidents, there is another statistic that proves to be voluntary.
Every year, 6,730 women commit suicide, 714 of which are between 15-24 according to a study done by the Centers for Disease Control in 2005.
In a study done by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, depression paired with alcohol abuse (which has been on the rise in women 14-25 in the last three years) are the most common causes of attempted suicide for women in that age group.
“College is a really stressful time already, without having to worry about some of the problems alcohol can bring. I don’t feel like I’m missing out,” said the female student.
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