Alcohol and the older adult Facing loss and addiction

It started out as routine, just enjoying one or two drinks everyday at happy hour. Grace, 71, began drinking as a teenager and drank daily through her twenties and thirties. “I thoroughly enjoyed alcohol; it made me feel more attractive, clever and charming in social situations,” she said.
“It gradually takes you over and becomes your master,” said Grace. “I drank too much in social situations and at home, too. I would fall down from drinking, get up and drink the next day. I was powerless over alcohol.”
Her husband and friends drank; it was how they socialized. Grace was a functional alcoholic; she could work, play and run errands, so she didn’t feel the need to stop drinking. “I didn’t feel like I had to stop drinking because I never went to jail, got into any bad accidents and wasn’t arrested,” she said.
Grace and her husband would drink a few bottles of wine in the evenings; she would wake up the next morning and finish what was left. They drank before they went out, drank while they were out, and then she drank again after coming home. 
It was very painful for her to admit that she would still be an alcoholic today if her husband were still alive.
But he died. For eight months, she was free to drink as much as she wanted, whenever she wanted. Her drinking escalated because he wasn’t there to control it.
The day after her husband’s memorial service, Grace’s grown children took her for a walk and expressed concern about her drinking. One morning, she met her girlfriends out after consuming three glasses of wine. They later staged an intervention.
Initially, she was furious, but then relieved.
At 65, Grace checked herself into a 30-day rehabilitation program. However, it was her experience with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) that really changed her. “Some people can drink everyday, and it’s not a problem. After the first drink, I was no longer in control. That’s an alcoholic,” she said.
Many other older adults may find themselves in similar situations. After the loss of a loved one, alcoholism can escalate, while others develop the addiction when experiencing grief and loneliness.
Research has also shown stressors such financial problems, physical illness or social isolation may spark or escalate an alcohol addiction among older adults. Social isolation makes it easier to conceal drinking, causing challenges in identifying the need for treatment.
According to the National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependence (NCADD), 15 percent of Americans 65 and older will develop an alcohol problem when their spouse or partner dies. Widowers older then age 75 have the highest rate of alcoholism in the country. NCADD estimates drinkers older than age 65 are 16 times more likely to commit suicide than non-drinkers or moderate drinkers. And, alcoholism does not spare any age, gender, race, or socio-economic class.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), older adults have a higher risk for adverse effects from heavy drinking because it can cause or worsen many conditions associated with aging, including osteoporosis, stroke, high blood pressure, memory loss and mood disorders.
Eighty-three percent of people over age 65 take some form of prescription medication. Alcohol can interact with up to 50 percent of the most commonly prescribed medications to produce a host of adverse effects. Adverse reactions can result from the interaction of even small amounts of alcohol and medications.  The NIAAA recommends that people who are healthy and over the age of 65 have no more than seven drinks per week and no more than one drink on any given day. If you think you may have a drinking problem, here are some things you can do. Talk to your health care professional (it’s confidential). Seek treatment through a local hospital or community service board or visit a trained mental health professional who knows how alcohol affects older adults for individual, group or family therapy. Find a support group for older adults recovering from alcohol problems or join a 12-step program such as AA.
There are a number of resources in central Virginia, including Senior Connections in Richmond, your local community service board, such as the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority, and your local health department.
Many older alcoholics have been effectively treated in age-integrated and age-specific programs. When seeking treatment for an alcohol problem, older adults have the highest recovery rate for completion of treatment.
Grace feels age has been her advantage. “In the final decades of my life, I don’t have the time to do this again. It’s not an option to go back.” 
Now, she enjoys social situations and realizes she does not need alcohol. There are times she considers it, she says, but thought passes. Each day, she tries not to drink; and for more than 2,000 days, she hasn’t. Her best years are yet to come.

If you are interested in becoming involved or would like more information,
visit www.abc.virginia.gov or contact AAAG Chair/ABC Education Coordinator, Regina Whitsett at Regina.Whitsett@abc.virginia.gov or 213-4445 or Constance L. Coogle, PhD., Virginia Center on Aging and AAAG Co-Chair, at ccoogle@vcu.edu or 828-1525

This article was submitted by the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), as part of its commitment to providing alcohol education and prevention programs to people of all ages. In 2007, ABC in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University, formed the Alcohol and Aging Awareness Group (AAAG), a state-level group that provides training sessions, speakers, resources, and referral lists to older adults, their families and service providers to help address the issue of alcohol misuse among older adults.