Myth of the Month: does abortion cause alcoholism?
OCTOBER 2004
Alcoholic Myth-of-the-Month: “Women who choose to end their first accidental pregnancy with abortion…are much more likely to end up abusing drugs and alcohol.”
This finding was the result of research recently published in the “American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.” The implication is yet another example of confusion between cause and effect. If life’s troubles caused alcoholism, we’d all be alcoholics. Such troubles, including the psychological damage wrought by terminating an unwanted pregnancy, no more cause alcoholism than does being physically abused during childhood. Alcoholism is rooted in a biochemistry that causes misbehaviors and poor judgment, not the other way around.
Instead, the link between abortion and addiction supports the idea that addicts (or children of same) are more likely to engage in promiscuous and unprotected sex. The need to wield power often takes form in serial Don Juanism, including its female version. Reckless behaviors result in, among many manifestations, unprotected sex. The need to wield power and recklessness are, more often than not, rooted in alcohol or other drug addiction in either the person or a parent.
The research purportedly included women who had no history of “substance abuse” prior to their first accidental pregnancy. There may be a couple of reasons for this. First, what the researchers call “abuse” may not yet have been triggered; promiscuous or unprotected sex may result from poor examples of or lax controls exerted by addicted parents. Such sex is one of the many predictable reactions to psychological abandonment by an addicted parent. Second, the definition of “substance abuse” as given in the psychologists’ manual, the DSM-lV includes criteria that are the result of a more obvious addiction, which can take years to manifest. In other words, there may be no “history” because the criteria are useful only in the identification of middle- to latter-stage addiction. These criteria require that one or more of the following occur within a 12-month period:
1. “Recurrent substance use resulting in a failure to fulfill major role obligations at work, school, or home (e.g., repeated absences or poor work performance related to substance use…).” Since early-stage alcoholism may manifest in over achievement at any cost, such failure may be non-existent.
2. “Recurrent substance use in situations in which it is physically hazardous (e.g., driving an automobile…when impaired…).” Most of the subjects of the study either wouldn’t have their drivers’ license or don’t appear obviously inebriated in the early years of use. Consider well known alcoholic-addict Elizabeth Taylor, who didn’t enter rehab until after her sixth or seventh marriage and who, by her own testimony, was never obviously inebriated.
3. “Recurrent substance-related legal problems.” Most alcoholics avoid the long arm of the law throughout their entire drinking career.
4. “Continued substance use despite having persistent or recurrent social or interpersonal problems caused or exacerbated by the effects of the substance (e.g., arguments with spouse about consequences of intoxication, physical fights).” Such problems may take decades to become obvious.
Obviously, these criteria prove addiction, not mere “abuse.” (Myth # 100 in my upcoming book, “He’s a drug abuser, not an addict,” discusses this in greater detail.) Regardless, the behavior — poor judgment — is indicative of alcoholism. We should never allow ourselves to be misled into believing that poor behaviors — including unwanted pregnancies or the resulting distress — cause addiction.