Studies show that drinking pre-, post-, and during marriage varies wildly between the genders
After a divorce, many people feel elation and the happiness that comes with a autonomy they fought to get bacl. Others are more reserved and contemplate and begin the new path in life they've found. However, for a select few, the price of divorce goes past the property split or the time away from their kids. That price is the freedom to do whatever they want – and some times, not for the better.
A recent study released by the American Sociological Association shows that men who are divorced are twice as likely to drink than married men. That's because when married, the usual arrangement is for the couple to drink moderately. But once the restraint of marriage is broken, men head for the bottle while women's drinking actually decreases post-split.
Yes, women's drinking habits usually go up during marriage for the same reason men's decline – because their partners bring their booze game up. Divorced or widowed women find their alcohol levels decrease significantly when they don't have a partner bringing it in all the time.
"Marriage and divorce have different consequences for men's and women's alcohol use," study author Corinne Reczek told Health Day. "For men, it's tempered by being married and exacerbated by being divorced." Yes, the day-to-day life of a married couple, and a divorced one, too, seem to heavily influence one's habits.
"The study findings appear to suggest that everyone's alcohol use is, to some degree, related to the extent of stress in their lives," Don R. Catherall, professor of clinical psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University. "Long-term married women may have some additional stressors that [previously married] women do not and apparently derive less stress relief from their marital relationships than do men."