BRYAN, Texas — New numbers from the Centers for Disease Control show that the rate of deaths caused by excessive drinking in women is increasing faster than men.
- The study shows the rate of women dying from excessive drinking increased by 34.7% from 2016 to 2020, compared to a 26.8% increase in men.
- The CDC defines "drinking excessively" as having four or more drinks per day for women, and five or more drinks for men.
- The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture are planning on releasing updated dietary guidelines next year.
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Amanda Frank lives in Bryan, and never thought she had a drinking problem.
“I really didn't see it as an issue — and then I woke up one morning and I felt really sick," Frank said.
"I went to the urgent care and I had drank myself into basically organ failure.”
At 27, Frank was hospitalized with acute necrotizing pancreatitis, meaning almost 70 percent of her pancreas had decayed.
“It became such an every day thing, where I was going home from work, stopping at the gas station, buying a 12-pack, not even really considering what that looked like long term," she said.
"That went on and progressively got worse.”
She is not alone — according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control, the rate of women drinking excessively increased by 34.7% from 2016 to 2020, compared to a 26.8% increase in men.
The CDC defines having four or more drinks a day as drinking excessively for women. Although this includes the increase during the pandemic, deaths from alcohol use in the U.S. have been on the rise for the last 20 years.
Now at six years sober, Amanda says she is able to do things she never thought possible.
“I went to grad school, and I had a 4.0 [GPA]."
With the money she would've spent on alcohol, she saved enough to go to 13 concerts — two of which were VIP packages — in her first year of being sober.
“I never would have done those things when I was drinking, because it just didn't feel like me. But now when I look back, I don't feel like I was ever me until recently," she said.
Amanda says having a support system helped her change her lifestyle.
In the Brazos Valley, some available resources include:
- The Brazos Club and the Brazos Valley Intergroup offer regular Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
- The Brazos Valley Council on Alcohol and Substance Abuse offers treatment and educational resources.
- The Texas Addiction Hotline is 1-800-559-9503.
This is an issue that the federal government is keeping an eye on. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture are planning on releasing updated dietary guidelines next year.