{"id":1914,"date":"2009-07-21T09:29:34","date_gmt":"2009-07-21T09:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html"},"modified":"2009-07-21T09:29:34","modified_gmt":"2009-07-21T09:29:34","slug":"the-drinking-diaries-where-wom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html","title":{"rendered":"The Drinking Diaries: Where Women Spill Their Drinking Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Here is some more information on the blog, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.drinkingdiaries.com\/2009\/06\/16\/welcome-to-the-drinking-diaries\/\">Drinking Diaries<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"spilled wine.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/71\/import\/imgs\/spilled%20wine.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Whether we are drinking it or not, alcohol remains a potent part of our lives. Our culture is saturated with it, steeped in it. We confront alcohol everywhere we go&#8211;from the home to the office party, date night to ladies&#8217; night, happy hour to super bowl. Every season has its own liquor&#8211;there&#8217;s the champagne at New Year&#8217;s, beer on St. Patty&#8217;s Day, summer&#8217;s mojitos, autumn&#8217;s new vintage of velvety red wine, and winter&#8217;s warming brandy. Each religion has its prescribed ritual, from egg nog at Christmas to Manischevitz at Passover. Every culture has its signature drinks, from ouzo to sake and rum to Aquavit. Skol! Kampai! Cin cin! Salud!<\/p>\n<p>Ask anyone you know to scratch the surface and she will find a drinking story. Maybe it&#8217;s the night she got smashed and so belligerent she spat in the bartender&#8217;s face. Or the time her alcoholic mother poured wine into a Sprite bottle so she could ride an Amtrak train, her self-medicating uninterrupted. It may be that her teenage daughter&#8217;s scar&#8211;from the time her beer-drinking boyfriend crashed the car&#8211;is healing, while hers is not. That the deepest philosophical question the stressed-out mom ponders is: &#8220;How big the glass?&#8221; Or the eyebrow-raising looks she gets when she mentions she doesn&#8217;t touch the stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Here you can read other women&#8217;s drinking stories and\/or spill your own. The Drinking Diaries will have guest posts and interviews, as well as links to articles, studies, and just about anything that has to do with women and alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>For the two of us, alcohol is a loaded topic.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"leahblog-150x150.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/71\/import\/imgs\/leahblog-150x150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/span><br \/>\n<strong>Leah: <\/strong>For my first grade school photo, my alcoholic mother put my sailor dress on inside out. My mother stopped drinking when I was nine years old, but by the time I hit fourteen, my older sister was sent to rehab. I spent half my adolescence at self-help meetings, and although I would rather have been hanging out with my friends, I found the personal narratives of fall and redemption riveting. From high school to college student, writer to stay-at-home mom, I have run the gamut from abstainer to binge drinker.<br \/>\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"caren-osten-gerszberg22.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/71\/import\/imgs\/caren-osten-gerszberg22.jpg\" width=\"160\" height=\"168\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right;margin: 0 0 20px 20px\" \/><\/span><br \/>\n<strong><br \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<div><b><br \/><\/b><\/div>\n<div><strong>Caren:<\/strong> I grew up in a home where wine was always around. My European parents drank every night with dinner, and my mother-a French hidden child survivor of the Holocaust-often bragged about how she&#8217;d corrupted her American friends with the joys of a late afternoon glass of wine. But later in life, my mother&#8217;s wartime demons came back to haunt her and her social drinking morphed into need. Since then, I&#8211;a lover of wine in moderation&#8211;have been wrestling with what drinking means to me.<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We want to reach out to women, like us, for whom alcohol&#8211;for whatever reason&#8211;is also a loaded topic. And so, we started <a href=\"http:\/\/www.drinkingdiaries.com\">THE DRINKING DIARIES&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Please check back on MONDAYS and THURSDAYS for the latest round of new posts!<\/p>\n<p><i>*&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.feedburner.com\/fb\/a\/emailverifySubmit?feedId=611738&amp;loc=en_US\">Click here to <\/a><b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.feedburner.com\/fb\/a\/emailverifySubmit?feedId=611738&amp;loc=en_US\">subscribe to Beyond Blue<\/a><\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.feedburner.com\/fb\/a\/emailverifySubmit?feedId=611738&amp;loc=en_US\">!<\/a><\/i><i> And <\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/thereseborchard\"><i>c<\/i><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/thereseborchard\"><i>lick here to follow Therese on <b>Twitter<\/b><\/i><\/a><i>. And <\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/community.beliefnet.com\/beyond_blue\"><i>click here to join <b>Group Beyond Blue<\/b><\/i><\/a><i>, a depression support group. Now stop clicking.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is some more information on the blog, Drinking Diaries: Whether we are drinking it or not, alcohol remains a potent part of our lives. Our culture is saturated with it, steeped in it. We confront alcohol everywhere we go&#8211;from the home to the office party, date night to ladies&#8217; night, happy hour to super&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-addictionrecovery","category-mental-health"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Drinking Diaries: Where Women Spill Their Drinking Stories - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Drinking Diaries: Where Women Spill Their Drinking Stories - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here is some more information on the blog, Drinking Diaries: Whether we are drinking it or not, alcohol remains a potent part of our lives. Our culture is saturated with it, steeped in it. We confront alcohol everywhere we go&#8211;from the home to the office party, date night to ladies&#8217; night, happy hour to super&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-21T09:29:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/import\/imgs\/spilled%20wine.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Drinking Diaries: Where Women Spill Their Drinking Stories - Beyond Blue","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Drinking Diaries: Where Women Spill Their Drinking Stories - Beyond Blue","og_description":"Here is some more information on the blog, Drinking Diaries: Whether we are drinking it or not, alcohol remains a potent part of our lives. Our culture is saturated with it, steeped in it. We confront alcohol everywhere we go&#8211;from the home to the office party, date night to ladies&#8217; night, happy hour to super&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html","og_site_name":"Beyond Blue","article_published_time":"2009-07-21T09:29:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/import\/imgs\/spilled%20wine.jpg"}],"author":"Beyond Blue","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html","name":"The Drinking Diaries: Where Women Spill Their Drinking Stories - Beyond Blue","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/import\/imgs\/spilled%20wine.jpg","datePublished":"2009-07-21T09:29:34+00:00","dateModified":"2009-07-21T09:29:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/import\/imgs\/spilled%20wine.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/import\/imgs\/spilled%20wine.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/07\/the-drinking-diaries-where-wom.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Drinking Diaries: Where Women Spill Their Drinking Stories"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/","name":"Beyond Blue","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Therese J. Borchard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75","name":"Beyond Blue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","caption":"Beyond Blue"},"description":"Therese J. Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet.com. She is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression &amp; Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist. You may find her at her personal blog, her website, or you may follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.","sameAs":["http:\/\/thereseborchard.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/author\/tborchard"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}