Is Alcohol Fueling South Africa’s GBV crisis?

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Is Alcohol Fueling South Africa’s GBV crisis?

18 June, 2020Articles, News

The link between alcohol and levels of violence in South Africa has been greatly debated since the 1^st of June, when the ban on the sale of alcohol was lifted. Our society experiences massive levels of gender based violence and subsequent to the lifting of restriction of alcohol sale, 21 women have been murdered in domestic violence incidents.

The question thus arises; “Are we able to demonstrate a link between alcohol use and gender based violence? “

In the President’s speech last night, he is quoted as saying, “In particular, we need to examine the effect of alcohol abuse not only on levels of violence, but also on road accidents and reckless behaviour. Several international and domestic studies show clear linkages between alcohol abuse and gender-based violence.”

Unsurprisingly, 85% of the victims of gender based violence are female, according to the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics. Women experience intimate partner violence at a 5-8 times higher rate than men and most of the partner abuse takes place in the home.

Domestic violence as a legal term includes different forms of abuse :

Physical acts, such as hitting, punching, slapping or pulling of hair;
Sexual abuse including rape, marital rape, treating a partner in a sexually abusive and demeaning way, and molestation,
Emotional abuse for example intentional and malicious attacks on a partner’s self-worth, and,
Psychological abuse including controlling the partner, blackmail, threatening harm to children, violence toward pets, and intimidation.

Violence against an intimate partner can also include stalking, social isolation (for example, not letting an intimate partner leave the house), and depriving them of resources and necessities.

Various studies have identified substance abuse as a factor in 40-60% of incidents of domestic violence, either in precipitating the abuse or exacerbating it. A study by the WHO shows that alcohol use increases both the occurrence and severity of the violence against an intimate partner. More than 20% of male perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV) had used alcohol or drugs immediately before the most recent incidents of violence. The Sonke Gender Justice Project conducted research into the relationship between alcohol abuse gender-based violence (GBV) in 2016. According to their studies, women with male partners who “come home drunk frequently” are 4 to 7 times more likely to suffer violence than those whose partners drink infrequently. Perpetrators of gender based violence are 5 times more likely than non-perpetrators to consume alcohol . Male-to-female aggression is 11 times more likely to occur on days when perpetrators have consumed alcohol. The Sonke Project have has also documented links between alcohol abuse and the transmission of HIV, where – problem drinkers had a 2.0 fold higher prevalence of HIV then non-problem drinkers.

Women in abusive relationships often report that their abusive partner coerced them into engaging in alcohol and drug consumption, although, even where women do not commonly engage in harmful alcohol use, men’s drinking is a risk factor. For example, a four-country study from Asia-Pacific, found if a woman’s partner drank alcohol regularly, they were more likely to experience intimate partner violence.

A study aimed at understanding the drivers of intimate partner violence (IPV), perpetrated by men and experienced by women, shows that there are multiple scenarios in which alcohol abuse leads to increases in intimate partner violence. “Consuming harmful levels of alcohol can lead to more frequent quarrelling about finances and household responsibilities, as money and time are spent drinking. For couples who often drink together, there may be alcohol-related diminishment of cognitive functioning, increasing the likelihood of arguments in relationships becoming violent. Qualitative research in one IPV prevention trial in South Africa, Stepping Stones and Creating Futures, found that one way women sought to reduce their IPV risk was not arguing with their male partner if he, or she herself, were drunk. While not transforming gender relationships, this was an important harm reduction strategy that emphasized how alcohol, quarrelling and IPV are interlinked”.

On the 1^st of June, videos went viral of queues of people waiting to get into outlets to buy alcohol. Although less than a third of adult South Africans drink alcohol, almost six out of 10 drinkers engage in binge drinking, according to a 2018 World Health Organisation report. The same study ranks South Africa as the 6^th heaviest drinkers in the world. South Africans who consume alcohol, drink the equivalent of 5.4 standard drinks per day. There can be little doubt that South Africans have a problematic relationship with alcohol.

Although this article has focused on violence against women, it should not be forgotten that violence fuelled by drug and alcohol consumption also takes place in same-sex relationships. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered individuals have higher rates of substance abuse than the general population, often due to the prejudice that many of them face in their lives, and this may manifest in violence carried out within their domestic unions.

As President Cyril Ramaphosa said, “We need to draw the lessons from this lockdown and decide how we can protect our society from the abuse of alcohol. Certainly, we need to provide greater support to people with drinking problems, including through rehabilitation and treatment…..Of course, it is not alcohol that rapes or kills a woman or a child. Rather, it is the actions of violent men. But if alcohol intoxication is contributing to these crimes, then it must be addressed with urgency”

Alcohol addiction is widespread due to its easy accessibility and social acceptance. If compulsive and uncontrolled alcohol consumption, binge drinking, blackouts and reckless behaviour under the influence dominate your life, you may be an alcoholic. If you or a loved one needs help with addiction or alcoholism, contact us for a consultation.

Resources :

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16549716.2020.1739845

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/274603/9789241565639-eng.pdf?ua=1

https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/murder-spike-noted-level-3

https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/factsheets/ft_intimate.pdf

http://www.dirco.gov.za/docs/speeches/2020/cram0617.pdf

https://genderjustice.org.za/article/alcohol-abuse-linked-gender-based-violence-increased-alcohol-prices-not-liquor-amendment-bill/

https://bhekisisa.org/opinion/2020-06-11-why-did-south-africa-ban-alcohol-during-lockdown-covid19-coronavirus-evidence/

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Meditation and Addiction

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Home / Posts tagged "#alcoholism" (Page 7)

Meditation and Addiction

10 June, 2020Articles, News

Step 11, of the 12 step programme encourages us to meditate, but what does it mean to meditate and what changes take place in our brains when we engage in meditation? How can meditation assist us as addicts?

Meditation is a practice where an individual uses various techniques in order to achieve focused attention and awareness, with the aim of achieving mental clarity, emotional calmness and general stability. One purpose of meditation is to observe ones own mind.

There are many different forms of meditation : mindfulness meditation, body scan meditation, breath awareness, guided meditation, visualization, loving kindness meditations, Mantra meditation, Kundalini yoga, Zen meditation, Transcendental meditation….there are hundreds of different types of meditations from a variety of cultures and religions around the world. There is no “best type” of meditation, what works for you may not work for someone else and what works for you today, may not work for you on another day. If you are new to meditation, then it is best to try a few different types and learn what works best for you.

What actually happens in our brains and bodies when we meditate ?

Associate Researcher in the Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital, Sara Lazar, has spent time researching the impact of regular meditation on our brains. One of her studies involving brain scans taken pre and post an 8 week course in meditation, showed an increase in the size of the hippocampus. The hippocampus plays a role in learning as well in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory. People who have experienced trauma or who are prone to depression have smaller hippocampi – studies showed that there was a correlation between regular meditation and an increase in the size of the hippocampus in these people. It was not the only part of the brain which demonstrated changes – the amygdala which is associated with how we experience stress, fear and anger also showed changes after 8 weeks of mindfulness training. When subjects were shown images containing emotional content -there was a decrease in the activity of the amygdala. Subjects for this study had MRI’s before an 8 week mindfulness course and after the course. A “relaxed” amygdala is successfully able to counteract an anxiety response by engaging the parasympathetic nervous system thereby slowing down our heart rates, deepening and slowing our breathing. When the amygdala is overactive, it releases cortisol and adrenaline into the bloodstream. These are stress hormones which provide us with necessary energy in times of danger but have damaging effects on the body in the long term if they are too often available in the body.

Other studies show differences in the temporoparietal junction, where people who meditate frequently and consistently are better able to see things from multiple points of view which is an important aspect when it comes to showing empathy and compassion. Meditators have also demonstrated higher levels of alpha waves which reduces feelings of negativity which also helps to combat against depression.

Increasingly, we are able to verify, scientifically, brain changes in subjects who employ meditation techniques. The effectiveness of meditation, in long-term changes in both behaviour and the brain, is influenced by how often one meditates and how long the sessions are. By retraining your mind through mindfulness practice, you create new neural networks. You can retrain your brain.

Meditation and Relapse Prevention.

In 2018, researchers looked at using mindfulness meditation in the treatment of substance use disorders and the prevention of future relapses. Mindfulness is the concept of being present in our own lives and is characterised by “a non-judgemental, non-reactive, present-centred attention and metacognitive awareness of cognition”. With relapse rates being as high as 60 % within the first year of intervention (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, and 12-step programmes ), therapists began to look towards mindfulness-based interventions (MBI’s) and Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP). Addiction wreaks havoc on our neurocognitive capacities. Chronic drug and alcohol use disrupts and usurps some normal brain circuitry. One of those is the reward processes in our brains. Mindfulness training can increase our natural reward responsiveness – such as our enjoyment of food. This in turn can reduce cravings. There is also no doubt that there is a link between stress and substance use disorders. Meditation teaches us to self-regulate stress and our own stress reactions. There is definitely preliminary evidence for the efficacy of mindfulness based interventions in the area of relapse prevention although more rigorous research designs with longer follow-up periods are required.

Meditation alone, will not be sufficient. There is little doubt that further research needs to be done in this field but there is now, thanks to technology, clear evidence that regular, consistent engagement with meditation can have a positive effect on our brains and can be a highly beneficial tool in our arsenal against the disease of addiction.

Sources :

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233302118_Meditation_as_a_Coping_Intervention_for_Treatment_of_Addiction

https://www.dovepress.com/mindfulness-meditation-in-the-treatment-of-substance-use-disorders-and-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-SAR

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/your-brain-as-laboratory-the-science-of-meditation/

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in-depressed-patients/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/za/blog/the-wise-open-mind/201004/mindfulness-meditation-addiction

Sara Lazar – How Meditation Changes the Brain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOIwtTmpc-I

The Scientific Power of Meditation : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw71zanwMnY