Understanding the Language of Intoxication May Enhance Effectiveness of Gender-Specific Treatment Programs

By Hugh C. McBride

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.” (William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet)

According to an article that is scheduled to be published in the March 2009 edition of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, the use of different words by different people to describe similar experiences with alcohol may be having a significant effect on how those experiences are measured, quantified, and in cases of dependence and addiction, treated. 

In other words, “drunk” by any other name may be something altogether different. 

Ash Levitt, the University of Missouri graduate student whose study resulted in the Alcoholism article, said that researchers who ignore differences within the “rich and diverse vocabulary of intoxication-related slang” that male and female subjects use may be missing important distinctions in the nature of the experience that these subjects are attempting to describe. 

“There is tremendous variation in what effect a specific dose of alcohol will have in different individuals and in the same person on different occasions,” Levitt said in a Dec. 17 article on the WebMDwebsite. “However, alcohol researchers have largely ignored the language of intoxication.” 

These linguistic differences, Levitt said, may indicate more about the perceptions (and gender) of the speakers than they do about the alcohol-related effects that they are attempting to quantify. For example, in a Dec. 15, 2008 HealthDay News article, Levitt noted that women often use words with connotations that understate the amount of drinking they have done, while men’s language choices emphasize the effects of their drinking. 

“Men tended to use heavy-intoxication words more than women, which were also relatively more forceful in their tone, such as ‘hammered,’” he said. “Women tended to use moderate intoxication words more than men, which were also relatively more euphemistic, such as ‘tipsy.’” 

More than ‘Just Words’ 

Levitt reached his conclusions after his research team analyzed information that was provided by 435 college students between the ages of 17 and 24, the majority of whom described themselves as “moderate” drinkers. 

While women who had engaged in binge drinking were more likely to describe the experience as leaving them “tipsy,” men opted for words such as “hammered,” “wasted,” or “trashed.” 

At first read, the effort might appear to be nothing more than a “stating the obvious” study that confirms that most men are prouder of their alcohol-consumption ability than most women are. But Levitt’s interpretation of his results points to more significant ramifications. 

“Women could be binge drinking while psychologically perceiving their level of intoxication as being ‘tipsy’ or relatively benign,” he told HealthDayNews. “Such a perception could potentially mislead women, for example, to feel as though they are capable of driving after drinking because they are ‘only tipsy.’” 

With studies documenting an ever-increasing prevalence of alcohol abuse among American women, this information may be of particular interest to treatment professionals. 

For example, in a clinical situation, a patient’s misperceptions may result in unintentional misrepresentations of the degree and severity of her involvement with alcohol. Thus, asking a person how many times she “got drunk” in the past 30 days may not be an adequate method for assessing her drinking habits if the person being questioned doesn’t apply the same meaning to the word “drunk” as the clinician does. 

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Treatment 

Because a gender-specific approach is often the most effective means of helping a person overcome dependence on or addiction to alcohol or other drugs, Levitt believes that identifying language differences can help treatment professionals develop better methodologies. 

“Our findings can help clinicians improve these interventions by helping them understand which terms men and women use differently,” he said. 

Gender-Specific Treatment 

Because alcohol affects men and women in different ways, and because personal and societal pressures related to alcoholism differ depending upon the gender of the person with the problem, a number of highly effective treatment programs have developed gender-specific recovery models. 

If you or someone you know has a problem with alcohol, know that help is just a phone call or mouse-click away.