Drew Barrymore was interviewed on Watch What Happens Live last month, along with her Santa Clarita Diet costars Timothy Olyphant and the two actors who play their kids on the show, Liv Hewson and Skyler Gisondo. She was obviously drunk as she was slurring her words and speaking slowly. You can see a clip of that below. Drew dominated the conversation and it made me cringe how drunk she was. Life and Style quoted an “insider” who claims that people are worried about Drew and want her to go to rehab again. She famously was in and out of rehab at age 13 and 14 when she was an emancipated minor and was addicted to drugs and alcohol. It’s unclear whether L&S has any insider information or if they’re just going on Drew’s appearance on WWHL, which was damning enough on its own.
It looked like Drew Barrymore had a wonderful time drinking and chatting with Andy Cohen on the March 28 episode of Watch What Happens Live, but apparently, her friends weren’t thrilled with the star’s appearance. “They’re very concerned about Drew,” a source tells Life & Style, in regard to the actress’ alcohol consumption during the segment. “They fear it’s only a matter of time before she crashes and burns.”
Drew, 43, has been open about her childhood battle with drugs and alcohol. The Santa Clarita Diet star admitted to an alcohol addiction when she was just 13 years old, and she went to rehab twice by the time she was 14. Since then, the star has been able to get her life back on track, but her friends think she’s “playing with fire,” according to the insider. “The bottom line is that Drew’s an alcoholic and she’s drinking again,” the source continues. ‘She’s not hiding it.” Drew — who has two daughters, Olive, 5, and Frankie, 4 — needs to “rein it in,” the source says, “before she hits rock bottom again.”
I’m not buying this, not because Drew doesn’t need rehab or at least to cut down, but because I assume the people around her are sycophants, not friends who would ask her to face reality. That said, it does seem to be out of hand if she’s that drunk on WWHL. Of course Andy Cohen feeds the guests drinks and relies on them getting drunk and having loose tongues but celebrities should know this and plan for it, not get sloppy. Drew is the type to think she’s holding it together though. She even has her own wine brand. It’s amazing to me how many women get blotto every night and think it’s some kind of stress reliever and reward for hard work. I know because I used to be one of them and those were my friends. No judgment if you like a few drinks! There’s a difference.
Here’s the aftershow clip of Drew from WWHL:
Photos credit: WENN and screenshots from WWHL
When I married, became a mom, and moved to suburbia, I was shocked by the drinking done by the moms in my neighborhood. Not a few glasses of wine, these women come nine on would be wobbly when standing. Then they would load their kids into their SUVs and drive home a couple of streets over.
I hope Drew is ok – I’ve always had a soft spot for her because of her troubled childhood. However, as an adult, it’s time for her to take control of her mental health.
Yes exactly, this was what I was referring to. Moms are drinking entire bottles of wine every week night but it’s ok because it’s wine and everyone drinks to unwind after a hard day. It’s so common.
I moved to the UK a couple of years ago and to this day I am baffled by how mums and dads talk about week-end gatherings where they get literally pissed. It’s very common. You cannot chat with someone without talking about booze: how they are going to drink during the w.e., how they cannot drink the way they used to, how they tried to stop drinking but it’s just too good haha, etc.
It’s not so much the wine in the afternoon but the communitarian drinking here.
In the US it seems to be a common thing, the mum drinking wine – it made it to Modern family! There are a lot of jokes around Claire’s wine drinking…
My grandad was an alcoholic and it deeply affected my mother so that may be why I am more sensitive to it but damn these people are obsessed.
I hate hate the women and wine thing, it’s a thinly disguised excuse for alcohol abuse. Drew really needs to clean up her act for her children
I’m single and childless with a decent social life where i have a 1 or 2 glasses of wine 3/4 times a week (I know my limit and when to stop or switch to water/soda) but I know several people who have kids and they tend to binge drink on the occasions where they are allowed to hang out with other adults without the children. I have also seen families in pubs where the parents polish off a bottle of wine with lunch and then maybe have another glass each afterwards. Once i asked them why the drink more than me and the reply was ‘when you have kids you will understand’ and I thought ‘why would i want kids if am going to spend most of the time drinking and complaining about how hard it is’.
I have other childless friends who say the same, that the people they know with children drink more than they do.
@Digital Unicorn this is so true. My friends who are moms can easily down a bottle. They seem offended when I wave off the third glass.
I hear you all, I gave up drinking a few years ago on Halloween when all the parents in my neighborhood were out with their kids and their flasks and wine in coffee mugs and traveling wagon bars. It’s crazy. Anyway, I talked to my therapist about it and she said it was a dirty little secret for so long about how f%cking hard parenting can be and the drinking is a manifestation of people’s difficulty coping with either challenges of child raising, boredom from a reined-in lifestyle or both.
I narrowly avoided becoming a full-blown alcoholic when I was in my 30s, married, had a young child, and was living in the suburbs with a bunch of other moms who also drank like it was going out of style. I have always worked full-time, but I would still get totally shit-faced on a Tuesday night! I remember one night literally stumbling to bed and thinking “wow, this is too much.” I cut back completely (no alcohol) for a long time, and now only drink very occasionally, but never to get drunk (and I don’t). I feel like I narrowly missed disaster.
It’s VERY common.
I too agree with this. I have a family of alcoholics. From grandparents who were “traditional alcohols”, meaning hard alcohol all day long. My mother and her sisters are more of functioning alcohols because they drink wine. It’s like somehow since it’s “only wine” it’s OK and not the same/
As a single person, I’ve received lots of pressure over the years regarding getting married and having kids. My general feeling is that people just want you to join their misery. I think knowing other heavy drinks is the same thing. They just want you to join in their misery so they don’t have to feel bad and see their actions as a problem.
@Slowsnow
“I moved to the UK a couple of years ago and to this day I am baffled by how mums and dads talk about week-end gatherings where they get literally pissed. It’s very common.”
I live in UK and my neighbours all do it, mums and/or dads, often with their children around. Barbecue (even if it rains!), beer, little food and then they get all drunk from Fri to Sun. We don’t drink much (a beer a week in 2 people, usually on a Saturday) and the constant screaming and laughing until midnight on weekends annoy us so much that we are selling the house……..
@SilverUnicorn – i feel your pain. I used to live in a leafy London suburb and the weekends were a nightmare. It was bad enough when you were living next to a house share of 20 somethings but the families where worse TBH. I lived near (a few doors down) to a family who would basically drink and be loud from a Friday evening to Sunday lunchtime – there was one occasion when i was coming home late one evening (2am) and they were all drunk and i could hear the children crying – the parents couldn’t care less. Those poor kids clearly were not getting any sleep. These people were not working class types, they were well off middle class with an entitlement complex. They were hated by most people on the street – everyone was happy when they moved.
@Digital Unicorn
OMG. Yes and the children left on their own, it’s just an awful spectacle all together. Our neighbourhood is mixed, working/slightly middle class and retired people. I don’t know how they manage those who are retired with a constant, shouting mess like that until early morning (not to speak about littering and eventually damages to cars when they leave the party totally drunk).
This year was far too cold to have parties outside but… do you believe me I fear the summer because as soon as the weather warms up a bit they start with the barbecues and drinking parties?
I didn’t realize how prevalent and unhealthy the messaging was until I got sober. And now some of the wine moms are making their way to my AA group.
The “wine” issue among suburban moms is truly concerning. Last year in the ‘burbs I’d decline giant parties where adults got sloppy and kids weren’t put to bed until 2am. I offered neighborhood kids at my house during their shin dig (w my kiddos) and I was SHUNNED. I know I’m a buzz kill cuz I’m sober, I just felt bad for these overly tired kids around falling down parents. Seriously – parents In that ‘hood avoided me like I was the police or CPS!!
I drank too much when I was doing dog rescue very actively – the stress was killing me and I drank it away. A bottle or a bottle and a half of wine for about a year, almost every night. When I started to black out, I quit cold turkey. Well, I had a doctor give me a RX for anxiety (not a benzo – those are just a substitute – it was a SSRI) and it was the best thing I ever did. I don’t take anything now, but it did help with the stress.
Can I drink again? I don’t know. Was I an alcoholic? I don’t know, but I told myself I would NEVER drink again, and I didn’t and don’t. Even a glass or two makes people feel fuzzy and less than great in the AM, or at least it did me, so why bother??? I would rather meditate, do art, run, other things good for my brain!!
Quit drinking, Ladies!! I HIGHLY recommend it!! And I love Drew and hope she can quit and get herself together. I don’t think she was an alcoholic when young, but I saw a pic of her drinking beer about 5 or 6 years ago, and I was like UH-OH. Most people avoid alcohol if they had a drug addiction problem. Just too risky.
Yup, I have never been much of a drinker, but when my kids were little I drank a bit almost every night. It was the only way I could cope. I was miserable with babies. I had no babysitters or family to help and was stuck at home all the time, so the only way to “escape” was to get a bit tipsy. As the kids got bigger and I had more time for self care I stopped drinking, and now only do rarely on special occasions.
Parenting is effing hard for some of us. Coping with substances is not good at all, but I totally get why people do it.
Oh my god-yes, exactly this. A few of my friends (even in their 40s) really still drink a lot when we get together. One girlfriend carries a flask of vodka with her in a water bottle. As I’ve gotten older I’ve scaled my own drinking back (like one-two drinks generally a few nights a week, and none if I was driving) but a few months ago I had to stop drinking entirely because of a medication I’m on. I’ve really been observing the (huge) drinking that some people casually do-and thinking about my own past need to “de-stress” with alcohol and it’s been illuminating. One of my friends (who I meet up with regularly for lunch-so it’s not like we’ve stopped hanging out at all) keeps asking when I can drink wine again. I said “My not being able to drink is bugging you more than it’s bugging me!”
It’s true that it seems to bug others so much when someone is not drinking. Sometimes I will take a bottle of beer or glass of wine just to keep people from nagging about why I’m not drinking and then discreetly get rid of it.
My husband decided to go a whole year without drinking a drop of alcohol and he said the worst thing was how people nagged him all the time, asking why and trying to make him have at least a glass.
I’m always surprised when people I know talk about how much they drink, especially those with young kids.
My guess is the people who are bugged by others not drinking are probably self conscious about how much they ARE drinking, and don’t want to look bad. Which if that’s the case, maybe they are drinking too much and need to reassess, if it bothers them so much when a friend abstains.
And it is SO obnoxious to be the only sober one in a group of drunks. Ug. I can’t stand that. I do have a group of friends who understand that I don’t need alcohol to have a good time and don’t ever nag me about it. I like being with them better.
Definitely. I went out to dinner with a large group of people, and they asked me if I was pregnant because I ordered a soda vs. alcohol.
When I stopped drinking, I lost most of my social circle. People are uncomfortable when they drink and others don’t. They think they are being judged, even though I was not judging them. I didn’t do AA or anything like that, so it was hard to make new friends. Took a while, but I ended up meeting people who had interests in common with me, rather than drinking in common.
So many women I know or have known including myself have seemed to forgotten that wine is an alcoholic beverage,even though it’s seen as a sophisticated thing nowadays.I drank when my daughter was young and I was home alone with her-not a lot,and not always,but considered myself to be doing nothing wrong,so sad.I am grateful that I’ve learned when,where,and how to appropriately drink on occasion,and to never drive if I’ve even had just one.Nobody would be okay with a mom taking a Percocet and parenting/driving around,and society seems to tell us it’s okay if it’s *just*wine. I hope Drew is alright,and am glad that we are having conversations about this because moms drinking is at epidemic levels from what I’ve seen.
Sophisticated? Not if you drink it by the gallon like a few of my girlfriends do when we go out.
Wine should be consumed with food and with moderation to be ‘sophisticated’. You completely lose the taste of it if you drink 2 bottles in one night. It becomes just alcohol….
People excuse their wino habits because they tell themselves it’s much more sophisticated,than,say chugging down a six pack.Too much is too much no matter the beverage of choice.Im just saying they excuse their drinking because in their minds *its just wine *
This completely. The whole “Mom’s who need wine” thing has always put me off. I’m not being holier than thou either. I really enjoy having a glass or two of wine, or a good cocktail, a couple of times a week, but watching friend’s from a book club polish off a bottle of wine or more, in less that an hour, was actually scary, because I knew it was something they were doing almost every night. Not just at the book club. So many Moms sit in the stands of the hockey games, soccer matches, baseball games, etc. with thermoses or travel mugs of wine too. Wine is an alcoholic beverage. Finding excuses to drink it in excess isn’t cute or healthy. I get that Mom life can be stressful and boring, but find another way to cope.
THIS. I have some old friends that I am still close with, but we live in different cities. They are all about the hilarious wine meme’s on their FB pages. But when I see it up close and personal when I go for a weekend visit, it’s mind-boggling. Wine and beer at lunch, more wine at dinner, and then more wine when we get back to their house and chat into the wee hours. I’m not holier than thou AT ALL, and enjoy a drink every once in a while and honestly wish I could handle a little more (I love a good wine paired with certain foods, but the headaches the next morning are just not worth it to me–I’m 39 and I’m tired). But the sad reality is my friends are straight up functioning alcoholics and they DO NOT SEE IT AT ALL.
This year, my son has joined the more elite little league that is more expensive with lots of upper middle class suburban children playing. Saturday is our first weekend game, it’s at 5PM, and the coach sent an email inviting all the parents to bring tacos, margaritas, and Coronas (beer). It’s cinco de mayo, so I understand the mexican food, but the beer and margaritas at an afternoon game that we all have to drive to and from? With our kids? That seems crazy to me. My son played on the city parks and recreation league last year which for more lower middle class, city kids, and there was never any alcohol. I think we would probably be kicked out of the public park if we were drinking.
I used to nanny for a woman who worked at the hospital as a respiratory therapist. She worked from 6am-6pm, 3-4 days a week, and every morning that I would go to work, there would be an empty wine bottle or two from her the night before and an empty six pack of beer that her husband had drunk the night before. Their house was always a mess, I was the only one doing dishes or cleaning even though that wasn’t supposed to be part of my job, and their kids were out of control in the evenings and at night—refusing to stay at the table for dinner, sneaking sweets into their rooms to eat, making huge messes that they didn’t clean up, getting out of their beds all night long, peeing their pants even though they were potty trained, because their parents were busy drinking and then presumably too drunk to deal with making sure they cleaned up their toys and made it to the potty before bed, and then passed out and not caring about getting their kids back to their own beds when they wandered in the night. Those kids were so sweet and so good for me during the day, and just by paying attention to them and watching them and setting rules, I had them cleaning up their toys, and sitting at the table for every meal, and not having potty accidents, and sleeping in their bed for naps. Their mom would complain to me about how difficult they were and how she had no idea what to do to keep them at the table, or in bed, or from making messes, and having accidents. I’d give her advice about the type of routine that was working for me with her kids, but I think she was too busy drinking to parent them, and then feeling like she needed to drink to “deal with” their bad behavior, and then keep drinking after they went to bed to “relax” from the horrible day she had with her “bad” kids. They were solidly middle class/upper middle class and had their kids enrolled in good school, doing “classy” activities like ballet, and would throw them huge birthday parties, and buy expensive clothes and gifts, but the drinking got in the way of any parenting.
@L84tea When I turned 40, a group of friends gave me a pair of Lulu Lemon yoga pants and a case of wine as a present. It was meant as a joke. but the 40 year old mom, drinking wine in her yoga pants stereotype. is a huge reality in my social group and seemingly for a lot of other people too.
I have a friend who is a suburban mom who said she realized she was going downhill when she was finding ways to buy more wine for less money and was downgrading her choices until she was at the two buck chuck/gallon level. That’s when she realized it wasn’t about the taste anymore and stopped.
Now that I’m thinking about it, I work with people who all get together on weekends, without their kids, and drink and party. And they are in their early 50s and 40s. I used to do that for a few years, but I quit cause it started to run away with me. I have alcoholism in my birth family, so I quit, but many women I know are probably either alcoholics or on their way. Wine is just as much alcohol as vodka or scotch.
Maybe we need to dig a bit deeper on WHY people feel such a need to drink. Why do so many women see an entire bottle of wine (!) as a necessary part of life? What is missing from our lives that wine, or whatever, fills or at least masks. Have our lives become so empty yet so full that it’s too difficult to carry on without a mood altering crutch? It’s easy to say “just stop”, but you can’t take something away without putting something else in its place, and you can’t fill that place with something healthy if you don’t know what it is.
I think that’s the main issue, honestly. There’s a difference between going out every now and then and indulging too much and nursing a hangover the next day – and the women and men who get shit faced to solve problems/comfort themselves.
Someone can drink in excess and not be an alcoholic. But when you’re drinking because you HAVE to, or doing it in the vein of ‘comfort food’ and to deal with your emotions/’fix a bad day’ then you have a serious problem. There’s nothing wrong with relaxing from a hard week with a glass of wine. But if it’s becoming something you NEED to do, you really need to look at that.
I drank a bit too much last weekend. I didn’t have a hangover by some magnificent luck. But I would say I got drunk. This was at a house warming party going out with friends. But it’s the first time in about a year that I’ve been drunk, and I’m under 30 without kids. And I enjoy sitting by a camp fire and having a beer or a glass of wine and chatting with friends. More often than not – when I open a bottle of wine during the week I never end up finishing it. I’ve had so many half-empty wine bottles that I’ve poured out because I just never got around to drinking them and my husband doesn’t drink wine. I’ll have a glass with a meal occasionally, and that’s about it. It’s only recently that I’ve started to notice just how many adults have a drink because they ‘have to’. And even when they’re not drinking a ton – if you’re drinking because you ‘have to’ that’s problematic.
n the beginning I think it was a way for parents to differentiate themselves from the own straight laced parents. A sort of, “See I’m still a rocker!” or a, “I don’t give a f***!” type thing. But now it’s expected and common place. Also parenting is harder than it used to be. My kids are 11 and 9. By that age I was expected to be able to fend for myself, be left alone, get my homework done, etc. Now you can’t leave them alone at that age or CPS will be called. I had no homework in elementary school and I don’t remember my mom coming to school more than once a year. Today, I joke with my husband that having two kids in school is like having a second job. Between having to deal with school stuff constantly and the amount of homework my kids bring home it’s drives me insane. I know the topic here is alcohol but I know a lot of parents that skip that step and go right to smoking pot after the kids are in bed. I don’t see this trend of substance abuse in parents slacking off until raising kids ceases to be a blood sport.
I agree!!! When I quit drinking, I started doing art. I am now an obsessed artist!! Not cheap, but cheaper than a bottle of wine a night, and no hangover or blackouts!!
People do need a substitute. AA works for many but I think they need something more, something that relaxes and excites their brains. I have my substance abuse counseling license now and often think of opening a rehab that offers art, yoga, meditation, music, hiking, exercise, acupuncture, etc. Stuff to heal the brain.
Talk about ironic—suburban alcoholism in the 50s/60s resulted from people discovering that love/marriage/kiddies wasn’t the Holy Grail Of Life Paradise they were sold. Fifty years later, folks are still buying this crap—and still trying to drown their disillusion in booze. It’s not just because life is more complex and parenting is harder—it’s because society still pushes this lifestyle as ultimate happiness and people still fall for it.
Wow, this is insane. I’m a mother to a toddler and I have to say, I now feel pretty lucky that my friend group is not really like this at all. I remember one time going to a friend’s house and she showed me a bottle of “Mommy Juice” that someone had given her and she said something along the lines of “I guess this is funny but…isn’t it a little disturbing?”. If my husband and I go over to another couple’s house for dinner we will usually have a bottle of wine between the 4 of us. Maybe the husbands will have a beer before dinner as well. It’s very rare that anyone proposes opening a 2nd bottle. If we are at our home and not entertaining on the weekends we usually split a beer or have one glass of wine each. And my husband might have a scotch after dinner on the weekends, but not every weekend. don’t really get how you can function as a parent to a young kid if you are drinking heavily. Even if I didn’t have a job to go to, my son is often awake and ready to play by 6am. Someone needs to be able to get up and take care of him. I couldn’t do that if I was sleeping off a bottle of wine every morning!
As the daughter of an alcoholic, it makes me uncomfortable how many of our friends get WASTED in front of their kids. I know so many people who are, as far as I can tell, functioning alcoholics. I’m not opposed to having a drink or two around the kids (usually hard cider haha), but I can honestly say that none of my stepkids have ever seen me drunk. Even at my youngest’s 8th birthday party, all the adults showed up with a six pack, and one showed up with a large bottle of wine. We had soda & juice available because, y’know, it was a 8 year old’s birthday party.
I have been drunk only a handful of times in the past seven years because between 20-22, I regularly got blackout drunk but appeared functioning. That scared me enough to stop drinking to that level. I will not get drunk around my kids.
One of my best girlfriends stopped drinking entirely when her kids were young because she felt the same way. Her own dad was an alcoholic-and she didn’t want to have her kids go through this too. She didn’t even drink “a lot” by suburban mom standards but she said she realized that her casual drinking was getting out of hand.
We have friends who are functioning alcoholics. I talk about it w my son to show him it’s a lifestyle choice. I don’t drink at all- I work for every penny as a sole parent, I don’t have the option to get sick/hungover, and booze is a waste of money. He sees them embarrass themselves and or hungover plus a bit mean w their kids. I remind him that people like them are more normal than a sober person like me. He will make his own choices- but it’s a bit hard socially to be sober. Thankfully my other sober friends invite us for every holiday – it’s SUCH a relief and blessing to have my son w a sober family!!!
Actually, there is no such formal definition of “functioning alcoholic,” although we all know what you mean. I think the drinking is out of control for American women. I worry about our kids watching this.
But people drink for other reasons, not just fun. Over 80% of drug addicts and alcoholics have a co-disorder such as anxiety, depression, ADD or ADHD, or bipolar. Drinking is self-medicating, then runs away with many people, so if one has family alcoholics, the same brain chemistry may lead that person to be susceptible to abusing the same substances. It’s ALL about the brain chemistry, they are finding now.
Agree to all this. Living with an alcoholic really opens your eyes to our culture’s attitude about alcohol abuse and makes it 100x harder to get the addict in your life to accept they have a problem if they’re functioning well enough. I’m in my mid twenties and, while most people are respectful of the fact I don’t drink much, it still seems to bother some people. Watching someone destroy their relationships because of alcohol makes being drunk way less fun.
Congratulations to everyone here who accepted they had an issue and sought help (whether that be total sobriety or reducing alcohol intake). I understand how much of a struggle it is. Best wishes to you all!
@Veronica T Bless you for doing dog rescue. It’s so important and I can’t imagine the stress it would cause a compassionate person.
Wow. This is the most honest, revealing, wonderful thread I’ve seen here before.
This issue of over drinking is REAL and also AWFUL. Our friends are participating and we hate it and yet….these are our friends and neighbors and family members. People we care about. NOTHING in life is simple. You cannot just brush off someone and say, “oh, she’s a drunk and deserves all the bad she gets.” That is cruel, unnecessary and most of all, unHELPFUL.
I for one, cannot hold alcohol and feel BLESSED, I would definitely be a major drinker otherwise. It’s easy to get and cheap and works. But I get so dizzy and nauseous liquor has never been a problem.
But I have friends….omg…I watch my friends put away their wine and beer and slowly get drunk at parties, and all I want to do is go home and sleep. They all laugh at me, I am the party pooper the tired one, and I understand! I do. In some ways, I WISH I could pile on the alcohol and sit there in a stupor with them, but I cannot. So I take deep breaths, stay a bit longer each time so I am not the first one out the door. lol
Not to mention the single girls who learned to drink by watching Sex and the City and are putting away a half bottle of vodka a night and living on lettuce the rest of the time. I know so many of them. I met a friend not long ago at a hotel bar and she had drunk a bottle of wine before coming to the hotel, had had three glasses by the time I arrived (she got there early so she could drink as much as she wanted without me noticing, I guess) and openly pined to go back to her room, because there was another bottle of wine there waiting for her.
Her doctors have found lesions on her brain scan, which she and they cannot figure out. Because of course, she’s told them she’s been sober for years.
I hope she puts it together for her children.
I don’t think she seems drunk? She always has a bit of a lisp and a unique diction. I just don’t see anything to be concerned about here.
Not that this gives me special insight, my father was an alcoholic and Drew is very clearly drunk. She is slurring and trying very hard not to appear drunk.
I agree. She is really going for the “open your eyes and articulate technique” which is making her unaware of the fact that she is talking too much and at the wrong times. I stopped watching midway because it was so cringe inducing.
@ slowsnow-I am with you I didn’t and probably won’t watch the included video above,it’s painful to watch people humiliate themselves,like the rest of the day I’ll be embarrassed for her if I watch.
I think it’s funny how people KNOW she is drunk. I’m not saying she is or isn’t. She does seem impaired, but that could be a lot of things, not just alcohol. Just because you knew or grew up with an alcoholic does not mean you know how everyone acts when they are drunk. I’ve been close to a few alcoholics, and they really aren’t all the same. The real scary alcoholics are the ones who don’t seem impaired 10 drinks in, but then all of a sudden they turn into something other.
I’d have to see something more than just one show, before I’d believe she has an issue. Especially on a show where drinking is part of it. Granted the celebrities should be prepared, but maybe she doesn’t drink that much and it hit her hard, or she was on a pain killer and shouldn’t have mixed it, or she hadn’t slept, who knows. Too many avenues to speculate. But I see how the gossip would start.
Me too….I just think this is the way she always acts to be fair.
If I am wrong then I hope she gets help as I really like Drew
I can’t see the video at the moment, but was wondering the same – she has an unusual way of speaking, and I could see it coming off as tipsy.
I think in the past she’s said she can drink occasionally without it becoming a problem. If it’s one night out now and then, she’s probably OK. If it’s frequent or even daily…not a good idea. I know she’s said a lot of messed up things lately, but I always root for her, after everything she’s been through she’s been doing surprisingly well for most of her adult life. Whatever the situation, I hope she’s all good.
That’s the thing though, that “occasional glass” doesn’t work with alcoholics. Maybe for some people who drank too much and really managed to scale it back, but not for alcoholics who suffer from an addiction. They drink one glass and they’re in huge danger of falling right into their old ways. It’s so sad.
Also I know that’s Cohen’s shtick, but his people really should know better.
It is generally mean to even offer someone with her drugabuse history wine or anything else. That is beyond being thoughtless.
Very VERY clearly drunk.
I only watched a few minutes of the video, but that woman is soused. Timothy Olyphant looks embarrassed for/about her.
No that’s kind of the way Timothy Olyphant looks in most interviews.
Thought Timothy looked pretty over it as well
I’ve actually watched a fair share of Olyphant interviews (<3 him!), and I can't say I've seen him looking embarrassed for her/to be there before. But ok.
Drew Barrymore is likely very damaged. Given her upbringing you’d think she’d be very vigilant about Hollywood but when she seriously stated that no one had ever messed with her because she was “tough”, I knew she was still in serious denial.
Her friends are probably ones she made in NY when she had that quickie marriage to a non hollywood perv/rapist/druggie before she ran back to the warm embrace of what she’s likely more comfortable with.
Are you referring to Drew’s first marriage, when she was 19? I’d never heard anything about him, that’s crazy!
I really love Santa Clarita Diet…such a great mindless way to end my day. Not sure I have anything to comment on as far as her presentation here, but I can’t shake how much the daughter looks like Julia Stiles in her younger days ( a la 10 Things).
I hope Drew gets help soon. Alcoholics always think they have it under control until disaster strikes. And even then sometimes they refuse to acknowledge that their drinking is a problem.
It’s true. My old roommate’s bf had such a problem, always getting into trouble and/or injured when he was drunk. But he always insisted he could handle it, that “professionals” told him he didn’t need to give it up, that moderation was a form of “treatment.” I sometimes wonder how it worked out for him, as they didn’t stay together.
I hope Drew is ok and gets help if she needs it. I’ve always had a soft spot for her.
Sounds like he heard what he wanted to or he lied about how much he really drinks which is very common.
Drew has said that she doesn’t consider herself an alcoholic. She went to rehab when she was a young teenager in order to try to salvage her career so she didn’t really have the space to decide for herself if she was an addict so much as the label was put on her, and it’s important to remember that Alcoholism is a self-diagnosed disease. Drew keeps her actual personal life on lockdown, aside from what she chooses to release, but there have been some pretty notable periods where you can tell she’s partying hard behind the scenes (her entire early 20s, and the Fabrizio Moretti years). I don’t actually think that this clip is evidence of Drew having a problem, since Cohen expects his guests to drink. If it were repeated appearances that would definitely be a bigger sign.
Not sure about this. i remember reading her autobiography Little Girl Lost when it came out and in my mind at least the book was her discussing that she was an addict/alcoholic and how she got into recovery.
That book was written when she was a teenager. This was during the “Just Say No” years, and that was pretty much the only way she could get her career back. Because again: she has specifically said that she doesn’t consider herself an alcoholic. She owns her own wine label for goodness sake.
@Bridget
I read Little Girl Lost in my late teens because I’ve been a fan of Drew Barrymore for as long as I can remember. I remember reading about how her stay at rehab was outed by the Enquirer without her consent.
I did wonder how she managed to build a coherent narrative about trauma and addiction while still experiencing the aftermath. It felt vaguely exploitative in that she didn’t have people stepping in to protect her privacy and she was a minor.
Which is a long winded way of saying- I found your comments thought provoking.
She definitely seems drunk to me too. Hopefully, this was a “night out”for her and not an every night for her.
I can so relate to everything you’re saying here. I’m better currently, but have definitely been in the “mommy’s sippy cup” phase.
It is encouraged and justified by a lot of the moms I know. But honestly, drinking 2 (or more!) glasses every night after the kids went to bed was really not ok for me. I was always tired the next day and couldn’t wait to have my glass of wine in front of scandal or whatever the next night. I wasn’t realizing that I really was becoming dependent on it and my moods were getting worse without it. Then, when we’d go out I’d easily drink a bottle on my own and have a terrible morning… cue vicious cycle.
I still like my wine, but I’m trying to only have a glass an occasional basis… when I’m out or having a really nice dinner. Trying to see it as a treat, not a given. Really, Based on everything I’m saying here, I probably shouldn’t have it all! Yikes!
What a great conversation with such honesty here. I’m really impressed by everyone here.
I knew that I was in trouble when I began blacking out after wine and when I called it “my wine.” Just sharing.
And for anyone who thinks they need help and don’t want to go the AA way, there is a great group online called Women for Sobriety. I used to go there in the beginning just to chat with others who were quitting or struggling. I recommend it highly for women – a different framework than AA and lots of women find it more relatable.
Veronica I will have two years sober in June. I did AA for a while but there were a lot of predatory and preachy men in the groups and we don’t have women’s meetings in my town so I dropped out. Once in a while I’ll go to a meeting in another town. Smart Recovery really helped me, it’s all online and there are meetings online if you want that too. It’s based on rational emotive and cognitive behavioral therapy. I also read a book called “Quit Drinking Now” and it was so matter-of-fact that it helped me. Thanks for the recommendation for Women for Sobriety! I also like what you said upthread about doing immersive activities and healing the brain. Exercise and meditation have helped me a lot. This is a great thread!
Celebitchy, as someone who has followed your blog for years and struggled with alcohol dependency, I have found your posts about your sobriety and problem drinking in our society a pleasant surprise for a gossip blog. Reading through these comments makes me realize how prevalent the problem is and less alone. It’s also a wake up call to me, a single and childless grad student, that if I don’t address my issues today and stop making excuses for myself, I could easily go down a path that is troubled and depleting. I’ve always imagined that marriage and children would “change me,” and that my problem drinking is just part of a phase I’ve prolonged due to the stresses of grad school. But this thread has opened my eyes to the reality that if I use alcohol to cope NOW, I’ll likely need it WAY MORE if/when life gets more complex with a marriage and children. There’s no magic solution like I’d hope… just hard work, self-awareness, and an open mind. I want to thank the women who’ve shared here for their honesty and perspectives.
Thank you also to the women who shared alternatives to AA and the need to “fill your cup” in other ways rather than demean or judge people who turn to alcohol for emotional relief. I’ve tried AA in the past, and I enjoyed parts of it, but feel a similar longing for something different. I will check out the online resources you’ve mentioned here. Wonderful thread, thank you!
There are so many people I know with drinking problems. It’s an epidemic, but no one thinks there’s anything wrong with it. Most of my friends drink every day. I stopped drinking when I was pregnant and you notice it much more when you’re the only sober person. I’m not against drinking, but I think a lot of people are doing it too much.
You’re completely right about noticing people who over indulge when you’re not drinking yourself. I was taking medication during the holiday season one year and couldn’t have any alcohol for a couple of weeks. Watching others imbibe to excess while completely sober, was eye opening for me. It made me reconsider my own habits when it came to alcohol consumption. Enjoying a drink is nothing to be ashamed of but alcohol is such an accepted part of how we celebrate, soothe ourselves, self medicate, etc. that a person can become dependent on it and not realize it ,because so many people around them use it as a crutch as well.
I don’t get wine. It tastes like cough syrup, so I don’t get the desire to have a glass (or bottle) every night. I stopped drinking due to having alcohol flush and being on a medication that doesn’t mix well with booze. Plus, addiction/alcoholism is rampant on both sides of my family, so I mostly abstain. I’ll have a drink on my birthday and one for my anniversary, and don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.
Weed, however… I miss that.
I think Drew has done well for someone who was in rehab at an age when most people are hitting puberty. That’s still mind boggling. I can agree that she’s tough, given what she’d been through by the time she’d have been in junior high. But toughness doesn’t mean people will just leave you alone. Tough doesn’t mean smart or particularly emotionally intelligent, either. Harassment and assault have so little to do with appearances, and everything to do with power. Tough does not equal powerful. On a more flighty note, I’d expect more empathy from a Pisces.
I like a bit of red wine with certain foods. I do find it pairs well with, say, a nice steak, and I enjoy my steak more with the wine alongside it. BUT, you do not need a lot of wine to get that heightened enjoyment. A small glass, sipped slowly throughout the meal, is plenty.
My dad is basically a functioning alcoholic and now that I don’t live with him anymore I’m always shocked when I visit and realize the pace at which he downs wine. He’ll start drinking while dinner is being prepared and is always onto his second glass by the time the meal begins, and then always refills 2-3 times. And he pours VERY generously, and if a bottle still has something left near the end of the meal, it MUST be finished off. No putting a half empty bottle back in the fridge or whatever. Some evenings my brother will gallantly finish off the bottle just to stop my dad from doing it. It’s unpleasant. My dad has given up drinking a few times for Lent (due to us children bullying him into it) and there is a noticeable difference in his behavior, though he would never admit it. Last visit back to visit my parents we wound up having a couple of evenings where my parents were out and it was so much more pleasant and relaxed with just my siblings and our partners, and it was basically all because my dad wasn’t there being an obnoxious drunk.
I love wine, I grew up in a vineyard (for real, owners were my relatives).
However, do not think that the modern wine is even a ‘relative’ of the old one that contained no sulfites 😉
I love that show. Never seen anything quite like it. And the two kids are hysterical
I completely agree about “Moms need wine” being a current very common happening.
I don’t drink, and this acceptance of wine, wine and I have kids so I need wine. If folks were tossing back entire bottle of Whiskey every night, would they realize how much they were consuming then?
Ever notice how nasty, not funny, and tiring drunk people are? I don’t drink and I find drunks exhausting. Put down the liquor and go to bed, you’re drunk. Stand there while they ramble on…no.
Santa Clarita Diet is laugh out loud funny. Olyphant kills it constantly. He and the writers carry this show, the young actors playing the kids are great too.
I so agree about how nasty and mean drunks are.
I also agree about the show. Olyphant is so great!
I said this upthread, but my dad is basically a functioning alcoholic. He puts back a lot of wine every night. Family dinners are so unpleasant. He hogs the conversation and just goes on and on and on. People just start leaving. My husband was amazed when he first visited my parents, how my dad would basically just drone on and ooooooooooooooon at dinner about things that it was clear NOBODY else cared about. My dad has stopped cold turkey for Lent a few times (after my brothers and I bet him that he couldn’t), and the change in his behavior is noticeable. I wish he would stop or at least limit himself to one drink or SOMETHING.
I never thought it was wise for a person who struggled with addiction to own a wine brand.
How do you help someone who doesn’t think they have a problem?? My bro in law drinks EVERYDAY and it’s not a glass of wine but several beers. I once saw him start drinking at 10am and keep going all day. I haven’t shared my opinion with anyone other than my husband but since I drink myself ( only on weekends and only 1-2 drinks) I feel like should I even say anything?? I think my sister realizes he has issues but she married him and isn’t going to do anything about it.
I don’t know. I have the same issue with my in-laws. Some days they start at 11 am. They think they’re fine and they don’t have a problem because they only drink beer so that means they’re not alcoholics. And they hardley ever get hungover because their bodies are so used to it every day. But they can easily have 12 a day. They often don’t remember what went down the night before. I couldn’t imagine being 60 and getting plastered 3 nights a week. I cringe with embarrassment at how idiotic they look.
Never stay silent, say something. Someone has to! Even if they might say it’s none of your business or may attack you about your own drinking behaviour (no matter if it’s justified or not), it is important to speak up. By staying silent about issues like this you just make yourself a complicit, an enabler – I think it’s called co-addiction. They might not change their drinking ways but at least someone made them aware.
My fiancé has also been drinking too much in the past (“just” 1-2 beers after dinner every day but it was scary to see him getting annoyed when he could not have those), so I told him and made him realise the pattern he’s been showing. It took some time. I did that because 1) I love him and want him to be healthy and 2) I do not want to be with an addict.
I expect anyone who cares about me to be honest with me if I ever showed questionable, harmful habits. That’s what friends and family are there for.
Alcoholics have to hit their own rock bottom. You can’t force them to stop, go to AA or rehab. I know from experience with my brother. Lost his wife if 20 years due to drinking-constantly losing his job (in the trades). He’s a great guy when sober, but once he’s drinking he isn’t an”happy “ drunk.
I never ever drink any alcohol at all, not on my birthday or at a wedding or at some party or after a tough day at work or on the weekend.
I’ve seen lives destroyed by alcohol in my own immediate family, it left some serious emotional scars that I’ve been dealing with since childhood.
To me it’s not worth it, obviously not only financially, but mostly emotionally, I have enough problems to deal with in regular life as it is.
Why would I add a drinking problem to my other problems???
Most people are under a lot of pressure and stress and wine has become more “acceptable” in society than other types of alcohol, but drinking will not solve any of our issues.
I have friends who have a glass of wine with their dinner on Friday and Saturday night, which I think is very reasonable.
They also get a bit tipsy on their birthday, which is fine, as long they don’t drive.
I find drunkenness very gross.
I realize that some people might be an alcoholic, I hope they seek help or someone helps them to get into treatment and I wish them the absolute best.
Alcoholism is a serious disease that is not being taken seriously enough.
ITA. I never drink either. My body just does not get along even with small amounts.
It’s scary to see how much other people are drinking…and how much they are insisting on non-drinkers to join in. It shows how insecure they become about their drinking when you just say no. I started calling them out when they just won’t stop pressuring me to drink “at least one glass”. I won’t drink or even just hold on to glass of alcohol just to make someone else feel better about themselves.
I am a few years younger than Drew and have watched her since the 80s when we were both kids. She always came across as so kind and I loved seeing how she seemed to finally overcome all the crap she had to deal with as a child. If this story is true, it makes me so sad.
Liv is their kid and the other one is their neighbor.
Ok I’ll fix that!
I dont think the mom drinking is as bad as everyone thinks it is. It’s a typical 30/40-something year old joke and its irritating. It’s a thing like Kate Spade bags and Hunter boots. Everyone I know who loves the mommys sippy cup joke can’t handle 1 mimosa let alone a glass of wine.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/binge-drinking-continues-to-rise-particularly-among-women-and-seniors-2017041811603
http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/ct-heavy-drinking-is-killing-women-in-record-numbers-20161223-story.html
Some good facts and figures in those two illustrating that drinking and binge drinking is on the rise…especially for women.
@reverie
I am not in the US and the subtext I am getting is that mums drink a glass or two of wine (or many more) because it is considered classy and therefore safe. It has become a trend to the point where it is in sitcoms and the expression “I can’t wait to get home and have a glass of red wine” is definitely out there. If it’s getting out of hand or not depends on the testimonies people are leaving here and from what I am reading (from people who did / do it or have seen it), it seems to be a thing.
In the UK there is definitely a drinking problem but a democratic one: everyone does it!
Sorry I’m in the UK and everybody definitely doesn’t do it! I’m now at the age when my friends are grandparents and neither they or their children are alcoholics. Personally, if I open a bottle of wine it lasts me three nights. I don’t open a bottle of wine every week and I don’t drink much in between, often nothing at all.
I’m not saying there are not alcohol problems, obviously there are but reading this thread anybody think everybody was an alcoholic!
I admit that the sight of city centres in the UK, on Friday evening and weekend of 20 and 30 year olds getting absolutely plastered, is a considerable concern. But again they don’t all do this.
I don’t drink at all. I did my stint in my 20’s and never looked back. I just don’t care for the taste. It is a real thing about day drinking at “playdates”. Now in my late 40’s I get to feel like the nerdy HS girl who won’t take a sip…fun times :/
I’ve sold wine for the last 20 years, and going to parties am surprised by the terrible wine people drink on a regular basis. Layer Cake tastes like chemical bacon juice, and these types of mass produced wines really aren’t that inexpensive. I’d say drink less, and better. Also it’s blood alcohol not whether you feel drunk. Any drunk will say they feel fine but one drink can put you over the limit.
Right?! A cute label does not mean a good wine. When you have the good stuff you realize just how bad all the stuff you’ve been drinking actually is.
One of my best friends (also a mom, actually) is OBSESSED with wine and still manages to have the absolute WORST taste in wine out of anyone I know. It’s actually impressive to see the garbage that she drinks. Its like people who say “I love beer” while reaching for a Bud Light. You don’t love beer, you love watered-down piss in a can.
PS-If the label has a kangaroo or a footprint or an oak leaf on it, it’s probably not that good.
I’m kidding.
Sort of…
lol my mom loves the footprint stuff. She doesn’t actually enjoy wine – she enjoys alcoholic juice cut with wine basically.
I’ll buy so many that she can’t drink because they’re too strong for her. Some of my favorites are from local wineries – I pay a little more but not exceptionally more- and they’re GOOD. And I’m at least supporting local business.
I have to say I occasionally just want garbage beer though. I like my bud light platinum – but I won’t say it’s a ‘good’ beer ahaha. But it’s when I just want something light and basic while BBQing. Alexander Keiths is a big beer in Nova Scotia and I always like that one – but it’s nothing super fancy amazing either. It’s just an IPA. They do a great tour at the brewery in Halifax though – and it’s actually super interesting. It’s been brewed in there since 1820 and the building has ‘secret’ tunnels that AK created so that he could get to and from the brewery quickly / move beer easily. It’s actually pretty creepy – and Halifax has a rep for being a super haunted place because it’s SO old, and there have been a good deal of deaths outside of people just dying from health/old age. Halifax explosion, there’s a fort – all kinds of things happening that give it that creepy edge.
Some guys we know started a microbrewery in the last year or so and it’s taking off pretty well. Bunch of teachers who are super into beer and were always big beer drinkers growing up. They’ve come out with some really tasty drinks – and they’ve been pretty experimental in a good way.
@kitten- you are absolutely correct. Those “wines” I feel like are solely for people who go through bottles a week and couldn’t care less about what it actually tastes like.
Also, I just saw a meme with bear grills about when he’s not drinking his own piss coors light is the next best thing and I died. I used to always say and actually though I hated beer because all I had when I was in college and in my twenties was crap like bud light and Naty Ice. Those are just for getting people drunk. I do hate those beers but I love a good beer. Luckily my brother in law works at a great brewery and we get a lot of free craft beer.
“people who say “I love beer” while reaching for a Bud Light. You don’t love beer, you love watered-down piss in a can.”
Bwhahaaha!!! Dying! I’m such a snob in the beer department. I can’t handle drinking most mass-produced beer. I rarely even drink beer that is made outside of my state, and if I do, it is from a neighboring state. There’s such a huge difference in quality.
@kitten
Preach! Do not be amazed that usually the heavy wine drinkers cannot even choose a good wine, as they cannot afford to buy nice wine by the bottle if they spend 100 $ each.
Usually they tend to buy cheaper wine so they can drink more.
@Tiffany
Love ales locally produced too 🙂
I get that sometimes people want a crappy beer. I’m not one of those people lol but I get it. I would say that if I’m utterly desperate, I would get a Naragansett. To me, it’s the least offensive bad beer out there.
But I am 100% a beer snob. New England IPAs (in my completely biased opinion) are the best brew style happening in the craft beer movement. I wish I could take all of you guys on a beer tour around my neighborhood. There are so many amazing, award-winning breweries within a few miles of my house: Trillium, NightShift, Mystic, Down The Road, Idle Hands, LampLighter…and on and on.
And IIRC (?) all of us don’t have kids so we could go boozing free from judgment lol.
But yeah, I love how craft breweries are popping up EVERYWHERE, in all corners of the country. A brewery actually just opened up in my tiny little hometown and it’s a beautiful thing to see.
Any recommendations? I currently drink barefoot wine. Riesling or Moscato. Red wine gives me a headache.
It gives you a headache because of the sulfites (needed the most for red wine, so it doesn’t turn into vinegar).
Non-marketed red wine is fabulous and ‘thicker’ than the one you buy in a shop/supermarket.
It can be challenging recommending wine because people are so specific in their tastes: “I don’t drink red, only white” “I only like French wines from the Provence region and Napa Valley chardonnays” and on and on.
But if you’re a little more open-minded, I suggest my go-to wine: a crisp, bright New Zealand (Marlborough preferably) Sauvignon Blanc. Villa Maria is my all-time favorite, but Geyser Peak, Oyster Bay, Cloudy Bay (JFC they all have the same damn names lol) are all really good.
I normally don’t care for Chardonnay but Cake Bread Cellars Chardonnay Reserve is seriously one of the most complex and incredible-tasting wines I’ve ever had in my life. It’s also like, $56 a bottle (!) so maybe for special occasions or if you see it on a menu at a fancy restaurant, get just one glass of it. Love a nice Argentinian Malbec and you can get a decent bottle for under $20.
But if you’re not opposed to white wine and like a nice, fresh, apple-y taste, a NZ Sauvignon Blanc is a really refreshing wine to sip on a warm summer evening 🙂
@kitten- LOVE Cakebread. We actually fought over it at a family thanksgiving a few years back lol. Also like Dutchers Crossing which is around the same price point I believe.
Sorry but NZ sav blanc is totally played out and has a sharpness like battery acid. If you want to try something different without that godawful acidity try Australian SB or any other country than NZ really. Or try a nice semillon sav blanc or pinot grigio, a nice crisp white without the harshness.
To be honest: I don’t drink. However, I try a tiny sip occasionally when people start raving about their oh so awesome drink – be it wine, beer, cocktail – covering any price range. That stuff tastes all the same to me. It’s disgusting and I started to think that just say this to come off as somehow sophisticated. I’ve seen a wine tasting where professionals were served different kinds of red coloured white wine and they all made a fool of themselves not noticing what they were actually drinking. It’s ridiculous.
Do pizza, roast beef, and cake all taste the same to you, too? LOL
It’s ok to not like alcohol, but you’re mistaken if you don’t think there’s a distinctive difference in taste and quality in wine, beer, cocktails etc.
I don’t believe the friends part, BUT as a former alcoholic, she should know to stay away from the stuff. Best to her.
She’s been drinking alcohol for several years now actually. There are pictures of her drinking wine and beer with friends and boyfriends. Many former drug addicts believe they are still able to drink without repercussions for some reason. Eventually the alcohol will take you down. It may happen much slower than with drugs, but it will happen if you’re a drug addict.
I’m an alcoholic, retired Veteran, business partner, and mom of three amazing grown children.
For years and years, I just drank wine. I thought, “Europeans drink wine every day from the time they are children.”
Well, you drink more as you go on and sooner or later, it WILL catch up with you.
You might be 45 or 50 or older but your liver just gives up and puts up a white flag.
Now, that sucks and rehab and other treatments only work if you really want to quit and most alcoholics only want to quit part -time.
That being said, you can quit or at least quit part-time or cut way back.
Like many of those trying to lose weight or adhere to a diet for diabetics or low-carb or vegan diet, you might fall off the wagon at times but what’s really important is -in the words of Chumbawamba – get back up again. 😉
I never thought I’d say this but pot is legal in my state and certain types of edibles (Cheeba Chews) can help you get through the withdrawal and stay away from alcohol.
You can’t use that as help if you get drug tested for your job or other reasons but it can help especially if you just eat one 30 minutes or so before going to bed once in awhile and don-‘t wake-and-bake and become a stoner but it’s a slippery slope.
Drew seems sweet but she’s been an alcoholic since she was a kid.
She’s going to fight it her entire life.
I wish her luck and a lot of people who are stating, “I only” and “I only” are kidding themselves.
Hi @Nancypants, thanks for sharing your experience in such a truthful way. I am European and while it is true that my parent’s generation drank from a very young age, it’s not as true for the following generations. My dad taught me how to appreciate wine when I was about 16 but I wasn’t allowed to drink. I only started having a sip of wine from 18 on and would never have dared being shitfaced in front of my parents. My drinking was about the taste and not the possibility of being drunk.
I would say there is a functional alcoholism in Europe whereby we drink during meals every frigging day. My dad cannot go a meal without his one glass of wine. But not more than that. I have never in my life seen him drunk.
I hardly consume alcohol as it makes me feel shitty and it’s so bad for your health. It bugs me to see so much functional alcoholism around me and also the fact that being drunk is considered funny at dinners or in professional cocktails. I loose respect for people I work with who get drunk every time we have to be at a cocktail or have an official function of some kind. I don’t get it and it gives me second-hand embarrassment. I really do not find it funny to see people loosing their ability to behave unless you’re in a party, dancing and letting go for your birthday or something.
“Europeans drink wine every day from the time they are children.”
This is such a ‘myth’, in a certain sense. True I started to drink wine when I was a child (at 3), but that wine was produced by my relatives’ vineyard. It was genuine and alcohol content varied greatly from year to year.
That disgusting red thing they commercialise as wine nowadays is nothing like the ‘real’ one and children should not drink it, adults should possibly consume it with moderation.
@Slowsnow
It’s not dysfunctional alcoholism, it’s our Mediterranean culture!! Food and wine, always 😉
Strange to say, I have spent more time being drunk in my first years in UK than I ever did whilst I was living in Italy.
Alcoholics, for us, are those who drink without consuming any food. I don’t think I ever saw my father drunk and he drank a glass of wine at lunchtime and dinner for about 65 years. He’s now 80.
Wine is the new ‘mommy’s little helper’ (aka little blue pill). Women have been doing this as long as I can remember. Way back when I was teens and younger I remember mom’s friends sucking slushy vodka mixers by the pool all day. Wine. Hard liquor. Barbituates. Nothing new here at all. What’s alarming is the ignorance…until some bad shit happens. Alcohol killed my father (he drowned in his own pool). My best friend went on a bender and ended up swallowing a bunch of pills while out driving. They found her the next day parked behind some trees on the side of the road. Alcohol is the worst. I can have a rita or a glass of wine with my meal and be totally fine with a drink-and-a-half. But my husband can’t. He has a mental fight with abstinence every single day so I just don’t drink or keep any at home. It’s awful what it does to so many people. I think every drinker should put down their glass, and at 4:20pm every day, we all light up a giant doob at home and be happy, cook a nice meal and enjoy the people we’re with. No more yelling, over-talking, being annoyingly loud and nonsensical, slurring, driving, driving, driving….just relaxed and hungry.
So much this. The whole “mommy’s little helper,” thing going from barbiturates to wine and back again. Something is wrong with the way our society is structured when women need pills and drinks to get through their day and to help with parenting. And I’m not meaning this in a “if you need wine to parent, there’s something wrong with you as a woman.” I’m meaning it like “if so many mothers need wine or Valium to get through their day, then there’s something wrong with what we’re asking women to do.” Is it that we’re all so much more isolated? Staying home in our large houses, or driving around in our large SUVs, with our kids all day by ourselves? We are often the sole caretaker of our children, even if we’re married. There is not so much knowing your neighbors and feeling like you can leave your baby with the lady next door while you run an errand. There is less multigenerational, extended families living together all helping. There is so much pressure to do everything perfectly and spend your life slaving away to make your kids happy and healthy, to give them everything. And for those of us that work, who are sending our kids to daycare or leaving them with a babysitter, we feel guilty about it. Life shouldn’t be this isolating and lonely and difficult and painful for so many of us.
Precisely. All of this. Our society has a lot to overcome. Other countries have put more focus into it’s citizens’ health and happiness. Ours is focused on, imo, abundance, self-indulgence, impatience, etc. The motivation coming at us 100 miles an hour is perfection in all things… marriage, kids, family, jobs, bank accounts, popularity, appearances and on and on. It’s all skirting the perimeters of our essential being, and it’s unattainable so there’s a massive amount of guilt, stress, pressure, sadness, anger, jealousy…all the negatives. The happiest people seem to have conquered expectations. They have defined their own purpose. Many have moved. Some have sold everything and travel the globe with their families for a more hands-on education. Most of us though are mired in musts and have-tos. We’re stuck in a system that rapes us through cost of living atrocities. It’s no wonder we seek nightly mental vacations.
I agree, it’s this obsession with perfection and the very high, absurdly difficult standards one has to live by to achieve that perfection. And when I wonder about the fact that we’re so much more isolated and less social (as in non-competively social), people mention that they’re connected with other people o line through social media. But I worry that social media is becoming more of a way to flaunt your perfect life image with everything curated to share only the best parts of your life, and a way to judge and be judged by others. There are so many new things that we feel like we need to worry about for fear of being judged—especially when it comes to parenting. So much of marriage, parenting, and socializing has become about making it perfect, doing the most, doing the best, fitting in more and more and at great expense. From children’s birthday parties becoming hugely elaborate; to anytime you hang out with girlfriends being about taking pictures of yourself, your makeup, your outfit, your meal, your drink, your car; to proposals, weddings, and anniversaries becoming massive things that need to be expensive, gorgeous, and exciting. Plus you need to worry about having the best house, which needs to be clean and decorated to magazine standards. You have to be having interesting and exciting sex often, preferably while wearing expensive lingerie and making it a special “date night” thing with candles and massage oil and whatever else. Standards just keep getting higher and higher, and we’re spending all this time working towards meeting the standards, with most of the work falling to women, that there seems to be no time left to make the guilt-free, low-pressure social connections we need in order to feel fulfiilled and relaxed.
“I agree, it’s this obsession with perfection and the very high, absurdly difficult standards one has to live by to achieve that perfection.”
The United States Of Advertising never sleeps, makes people insatiable—and always raises the goalposts. The life it presents is impossible to afford or live—but decades of propaganda have us all convinced on some level we should attain it.
I wish I could smoke (ingest) weed and function like a normal person but I cannot. I envy those who can. It affects me like alcohol… I talk too much and definitely can’t drive on it.
It’s odd to me that you envision a world with everyone still using a substance to relax.
I have Facebook friends from high school and college whose primary posts are supposedly funny memes about drinking and what hot messes they are, can’t wait for Beer o’ clock,etc. It’s such a part of their identity, and they have their circle of friends who “like” these things. Meanwhile, my graduating class is about to turn 50, so they never grew out of it.
We may have some of the same friends lol. I always feel so out of it because I never drink, never plan my life around drinking and don’t find mom memes about coffee and wine funny. Oh well, I was an out of step teen and now I guess in my 40’s I haven’t changed much…
I’m about your age and yes the amount of alcohol still being consumed by my graduating class is astonishing. One friend refers to her drink of choice as her “friend”. As in, “Just relaxing by the pool with my friend “Brand Alcohol Name”. I just went through my FB feed and deleted 3 out of the 5 posts I’ve made since Jan 1st that were alcohol related, including a profile pic of me holding a glass of wine. I’m going to think twice about posting anything further even if it’s a funny meme. Maybe it’s not that funny after all.
The marketing of alcohol to women as a “relaxant” is a major problem. It’s been successful, obviously, but alcohol is a known carcinogen along with all the other problems that it carries, and can raise the risk of breast cancer among others. It’s not a health drink. This is all marketing and advertising and we’re gullible.
Things to truly reduce women’s stress: Fix women’s health disparities. Pay better, equal wages. Promote fairly. Offer quality, affordable childcare. Reduce domestic violence and rape. Have access to safe abortions, surgical and medical. Ensure access to effective contraception, too. Make sure all children are properly vaccinated, housed, fed, watered and educated. Make men better. Alcohol doesn’t take care of any of these things.
And people will yell at me now as if I’m taking away their bottles. This isn’t about prohibition: This is about understanding the nature of what you put into your body and intelligently evaluating its risks and rewards.
If alcohol had none of the cultural baggage and was just invented to come on the market today, it would be more heavily regulated as well as given more warnings.
Yes, it amazes me how alcohol gets a pass but marijuana is “so horrible!” I’ve done and seen people do terrible things while drunk. To me, its a lot more dangerous than marijuana.
I totally agree that there are serious reasons behind women’s stress that seems nearly universal across the masses. We’d be better off if the root causes were addressed, that’s for sure.
Reading all the comments here has been a real eye opener. I sometimes joke about mommy needing a glass of wine or mommy’s special juice. I have a drink a few nights a week but only ever one since I’m still breast feeding my 6 mo old. Ive also spent the last 3 years being pregnant and breast feeding so my tolerance is low. One small glass is more than enough. The comments make me realize I need to reevaluate how I phrase things. My kids pick up so much so quickly. I worry about what this wine culture teaches kids about drinking. My kids already have alcoholic grandparents they maybe could stand to see a healthier approach to alcohol from their mother. In future I am going to cut out the cutesy mommy needs wine b.s..
You are very insightful and very honest. Good for you.
I was sitting at a suburban bounce house birthday party this weekend talking with a mom who said they were all in bad shape because they’d all overdone it saturday night. And of course, they were serving alcohol at the birthday party and I just looked at them all and thought, “You’re all functional alcoholics.” I don’t know how they do it. In my (very affluent, very white) area they’re all a size 2 and all blonde. None of them eats a thing, but they all drink heavily and work out non stop. I don’t fit in at all, which used to bother me, but I’m so glad after five years here that I can still say that.
I started drinking more once I had a child for sure. Not partying just having a couple glasses of wine a few week nites and then a bottle on the weekend. I would go through on average two bottles per week by myself. My husband isn’t much of a drinker so this was very worrying for him since we both had alcoholics in out families. Really the only thing that stopped me was getting pregnant again which I am heading into my last trimester. I do miss it alot so will be interesting to see what the future holds. Hopefully going without for so long broke the cycle and lowers my tolerance.
You should start worrying yourself if someone starts to worry about you. This is a sign to re-evaluate your habits. Two bottles of wine is way too much. Good luck for staying on track!
@Sara – Let the abstaining-with-pregnancy mode be your “new beginning.” Your tolerance for alcohol will be way down, and you won’t be craving it. You don’t need to begin drinking again (esp if you’re breastfeeding, your baby doesn’t need it), but you CAN take this opportunity to stop.
For example, exercise. I don’t mean the over-the-top, gotta sweat, kind. When you feel like you need a drink, load the little one(s) into an baby jogger/stoller and take a walk. It doesn’t have to be a long one. Or get on the floor and do 10 push-ups, sit-ups, or much-needed stretching. Your little ones will watch, and you’ll be a great example for them. Just getting down on the floor at their level is an invitation for fun. Roll around, laugh, and incorporate the exercise in.
Distract yourself from the thought that alcohol is the only way to find relaxation. Deep breathing (slow and steady) is also a great way, and so much more beneficial for your body. Re-train your mind and your old habit(s) will not resurface. Truly, it only takes a couple weeks to break a bad habit. The issue with many people is not realizing they’ve developed a bad (harmful in the long run) habit such as drinking to cope with normal emotions and feelings.
I have never been a huge drinker. I didn’t start drinking in college until I was legal. Some of my friends used to try to pressure me or lecture me about not finishing a cocktail when out at the bar. Even for special occasions (birthdays, weddings, dinner parties) I will probably not go beyond a drink. I tend to stick to wine because I love it but I know wine makes me sleepy and gets me drunker faster than beer or spirits. So I will probably nurse the same glass of wine all night. People rarely notice anymore and leave me alone. Now that my friends are starting to have kids, it’ll be interesting to see if the dynamic changes. I don’t think any of my friends are huge drinkers since our college days are behind us along with our early twenties. I dunno, it’s never been hard for me to restrain my alcohol intake. I’ve never had the urge to down multiple drinks in a night. I love wine and spending time with my friends but I know how not to overdo it.
@Amelie, one brownie point awarded for your consistent lack of interest in alcohol. Good luck and may you remain forever superior in your drinking habits lol.
@Capt Mo – Your sarcasm is unnecessary. I think Amelie was being honest in assessing herself while wondering (maybe worrying) if her social circle would evolve into a problem area that many deem “acceptable.” I give her more credit for being self-aware.
There is cause for concern. I feel for Drew. You don’t just stop being an alcoholic. I know because I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life trying to convince myself that I’m not longer an alcoholic, when indeed I am. That slope gets mighty slippery…..
Wow, this article really brought out all the Judgey Judy’s and Mommy Shamers. First off, a bottle is 6 servings max, that is 3 drinks per person and a lot of people here are appalled that a husband and wife might split a bottle for lunch. For most adults, 3 glasses of wine is a pleasant buzz.
It bothers me that all the puritans here are so eager to brag that they have been drunk only once in their life or that that they have NEVER even looked at alcohol. Ok, take your trophy and move on lol.
Yes, I agree that there are people out there like Drew who have a disease and cannot control their alcohol intake but most of the stories I here you ladies clucking about are concern-trolling with the intention of making people feel inferior to your self-righteous views on inebriation.
There is a marked tone of superiority running through the comments for sure. I wonder how many moms read through the thread while sipping on their wine like “damn, tough crowd” lol.
I dunno, Kitten. I have three kids and the last time I had any alcohol was 2016. I have functional alcoholics in my family who are very defensive about it and I’m just…. I’m just sick of it. That’s a shallow, petty response, but that’s the frame I’m coming at it from.
And I think there is something rather pathetic and sad about a culture in which one doesn’t drink for pleasure so much as one anesthetizes. That isn’t everyone, but miss me if that isn’t a huge problem in our country.
Yeah, there are many, truly sincere comments on the culture of casual alcoholism, and people’s stories of their own personal issues with alcohol. I enjoyed these. But as you go further on, there’s some real self-satisfied back-patting, lol. I can’t drink, because I have addiction issues, unfortunately. I am certainly happy for those who are able to enjoy a glass or two of good quality wine or beer without ill effect, though.
I think it might be more that the people replying in this thread have seen issues in themselves or others ( because they don’t imbibe/overimbibe), and have been able to step back.
People who aren’t able to self- evaluate successfully are not going to be willing to comment for the most part, because it would be very uncomfortable to essentially admit to issues.
TL/DR? IMO the sample of cohorts provided in commentary is skewed. I don’t see commentary as judgey at all, just sharing and concern, as people who have been there, or seen loved ones suffering at their own hands.
I mentioned a rita in my post and now it’s all I’m thinking about lol. I’m thinking I need to call a friend for dinner out tonight lol.
@ Capt Mo,
No, I do not drink, because I’m somehow superior.
I’m just an ordinary human being who has seen first hand in my own family what kind of destruction alcohol can cause.
I’m telling anybody what to drink, when to drink and how much to drink or not to drink at all.
But I have to say that I’m sick and tired of being offered alcohol over and over after politely and repeatedly telling people : thank you, but I don’t drink alcohol.
Not all people that don’t drink struggle with alcohol addiction or are somehow snobs, some of us had a bad experience as children seeing our family being hurt by alcohol consumption, so we choose to avoid drinking alcohol.
What is wrong with that???
hear hear
Thanks for your comment. I’m fine with my 2 glasses a couple of times a week. Life is too damn stressful and I need to unwind at the end of a long day at work.
Wine has a strong antioxidant in it called resveratrol. It’s actually healthy to have one or two small glasses of wine a couple times a week I’m not seeing how this equals a problem. I assume this is how normal people drink.
I’m an alcoholic. When I drank I thought everyone else was like me and some people just had better control than me and could stop themselves after 2 or 3 drinks. What I didn’t realize is that most people didn’t even have to try. They simply stopped after a drink or two. If a person has to tell themselves that they are going to stop after a few drinks and they usually don’t, then that may be an issue.
Go read my comments. And I’m sorry, a woman who needs her “mommy juice,” has an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. Not judging. Just being honest from my own experiences.
@Capt. Mo – You seems to be taking this waaay too personally. To me, if a person is commenting on this thread they have some up-close and personal experience seeing what the effects of alcohol have had on their family/friends. Most commenters are being honest.
You, on the other hand, seem so defensive. No one is saying you cannot enjoy a drink or threatening your freedom of choice. Knowing when to draw the line, however, is imperative… especially if there is family history or health concerns involved, or if the well-being of others is in jeopardy.
Thank you for this. I think there has been a lot of honesty on this thread. Most comments have been about concerns that people have about their own alcohol use and that of those close to them, as well as the pervasive “Moms who need wine” thing that has become a cultural norm. I’m not being judgmental for thinking that 7 women, regularly polishing off 13 or 14 bottles of wine in a couple of hours, under the guise of a book club, is healthy adult behaviour and no big deal. It’s binge drinking plain and simple.
Wine has a lot of sugar. I gave up sugar and everyone should notice the sugar industry is now overwhelmed with supply, prices are down.
These “wine Mom’s” sit around and pass judgement on people who smoke marijuana.
Binge drinking is huge.
I don’t drink at all,because I’m scared to,frankly. Both sets of my grandparents suffered from alcoholism,so did my dad.I have no clue,if I inherited any of that,but I rather avoid it,if at all possible.
I wish people would understand and not push you or make fun of you. Not enough kindness in this world. If you are not with the crowd,you must be against it,that is too often a mentality of many.
Some people have no self control, they get hammered and can’t remember what they said or did. It’s embarrassing. Nothing wrong with having a couple of glasses of wine or couple of beers with your dinner, sitting around with family and friends chatting. On the other hand, drunk people are often offensive and rude. Please get a life.
With the exception of here and there in college, I don’t drink and I’m now 47. I can’t tell you how many times I’m offered alcohol at dinners or parties and when I say “No, thank you” the offerer responds, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize you were in recovery.”
My parents didn’t drink and I dislike the taste of any alcohol I’ve tried from wine to cocktails to beer.
I drank a bottle of wine every night for about ten years when I was a single mum. After a while you don’t get hangovers but you do feel tired all day. Then 5 pm arrives and you pour that first glass of crisp sauv Blanc and bing! you feel like yourself again. And no one ever judged me because all my friends were doing the same.
It’s very common here in Australia the binge drinking among mums thing. Kids parties ALWAYS involve beers and wine and playdates always mean you’ll kick back and have a few wines with the other mums.
I gave up the booze about six months ago because it makes you sooooo fat and bloated. Now I just drink on special occasions.
I look back on those sad, lonely days as a single mum and feel so upset that I drank so much. But for a lot of people, it’s their only escape.
I have 2-3 glasses of wine 3-4 times a week. Granted, I tend to pour smaller glasses of wine and those 2-3 glasses are usually over a 4-5 hour period of time. It is definitely a routine thing. I wake up ready for coffee and when I get home from a long day of teaching, then run errands, and clean the house, a couple glasses of wine while I cook dinner, eat, and then relax with a book is nice. It is probably not the healthiest thing, but I don’t generally even ever get tipsy. But a bottle or more every night? I could not do that. Not sure what to think about these comments. I think probably they are all valid. Food for thought. Now I wonder if I am drinking too much…. Huh. It is interesting, though, because until a year or so ago, I drank maybe 5 times a year at most. I think maybe I’ll go the next month without any alcohol after reading these posts. I feel partially shamed, partially paranoid, and partially like I know a few drinks a night a few times a week is probably just not healthy.
Anyway, at certain points, I thought she seemed borderline too tipsy, but I also think she seemed completely fine at other points? I was trying to keep in mind that she does have a very specific lisp and way of speaking. I’m just not sure.
In my experience, if you are questioning your drinking, you should be questioning your drinking. If you need it to relax or destress, it is unhealthy. A glass with dinner or while cooking, cause you like the taste? Different.
You seem like this just started, so if you decide you want to make a change, it should be easier than doing it for years.
She has seemed out of it for that entire press tour…it was uncomfortable watching her interviews. She looks like she rolls out of bed 5 minutes before the interview.
I think she’s drunk. The giveaway to me is her eyes are closing and she is talking really slowly. Drew is usually more hyper than that
I think she’s drunk. The giveaway to me is her eyes are closing and she is talking really slowly. Drew is usually more hyper than that
Many interesting insights into drinking in this post. I grew up in the 70s when the parents were drinking, the kids were drinking, the grandparents were drinking but I didn’t know then as a teen that I had alcoholism in my family on both sides. Only my grandfather hinted at it when I was in my early 20s. By early 30s, I was a real alcoholic…getting thrown out of bars, and I scared off some nice men with my drinking …anyway, 24 years later and sober…I never did marry or have kids and I know I missed something but it never occurred to me the pressure to drink is everywhere and it can be the most insidious and secretive in the home. It is hard enough — I am sure –being a Mom or Dad of young kids but the one who is home with them can be very isolated, bored, lonely…those who don’t have other wine Moms may just drink alone. Life is hard…but I did learn one thing…trouble comes…and its not necessarily true that alcohol causes trouble but whenever trouble happens, there is usually alcohol involved. One of the toughest things must be straightening up after an afternoon of drinking and trying to be engaged or interested in someone elses’ day..when yours is increasingly a blur. So for the wine Moms this constant drinking is not only bad for the kids but bad for the marriage ..its a sad day to wake up and realize you don’t remember any of it.
Thank u to those who chimed in about the actual video. I had my husband watch the clip and before hearing my opinion, he basically duplicated my thoughts on the video.
I think she’s mad crushing on T.O. Her marriage and family life is no more and he seems like the perfect husband and dad. And you can tell he is NOT wanting the attention from her. Tim has been married over 25 years, and that must be very appealing to her right now. (Not in the home wrecker way….but the nurturing happy family way) Bless her heart. She just needs to leave the booze for when she gets home so she can be judged by her neighbors (HA)
I just looked up his wife – is she ever pretty!
A “friend” who pressures you to drink and/or gets mad at you when you won’t have a drink is not really a friend and they are the ones with the problem probably.
Migawd Timothy Olyphant is a cutie, but something really odd is going on in their dynamics. The way he keeps redirecting the conversation to his wife and Drew isn’t having it. I mean, yeah, she’s pretty drunk, but something is off there.
If at all true, this makes me sad for Drew. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for her because of everything she’s had to overcome in her life from such a young age. I only wish her well.