Drug Treatment Issues Amongst Lesbians

Alcoholism and substance abuse among lesbians is 25%-35% higher than the general population. The two major factors lesbians with substance abuse have to address are; recovery from the addiction and homophobia from society at large. Because of the stigma from society, lesbians deal with stereotypes and misinformation concerning identity and sexual behavior.

The circumstances lesbian addicts share with under served populations of substance abuse are women, people with color, people with disabilities, and adolescents. The prejudices feelings from cultural issues, religion aspects, hetero-sexism, and legal/government are fears leading to the substance abuse problem.

The government puts laws in place for this population to not be free as heterosexual women. Lesbians cannot adopt children nor have same sex marriages. The homophobia attitudes and beliefs limit the lesbian culture to not feel accepted in the community and a part of society.

The process of keeping their sexual orientation a secret is more painful and difficult, the greater rick for substance abuse. The effects of internalizing the homophobia can lead to substance abuse and self destructive behaviors. The reality of a lesbian's social life involves around bars and night clubs. Spending most of your time in this atmosphere is a result of the higher rate for drug abuse. Some of these issues must be worked on and developed coping skills for while in substance abuse treatment.

Because the most effective treatment centers for addiction are generally tailored specifically to a certain population it is more difficult for lesbians to overcome it. There are many available drug treatment centers that focus their care around adolescents, women, young adults, professionals, etc. However there are very few that cater specifically to the lesbian population.