Counsellors often notice that serious drink problems can hit older people who haven’t necessarily had alcohol issues before – and it isn’t a case of people drinking to alleviate loneliness, a new study suggests. Better off, sociable people seem to be the most vulnerable and men are more vulnerable than women.

Older people who start to drink too much tend to have money, to be more involved in social activities and to have a greater involvement with friends who drink than with friends who don’t, according to the US study reported in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Social circles
An older adult may start to drink more because they are mixing in circles in which a lot of drinking goes on. As the person gets more caught up in drinking, they may choose social situations and friends that facilitate the drinking.

This process can become all the more risky if the person’s drinking is damaging relationships with family or friends who are upset by the amount of drinking that’s going on. In such a situation, it’s easier to turn to the drink buddies who provide encouragement rather than criticism.

More at risk
As I mentioned earlier, the researchers found that this whole process affected men more than women. I would imagine that, in today’s older generation, the woman is more likely to have given up work to raise the children and so the man may be the one with the occupational pension and, therefore, with more money than the woman in the relationship.

Knowing about research like this is useful because it enables older people to understand that their drink patterns will not necessarily stay the same as they always were; they could change for the worse.

Lessons to learn
What can you do to avoid slipping into a serious drink problem? From this research, I would take three lessons:

• Avoid socialising excessively with people who drink too much.
• Ensure you engage in activities that do not revolve around drink. Going to the movies or a play, walking, joining a book club or going to a gym are best done without a glass in your hand and a lot of them are more fun than sitting drinking with the same people night after night.
• If your spouse, children or non-drinking friends tell you that you have a problem with alcohol, perhaps you should consider their views seriously and not dismiss them out of hand. See if you can build a life that doesn’t depend on alcohol and be sure to include fun and enjoyment in it.

Get help
If a point comes when you realise you have a problem and you find you cannot break away from it, you might consider joining AA. I know a lot of people resist AA – they don’t like the ‘higher power’ thing and maybe they look down on other people who drink too much!

However, I mention AA because another study, in the journal Addiction, has found that people who attend AA frequently have fewer symptoms of depression than people who have a drink problem but don’t go to AA meetings. I suspect there are at least two reasons for this. First, AA meets the human need for belonging and so fills the gap that can appear when you quit spending your life with your drinking buddies. Secondly, AA is packed with useful psychological tools that members can use to enhance their experience of life.

One tip about AA: if you go to a meeting and you find you just don’t fit in with the kind of people who are there, try a meeting in a different location where the people are more likely to be similar to yourself in background and interests.

Rounded life
The key message of this column is this: as you get older, be aware that there is still time to develop a drink problem. Set out instead to create a rounded life in which drinking, if that’s part of it, remains the servant and not the master.