Like all drunks, were in denial about reality

And when 15 per cent of these women admit that they'd like to be able to buy alcohol 24 hours a day, I'd say this is a minimisation of the truth. Alcoholism is a disease of denial - I'd double these figures for an accurate profile of women and their drinking behaviours in Ireland today.

"Women are using their talents to dolly-up at the bar and match men's bad drinking habits and no one is commenting on it," observes Stephen Rowen, director of the Rutland Centre, which treats alcohol addiction.

The latest book glamourising and minimising the consequence of late nights in white satin comes from former pop singer Pearl Lowe.

The press blurb of her book All That Glitters states: "Pearl was a beautiful woman with a growing family of gorgeous kids.

Life couldn't get much better except the parties and the home life were in terrible tension because she was drinking and taking drugs but she managed to look after her kids in between enormous binges" I don't know what Lowe means by "terrible tension" and the claim that she was able to look after her children in between her binges, but I do know alcoholics are defined by their thinking more than their drinking, and my heart goes out to her children.

One story is unforgettable. It tells how a child in her care nearly died by swallowing her drugs as she lay comatose nearby.

A child subjected to the reckless behaviour of active addiction is extremely serious.

And while Lowe's children may not have been affected by her binges, children of alcoholics are usually left traumatised with feelings of abandonment and terror, as a result of their parent's drinking.

While adults understand alcohol alters consciousness, and can provoke unpredictable behaviour, children do not have the cognitive capacity to process this.

Alcoholism is about denying feelings, and creating a false picture of reality for the drinker and those around them, and it's easy to get silenced by the shock tactics of celebrity dramatic drinking stories.

But staying on the ground and away from Lowe, every alcoholic is said to affect 12 people around them -- drunk parents around children are abusing their power.

While adults can walk away from a drunk, children, who need them, have to stay .

Problem drinkers "on the wagon" can also have a negative impact on children in their care.

Addicts who do not treat the underlying issues of their drinking/drugging are known as untreated addicts who carry false impressions of reality -- and if those around them collude in this denial they're sick too.

If we encourage retail outlets to sell alcohol 24 hours a day we are likely to see more alcohol dependent woman slip, stumble and fall around us, whether we want to admit that or not.

Source: Christina Reihil, Sunday Independent, April 13 2008