Product Description

Alcoholism is an epidemic among American women. Statistics show that one out of every ten women who begin to drink will eventually become an alcoholic.

To help combat this problem, Dr. Jean Kirkpatrick founded the first national program of recovery from alcoholism exclusively for women. Through Women For Sobriety's "New Life" program, thousands of women have overcome their dependence on alcohol and returned to full and productive lives. The program is the outcome of Jean Kirkpatrick's own recovery from alcoholism and the books she wrote about it.

For more than twenty years, Jean Kirkpatrick drank, nearly suicidally. She tried every form of help available, sometimes stopping drinking for a while, but eventually succumbing to alcohol again. Finally she devised her own method of recovery and gradually pulled herself up from a "living death."

In Goodbye Hangovers, Hello Life, the first book on recovery specifically for women, Jean Kirkpatrick tells how she achieved sobriety. She explains the special problems of the woman alcoholic, and challenges some of the premises of Alcoholics Anonymous, an organization founded by and for men that she believes fails to address the specific needs of women. Instead of harping on past problems and behavior, the Women For Sobriety program focuses on the future, showing women how to build up their emotional strength, self-esteem, and positive approach to life essential to recovery.

There are now more than two hundred chapters of Women For Sobriety in the United States. The program has even spread overseas to Australia, Europe, and South America.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #883308 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Herself a recovered alcoholic, Kirkpatrick makes it clear at the outset that female alcoholics are different from their male counterpartstheir problems are more complex and acute. Society tends to condition women into being passive, inhibited and lacking in self-identity, she observes; thus they are "very poorly equipped with the stuff recovery is made of," namely the strength to be independent and self-reliant. But Kirkpatrick, who directs Women for Sobriety, outlines that organization's program of recovery, stressing meditation, nutrition and methods of heightening self-esteem, plus a six-point guide to postive thinking, chief among which is "I am what I think." Also included are interviews with female alcoholics, which underline the author's message that hope exists for women with this affliction. February
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Written for the estimated 5 million women alcoholics in the United States, this book vividly describes the pain of alcoholism, stages in the recovery, and keys to "the good life." Kirkpatrick, founder of the Women for Sobriety support group program, outlines steps women must take to recover fully, including understanding depression, overcoming guilt and low self-esteem, and developing tools for living the "good life"exercise, meditation, and nutrition. While the author often seems to be looking for causes for the drinking outside the alcoholic, her recommendation is to "take charge of your life"the shaping of ourselves into the best we have to offer and then offering it to others." This is a fine book for the woman in trouble with alcohol and looking for help. Francia Schultz, Alcohol Certificaiton Training Program, St. Herman's Seminary, Kodiak, Alas.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
DR. Jean Kirkpatrick, author, lecturer, and sociologist, was widely recognized as an expert on alcoholism in women. She is also the author of Turnabout.

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Book for the Recovering Woman
Although Ms. Kirkpatrick is no longer with us, her words and her group, Women for Sobriety, live on. Her honesty, and her forward way of thinking are wonderful. She gives self-help advice on a topic she knew well, alcoholism, from a woman's standpoint. Her advice, change your thinking, broaden your spiritual horizons, and thus, change your life, is simple and straight-forward. I highly recommend this book.