Nice Girls Don't Drink: Stories of Recovery

by Sarah Hafner

Overview

With skill and compassion, Sarah Hafner, a recovering alcoholic, elicits from 18 women their struggles and triumphs as they fought alcoholism in a society where women cross-section of women, Hafner makes readily available the identification process found so helpful in various recovery programs. These stories reveal the personal side of a disease that afflicts approximately 10.5 million Americans, nearly half of them women, and directly affects many millions more.

Nice Girls Don't Drink invites us into the lives of women from all segments of our society—rich and poor, gay and straight, women in diverse ethnic groups and a variety of occupations. Housewives, salesclerks, counselors, and artists are here together telling of a disease that transcends the distinctions of class, education, and culture. With courage, candor, and even flashes of humor, the women recount the early influences that led to their addiction, often including alcoholic or abusive parents; how alcoholism took over their lives; crucial turbaning points; and the recovery that enabled them to reclaim their dignity. The book guides readers to sources of help, and lists the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and the thirteen affirmations of Women for Sobriety. A monument to the resilience of the human spirit, Nice Girls Don't Drink is a source of inspiration for the female alcoholic, but more generally, it is for anyone struggling to overcome an addiction or other handicap with the goal of living a more complete life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780897892476
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/10/1992
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

SARAH HAFNER is a writer and artist. She attended Amherst College and Pratt Institute, and now resides in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she is at work on her second book.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Making it Through the Night
Abuse
Identity: Searching for a Voice
In Love
Self Worth
Nice Girls Don't Drink
Resources

Editorial Reviews

Hafner, a recovering alcoholic herself, compiled these interviews with 20 recovering women alcoholics because she felt that they could serve as examples and their voices needed to be heard. Society, she argues, looks more critically at women drinkers than at men, and women are more afraid of being caught and seeking help. The stories her subjects tell, harrowing yet hopeful, partially confirm her theory that it's different for women. Many women alcoholics, like men, have abusive and alcoholic parents, but other factors, like addictions to food and Valium, seem more common among women drinkers. Most interviewees swear by Alcoholics Anonymous, though several note problems: an ex-prostitute met her old tricks at an AA meeting; an Army wife says it's hard to ``talk about hormone problems, or living with a male alcoholic.'' Of several voices for a women-oriented recovery approach, the strongest is that of Jean Kirkpatrick, founder of the 30,000-member Women for Sobriety, which aims to give women some empowerment. In AA, she notes, ``the basis is humility,'' which women already have in sufficient quantity. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly