Fifteen million Americans a year are plagued with alcoholism. Five million of them are women. Many of them, like Caroline Knapp, started in their early teens and began to use alcohol as "liquid armor," a way to protect themselves against the difficult realities of life. In this extraordinarily candid and revealing memoir, Knapp offers important insights not only about alcoholism, but about life itself and how we learn to cope with it. It was love at first sight. The beads of moisture on a chilled bottle. The way the glasses clinked and the conversation flowed. Then it became obsession. The way she hid her bottles behind her lover's refrigerator. The way she slipped from the dinner table to the bathroom, from work to the bar. And then, like so many love stories, it fell apart. Drinking is Caroline Kapp's harrowing chronicle of her twenty-year love affair with alcohol. Caroline had her first drink at fourteen. She drank through her yeras at an Ivy League college, and through an award-winning career as an editor and columnist. Publicly she was a dutiful daughter, a sophisticated professional. Privately she was drinking herself into oblivion. This startlingly honest memoir lays bare the secrecy, family myths, and destructive relationships that go hand in hand with drinking. And it is, above all, a love story for our times—full of passion and heartbreak, betrayal and desire—a triumph over the pain and deception that mark an alcoholic life. Praise for Drinking “Quietly moving . . . Caroline Knapp dazzles us with her heady description of alcohol's allure and its devastating hold.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Filled with hard-won wisdom . . . [a] perceptive and revealing book.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Eloquent . . . a remarkable exercise in self-discovery.”—The New York Times “Drinking not only describes triumph; it is one.”—Newsweek

When Grace Wroldson first discovered that she was in love with an alcoholic, she sought treatment and help for him. As the years passed and the alcoholic continued to choose alcohol over her, she instead sought treatment for herself to overcome her own battles of love addiction and codependency. When her child was born, she was inspired to completely break free from the disease of alcoholism. She shifted her focus away from the alcoholic and found a path of recovery for herself. Now, Grace shares a firsthand account of her journey to living a healthier life full of self-love, acceptance, and truth. So You Love an . . . Alcoholic? compiles the hard-learned lessons and realizations she faced during recovery. From lessons on boundaries, forgiveness, and self-love comes a triumphant tale of a woman who learned. Grace brings the message of hope for women in a similar situation by sharing her secret lessons. This is one womans recovery story of loving and leaving an alcoholic man successfully. The lessons found in So You Love an . . . Alcoholic? inspire women to take action and seek help for themselvesnot just their alcoholics. These lessons tell a story of bravery, dedication, hard work, and love that validate those who find themselves in a similar situation. Graces lessons serve as a reminder to all of us that you cant take care of anyone else until youve taken care of yourself. This book will bring healing, affirmation, relief, and wisdom to women who love an alcoholic. By sharing her true story, she strives to reach out to women who are surviving this predicament so that they can free themselves from the disease and extend that freedom to their children.

If your loved one or a friend is an alcoholic - this book will be an invaluable help. It will show you how to take the necessary steps to help the person you care about. Don’t wait any longer. React today. Knowing how to help an alcoholic is the most crucial step you must take. Follow this guide, and you will see how alcoholism can be turned back again. To make it easy to follow, this guide is divided into several mutually complementary parts.

No. You're Not Crazy. The Person You Love Is Probably an Alcoholic. You've been blindsided by lies, deception, denial, a life of chaos, and experienced Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. You've hidden bottles, poured out the alcohol, and begged your loved one not to drink. Don't despair. There is hope. This survival guide will help you understand the nature of the disease of alcoholism, alcoholic behavior, codependency, the difference between enabling and caring, the alcoholic family relationships and how you can regain control of your life. In understanding alcoholism and your alcoholic loved one, you can come to a place of peace and love for yourself and for your alcoholic loved one, and ultimately win the battle of addiction. Whether you are new to addiction and recovery, an Adult Child of an Alcoholic, or have an alcoholic spouse, this book will help you embrace your own recovery and uncover the meaning of sobriety. Inside this book, you will not only read facts about alcoholism, but you will also experience stories from six recovering alcoholics that are candid, upfront, honest and telling. These stories are designed to help you better understand your alcoholic loved one and the nature of alcoholism.

The child of an alcoholic develops patterns of behavior during childhood which carry over into adult life. As children they were taught to cover up the family secret and suppress their feelings. No matter what is going on, as adults, when asked how she or he is doing your partner will likely answer "fine." Distrust, fear of abandonment, and sensitivity to criticism are all major issues for your adult child. Recognizing these patterns and changing the ones that cause problems will help you and your partner enjoy a deeper relationship.

Recovering addicts are faced with many challenges, and these challenges can often extend to their romantic partners. During the recovery period, couples often struggle with overcoming feelings of betrayal and frustration, and may have a hard time rebuilding trust and closeness. While there are many resources available to recovering addicts, there are limited resources for the people who love them. In Loving Someone in Recovery, therapist Beverly Berg offers powerful tools for the partners of recovering addicts. Based in mindfulness, attachment theory, and neurobiology, this book will help readers sustain emotional stability in their relationships, increase effective communication, establish boundaries, and take real steps toward reigniting intimacy. The material in this book is drawn from the author’s successful Conscious Couples Recovery Workshop. With more than 25 years in the field, she has developed a unique set of exercises that address the issues faced by couples in recovery. This book addresses the roles that both partners play in recovery, and aims to help readers develop a new appreciation for one another and improve self-confidence and acceptance. The road to recovery is never an easy one, but by building a strong support system, the chances of success are exponentially greater. For more information on Berg’s work, visit consciouscouplesrecovery.com

To save yourself and your family from the destruction the alcoholic brings to your life, you must turn away and learn how to take care of yourself and your loved ones. This is not easy. Most of us have been raised to love and care for the people in our lives. To break this tradition is heart wrenching and nearly impossible. Few can do it alone and the author found the Al-Anon organization of tremendous help. Here are the author's struggles as she battled to find her way to a new satisfying life for her and her children.

The first general consumer book ever on the powerful, award-winning, scientifically proven new system of intervention that is turning the recovery field on its head. Historically there have been few options available for individuals seeking help for treatment-resistant loved ones suffering from substance abuse. Co-author Dr. Robert Meyers spent ten years developing a treatment program that helps concerned significant others bth improve the quality of their lives and learn how to make treatment an attractive option for their partners who are substance abusers. Get Your Loved One Sober describes this multi-faceted program that uses supportive, non-confrontational methods to engage substance abusers into treatment. Called Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT), the program uses scientifically validated behavioral principles to reduce the loved one's substance use and to encourage him or her to seek treatment. Equally important, CRAFT also helps loved ones reduce personal stress and introduce meaningful, new sources of satisfaction into their life. Key Features: --CRAFT is more effective than other types of interventions.This breakthrough new system is sweeping the recovery field. This is its first introduction to the general public. --Contains simple exercises readers can practice at their own pace, with no costly or heart-breaking interventions. --Proven successful for numerous addictions, not just alcoholism.

Emotional support for those wishing to overcome an alcoholic mother's destructive influences and create a happy, fulfilled life.

This title says it all: When You Love a Functional Alcoholic, what is one to do? With good grace, a basis in the twelve-step program, and years of experience, Dr. William F. Kraft guides the reader through this most parlous journey-and back to wholeness and holiness and happiness. The book comprises thirty-three bite-size chapters-since it presumes readers are spending much of their time caring for (or bailing out) the alcoholic they love. Specific cases are described in particular, such as parents who live with teenaged alcoholics; children who have to care for elderly alcoholics; and what to do with that sometimes dry/sometimes even sober alcoholic who always seems to ultimately fall off the wagon. Making the book unique are the many stories of former patients, clients, and members of AA in their own words (anonymously, of course). These testimonies, which do not always end in a pot of gold, make not only for compelling (and sometimes heart-rending) reading, but also add a patina of authenticity to the book: if these people can learn to help the alcoholic they love, then perhaps you can too. Ultimately this is a book of acceptance, forgiveness, and love-all of which must begin with oneself. A bibliography completes the work. Book jacket.