Happy Hours: Alcohol In a Woman'S Life

When her sister lay in an emergency ward in an alcoholic stupor, author Devon Jersild was advised to cut herself off from her sister and prepare for her death. Unwilling to give up contact or hope, she set out to learn more about the ways women drink, and what they need to recover. In this important book, she not only explores the forces that influence a woman's drinking but also delivers a wake-up call to women who are in the dark about the effects of drinking. And the facts are startling - Women get addicted to alcohol more quickly than men; At one drink a day, a woman's risk of breast cancer increases by 10%. At four drinks a day, her risk increases by as much as 40%; Female alcoholics are twice as likely to die as male alcoholics in the same age group - and male alcoholics die at three times the rate of the general population; Women alcoholics are more likely than male alcoholics to have a mental health disorder; The rate of alcoholics among girls and young women is rising. Combining up-to-the-minute research culled from treatment specialists, physicians, scientific studies, therapists, and counselors with dramatic, true stories of women battling alcoholism, Happy Hours tells every woman what she needs to know about drinking - and tells it straight.