Turning down a drink isn't easy. Not only do you have to deal with your own desire for that chilled and glistening glass of white, you also have to tackle the: "Why aren't you drinking?" "Are you pregnant?" "Go on... just one!" And the worst one of all: "You're no fun without a drink!" Well here's the thing: you are fun! And this book shows you how and why you can still be the life and soul of the party, keep your friends, and be sober. Through a broad range of tips and tricks, you'll feel empowered to take on those trigger moments (stressful work day; challenging family life; break ups), as well as classic big occasions (the wedding toast; the bachelorette party; the Christmas lunch). Through the tips, you'll learn more about yourself (why you're giving up/cutting back), how to keep your relationships tight (with your partner, colleagues and friends) and ways to enjoy your new found sobriety, from understanding the benefit to your health to appreciating the improvement in your bank balance.

Alcoholics Anonymous has two million members worldwide; yet this fellowship remains a mystery to most people, and is even viewed by some as a cult or a religion. Written by an award-winning psychiatrist and educator in the treatment of alcohol and drug abuse, What Is Alcoholics Anonymous? provides the most in-depth overview to date of this popular and established yet poorly understood recovery movement. Author Dr. Marc Galanter integrates findings from the latest research in psychology, cultural history, and clinical science with a diverse range of first-person experiences with AA. The result is a thorough, objective, and accessible investigation into what AA is, how it works, and how the organization might be considered and used by both healthcare professionals and anyone affected by pursuit of recovery.

It's 1953 in Southern California, Patty is five years old, and her mother hasn't been home in two days. A police officer eventually arrives and takes Patty and her brothers to juvenile hall-their mother has been drinking again. Twenty-eight years later, Patty herself is an alcoholic mother to three children. Divorced and homeless, she soon realizes that she can't support her children with her job cleaning houses, so she accepts the offer of a man who works at the gas station: she'll have sex with him for money. For the next seventeen years, Patty lives a double life as a sex worker. Though she supports her family with the money she makes, she struggles to be the parent she wants to be, until she realizes she has become just like her own mother: an alcoholic who doesn't give her children what they need. When Patty gets sober, her life begins to change. She finds healing through therapy, spirituality, community, and, most importantly, speaking the truth to her children. Powerful and insightful, Patty's story is proof that we all are capable of healing ourselves-and that forgiveness can transform our lives completely.

The latest information on gender-specific treatment of addiction and recovery can be found in this go-to manual for parents seeking direction to help their daughters. Step-by-step guidelines present tools for: recognising substance-abuse in young women; communicating with them and their care providers; dealing with relapse and long-term recovery and managing parental shame, guilt, fear, anger, and loving detachment.

In this groundbreaking book, Matthieu Ricard makes a passionate case for happiness as a goal that deserves as least as much energy as any other in our lives. Wealth? Fitness? Career success? How can we possibly place these above true and lasting well-being? Drawing from works of fiction and poetry, Western philosophy, Buddhist beliefs, scientific research, and personal experience, Ricard weaves an inspirational and forward-looking account of how we can begin to rethink our realities in a fast-moving modern world. With its revelatory lessons and exercises, Happiness is an eloquent and stimulating guide to a happier life.

One woman's heartbreaking story of a marriage destroyed by her husband's addiction to alcohol.

The dynamics of codependency are illuminated in this gripping tale. Author Fran Simone describes her husband's attempts at treatment and subsequent relapse, his suicide, and her own recovery through a twelve-step program for families.

Fran Simone, PhD, is a recently retired professor emeritus from the graduate college of Marshall University in South Charleston, West Virginia. Her essays have appeared in "The Voice" and "The Quarterly" of the National Writing Project, the "Charleston Gazette," "Writers Digest," and "The Forum."

Reclaim your life Beat The Booze is an inspirational, easy to read and highly practical book aimed at those who wish to cut down or cut out alcohol and at those who wish to help someone else who has a drink problem. It can help both problem drinkers and individuals who wish to reduce their alcohol intake simply for lifestyle reasons, and contains all the assistance the authors could find from interviewing leading experts in the field of alcohol addiction and case studies who have successfully cut down their drinking or given up alcohol altogether. It includes many new and previously little publicised sources of help, and the Appendix contains contact details for a vast range of organisations that can provide professional help and further information. The authors have also been able to draw on extensive personal experience in battling alcohol. One used to have a serious drink problem, the other gave up for lifestyle reasons.

An intriguing story that addresses the twin challenges of addiction and chronic pain, and presents a model for successful recovery from both of these serious life-altering conditions. The author grounds his story in psychological theory along with the principles of twelve-step philosophy and spirituality as he moves from intellectualized awareness to a deep emotional and spiritual connection in recovery. Between 1991 and 2010, prescriptions for opioid painkillers rose from 75 million to 209 million. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in 2010, enough opioids were prescribed to treat every person in the US with 5mg of Vicodin every four hours for a month. As the number of opioid prescriptions increase, complications, including death, are rising. In 2009, more people in the US died from prescription medication overdoses than from motor vehicle accidents. There are more deaths from prescription drug overdose than from cocaine and heroin combined. With the onset of a chronic pain condition, the author's need for prescribed opioid painkillers reawakened an addiction to narcotics that had been dormant for nearly twenty years. Presents a holistic approach to recovery combining psychological theory, twelve-step principles, the ancient wisdom of meditation and other non-Western spiritual practices. Uniquely highlights the vicious cycle of addiction and chronic pain and the powerful connection between these co-occurring disorders. Written in lyrical yet gritty prose, it makes the recovery process accessible to a wide audience. The author is an experienced behavioral health professional who has worked in a broad range of behavioral health and addiction treatment settings. The author is in long-term recovery.

Research and clinical experiences show that people engaging in drug addiction for some years usually embrace severe mental illnesses including schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Schizophrenia usually occurs in patients with prolonged use of amphetamine and hallucinogens. Borderline personality disorder commonly happens in female addicts who have experienced abandonment and childhood abuse. On the one hand, drug addiction can be used to cope with symptoms of severe mental illness. On the other hand, prolonged drug addiction can also induce severe mental illness. A close look into individuals with chronic drug addiction usually review that they encounter suffering, hardship and traumas. There are two types of traumas encountered by people with drug addiction. The first one is trauma before drug addiction and substance abuse. Many of them may have suffered through abuse, oppression and abandonment in their lives. Another one is drug led traumas because of psychosocial deprivation and medical problems induced by chronic addiction. In this book, apart from describing a comprehensive model in understanding and interpreting the complexity of trauma, mental illness and drug addiction, this model is applied and illustrated in clients with borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia, drug addiction and those who have experience different forms of trauma. Related psychosocial interventions are also thoroughly discussed.