The new face of risky drinking is female. The problem: a global epidemic of bingeing. The solution: a brave new approach to female recovery. This is my story, and it's particular. But I am not alone. Drinking problems challenge a growing number of women. The new reality: binge drinking is increasing among young adults - and women are largely responsible for this trend. Women's buying power has been growing for decades, and their decision-making authority has grown as well. The alcohol industry, well aware of this reality, is now battling for women's downtime - and their brand loyalty. Our relationship with alcohol is complex, and growing more so. This book will be essential reading for a huge number of women, a book that's breaks a major taboo. This will be a book for best friends to give one another, mothers to give daughters, sisters to give to each other - a book to read in hiding, when you know you're in trouble. This book will offer companionship for women of every age. It will answer a myriad tough questions. Intimate and startlingly honest, 'Drink' will be a book to change the lives of women of all ages - and those who love them. A book for anyone who thinks they have a problem, or knows someone who may have a problem, and wants to know more. Which means: just about everyone.

One of the Washington Post's Ten Best Books of 2013

More than twenty-three thousand women die from heavy drinking in the United States each year. Incidents of binge drinking and so-called drunkorexia are on the rise, contributing to an exponential increase in the number of health conditions and cancers among women.

Combining in-depth research with her own personal story of recovery, the award-winning journalist Ann Dowsett Johnston tells of maintaining her high-powered career as a vice principal of McGill University while wrestling with the demon that defeated her own mother: alcohol addiction. After a very private exit from her professional life, Dowsett Johnston went to rehab; now sober, she has dedicated her career to examining the relationship between women and high-risk drinking.

In Drink, Dowsett Johnston dissects the psychological, social, and workplace factors that contribute to this crisis, and explores its far-reaching effect on both society at large and individual lives. Comprehensive and emotionally compelling, Drink is a brave and powerful story, beautifully told, and an important investigation into an epidemic that we can no longer afford to ignore.