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Drink
Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol | Ann Dowsett Johnston
16 posts | 9 read | 1 reading | 13 to read
Over the past few decades, the feminist revolution has had enormous ramifications. Women outnumber their male counterparts in postsecondary education in most of the developed world, and they are about to do the same in the workplace. But what has not been fully documented or explored is that while women have gained equality in many arenas, they also have begun to close the gender gap in terms of alcohol abuse. In the United States alone, more than twenty-three thousand women die from heavy drinking each year. Binge drinking and so-called drunkorexia are on the rise, contributing exponentially to an array of health conditions and cancers. Combining in-depth research with her own personal story of recovery, Ann Dowsett Johnston delivers a groundbreaking examination of a shocking yet little-recognized epidemic threatening society today, what preeminent researcher Sharon Wilsnack believes is a "global epidemic" of women's drinking. Dowsett Johnston's authority comes from a place of experience. Eight years ago she was an award-winning senior journalist with Canada's major newsweekly magazine Maclean's and popular on the speaking circuit. She seemed to have it all when she was named vice principal of McGill University. In private, the high-functioning professional knew she was wrestling with a demon that had undone her own mother: alcohol addiction. Dowsett Johnston took a very private exit from her professional life and went to rehab. She reentered professional life in 2010, winning the prestigious Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy, charged with examining the closing gender gap in the world of risky drinking. Sober now for five years, she retells her struggles with brutal honesty, affording us an unprecedented look at women and drinking that is both moving and enlightening. Dowsett Johnston dissects the psychological, social, and workplace factors that have contributed to this crisis, exploring their far-reaching impact on society at large and individual lives, including her own. Comprehensive and emotionally riveting, Drink is sure to become a modern classic on the topic of women and drinking, much as Andrew Solomon's The Noonday Demon was for depression. Drink is a brave and powerful story beautifully told and an important investigation into an epidemic that we can no longer afford to ignore.
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Cosmos_Moon
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Pickpick

Just finished this audio book on my commute learning more about the depths of addiction. Good narrator and excellent memoir based research by Johnston.

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Jgotham
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Women turn to alcohol for support against stress and being professional

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Jgotham
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Jgotham
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“Liquor soothes. It calms anxiety. It numbs depression. Ask any serious drinker: if you want to find your off button, alcohol can seem like an excellent choice. “

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Jgotham
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Picked this up today. Talks about the incidents with binge drinking going up for women and what relates to it including psychological issues, work pressures and society pressure and how wide spread the problem is. Can‘t wait to start

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Skyrimir
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Oh, I wasn‘t doing anything, just trying to read...this book has been a pretty big eye opener so far. #bookswithmycalico

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MojoyReads
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"I believe that recovery is a process of being reborn. You know, you can keep stumbling or you can go through the process and find peace."

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Rebonkula
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Rebonkula
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Rebonkula
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Thanks to the creative, targeted marketing of the alcohol industry, alcohol has a prominent, stylish presence in the lives of women today. For the coming-of-age woman alcohol is now flirty and fun.

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Rebonkula
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So often we recognize the advancement of feminist activity and we praise what we have gained and what we are constantly fighting for. The rarity is in recognizing what less desirable gaps we close; issues that have been silently closing in, consequences of equality. I find that alcoholism is more newly becoming a recognized addiction and the issues surrounding "female" mental illness and addictions vs. "Male" [etc] is worth the focus.

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Rebonkula
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I don't know why this made me laugh so hard but it did. Imagery is everything. 😂😂

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Rebonkula
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This is how it happens. This is addiction.

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Megabooks
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4.5🌟story & narration This is an important book. Drinking culture is changing. Women are going shot-for-shot with men. Ann examines this from all angles - advertising, college, adults, mothers, the trauma cycle, public health, & recovery. Along the way, she shares her story of alcoholism & what it was like to have an alcoholic mother. A must read.

Notafraidofwords Wow this sounds fascinating. I for one do not drink alcohol. A lot of people think it's for religious reasons, but it's not. It's for health reasons. I have major gastritis issues and alcohol upsets my tummy for hours. However, some people think it's offensive to them when I don't participate in the drinking. 7y
Megabooks @Notafraidofwords It is fascinating. I quit drinking 10 years ago. It was making me depressed. Like can't get off the couch for days after I go out depressed. Quitting drinking definitely made me feel better. I don't like being around drunk people, like bars on Saturday night. It just makes me feel awkward for being sober. Fortunately, my friends have mostly aged out of the bar scene, and it doesn't bother me if someone has 1 or 2 with a meal. 7y
Notafraidofwords @Ebooksandcooks totally understandable. I don't mind when people drink with their meals. I don't even mind drunk people. To each their own, but I mind when people question me about it as if I were an alien lol 7y
See All 7 Comments
AliBG I read an excerpt of this book and was so convinced of this as a problem--not the casual drinking, or drinking with a celebration...but the culture of "Moms need wine!" And "How I survive my life is wine!"--wine at the salon, wine at the grocery store, wine club in the neighborhood.made me start wondering if we are drinking to cope with misogyny, drugging ourselves into 7y
AliBG (Hadn't finished editing that please forgive the typos, but the ideas are a there) 7y
AliBG ...into compliance with a world designed to degrade and destroy our souls. 7y
Megabooks @AliBG I definitely think the "mommy's little helper" thoughts about wine are damaging to women. I have a lot of friends who parent after work with a glass in their hand. Ann is careful to walk the line between healthy drinking and dependence. It's a great book. 7y
81 likes4 stack adds7 comments
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Megabooks
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Continuing my #nonfictionNovember #audiobook fun with these two. Yes, I consider this fun! And fascinating. And informative.

ApoptyGina69 Eeek! Should we read it and find out the gory details or is it of the school where "a glass or two of wine is good for us"? Full disclosure: asked while drinking second glass of wine. ?? 7y
Megabooks @ApoptyGina69 It's part memoir of the author's descent into alcoholism and part journalism about the state of drinking (particularly binge drinking) in women. Marketing, college drinking, alcoholism in general. 7y
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TheSpinecrackersBookClub
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Today is the 6th day of the #septphotochallenge co-hosted by @RealLifeReading and us and the theme is book and drink. So c'mon Spinecrackers show us your read and what's in your glass. ☕️🍷🍸🍺🍹🍾

Lizpixie Glad to see you back, we missed you during the Book Olympics!🏅🏅 8y
90 likes1 comment