Happy Hours or Healing Power of Water

Happy Hours: Alcohol in a Woman's Life

Author: Devon Jersild

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.

Robin Morgan

Female alcoholics endure greater censure than male alcoholics but receive less help; most treatments are structured for men, though women inhabit a different reality and their addictions can have markedly different causes (and cures. By adding sociocultural contexts of gender and race to psychological and physiological frameworks, Happy Hours is the most thorough exploration of this subject to date. These women's stories are profoundly moving, and Devon Jersild writes in a style at once scholarly yet accessible, unflinching yet compassionate, objective yet courageously personal. The result is a major contribution to our understanding of women, addictions, and the interaction between them.

Publishers Weekly

After a slow start filled with tedious statistics, this noteworthy examination of women and alcohol delivers compelling personal stories that illuminate previously neglected aspects of this devastating social problem. Jersild observes that, as for many other health-related issues, most research on and treatment for alcoholism have been based on male-only models. Alcoholics Anonymous, the most widespread (and, generally most respected) long-term sobriety program, was founded by and designed for "white, Protestant, mostly upper-middle-class men," says Jersild, a freelance writer. While its 12-step disease-model approach deliberately avoids cultural and gender-specific issues, Jersild points out many obstacles to recovery that, she claims, apply only or primarily to women. For example, she contends that the AA tenet of "accepting powerlessness" is based on the "assumption... that alcoholics are self-centered, self-aggrandizing and controlling," while women, Jersild asserts, more often have felt nothing but powerless in society and with their mates, and "need a recovery program that shores up their sense of self." Additionally, these women often have unique shame issues involving sexuality and may be victims of physical abuse. Motivated by "self-loathing," they need, she says, to focus on therapy for childhood traumas, gaining financial independence from men and caring for (and keeping custody of) their children. Jersild offers hope in the form of some treatment programs that are tailored to what she says are the specific needs of women, Native Americans and African-Americans. Agent, Elaine Markson. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

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Healing Power of Water

Author: Masaru Emoto

Caroline Myss, author of Sacred Contracts, calls Dr. Emoto, “magnificent…genius…His research in spiritual consciousness is positively masterful.”

This book will transform your world view. Dr. Masaru Emoto’s first book, The Hidden Message in Water, told about his discovery that crystals formed in frozen water revealed changes when specific, concentrated thoughts were directed toward them. He also found that water from clear springs and water that has been exposed to loving words showed brilliant, complex and colourful snowflake patters. In contrast, polluted water, or water exposed to negative though formed incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors.

The implications of this research creates a new awareness of how we can positively impact the Earth and our own personal world. This book takes you further and deeper into how you can affect your own personal healing by reading it.