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Drink Audiobook Summary

In Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol, award-winning journalist Anne Dowsett Johnston combines in-depth research with her own personal story of recovery, and delivers a groundbreaking examination of a shocking yet little recognized epidemic threatening society today: the precipitous rise in risky drinking among women and girls.

With the feminist revolution, women have closed the gender gap in their professional and educational lives. They have also achieved equality with men in more troubling areas as well. In the U.S. alone, the rates of alcohol abuse among women have skyrocketed in the past decade. DUIs, “drunkorexia” (choosing to limit eating to consume greater quantities of alcohol), and health problems connected to drinking are all rising–a problem exacerbated by the alcohol industry itself.

Battling for women’s dollars and leisure time, corporations have developed marketing strategies and products targeted exclusively to women. Equally alarming is a recent CDC report showing a sharp rise in binge drinking, putting women and girls at further risk.

As she brilliantly weaves in-depth research, interviews with leading researchers, and the moving story of her own struggle with alcohol abuse, Johnston illuminates this startling epidemic, dissecting the psychological, social, and industry factors that have contributed to its rise, and exploring its long-lasting impact on our society and individual lives.

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Drink Audiobook Narrator

Carrington MacDuffie is the narrator of Drink audiobook that was written by Ann Dowsett Johnston

About the Author(s) of Drink

Ann Dowsett Johnston is the author of Drink

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Drink Full Details

Narrator Carrington MacDuffie
Length 8 hours 46 minutes
Author Ann Dowsett Johnston
Category
Publisher HarperAudio
Release date October 01, 2013
ISBN 9780062293206

Subjects

The publisher of the Drink is HarperAudio. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is Social Science, Women's Studies

Additional info

The publisher of the Drink is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780062293206.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Ashley

June 19, 2015

This may not have been the best book I've ever read as far as writing and the story go. However, the message really impacted me and has changed the way I look at alcohol. I have always loved having a drink but never really considered why that was so. Was it purely for fun? To relieve stress or social anxiety? As a crutch to mask something deeper? Or because advertising told me I should? It also made me particularly aware of how my behavior may influence my daughter down the road and what messages she's getting from me and society as a whole. This book changed my perspective, opened my eyes, and looks like it may have changed my life as well. I will probably re-read it to catch what I missed (as others have mentioned there are a lot of facts/data to absorb). I found it very thought provoking and would consider it a worthwhile read for ALL women because alcohol is such a big part of our culture that it affects all of us to some degree.

Kris

April 16, 2019

Interesting how many people hate this book. I think it’s phenomenal.Drinking is a women’s issue and a public health issue. We’re fooling ourselves if we don’t think that corporate interests are to thank for creating a society that glorifies alcohol consumption and that stigmatizes addiction.

Michelle

November 24, 2013

A sometimes frightening look at women and alcohol, particularly scary for me as the mother of two girls who will one day attend college (they’d better anyway!) Apparently getting your stomach pumped and blacking out are both “badges of honor” in college now…what…the…f? Terrifying.A very interesting point is made. Generally speaking, men drink to party, women to numb. Surprising, yet logical, and also sad, particularly when you consider that binge drinking can lead to evermore issues (sexual assault, disease, arrest, etc.) for which someone would feel the need to further numb.The book discusses the introduction of “alcopop” (e.g. Mike’s Hard Lemonade and other drinks easy to consume) and how that’s shaped the tenor of drinking, particularly with young women. It’s more or less booze training wheels, if you will. I never thought about it that way, but the concept resonated. I didn’t drink in high school and when I started college I could not deal with the taste of beer. So basically I mixed whatever liquor was around with Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper (original “Skinnygirl” cocktail?) but as it was disgusting it was hard to drink too much of it. Indeed I had to chase it with Cheetos. Which is not to say I didn’t drink to excess at times but for me it was certainly about the “party” aspect and not trying to numb. I’m glad we didn’t have alcopop back in the day – too easy to take that down and quickly. For me, the most interesting part was focused on when and why young girls start drinking (probably because I’m a mother). She does talk about older women and the “supermom” concept. All these women trying to be perfect, taking on too much, and it’s causing them to overdrink. Frankly, I have no idea why someone trying to do a lot would drink MORE. I have a ton on my plate and when I’m at my busiest I skip the wine altogether. I need to make the most of every minute and lounging around with a glass of wine is not going to help (plus who wants to work out at 5am when you’re been drinking the night before?) Anyway, I am not sure I buy that women’s drive to do a lot makes them drink more. Some people, surely, but seems counter-intuitive. I guess it goes back to the “numbing” thing, this time not something traumatic in one’s childhood, but the numbing of stress/anxiety.The book got a little long/monotonous at the end with the author talking to various people who’ve been in AA. Perhaps if this hit closer to home it would’ve been interesting, but it seemed pointless. I did find the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome bit interesting and how if you’re black, it’s FAS, if you’re white it’s ADHD or some other “learning disability.” I agree with what the experts say. Sure, some minimal amount of alcohol while you’re pregnant is fine, but you don’t know how much, or in what amount will be “okay.” Which is why I abstained completely. I know myself and know that if I had a sip of alcohol at all while pregnant and my children had any sort of issues (learning, behavioral, etc.) I’d blame myself no matter how remote the possible link.There’s also some discussion about legislation as to how to curb alcohol use but what about treating the problem? Granted, that’s more of a grassroots movement. My takeaway is how do I instill enough confidence in my girls that they don’t feel the need to numb or fit in?

Caroline

November 17, 2019

I'm interested in the current zeitgeist of self-restriction - be it from technology or drinking, people all over the globe are turning off their phones and putting the cork back in the bottle. Some forever, but most for a chosen period of time. I'm also interested in the neurology and culture behind drinking, and this book was a fantastic resource, particularly regarding the massive increase in women drinking over past decades, and the glamorisation of alcohol. Whilst I wasn't hunting for it, there was also a lot of parenting advice on how to approach drinking with your teenagers. Guess what, folks, we lead by example. All this data and info was set against the author's brave and often heartbreaking recounting of her own, and her parents, journey with alcoholism and recovery. A really great book and well written with loads of personality and vulnerability. Thank you, Ann. Our excesses are the best clue we have to our own poverty, and our best way of concealing it from ourselves. - Adam Phillips, British Psychoanalyst. Opening quote."There is a moderate to high heritability: we know that genes play a strong role. About half the reason a person becomes an alcoholic—half the liability—is genetic. . . But the strongest single predictor for both alcoholism and depression is having been sexually abused or traumatised in childhood. . . If a young woman had this gene plus early life stress exposure, the probability of alcoholism increases twofold." - David Goldman, chief of human neurogenetics at National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Twenty per cent of the population causes 50 per cent of the problems : emergency room visits; blackouts; multiple repeated consequences of drinking. Parents have a large influence as to whether their son or daughter will be in their "twenty-fifth" coup: if they are loving but model heavy drinking once in a while and allow their sons and daughters to drink, their children are four times more likely to be in this group as those whose parents model moderate drinking and do not provide alcohol. Of course, there are parents who try the protective strategy of allowing kids to drink occasionally—often cited as the European model. Turrisi shakes his head: "If you allow your kids to drink once in a while, it's neutral at best—not protective." p102.As many women discovered, a drink is a punctuation mark of sorts, between day and night. - p167."People are exhausted at the end of the day. They go home and have a drink as a way to cope with all of this—a lot of people have to self-medicated because it would be hard for them to look in the mirror otherwise. The whole concept of being conscious—that's hard work. A lot of people just don't want to sign up for it." - page 170, Paige Cowan.I am doing battle. I am battling for consciousness. - page 209."We have to broaden our understanding of what we consider an alcohol problem to be—well over eighty per cent of frequent binge drinkers are not alcohol dependent." - Robert Brewer, National Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention in Atlanta, page 233.I know that I have recovered my true self. That's the greatest gift of sobriety: the journey inward—indelibly challenging, rewarding, and profound. More of ten than not, I feel at peace in my own skin. - page 255. Johanna O'Flaherty, Vice President of treatments services at the Betty Ford Centre: "Although I want to give my respect to harm reduction, it's a passion of mine to promote the concept of abstinence as a positive thing—freeing, not restrictive. In the professional milieu, it's looked down upon as old-fashioned, too religious. we need to make it new again." - p 271In AA they say it takes give years to get your marbles back. But it's more than that: it takes several years to shape a new self. - p 279Notes for self:World Health Organisation's Global Alcohol Strategy 2010.Alcohol Advisory Council NZ Caroline Knapp's Drinking - A Love Story.Campus cultureTurrise 25 page handbook for effective parental interventions concerning drinking: https://uhskriz.weebly.com/uploads/1/.... Study in Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs - a quarter of young women in their freshman year said they had been sexually victimised. The more they drank, the higher the likelihood of sexual assault.BASICS intervention programme for college students.Women constantly attempting to find the work life balance.Women drink to self-medicate, numb.Soberistas (London), Booze-Free Brigade (LA), Hello Sunday Morning (Aus).We live in an alcogenic culture.Alcohol and mental health impact. Spirituality, trauma, disease or choice, neurology.

Washington

November 22, 2013

Ann Dowsett Johnston, a recovering alcoholic, veers between reporting and memoir as she untangles the messy realities behind women’s rising rate of alcohol abuse and why it is so much more dangerous for them than for men. A past editor of Maclean’s magazine in Canada and former vice principal at McGill University, Johnston alarms us, one searing fact at a time. There are moments in “Drink” when the parade of alcoholic women seems endless. So many sad stories. So many alcohol-fueled ways to ruin a large swath of one’s life. It feels relentless and frightening. Overwhelming. For a lot of women brave enough to read it, it may feel a little too familiar, too. Therein lies the hope. The book made our top 10 list for 2013. Connie Schultz reviewed it for us: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinion...

Susana

September 19, 2015

I really enjoyed how this book hovered between frank memoir and an examination of the role of contemporary female drinkers. A great deal to think about and an area of examination that would be wise for most people but will make some too uncomfortable to continue.

Zachary

December 19, 2013

This was a difficult book to read. I had not realized just how much the culture had shifted toward drinking to excess among women, but this book makes it very clear. In a perversion of feminism, alcohol companies have marketed strong alcoholic beverages to young women, and even young mothers based on a message that drinking a lot is simply a part of being a modern woman. As a consequence, alcoholism rates among women, especially educated women have been increasing, with all the attendant problems of liver disorders, rapes, unplanned pregnancies, and so on. This book really tells a sad tale. Perhaps even worse, modern concepts of what defines the "successful woman" encourage high stresses, the accepted cure of which is drinking, tipping more toward alcoholism. The book is a good mix of data, analysis, and personal stories of women and their struggles with alcohol, with the through-line being Ann Dowsett Johnston's tale of how she fell in a disease shared by both of her parents, and how she then climbed out. The result is a book that is very informative, but highly disturbing. At the end, I agree with the author that the time is ripe for confronting how the alcohol companies are just as bad as the tobacco companies when it comes to encouraging irresponsible behavior with a dangerous substance, and ensuring that they get their way with vast amounts of cash deployed strategically in the political process.

Ellie

September 29, 2020

“Drink” is an incredibly honest memoir/study that deals specifically with a problem of women’s alcoholism. I agree with the author one hundred percent when she says that we’re in a middle of a crisis where more and more women turn to alcohol in order to relax after juggling work and household/parenting duties and end up growing dependent on alcohol to such an extent that it starts to affect their professional and personal lives. There are chapters dealing with reasons, social influence, rehabilitation programs, and sobriety, each combining the author’s personal experiences and experiences of women she interviewed for this book. As I was reading it, I could only applaud her own bravery and bravery of all women who gathered enough strength and turned their lives around. It’s painfully honest. It’s raw. It’s inspiring. I’m very glad I read it and I’d definitely recommend it to everyone.

Emma

January 07, 2021

As a 20 year old with little to no experience with alcohol, you can take my review with a grain of salt, but I found this book to be incredible. Stories of countless women overcoming addiction woven in with data and cultural commentary, this book gave a wide overview of what it means to be a woman in North America in a culture that continually pushes alcohol as the solution to life’s problems.

Amy

August 22, 2022

Worth reading, no matter your relationship to alcohol. The author did an excellent job of telling her own story mixed with research on alcohol and how it affects women in particular-though dated (published 2013). Chapter on college girls and drinking super sobering (ha!) for me with a college freshman.

Lisa

October 10, 2019

This book was both a vulnerable memoir of a person I found admirable, and a sobering (no pun intended) explanation of the science behind addiction, particularly alcohol addiction, and women. I wish that the information shared in this book could be given to all young women.

Kirstie

February 08, 2021

Fantastic. Must read. And then read again.

Rachel

February 19, 2020

Really enjoyed. Lots of essays so read very gradually over time. Older book now and would like an updated version with newer statistics. But very interesting. Not stopped me drinking but definitely more reflective

Melissa

November 13, 2020

A well written and engaging book. Thoroughly researched and thought inspiring. It was a beautiful mix of the author’s personal journey through her lifetime of being both a victim of addiction and an alcoholic herself, along with research about the alcohol industry, our culture, and it’s impact on women. A must read for anyone who wants something more than a memoir.

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