Happy Hours: Alcohol in a Woman's Life

"[A] noteworthy examination of women and alcohol delivers compelling personal stories that illuminate previously neglected aspects of this devastating social problem." — Publishers Weekly

Mixing cutting-edge research with affecting stories of women who struggle with alcohol problems, Happy Hours challenges our assumptions and expands our awareness of the role alcohol plays in women's lives.

In this important book, Devon Jersild explores the common cultural forces that influence a woman's drinking—trauma, sexual abuse, and marital status. Jersild has spoken to treatment specialists, doctors, therapists, and counselors, and interviewed women who share their often dramatic stories. Her research findings are a wake-up call to many women who are in the dark about the effect of drinking on their mental and physical health. For example:

• Women metabolize alcohol differently from men, more quickly developing such physical complications as liver disease, high blood pressure, and hepatitis.
• Female alcoholics are twice as likely to die as male alcoholics in the same age group
• A female alcoholic is more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, which may not go away even if she stops drinking.
• An astonishing four million women in the U.S. meet the diagnostic criteria for abuse or dependence.

Happy Hours is not just about alcoholics. It is aimed at any woman who has ever wondered whether she drinks too heavily or too often, and at anyone who has a sister, mother, grandmother, child, or friend whose drinking has caused them concern.

Devon Jersild's essays and stories have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, USA Today, Redbook, and Glamour. She won an O.Henry Award in 1991. She has taught courses in women's studies and creative writing at Middlebury College and is administrative director of the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference.