Healing and Hope: Six
Women from the Betty Ford Center Share Their Powerful
Journeys of Addiction and Recovery
by Betty Ford
Editorial Reviews
To take readers inside the famous
addiction-recovery clinic that bears her name, Ford stitches
together the stories of six who have been through its program
and relevant recollections of her own struggle with alcoholism.
She chooses six women to point up the peculiarities of
women's addiction. Compared to male addicts, addicted women
are more secretive, more easily inebriated, sustain liver
damage sooner, present more complex psychological problems,
and are more enabled by physicians and pharmacists. The
overarching difference is that expectations of virtue are
higher for women; consequently, they are more likely to
see themselves as failures at love, motherhood, their professions--indeed,
at living. Their addictions are attempts to "medicate" their
perceived failures. It is remarkable, though Ford doesn't
point it out, that one or both parents of five of the women
were addicted and abusive, and the family of the sixth
was emotionally repressed. Whatever leads a woman to addiction,
she, not society, Ford says, must get herself out of it,
although the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous regimen and the
fellowship of other reforming addicts, which the Ford Center
provides intensively, are crucial to making an addict realize
personal responsibility for recovery. With its six powerful
personal stories and Ford's warm, authoritative overview,
this is a solid popular introduction to the experience
of recovery from addiction.
Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights
reserved
About the Author
During her time as First Lady,
Betty Ford was renowned for her honesty and openness. Mrs.
Ford's candor didn't stop once she left the White House.
In 1978, she revealed to the world her courageous struggle
to recover from an addiction to alcohol and prescription
pills. Resolving to help others deal with the disease of
addiction, Mrs. Ford, along with former Ambassador Leonard
Firestone, co-founded the nonprofit Betty Ford Center in
1982, in Rancho Mirage, California. She serves as Chairman
of the Center's Board of Directors.
Book Description
The compelling and deeply personal
stories of six women's journeys through alcoholism and
drug addiction, with commentary by Betty Ford.
The Betty Ford Center is widely regarded as the nation's leading addiction treatment
hospital, and since it opened in 1982, over 56,000 people have been treated there.
Yet little has been written about what actually happens during treatment at the
hospital.
Last year, during an alumni reunion, six women who had gone through the center
and with whom Betty Ford had close relationships, decided to share their remarkable
stories.
These are regular women, not celebrities, and they cross a broad spectrum of
race, age, and class. One is a schoolteacher, another a housewife, and one is
a former gang member. These women were addicted to alcohol, prescription medications,
illegal drugs, and some to a combination of the three. For a few of the women,
their treatment was successful the first time around-for others the journey to
recovery was much more arduous. Their stories are honest and open, at times funny,
often heartbreaking, always compelling.
Betty Ford weaves her own commentary around these narratives, giving details
about the women and their lives-what they went through at the center and what
happened afterward -and sharing stories about her own battle with drugs and alcohol.
Healing and Hope is a book for anyone struggling with addiction
or who knows someone who is. It chronicles the experiences
of survivors, women who have fought to reclaim their lives
and break free of the addictions that have held them prisoner
for so long.
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