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    Woman of Substances: A Journey into Addiction and Treatment
    Unavailable
    Woman of Substances: A Journey into Addiction and Treatment
    Unavailable
    Woman of Substances: A Journey into Addiction and Treatment
    Ebook304 pages4 hours

    Woman of Substances: A Journey into Addiction and Treatment

    By Jenny Valentish

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Journalist Jenny Valentish investigates the female experience of drugs and alcohol, using her own story to light the way. Her travels around Australia take her to treatment facilities and AA groups. Mining the expertise of leading researchers, she explores the early predictors of addiction, such as childhood trauma and temperament, and teenage impulsivity.

    Drawing on neuroscience, she explains why other self-destructive behaviours – such as eating disorders, compulsive buying and high-risk sex – are interchangeable with problematic substance use.

    Valentish follows the pathways that women, in particular, take into addiction – and out again. Woman of Substances is an insightful, rigorous and brutally honest read.

    ‘Valentish mixes her own careening story with some truly fabulous research. This book taught me things I wasn’t expecting about the landscape of substance use.’ —Kate Holden

    ‘A compelling blend of the sociology, psychology and physiology that drives female addiction, seasoned by the author’s self-serrating humour and remarkable skill.’ —Professor Marc Lewis, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto. Author of The Biology of Desire (2015) and Memoirs of an Addicted Brain (2011)

    ‘A fabulous read. Raw, revealing, at times heartbreaking, but searingly honest and clearly aimed to support anyone who is wondering if they will ever recover from addiction. Yes, says Jenny, you can: just don't expect unicorns to visit immediately. Beautifully written, it prompts a broader discussion around the role women's (little-discussed) hormones can play in one's ‘addiction and recovery story’, and how rarely this has been considered when it comes to models of recovery. Jenny tells a truly hopeful story about one woman who has come to terms with who she is. She looks the beast in the eyes. Well done.’ —Clare Bowditch,

    ‘Jenny Valentish takes us on a field trip through her vulnerabilities and then, like a tour guide in a foreign land, flag aloft, she provides a path back from the abyss. This is an enormously compelling, confronting and informative piece on addiction and recovery from a female perspective. I know a lot of people I want to give this book to.’ —Deborah Conway

    Jenny Valentish is a regular contributor to the Sydney Morning Herald and the Saturday Paper, and former editor of Time Out Melbourne and Triple J’s Jmag. She grew up in Slough, a satellite town of London, and moved to Australia in 2006. She quit drinking in 2009, which sparked a desire to explore the drives behind addiction. She has a graduate certificate in Alcohol and Other Drugs from Turning Point/Monash University.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBlack Inc. Books
    Release dateMay 29, 2017
    ISBN9781925435573
    Author

    Jenny Valentish

    Jenny Valentish is an author and journalist who has written for The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Saturday Paper, Vice, and Rolling Stone. She is the author of Cherry Bomb, a novel set in the music industry, and the research-memoir Woman of Substances, the coeditor of the anthology Your Mother Would Be Proud, and the creator of two blogs, New Age Guinea Pig and Hey Man, Now You're Really Living. Valentish is a board director of SMART Recovery Australia and has acted in consultancy and ambassador roles in the drug and alcohol field. Previously, she served as editor of Time Out (Melbourne) and Triple J's Jmag, worked as a music publicist and freelance writer, interviewing rock stars from Jack White to Joan Jett, and was a board member for The Push, a nonprofit music organization that connects young people to the music industry. She has taught memoir and nonfiction writing at universities, to drug and alcohol workers, and to writing organizations. Raised in the outskirts of London, England, Jenny currently resides in Melbourne, Australia.

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