Holly Whitaker

"For years, Holly Whitaker wore her workaholic-party-girl persona as a badge of honor, while privately feeling increasingly miserable. She believed that if she could just eat cleaner, save more money, and be more perfect, her life would finally snap into place. Yet all of her attempts to fix herself just added up to more chaos and the chaos added up to more pain and so she added more wine. When she finally had enough and started looking around for help, she was shocked to find that the only systems in place to support her quitting drinking were archaic, patriarchal, and ineffective for the unique needs of women. The Alcoholics Anonymous model focused on strict anonymity, making the ego the enemy, and surrendering power, voice, and agency to a male concept of God. But Holly instinctively knew that what she needed was a deeper understanding of her own identity, the courage to take control of her own life, and to be embraced by a supportive and vocal community. What's more, she could not ignore the ways that alcohol companies were targeting women, just as the tobacco industry had successfully done generations before. Holly became resolute--not only did she have to find her way out of her own addiction, she felt a calling to create something bigger, so that women anywhere on the drinking continuum might find their way as well. The result is her company, Tempest, which provides the education to address the root cause of addiction, the tools to break the cycle of addiction, and the community necessary to build a life free from alcohol. Written in a unique voice that is relatable, honest, and witty, Quit Like a Woman is a groundbreaking look at the insidious role alcohol plays in our lives. Holly offers up a clear-eyed recovery model that banishes the punitive approach to quitting espoused by male-centric programs like AA and provides a positive alternative to living our best lives without the crutch of intoxication. Holly details what makes us sick, keeps us out of our power, and what is possible when we remove alcohol and destroy our belief system around it"--

The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol

Quit Like a Woman

Gigi Lennon

To change behavior, you have to go deeper. Americans aren't stupid. We are, however, preternaturally disposed to herd behavior (FOMO), with a strong desire to preserve a sense of individuality and maintain control over our decision making. We're joiners and don't want to be left out of fads; we're also fiercely independent and don't want to be told what to do. We are a people constantly balancing our need to belong with our need to maintain individuality and control over our decision making. 

We are born impressionless, doughy little babies into a world that carves its fear and love of conformity into us.

Here is the time in history where The Future Is Female, the wine is pink, the yoga classes serve beer, and the death toll rises.

I discovered that alcohol was not only something I could not abide, but perhaps something we all shouldn't, and that was paralleled by the part where I discovered that the systems in place to help me stop drinking the chemical we've been trained to tolerate--the chemical that was physically and emotionally and mentally murdering me--were archaic, patriarchal, mascu-line, and hence ineffective for me as a non-man.

… the women in this world who try to conform to a life they are told they should want-one that looks good on paper. I drank green juice and I made the right sounds when I fucked men I didn't really like and I crushed it in the boardroom

Kaelan Chambers

Wanted to love this but completely lost the script for me by the end. Really enjoyed the beginning and study on the romanticization of drinking culture, didn’t love the AA (a free program)-bashing and yoga/travel/lemon water/super expensive treatment program as recovery tools narrative by the end. Big Untamed vibes for me.

This book isn’t sure what it wants to be but it’s definitely messy. It’s all over the place and the research isn’t well cited and it’s just... I don’t know but it feels like it’s very much based on one person’s experience rather than something worked out with more people of different backgrounds and experiences. I don’t know, it just feels off.

Sarah Eadie

It covers an impressing amount of material. The author does a good job of introducing different resources and summarizing the key ideas. This book inspired me to Dry January, and I've now been alcohol free for 37 days.

As a society we are preoccupied with wellness, but uphold alcohol as a sort of magic elixir. When Whitaker started looking around for help after one too many benders, she found that the only systems in place to were archaic, patriarchal, and ineffective for the unique needs of women. And she could not ignore the ways that alcohol companies were targeting women. Here she addresses the root cause of addiction, the tools to break the cycle of addiction, and the community necessary to build a life free from alcohol. -- adapted from jacket and publisher info

Lauren Attaway

I picked up this library ebook because I was really curious after hearing so much about it this past January. It was informative, but really not interesting to me, and I think part of it may have been that this is really not just for me, given the economic/social/racial differences.

Umbar

Leslie Campisi

Holly Glenn Whitaker

Holly's story was that of all the women who try to conform to a life they are told they should want, one that looks good on paper and in movies. She drank green juice and made all the right sounds with men she didn't really like and killed it in the board room and had a yoga-tight body. She did all the right things until all the right things left her prostrate, drunk, on the floor of her apartment. But when she started to look for a way to recover, the support systems she found for sobriety were archaic and patriarchal. Urging drinkers towards a newfound humility is great if you're a man, but if you're a woman and not in a position to renounce privileges you never had, a whole other approach is needed. Quit Like a Woman is a memoir which is also a call to arms, a revolution against everything we assume is true about alcohol and addiction, and a celebration of learning how to claim everything life has to offer.

Allison Ball

Allison Garber

Bella Koch

Brooke Lonegan

Keely Calagos

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The founder of the first female-focused recovery program offers a groundbreaking look at alcohol and a radical new path to sobriety. “You don’t know how much you need this book, or maybe you do. Either way, it will save your life.”—Melissa Hartwig Urban, Whole30 co-founder and CEO We live in a world obsessed with drinking. We drink at baby showers and work events, brunch and book club, graduations and funerals. Yet no one ever questions alcohol’s ubiquity—in fact, the only thing ever questioned is why someone doesn’t drink. It is a qualifier for belonging and if you don’t imbibe, you are considered an anomaly. As a society, we are obsessed with health and wellness, yet we uphold alcohol as some kind of magic elixir, though it is anything but. When Holly Whitaker decided to seek help after one too many benders, she embarked on a journey that led not only to her own sobriety, but revealed the insidious role alcohol plays in our society and in the lives of women in particular. What’s more, she could not ignore the ways that alcohol companies were targeting women, just as the tobacco industry had successfully done generations before. Fueled by her own emerging feminism, she also realized that the predominant systems of recovery are archaic, patriarchal, and ineffective for the unique needs of women and other historically oppressed people—who don’t need to lose their egos and surrender to a male concept of God, as the tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous state, but who need to cultivate a deeper understanding of their own identities and take control of their lives. When Holly found an alternate way out of her own addiction, she felt a calling to create a sober community with resources for anyone questioning their relationship with drinking, so that they might find their way as well. Her resultant feminine-centric recovery program focuses on getting at the root causes that lead people to overindulge and provides the tools necessary to break the cycle of addiction, showing us what is possible when we remove alcohol and destroy our belief system around it. Written in a relatable voice that is honest and witty, Quit Like a Woman is at once a groundbreaking look at drinking culture and a road map to cutting out alcohol in order to live our best lives without the crutch of intoxication. You will never look at drinking the same way again.

Lizelle G

Anna

Sasha Lukavchenko

Meryn Kae Addison

Kaitlin Bartels

Andrea

Wir leben in einer Welt, die vom Trinken besessen ist. Wir trinken bei Babypartys, Arbeitsveranstaltungen, Beförderungen oder Beerdigungen. Doch niemand stellt jemals die Allgegenwart von Alkohol infrage – das Einzige, was infrage gestellt wird, ist, warum jemand nicht trinkt. Als Holly Whitaker beschließt, Hilfe zu suchen, beginnt sie eine Reise, die nicht nur zu ihrer eigenen Nüchternheit führt: Sie enthüllt die heimtückische Rolle, die Alkohol in unserer Gesellschaft und insbesondere im Leben von Frauen spielt. Therapien und Entzugsprogramme sind archaisch, patriarchalisch und nicht auf die Bedürfnisse von Frauen ausgerichtet. Deshalb entwickelt sie ihr eigenes feminozentrisches Heilungskonzept, das die notwendigen Werkzeuge bietet, um den Suchtzyklus zu durchbrechen. Unterhaltsam und informativ zeigt sie, welches Leben auf uns wartet, wenn wir auf Alkohol verzichten.

Quit Like a Woman The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol

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