Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic: Breaking the Cycle and Finding Hope

by Sarah Allen Benton

Book Overview

When people think of the 'typical' alcoholic, images of the 'fallen-down' drunk come to mind. Most do not think of professional men and women with successful careers, vibrant families, and active social lives. However, high-functioning alcoholics exist in great numbers, are unseen, and suffer no less than their struggling, failing counterparts. They include corporate presidents, politicians, teachers, tradesmen, law enforcement officials, lawyers,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1442203900
• ISBN13: 9781442203907
• Release Date: October 2010
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 222 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 11.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

One voice, countless lives

It is without reservation that I recommend this book. Saraha is unquestionably a true expert on both addiction and recovery. The latter being most important. In her work, she has captured the essence of what it is to be an alcoholic. She puts words to feelings. Then, she offers hope, and a way out for those that choose it. Through her experience and knowledge, others will find the strength and courage they need to put aside excuses, and seek help. "Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic" will change lives. Perhaps, touching generations." Read it, read it again, and then give it to someone you love to read it. Paul

Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic

This is an excellent source of valuable, first-hand information on alcoholism. The author, a high-functioning alcoholic in her own right, has the intestinal fortitude to "tell it like it is." I found her grasp of the subject material to be outstanding, and her knowledge, courage and ability to describe in detail what a high-functioning alcoholic looks, acts, and functions like to be fascinating. She describes characteristics and traits, which paint a vivid profile of the high-functioning alcoholic, and draws personal parallels from her own history to close out each chapter. This book is a must read for any leader, manager, supervisor, treatment professional, legal professional, or law enforcement officer.

Spirituality and Religion...

This book is outstanding as stated by previous reviewers. Religion and Addiction always come up as a topic... often with passion as it's background. Why would that be? In my opinion, because addictions require a journey of internal healing... a pilgrimage... in an attempt to "fill the void" just as the author has stated. Addictions show us our Imperfections... our weaknesses... our humanness. The Quakers call it "The human condition". The healing of Addictions takes an internal shift of perception that leads to changed patterns of behavior. It is not something one can think their way out of... not understanding, but discovery. One cannot simply learn about addictions, one has to become a new person....seeing oneself as one is... "know thyself". A way of BEING not DOING. These are spiritual concepts. "Religion is for those who are afraid of going to hell; spirituality is for those who have been there" ~ An often quoted AA statement. Alcohol is well known as "spirits"... from the latin word spiritus... "soul, vigor,courage". Alcoholics will tell you about the internal emptiness... the hole in their soul that they experience when they were drinking. The chapter in this book that is on the subject of Religion and Spirituality is titled, "Filling the Void: Religion, Spirituality, and The Bottle". It is in the spaceousness of abstinence that spirituality flows into the soul of an alcoholic. This is an experiential thing... an internal shift. Spirituality is intangeable and often, ineffable and for this reason can't ever be propaganda. It may carry certain religion titles... "judiasm, christianity, sufism, hinduism, islam, buddhism, among others... but, spirituality is a search for reality, for honesty, for truth, for clarity. It is often misunderstood until it is experienced for oneself.

We all know someone!

I read about this book in the NYT and kept shaking me head, yes. Yes, I know several people this could apply to. So many friends and family are leading highly successful lives so think they are invisible to disease and/or addiction. They say, that's not me! I make 6 figures, have a big house and kids etc. They are high-functioning! I've shared this book with one of them and they are definitely seeing the light - and getting help! Thanks, Ms. Benton.

Informative and Inspiring

With Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic Professional Views and Personal Insights Sarah Allen Benton adds an important new voice to the discussion and examination of the curse and conundrum of alcoholism. As an accomplished (highly functioning . . . sorry!) researcher and scholar, Benton offers an array of what I call "stats `n facts" (Benton's "Professional Views") which will amaze and alarm any reader with any interest in the topic of alcoholism. But Benton goes beyond providing a compilation of "stats `n facts." She adroitly uses these "Professional Views" as a framework or structure to support what I feel is the heart and soul of her book: her "Personal Insights." These insights, culled from years of her personal journal entries, recount her own experiences as an increasingly self-aware HFA (Highly Functioning Alcoholic). A gifted and painfully honest memoirist, Benton recalls Caroline Knapp (whom Benton, appropriately, cites throughout) whose seminal Drinking: A Love Story (1996) chronicles another HFA's journey. By sharing her "Personal Insights," Benton illuminates the "Professional Views" and vividly reveals her growing awareness as she moves, over time, from denial to acceptance and from recognition to recovery. Her honesty is profound and profoundly moving. I found myself reading this work very deliberately: I was torn by my desire to devour the narrative, while also wanting to savor and reflect upon each revelation. In Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic Professional Views and Personal Insights, Benton successfully and courageously crafts an astonishing and deeply personal scholarly treatise.