Blind Drunk

Light at the end of the tunnel for anyone living with a loved one's alcohol problem If your life has been brought down by a loved one's drinking problem or affected by the family disease of alcoholism, then this book is for you. It reassures you that you are not alone and isolated; gives valuable information about alcohol; and, most importantly, shows you the way to a freedom from the effects of loving an alcoholic. As the partner of a recovering alcoholic, Anne honestly and frankly describes her journey through the haze of living with this problem. A trained couples counsellor, she analyses her own behavior and, in so doing, encourages you to face reality, along with giving you some tools to change your life, leading to serenity and, above all, hope for the future.

Light at the end of the tunnel for anyone living with a loved ones alcohol problem If your life has been brought down by a loved ones drinking problem or affected by the family disease of alcoholism, then this book is for you. It reassures you that you are not alone and isolated; gives valuable information about alcohol; and, most importantly, shows you the way to a freedom from the effects of loving an alcoholic. As the partner of a recovering alcoholic, Anne honestly and frankly describes her journey through the haze of living with this problem. A trained couples counsellor, she analyses her own behavior and, in so doing, encourages you to face reality, along with giving you some tools to change your life, leading to serenity and, above all, hope for the future.

An "entertaining and enlightening" deep dive into the alcohol-soaked origins of civilization—and the evolutionary roots of humanity's appetite for intoxication (Daniel E. Lieberman, author of Exercised). While plenty of entertaining books have been written about the history of alcohol and other intoxicants, none have offered a comprehensive, convincing answer to the basic question of why humans want to get high in the first place. Drunk elegantly cuts through the tangle of urban legends and anecdotal impressions that surround our notions of intoxication to provide the first rigorous, scientifically-grounded explanation for our love of alcohol. Drawing on evidence from archaeology, history, cognitive neuroscience, psychopharmacology, social psychology, literature, and genetics, Drunk shows that our taste for chemical intoxicants is not an evolutionary mistake, as we are so often told. In fact, intoxication helps solve a number of distinctively human challenges: enhancing creativity, alleviating stress, building trust, and pulling off the miracle of getting fiercely tribal primates to cooperate with strangers. Our desire to get drunk, along with the individual and social benefits provided by drunkenness, played a crucial role in sparking the rise of the first large-scale societies. We would not have civilization without intoxication. From marauding Vikings and bacchanalian orgies to sex-starved fruit flies, blind cave fish, and problem-solving crows, Drunk is packed with fascinating case studies and engaging science, as well as practical takeaways for individuals and communities. The result is a captivating and long overdue investigation into humanity's oldest indulgence—one that explains not only why we want to get drunk, but also how it might actually be good for us to tie one on now and then.

The medical evidence is clear--alcohol is bad for you. But will this alone be enough to end our complex love affair with booze? Society's dependence on alcohol goes far beyond the physical. We drink to celebrate, commiserate, socialize and mark the passage into adulthood. Individuals who opt out--with or without "a drinking problem"-- must re-invent themselves in multiple contexts. Combining memoir and analysis, author Veronica Woodruff chronicles the evolution of one family's drinking culture against the backdrop of society's quest for a healthy relationship with alcohol.

2020 Gourmand Award in Spirits Gold Medal winner in the Independent Book Publishers Awards China is one of the world's leading producers and consumers of liquor, with alcohol infusing all aspects of its culture, from religion and literature to business and warfare. Yet to the outside world, China's most famous spirit, baijiu, remains a mystery. This is about to change, as baijiu is now being served in cocktail bars beyond its borders. Drunk in China follows Derek Sandhaus's journey of discovery into the world's oldest drinking culture. He travels throughout the country and around the globe to meet with distillers, brewers, snake-oil salesmen, archaeologists, and ordinary drinkers. He examines the many ways in which alcohol has shaped Chinese society and its rituals. He visits production floors, karaoke parlors, hotpot joints, and speakeasies. Along the way he uncovers a tradition spanning more than nine thousand years and explores how recent economic and political developments have conspired to push Chinese alcohol beyond the nation's borders for the first time. As Chinese society becomes increasingly international, its drinking culture must also adapt to the times. Can the West also adapt and clink glasses with China? Read Drunk in China and find out.