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Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic
Sarah Allen Benton
Professional Views and Personal Insights
Praeger Publishers
May 2009
On Sale: March 5, 2009
224 pages ISBN: 0313352801 EAN: 9780313352805 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction | Self-Help
Who is the typical alcoholic among the 12.5 million
living in the United States now? Many, if not most of us
when asked that question, would envision a skid row bum or
someone at least out of work or with little education locked
into a low-skill, low-paying job. But that is not accurate,
according to the results of a national study released in
June, 2007 by the National Institutes of Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism. The NIAAA determined that alcoholics in the
United States really fall into five subtypes, including
nearly 20 percent who are highly functional alcoholics,
well-educated with good incomes. They include corporate
presidents, powerful politicians, police, lawyers, doctors,
scientists, and other highly-skilled, highly-educated people
who are middle- to high-income and by most accounts
successful. In this unprecedented book, mental health
counselor Sarah Benton takes us into the worlds and minds of
so-called high-functioning alcoholics, to understand how
people so intelligent and achievement-oriented get drawn
into states in which they secretly cannot control their
liquor consumption but still manage to excel in their
careers. The book includes a look at celebrity
alcoholics like singer Eric Clapton and actor/comedian Robin
Williams, as well as alcoholics in high positions including
Chris Albrecht, former Chairman and CEO of HBO. Other
high-profile people included in this book are Miss USA 2007
Tara Conner and football legend Joe Namath. With her own
story of alcoholism and her recovery woven into the text,
Benton takes us into the lives and challenges of these
well-educated and successful people, seeking to understand
how, when, and why they became addicted, as well as the
reasons their alcoholism is, for most, so hard to admit,
cope with, and recover from.
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