![]() A “stop doing it” approach, Whitaker believes, is “masculine-centric” and implies that if you do slip up “you are kind of stupid”. ![]() AA has been described as expecting total abstinence from its members, which Whitaker claims “creates too high a bar” and people end up feeling “helpless” and “defeated” if they fail to achieve this. Rather than demanding that addicts go cold turkey and chastising them for slipping up, Tempest regards any lapses as part of the process. It is tied to sexual assault and a large portion of domestic violence Holly Whitaker It’s a feminine-centric system, but men do very well in our programme.” Alcohol is the No 1 date rape drug. ![]() “We assume our clients need to be built up, that they need love over punishment, that they need to learn how to exist within their bodies and feel safe within this world. “There are very few things that are inherently built around the unique experience of what it means to be a woman,” she says. But it’s not cheap – its eight-week programme costs $547 (£416), although it does offer a reduced rate of $197 for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. She says it has a gentler approach, which focuses on seeing its users as “whole and perfect” people living in a broken system. Breathing exercises, using mantras, not drinking caffeine after noon, and getting at least seven hours of sleep are just some of the tips she recommends.ĭejected by her experience with AA, she decided to create Tempest, an online sobriety school aimed at women and minority groups. She credits Allen Carr’s manual The Easy Way to Control Alcohol with helping her break free aged 33, as well as therapy and meditation. Whitaker, now 40, details her own path to recovery in Quit Like a Woman, which is part examination of how patriarchy drives women to drink and part practical guide on how to tackle addiction. Getting accurate figures for alcohol treatment programmes is hard because many participants want to remain anonymous, but a former Harvard psychiatry professor Lance Dodes claimed in his 2014 book, The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry, that it was effective for between only 5% and 8% of people. A long-term study on AA (a free mutual-aid society that has about 40,000 members in the UK) by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in 2011 found that 49% of its members were still abstinent after eight years. Some have challenged its belief that alcoholism is a disease, while others have questioned the religious aspect of the organisation, which asks members to turn their lives over to a higher power as part of the 12 steps. While Whitaker is keen to point out that “plenty of my friends have gotten sober through AA”, it is not without its critics. Since it was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio, AA has become the most popular addiction recovery programme in the world. That’s not women or any other marginalised human.” The archetype is a man with an overdeveloped sense of owning the world. They’re for the people who sit at the top of our society. How, she wondered, could this possibly serve women or minorities who historically have been powerless? “These are rules written for men in the 1930s. The programme’s guidelines, created in 1939, centre on appealing to a higher power and renouncing the ego. But, after several months of attending meetings, she realised that the 12-step programme wasn’t working for her. She did what many people with a drinking problem do: she went to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).
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