A woman's guide to enduring and overcoming her mate's alcoholic problems. Demystifying the complicated issues of dependency, denial, self-abuse and self-esteem, women are shown how to cope with the personal, professional and familial conflicts that result from alcoholism.

How do you live with an alcoholic? Dr. Woititz in her first, break through book addresses the spouses of alcoholics who feel overwhelmed and desperate in their marriages. Her focus is to show that the boundaries of isolationism and depression that living with an alcoholic brings does not necessarily mean one cannot eventually find piece of mind. Whether or not the alcoholic continues drinking. Marriage on the Rocks can show you the coping skills you deserve to have when Alcoholism impacts your life.

In this important study of women with alcoholic husbands, Asher vividly describes the process of coming to terms with a profound crisis in one's private life. From interviews with more than fifty women, all of whom were participants in family treatment programs, she assembles a composite picture of the experiences shared by wives of alcoholics. The testimony given by these women illustrates the steps they must take to regain control of their lives. The first step is figuring out what is happening and deciding what to do about it. Asher argues that the vogue of using the label "codependent" may actually hinder rather than facilitate emotional health. Led to think of themselves as addicted to their husbands' addictions the wives of alcoholics may be persuaded that their own problems can't be overcome. But, Asher shows, these women can take command of their lives. Originally published in 1992. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

PSYCHOLOGY/POP PSYCHOLOGY

Alcoholism has been called a "family disease" and yet the family, in particular the wife, of the alcoholic seems to go unseen by the addiction and recovery communities. And what support, advice and programs there are for the women married to alcoholics tend to be alcoholic-centric. "The Alcoholic Husband Primer" is advice for the wives of alcoholics based on their needs - not the needs of the alcoholic. It doesn't label women as "co-dependent." It doesn't accuse them of being "enablers." It's real, practical, everyday advice for the wives of alcoholics...written by the wife of an alcoholic.

This current study has emerged from two decades of the author's investigations in related areas: alcoholism and domestic relations. Its canvas is broadly comparative, drawing on interviews and data gathered in the United States and Finland. The domestic drama of The Other Half is played out both in the private scene of the home and the more public scene of the workplace, and against these two differing national backgrounds. Despite the many expected and perceived cultural differences between the countries, the effects of alcoholism on the family are shown to be the same.Dr. Wiseman's study offers theoretical insights gleaned from its perspective on alcoholism as an interactive phenomenon,to which the concepts of G.H. Mead and Blumer can be applied to illuminate the carefully presented data and go beyond them. New terrain in studies of alcoholism is thereby explored, including such themes as the social construction by the subjects of their husbands' drinking, their marriage and their self-images; the strategy of coping mechanisms; and the effects of the crisis of alcoholism on gender, sex roles, and power differentials.The Other Half complements Dr. Wiseman's prize-winning work on the treatment of Skid Row alcoholics, Stations of the Lost, while involving issues of greater complexity on both the methodological and theoretical plane.