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Summary: This may kill people who really need help...
Review: ...like me. I read this book back a few years ago when i was looking for ways to get and stay sober. I believed this book and spent a bunch of money on the nutritional supplements and went to an MD and a medical detox. Combined, I thought it would work. It didn't. Neither did the Reiki, the naltrexone, the hypnosis, or the affirmations, etc. Finally, three and a half years later, I have tried the only thing that actually works for someone like me who has the disease of alcoholism rather than just a condition of alcohol dependence, which may be what Susan had.For those with alcohol dependence, but not the disease of alcoholism (there's a subtle difference in ways to tell which you have, but a huge difference in how to treat it), this method may well work. But, for those with true alcoholism, there really does need to be intervention from a higher power to overcome it. The reason AA has such a low success rate is because a person has to choose and adhere to the lifestyle, or the disease creeps back up. The very nature of the disease itself makes this choice very difficult to make and then adhere to. But, if the directions are followed, success is assured. However, psychology and nutritional supplementation will not cure or even bring into remission, the disease of alcoholism. Nutritional supplementation can definitely help bring the body back into decent shape after abstinence, but cure alcoholism? I really doubt it. Believe me, an alcoholic will try everything under the sun to fix their problem to avoid doing the one true thing that will actually work, the 12 steps. And, if they make it through all those scenarios alive, hopefully then they'll make it to a 12-step program. Because if you have this disease, nothing else works. If you have what looks like alcoholism but isn't (and is merely alcohol dependence), then this program may well work. Just please, please, please don't fool yourself into thinking this will work if you have the real deal. I just hope Susan is still sober, whether she's using the method in her book, or a 12-step program.
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Summary: Stupid, self-serving, dangerous
Review: 12% success rate? Defined by whom? No reliable statistics exist on this point. After her own alcoholism got beyond deniability, Powter dried out and got back on the self-promotion bandwagon, her grandiosity and dangerous ignorance unchanged. Her advice on nutrition is just another rehash of the crazy, paranoid/conspiracy minded quackery of con artists like Adele Davis and Gary Null. Please check out Dr. Barrett's comments on these two at http://quackwatch.com I Ms Powter's looney advice has an 80% success rate, where is her Nobel Prize? And for that matter, where is she? Did the secret cabal of 'powerful lobbyists' assassinate her? Take a walk, eat real food sensibly, go to AA, take what you need, leave the rest. The "AA" described by quacks like Powter is a straw man. Real people can and do get and stay sober without lining the pockets of creeps like this woman.
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Summary: The sugar connection
Review: After reading Susan Powters book, I've finally figured out WHY I had to eat an entire tray of brownies. THANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU, Miss Powter for making the connection for me. Mary
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Summary: If you only could pick one book to read about sobriety.
Review: Alcoholism doesn't run in my family, it gallops. I was getting drunk to console myself the day my mother died of acute alcohol poisoning. After many years of the usual hell you can hear about at any AA meeting, I started making the efforts, mostly at gunpoint. Solution is the only thing that matters in this game, and there was none for me. I'd get close, but always fail, and not know why. At the end, and about to lose my second wife, I was hung over and researching in the library. My experience with herbalism led me to tracking information about nutritional cures, which led me to SOBER AND STAYING THAT WAY. It drew from the same books that had already started the glimmer of understanding. I took it home, devoured it, did everything she said, and my life took a 180. If you always feel vaguely uncomfortable in your body, this book will help. The biochemical environment for sobriety is no joke. Powter is dead on about the alcohol lobby, and the world it forces an alcoholic to exist in. Like her, I was not sold on the AA concept of powerlessness. Bottom line: Do what she says. All of it. Notice how much better you feel, and how much easier it is to resist. The book is not new information, but rather the first digestable thing I've seen that assembles the information properly. As a martial arts teacher told me- many people know the moves, but they don't know the SIGNIFICANCE of them. This book is about the significance, and dignity, and blowing away all the blame and shame. I owe the woman, big time. And if you DON'T buy it- here's a hint- stay off the cigs, donuts, and coffee when you're sitting there like a sad sack at the next AA meeting. That alone will do more than anything you hear there.
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Summary: Reader/listener from Seattle
Review: All I can tell you is what happened in my family. My husband doesn't drink anymore. I don't drink anymore. We owe it not to AA, but to Susan. Bless you, Susan. This program works! Oh, by the way, my husband is a wealthy, athletic, very much man's man. I would have been the last person in the world to believe that anything Susan Powter wrote would penetrate his world. I believe he listened to the tapes out of curiosity when he borrowed my car and I am sure it was harder on him to admit that he listened to Susan Powter tapes than to admit he was alcoholic. You have a powerful ally out here Susan. It's my husband.
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Summary: Empowering Must-Read for alcoholics & their loved ones
Review: First of all, I love Susan Powter's style. She's talking with you, not at you. Her passion and commitment shine through every word she pens. You can hear her speaking as she writes her heart out for her readers. I found her assessment of 12 step programs to be right on the money: Against Bill W.'s wishes, many (not all) twelve-steppers have turned AA into a religion, about personalities, not principles. I found that the twelve step program I attended was full of "true believers" that were apt to turn on you if you questioned anything at all. At any rate, Powter's book is a non-judgmental, non-moralistic assessment of alcoholism and how it relates to nutrition, societal attitude and self-regard. It's really fantastic and could help people stop drinking in droves. I am the author of Beauty Bites Beast: Awakening the Warrior Within Women and Girls and I don't endorse books haphazardly or lightly. However, I am an activist committed to the empowerment of women and I found it particularly encouraging and inspiring for women. I highly recommend this very readable book.
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Summary: Good nutritional information--but said before and better
Review: Have been in recovery via AA for almost 4 years. I try to keep an open mind and read anything to do with alcoholism. This book included. I find it to be helpful in the nutritional (or malnutritional) aspects of the disease. Alcoholism is a deadly disease. No matter what you do, if you believe you or someone has a problem get some help. A sick mind, and alcoholism is a disease, cannot cure itself! And, contrary to popular belief--all AA groups are not the same!!! AA is not a religious organization--it is 100% spiritual in nature. There is a vast difference between religion and spirituality. I am fortunate to have found my way of arresting my alcoholism in AA--however, AA has no monopoly on treatment. Get some kind of help. I truly have my doubts that this "cure" in this book will provide a large number of people with lasting, true sobriety. AA has done this, and done it well since 1935. Am I biased--perhaps. But I did try everyway I knew how to quit drinking. This included 2 years of being "dry" by exercise and healthy eating. When the "pats on the back" and my "feeling good" wore off, I went back to drinking. Would be interesting to have a survey done in a few years as a follow up on those who try the program offered in this book. I truly hope this is done, as all research is needed and necessary about this still much misunderstood disease. This book struck me as a rehash of other, older and better researched books. The "meat" of this book can be found in 2 other books--"Under the Influence--A Guide to the Myths and Realities of Alcoholism" by James R. Milam & Katherine Ketcham and "Nature's Road to Recovery" by Beth M Ley Jacobs. Both contain the same, and more, of what this book contain. These I would give 5 stars! Also try "Chalk Talks on Alcoholism" by Father Joseph Martin. Excellent also, not just for the alcoholic, but for those who are effected by alcoholism.
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Summary: Unrealistic !
Review: I can't drink alcohol, and now I learn that I can't have sugar, flour or caffeine? Be real! I read the whole book, just to get that message! I should have got the book out of the library, instead of buying it! It wasn't the answer I was looking for.
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Summary: Love the story and the way she tells it!!!
Review: I enjoyed reading her story. She was very honest and open. So many experiences and tales she tells hit home, big time!! I don't believe that the nutrition plan alone will work. I truly believe that you need a support group or lifeline and I am currently in pursuit of one. I recommend the book for anyone who has a drinking problem but I wouldn't shy away from other, (AA), programs that have been around for quite a while. Bottom line is whatever works, do it!!!
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Summary: A real eye opener to this disease.
Review: I found this book excellent in helping me to stop drinking. Coming from an alcoholic family it was an inspiration to read. The things Susan writes about are exactly how you feel. I went to my first party and enjoyed immensely waking up the next morning and driving the baby sitter home instead of playing "dead". OH What a feeling. Keep up the excellent soul searching books Susan.
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