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Rating: 
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.
Rating:
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.
Rating: 
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.
Rating: 
Summary: Simple solutions CAN work
Review: Susan Powters premise is simple. However, if you listen to her words, her personal story, you'll understand that even the simplest of tasks can seem overwhelming, but they are not impossible. She shares her experiences with AA and exposes that program's complete lack of growth since its inception. She feels that alternative therapies do exist and are working, but that their availability is limited due to the AA-based rehab business. I found her nutritional advice helpful and her story inspirational. She does simplify the process, but I believe this is one of the best things about it. A complicated plan is likely to keep many from even attempting to try. There is no cure offered in this book. It is a collection of nutritional and physiological tips intended to help the reader overcome the body's physical and mental need for alcohol. Twelve-steppers beware, this book is not for you. It is not about how to live the rest of your life in a constant, day-to-day struggle with alcohol. It is about how to recover and move on to a blissfully normal existence. Susan's contention that it is not necessary for someone to hit rock bottom in order to get help is right on target. So often people are made to feel that if they have not surrendered completely to the disease, they can never get recover. Nothing could be further from the truth. Would we ever tell a cancer patient to submit to the cancer before they can get better? Would we ever tell them they are powerless to fight? Of course not and that is what Susan wants the reader to discover about themselves. YOU are the most powerful person in YOUR life. You have to fight for your life and no one can do it but you. Susan's message will inspire and encourage those struggling with addiction.
Rating:
Summary: This may kill people who really need help...
Review: Susan's voice and mannerisms are annoying. So what? She has little formal education and sometimes mispronounces words. Who cares? She charges for the information rather than giving it away. Not important. She can do research; she has passion; she is motivated to communicate what she learns; she does not pussyfoot around. And she saved my life. Although recovered now, I was an active alcoholic for most of my adult life, taking my first drink at age 22 and quickly becoming addicted. For the next 25 years, with brief sober periods, my evenings and weekends were spent drinking. Like many alcoholics I was able to keep a good job, moving up the management ranks--but could not manage the rest of my life. I went to AA several times but never felt part of it. I was embarrassed, and the prospect of publicly confessing my sins before strangers and loved ones was anathema to me. AA is a decent organization. (It worked for my dad.) Still, the 12-step process only works for twelve percent of the people who try it; did you know that? I was one of the eighty-eight percent for whom it did not work. By December of 1997 I was a late-stage alcoholic, certain that there was no way I would ever get sober, and that I probably had less than a year to live. In truth, this was OK with me. Then I found Susan Powter's book. The first night I managed to read a couple of chapters before passing out. The second night I started the book again, read it from beginning to end in one sitting, poured out my entire supply of alcohol, and have not wanted a drink since. I bought the audiotape and listened to it during my daily commute for a month, to ensure that the information was burned into my brain. I created a concise, 2-page summary of what I learned, both in Susan's book and through additional research, and have shared the information with many people...who have shared it with their own loved ones. All this from Susan's book!
Rating:
Summary: An annoying but inspirational work
Review: Suzie Powter has a personal presentation style that grates, like fingernails on a chalkboard. Watch her on TV and see what I mean. Paradoxically, in this book she uses this style to very good advantage, and talks very frankly about something that few people would have the courage to admit -- yet alone do anything about. I read this book cover-to-cover, initially out of curiosity more than anything else. I came away from it with profound admiration for Suzy's personal courage and a changed view of her as a person. I have re-read it many many times since. Suzy courageously puts everything on the line, using her high public profile to showcase a serious health issue, and offering very valuable insight into the Alcohol Dependency Treatment industry. She reveals a fascinating depth of character that can only be the result of writing the book herself, rather than using a ghost writer. She transforms her personal style masterfully and becomes a well-meaning, brash, best friend, ever-present with helpful advice. She is the sort of person you would want to have in your corner if you were going through a serious problem, like alcoholism. (Or, in my case, clinical depression). This book does Suzy Powter credit. And if it becomes her sole, ongoing legacy and contribution to World History, I believe she would not be at all unhappy with this result. Read this book and you, like me, will probably want to meet the author.
Rating: 
Summary: It's working for me
Review: This book has changed my life. Susan Powter may not be everybody's cup of tea - indeed I would never have thought this kind of book would work for me. Having found AA depressing, one-to-one counselling a waste of good money and the NHS old-fashioned, negative and next to useless I was fairly sure that my alcoholism was going to kill me in the not too distant future. I bought this book nearly 3 months ago and not only have I not drunk a drop of alcohol since (and I was a litre of spirits a day girl)! I have easily been able to control any cravings I've had. I realise I'm not out of the woods yet but the book is a constant inspiration. Powter's basic message being that alcoholics are suffering from malnutrition - cure the malnutrition first and you have a good chance of curing - yes, curing (not fighting) the alcoholism. The dietary and nutritional advice is sketchy but she gives plenty of alternative reading to supplement that. Even if you can't bear slightly hysterical "in your face" type self-help books, if you have a drink problem it could work for you!
Rating:
Summary: Saved My Life
Review: This book is nothing more than an informercial exhorting you to buy 'her' vitamins. Throughout the book she slams the 'boys' who have, in her opinion, made the bio-chemical connection to alcoholism a secret. Then what does SHE do? Makes the vitamin dosage, her key to rehabilitating battered cells, A SECRET! Of course you can always buy her vitamins. Just mail in the coupon at the back of the book, or dial this toll-free number... It's absolutely shameful that someone with her intimate knowledge of the devastation of alcoholism would try to profit from it. Not content to settle for the book profits Ms Powter? You had a chance to help people. Apparently your greed took priority. It's enough to make you want a drink.
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Summary: Contradictory
Review: What bothered me about this book is that I found Susan Powter contradictory with her other books. In her wellness books, she talks how she wouldn't pollute her body with diet drinks, eating meats and such. Then she writes how she was unhappy with her life because she was/is an alcoholic. What did she think she was polluting her body with all the beers and such? I thought when I skimmed thru this Sober book, that if I drank alcohol, I guess my weight loss would of been easier too. In her question and answer book called Pocket Powter, she stated that if you drink and drive and hit her child, she'd come after you. Was she taking taxis home or had a designated driver for her and her children? She claimed in all her books before the Sober one, that she had no secrets as she was open to everything. When I read this alcohol book, I wondered what other lies she told. This reminds me of the saying--the lady doth protests too much.
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