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In 1970, Emma Harte is a wealthy, formidable businesswoman. Just about to turn 80, she has spent her life making a vast business empire, including the world-famous Harte's Department Store in London, as well as extensive holdings in property and oil. While on a business trip to Texas with her grandchild, Paula, Emma informs her that she will be her successor. A fabulous read. Raw, revealing, at times heartbreaking, but searingly honest and clearly aimed to support anyone who is wondering if they will ever recover from addiction. Yes, says Jenny, you can: just don't expect unicorns to visit immediately. Beautifully written, it prompts a broader discussion around the role women's (little-discussed) hormones can play in one's ‘addiction and recovery story’, and how rarely this has been considered when it comes to models of recovery. Jenny tells a truly hopeful story about one woman who has come to terms with who she is. She looks the beast in the eyes. Well done.’ —Clare Bowditch, To me, the best part of this book is that Jenny Valentish tells her story in such an honest and bold way. Speaking up about such a difficult subject is admirable. Speaking up about it with so much respect and a strong voice like hers is simply admirable. As she tells her story, Valentish identifies a series of shortcomings of the medical and addiction treatment industries which have failed to understand and communicate how substance abuse affects women. “I had no idea that this was the case when I started writing,” she says. “I was just going to write about the female experience [of addiction] – there was going to be no call to arms.” It sounds obvious, but so many people still go around blaming their mood or their circumstances on other people or things.
Estrogen doesn’t only make substances more attractive, some studies suggest it slows down their elimination. This means estrogen-based birth-control pills might extend the effects of intoxication of drugs and alcohol. The flipside is, alcohol can raise oestrogen levels. In one study, blood and urine estrogen levels increased up to thirty-two per cent in women who drank just two drinks a day. She wears the things that she likes, regardless of whether they’re on trend or the height of fashion. Valentish, now 42, details the highs and lows of her first year without alcohol — including her time in the Alcoholics Anonymous program (AA), her marriage breakdown, and her experience with "hormonal uprisings" — in her new book Woman of Substances, part memoir, part research project about women's addiction. Addiction treatment: society is failing women This inner understanding also means that they are in the driving seat of their own life, as we’ll see next. 9. You take full responsibility for yourself Shortly after reading this I read a news article telling about the life of Estee Lauder and the rise of her eponymous cosmetics empire. It was so similar to Emma Harte's story I told my mother, a devotee of all things Estee Lauder, and she recommended A Woman of Independent Means, which I devoured and it was an equally wonderful novel which also changed my life. I believe I recommended both novels to my newly married daughter at the time.
If I was her child I probably would have conspired against Emma too. No wonder her children turned out to be such cold spoiled brats! They probably had no love and were all from so many different dads they couldn't keep up with their family tree either.
Don Sharp was not the original director. He says the producers were unhappy with the progress of the film during pre-production; the original director and several heads of production were fired, and Sharp was brought in four weeks before filming. Sharp says it was he who cast Jenny Seagrove and that Diane Baker recommended Liam Neeson. [1] It's very, very occasionally I whip out the old pencil to underlying sentences and make notes in a book and this was one of those books that prompted me to do so. (One of the reasons it's so rare for me to whip out the old grey-lead is because making notes makes the reading process so much more extended.) Some have been blessed with street smarts. Meanwhile, others have very high emotional intelligence. Drugs and alcohol are pain-killers. The pain that is felt might be emotional, but it’s still the anterior cingulate cortex – the area of the brain that responds to physical pain – that agitates the vagus nerve connecting the brain stem to the chest to the abdomen, manifesting distress as real pain in those regions.
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A woman of real substance doesn’t shy away from the word sorry. She can hold her hands up and say “My bad”. Addiction results from a complex set of reasons including trauma as a child. Genetics plays a big role, as does learned behavior (drinking gave me solace before, so I’ll try it again). She does all of this with reference to her own experiences which are honest (brutally so, at times), troubling but also relatable.
Impulsivity is a big driver of substance abuse. It’s long been thought to be a male trait but actually men and women are on an equal footing when it comes to inhibition control, which is the ability – or inability – to put the brakes on. Women also tend to act out their impulsivity in less obvious ways, such as through theft or promiscuity.A rags-to-riches story, it is about a British woman who begins as a simple maid to become the powerful head of a business empire in the early 20th century. It is a magnificent novel about the strength and commitment one woman has to pull herself out of poverty and the sacrifices she makes to survive and become powerful in an age dominated by men. However only her career ends happily ever after... her personal life was a mess (something many years after the fact, to which I can personally relate). Yet in the midst of numerous personal trials she found some of the best friends and business partners for life, and (again, as I am able relate) the book has a happy and upbeat conclusion. When the series ended I missed them as I did a dear friend. Because failure is always a part of any success. Trial and error demands we have slip-ups as part of the learning process. I received a copy of the ebook for "Woman of Substances" from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley!!! This fairer approach affords people the benefit of the doubt. It also demands that she stay open-minded. A celebration of an indomitable spirit, here is New York Times bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford's dazzling saga of a woman who dared to dream--and to triumph against all odds...
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