October 20, 2013

Carrie Bradshaw and her rounds of cosmopolitans; Bridget Jones with her glasses of chardonnay; Chelsea Handler declaring her passion for vodka. In sitcoms, rom-coms and comedy shows, female boozers are the stuff of jokes. They suffer through hangovers, complain about their bar bills, promise to cut back and then cheerfully renege.

But many women find that their drinking doesn’t lead to laughter. In the U.S. and Western Europe, growing numbers of women struggle with alcoholism; in some places, women’s rates of alcohol abuse have achieved parity with men’s.

Ann Dowsett Johnston, the author of the new book Drink, speaks with NPR’s Rachel Martin about what’s driving the increase in female binge drinking and alcoholism. She shares what she’s learned, from research and from her own alcoholism, about advertising, addiction and the challenges facing women who seek treatment. Go Read Interview…