BOOKS BY SARAH ALLEN BENTON

Parents in Recovery: Navigating a Sober Family Lifestyle

Parents in Recovery is not a book about “how” to parent. It is also not a book about “how” to get sober. Instead, it is meant to be a guide for parents in recovery (PIRs) from substance use disorders that provides insights and strategies for coping with the many unique and not so unique, challenges they may face. It is also intended to give the loved ones and families of PIRs an inside look at this world and explain why certain changes and behaviors are necessary to maintain long-term recovery. Each chapter is an integration of research, the voices of parents in recovery, input from addiction treatment experts, parent recovery wisdom suggestions and the author’s past journal accounts. This guidebook can support mothers and fathers in navigating their way through parenting with a sober lifestyle—which includes physical, emotional, social, spiritual, behavioral, environmental, and vocational wellness. It is written for those who have embraced sobriety before, during or after becoming a parent and can serve as a “job-aid” on this journey. Key topics include love and marriage, family systems, work and life balance, self-care, parenting types, sober socializing, coping with hard times, mental health and recovery pride. This book also addresses modern-day challenges, including the use of electronics, social media, career identity, social trends, non-traditional parental roles and living in a post-COVID-19 pandemic world. While many parents feel shame associated with aspects of their addiction, this book emphasizes the gifts and accomplishments of being in recovery and how they positively impact the entire family system.

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Understanding the High Functioning Alcoholic

When people think of the ‘typical’ alcoholic, images of the ‘fallen-down’ drunk come to mind. Most do not think of professional men and women with successful careers, vibrant families, and active social lives. However, high-functioning alcoholics exist in great numbers, are unseen, and suffer no less than their struggling, failing counterparts. They include corporate presidents, politicians, teachers, tradesmen, law enforcement officials, lawyers, physicians, and even stay at home parents, who are by most accounts successful. Even as they have created lives most people would envy, the realities of alcoholism eventually strike, and recovery is just as arduous for high-functioning alcoholics as it is for lower functioning alcoholics. Benton reveals the extent of the problem, the challenges in recognizing it, the warning signs, and the methods for addressing it. Through research and interviews with both addiction experts and sober high-functioning alcoholics, she illustrates how, when, and why they become addicted, as well as the reasons their alcoholism is so hard to admit, detect, cope with, and overcome. Weaving her own story of alcoholism and recovery into the text in the form of past journal entries and reflective pieces, Benton takes us first hand into the lives of high-functioning alcoholics.

(See Endorsements HERE)

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