How this started
I'm not a doctor. I'm a writer who spent most of my twenties and a stretch of my thirties drinking more than I wanted to and managing it well enough that no one ever sat me down. There was no rock bottom. There was a long, quiet, exhausting middle.
I tried the books. The memoirs were beautiful and made me feel further away, not closer. The recovery books wanted me to use words for myself I wasn't ready to use. The wellness books wanted me to drink kombucha and journal my way out. The science books were dense in a way that didn't help me at 6pm on a Tuesday.
What finally helped was cognitive behavioural therapy — the same framework therapists use, but at my kitchen table, with a pencil. So I started writing down everything I was learning, in plain language, with worksheets. That became the workbook.
What I believe
- You don't owe anyone a label. You don't have to call yourself anything you don't want to call yourself in order to deserve help.
- Tools beat slogans. What you do in the seven minutes a craving lasts matters more than what you tell yourself in the morning.
- Women's experience is its own subject. Most of the canon was written by, and for, men. That doesn't make it wrong. It does make it incomplete.
- The grey area is the real middle. It is where most women I know actually live. It deserves its own literature, not a footnote in someone else's.
What I'm working on now
A second book is in early drafts. A weekly Substack on grey area drinking, CBT, and the messy middle of changing — subscribe here. Occasional speaking engagements for treatment centers, women's groups, and corporate wellness programs that want something more substantive than the usual.
Press & interviews
For media requests, podcast invitations, or speaking engagements: emmarhodesbooks@gmail.com.
A note on credentials
I am not a clinician. The book is grounded in published CBT research and informed by my work with my own therapists over the years, but it is not therapy and not a substitute for it. If you need a clinician, please see the disclaimer for guidance and crisis resources.