Betty Ford

With the passing of her husband, former First Lady Betty Ford was once again a household word.

And not, this time, immediately followed by the word "Clinic".

The woman whose name became synonymous not only with devotion to public life, but also, for a larger segment of the population, addiction and recovery in a clinical setting, was a tireless social worker in her role as First Lady. She suffered from and defeated both breast cancer and alcoholism, establishing the Betty Ford Clinic as the first widely know celebrity retreat to excise the demons of addiction.

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Best Sellers at Amazon.com...

Healing and Hope
By: Betty Ford
List Price: $24.95
Amazon Price: $0.59

Product Description
The compelling and deeply personal stories of six women's journeys through alcoholism and drug addiction, with commentary by Betty Ford.

The Betty Ford Center is widely regarded as the nation's leading addiction treatment hospital, and since it opened in 1982, over 56,000 people have been treated there. Yet little has been written about what actually happens during treatment at the hospital.

Last year, during an alumni reunion, six women who had gone through the center and with whom Betty Ford had close relationships, decided to share their remarkable stories.

These are regular women, not celebrities, and they cross a broad spectrum of race, age, and class. One is a schoolteacher, another a housewife, and one is a former gang member. These women were addicted to alcohol, prescription medications, illegal drugs, and some to a combination of the three. For a few of the women, their treatment was successful the first time around-for others the journey to recovery was much more arduous. Their stories are honest and open, at times funny, often heartbreaking, always compelling.

Betty Ford weaves her own commentary around these narratives, giving details about the women and their lives-what they went through at the center and what happened afterward -and sharing stories about her own battle with drugs and alcohol.

Healing and Hope is a book for anyone struggling with addiction or who knows someone who is. It chronicles the experiences of survivors, women who have fought to reclaim their lives and break free of the addictions that have held them prisoner for so long.

The Betty Ford Center Book of Answers
By: James W. West
List Price: $16.95
Amazon Price: $1.00

Product Description
ARE YOU OR IS SOMEONE YOU LOVE STRUGGLING WITH ADDICTION?

When it comes to drug and alcohol addiction, it's hard to know where to turn for help. The professionals at the Betty Ford Center--one of the world's leading and most trusted sources of treatment for oddiction--hove provided thousands with the strength, support, and expertise that substance abusers need to get well. Now, the former medical director of the Betty Ford Center shares that expertise in this remarkably honest and complete book, which answers vital questions that surround this difficult subject:

"My son seems to be following in his alcoholic father's footsteps. How can I help him?"

"My wife's the alcoholic, why do I need treatment?"

"Can the brain rerover from cocaine abuse?"

"Even a double dose of my prescription tranquilizers doesn't seem to help. Am I addicted?"

"If I get sober, what are my chances of staying sober?"

"l am uncomfortable with the spiritual aspect of AA. Is there on alternative?"

"Is it true that people who are forced into treatment get nothing out of it?"

Whether you are ten years sober, a current or potential substance abuser, or you care about someone who is, this volume will help you better understand--and fight--the destructive powers of addiction.

Healing and Hope: Six Women from the Betty Ford Center Share Their Powerful J...
By: Betty Ford
List Price: $14.00
Amazon Price: $0.01

Product Description
Originally brought together by the Betty Ford Center's twentieth-anniversary reunion, six women share their poignant stories in this book. Their combined voices-along with Betty Ford's own insightful, compassionate commentary-create a groundbreaking and ultimately triumphant memoir that lays bare the destructive power of addiction.

Betty Ford: Candor And Courage In The White House (Modern First Ladies)
By: John Robert Greene
List Price: $25.00
Amazon Price: $23.24

Product Description
First Lady Betty Ford will long be remembered for her active support of the Equal Rights Amendment, her struggles with breast cancer and substance abuse, and her later involvement with the addiction treatment center that bears her name. But perhaps more than these, Betty Ford will stand as a paragon of candor and courage, an outspoken woman whose public positions did not always conform with those of her husband.

An independent, free spirit who regularly ranks among the most-admired First Ladies, Betty Ford is considered by many to be the most outspoken since Eleanor Roosevelt: she spoke her mind publicly and frequently, sometimes sending the president's political advisors running for cover. This is the first book to address the successes and failures of her advocacy, the effect of her candor, and the overall impact of her brief tenure as First Lady.

John Robert Greene traces Betty Ford's problems and triumphs from her childhood through her husband's entire political career, including his controversial presidency, which thrust her into an unrelenting media spotlight. He then tells how she confronted her personal demons and became a symbol of courage for women throughout the nation.

Contrasting the sometimes harsh assessments of historians with the respect in which she continues to be held, Greene examines Betty Ford's outspoken opinions on abortion and women's rights and suggests that her views hampered Gerald Ford's ability to forge a coalition within the GOP and may well have been a factor in his presidential defeat. Afterwards, as the author highlights, Betty Ford remained a role model for people suffering from addictions and personal pain, and made seminal contributions in the field of public advocacy for women's health issues and substance abuse. The Betty Ford Center especially stands as a lasting tribute to her foresight and caring.

Greene concludes that, while Gerald Ford wanted to restore an aura of honesty to the presidency, in many ways it was his wife who accomplished this instead. His book, the first to draw upon her papers at the Ford Library, captures her courage and candor and tells why she will always be remembered-for who, not what, she was.

This book is part of the Modern First Ladies series.

BETTY: A GLAD AWAKENING
By: CHRIS CHASE BETTY FORD
List Price:
Amazon Price: Click for Availability

Betty: A Glad Awakening
By: Betty Ford
List Price: $4.50
Amazon Price: Click for Availability

Time Is All We Have: Four Weeks at the Betty Ford Center
By: Barnaby Conrad
List Price: $3.98
Amazon Price: $22.50

Product Description
Writer Barnaby Conrad offers a fascinating glimpse inside the Betty Ford rehabilitation facility where he spent 30 days learning to overcome his alcoholism. "Candid, comprehensive . . . readers virtually live the patients' experiences".--Publishers Weekly.

Five First Ladies: A Look into the Lives of Nancy Reagan, Rosalynn Carter, Be...
By: Elizabeth Simpson Smith
List Price: $14.85
Amazon Price: Click for Availability

Product Description
Describes the duties and privileges of the President's wife, known as the First Lady, and profiles Nancy Reagan, Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford, Pat Nixon, and Lady Bird Johnson.

Betty Ford: A Symbol Of Strength (Presidential Wives Series)
By: Jeffrey S. Ashley
List Price: $35.00
Amazon Price: $34.99

Betty Ford (First Ladies)
By: Joanne Mattern
List Price: $24.21
Amazon Price: $14.85

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