Chapter 9, Substitution, (pg 133-148) Summary and Analysis

In this chapter, Knapp explains how alcohol became a substitution for bulimia and anorexia. Janet is a friend that Knapp met in AA. Janet is a thirty-seven year old, tall, beautiful woman. At the age of seventeen, she went to college and went crazy. She would over-drink and overeat compulsively every day. Soon, her weight ballooned, then came crashing down. The only way Janet knew to deal with the pain she was feeling was to throw up. She would eat nothing and then go on day-long food and alcohol binges. When she was done, she would hate herself and purge. She would then repeat the cycle. When Janet graduated and settled down in a new city, her bulimia slowly lessened. As it did so, her drinking increased.

A year after Knapp graduated from college, she...