Women and Addiction

A groundbreaking, women-centered guide to addiction and recovery that reveals how addiction uniquely affects women—often hidden behind high-functioning lives—and offers a clear, compassionate path forward.

Addiction in women often hides in plain sight.
As women, we’re expected to keep it together. To manage. To tell ourselves it isn’t that bad. We’re not supposed to struggle with alcohol or other addictive substances, but if we do, we wonder why we don’t have the willpower to take control and handle it.


Addiction in women is rising, yet women remain underdiagnosed, undertreated, and deeply misunderstood. In this groundbreaking work, recovery advocate Hilary Phelps and addiction medicine physician Dr. Lipi Roy offer a women-first reframe of addiction as a treatable disease—one that uniquely impacts women and their recovery.

Rooted in science, shaped by lived experience, and designed for the realities of women’s lives, their clear, evidence-based framework explores:

• Why women progress from use to addiction and experience health consequences faster than men
• How hormones and metabolism influence cravings, blood alcohol levels, and relapse risk
• Why addiction often overlaps with depression, anxiety, and eating disorders
• How trauma, stress, relationships, and caregiving pressures drive women’s substance use
• Why women face greater barriers to treatment

When care reflects women’s biology, mental health, trauma histories, and social and cultural roles, better outcomes can happen—without guilt or stigma and with compassion and understanding.