Jenny Valentish
“Just because we've become sober doesn't necessarily mean everything's rosy from now on.”
Who is Jenny Valentish?
This month I had the privilege to speak with British author and journalist, Jenny Valentish. She has a podcast called Spirit Levels which is about exploring different kinds of wellness options and pushing your body, and has written for the harm reduction online magazine Filter. Her journey with writing began when she was eighteen years old. She started self-publishing her own work and now has four published books, one of which is Woman of Substances (one of my favorite books ever). When she got into journalism she found herself in a place surrounded by a lot of drinking and a lot of drugs especially when she was working for music magazines. While being in a position where she was constantly using substances, she managed to have a successful career just because of how normalized it is in the field. Read this month's blog to learn more about Jenny Valentish and her contribution to this field!
Navigating writing about substances through a female lens: Having experienced childhood sexual abuse, Jenny believes that it places one on a distinct path that usually involves promiscuity, further bad sexual experiences, and complex relationships with men. She explains that there have been loads of addiction books written by women, particularly white middle-class, middle-aged, female journalists. She felt that they weren't asking the question: Why is it different for women? What are our experiences specifically like? She decided to take charge and create what was missing. She spent her time writing about trauma and alcohol in personal pieces, often anonymous. She felt scared and ashamed to out herself. However, when hitting the age of 34, she became sober from drugs and alcohol for eight years. She started writing and teaching memoir and specifically wrote her best-selling them more Woman of Substances.
The process for creating her book: It was different from normal addiction memoirs in part because she interviewed people who work on the front line including researchers and clinicians. “But also it had quite a harm minimization slant, which is very unusual for addiction memoirs,” she said. Normally addiction memoirs tend to be about abstinence, however, Jenny didn't want to do that. “Just because we've become sober doesn't necessarily mean everything's rosy from now on,” she explained. She spoke about how people more often than not will relapse. She wanted to talk about different ways that people manage their addictive behaviors. Jenny's mission was to write about why people get addicted. She would read the same types of memoirs about hero's journey stories or rock bottom stories, but she was yearning to hear about why people get addicted in the first place, particularly from the lens of being a woman. What are the vulnerabilities women might have that make us more prone to addictive behavior? What does addictive behavior look like for women? Is it different from that for men? What are the treatment options like for women? Are they suitable for women? These are the questions that roamed in her mind throughout the process of creating the book. She used her own story as a case study.
What she learned when researching for her book: Jenny came to the conclusion that researching was the best part of writing this book. She read 300 papers to write Woman of Substances and interviewed 30 people. She spoke to Professor J. Kulkarni, a psychiatrist who was doing incredible research about women and hormones and how that all plays into addictive issues. She discussed with Jenny women's mental health issues and self-medication, specifically borderline personality disorder, and how it becomes a dustbin diagnosis for women who are traumatized or who've had quite traumatic childhoods. Jenny also learned that having trauma as a child affects your whole nervous system as you grow up, making you more vulnerable to addiction. Another aspect of the research that fascinated her was the connection between eating disorders and addiction. She explained that methamphetamine is a common substance that is used by people who want to suppress their appetite. She found out that to go into an eating disorder ward you can't be under the influence of anything. And if you have a severe eating disorder, you're not going to be admitted to a detox or rehab because they don't have the capacity to monitor someone who could be needing severe medical attention. “People who struggle with both simultaneously are really falling between the cracks,” she said.
Speaking to Jenny was truly life-altering. Her book Woman of Substances is one of my favorite books of all time and talking to her was like a dream come true!
