Social work offers women, the work force and the alcohol and other drug field in general a profession that has the capability of offering informed and appropriate ways of working with women who have life issues that are compounded by alcohol and other drug use. In this piece of qualitative research women who work in the social service or alcohol and drug field, hold a tertiary qualification and have past histories of problematic alcohol or other drug use, have talked about their experience and understanding of personal change. The women that took part in this study appeared to understand change as a continuous and evolving process. The early change process is captured with the conceptual categories: influencing factors on early change decisions, seeking change, and accepting change. The analysis indicates that change endures because of a complex interaction of differing aspects, including the support of external structures and the entities of serendipity and hope. The attitudes of individuals, family and community were investigated with one of the findings being that families were more likely to hold negative attitudes because of the association with past questionable behaviours and women's difference. From exploring women's discussions there came a perspective of women's change as a very personal and internal process that allowed little or no opportunity for political awareness. Such a finding suggests that professional interventions for women would need to be safe at a political and personal level as women themselves are not likely to consider such issues when they are wanting assistance.