Best Books on Addiction To Break Down Stigma and Open Your Mind

That siren song eventually led to broadcast journalist Elizabeth Vargas to admit her addiction on national television. Hoping to make her dreams a reality, Michelle Tea recounts her awkward attempts to gain literary fame as she smokes, drinks, and snorts her way through San Francisco. She begins to slowly grow into a healthy, reasonable, self-aware, and stable adult. Her passionate writing shines as she tells of her often difficult relationship with money, her relationships, and more. In this dazzling memoir about a family’s struggle with hoarding, Kimberly Rae Miller brings to life her experience growing up in a rat-infested home while trying to hide her father’s shameful secret from friends for years.

What are the 7 steps of the cycle of addiction?

  • Initiation.
  • Experimentation.
  • Regular Usage.
  • Risky Usage.
  • Dependence.
  • Addiction.
  • Crisis/Treatment.

If your feel generous, or just want to help, it’s a worthy cause!! Author of The Liar’s Club and Cherry, Mary Karr’s writing style is sharp, witty and compelling. Her accounts of her years of drinking, parenthood, marriage and eventual recovery are heartbreaking, hilarious and delivered in her unique fashion. Are currently struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, you are not alone. Meth is a powerful and addictive central nervous system stimulant that can affect your brain’s ability to function and communicate with the rest of your body. Our Philadelphia addiction center offers meth addiction treatment that addresses the physical and psychological aspects of addiction and makes long-term sobriety achievable. In this book, celebrated journalist Anne Dowsett Johnston intuitively intertwines her own life story of alcohol use disorder with some great in-depth research and relevant interviews. Her book includes the perspective of those leading the charge in this field, shedding some much-needed light on this crisis and the factors that have contributed to it.

Unwasted: My Lush Sobriety by Sacha Z. Scoblic

By addressing causes rather than symptoms, it is framed as a permanent solution rather than lifetime struggle. It removes the psychological dependence; allowing you to easily drink less . Sarah’s writing is sharp and relatable; a more recent, modern voice in the recovery space. So many of us look at “blacking out” as benign, or normal—an indicator of a “successful” night of drinking.
best addiction memoirs
In Blackout, Sarah clearly explains why there’s nothing benign about it and describes what is actually happening to the brain when we reach that point of alcohol-induced amnesia. I love her perspective on drinking as an act of counter-feminism—that in reality it actually dismantles our power, our pride, and our dignity as women, though we intended the opposite. Each of these memoirs offers the author’s unique perspective on not only their addiction but also their recovery. For women who are new to recovery, it can help to read these published memoirs from accomplished women who have been through the depths of addiction, pulled themselves out and gone on to achieve amazing things. Sethe is haunted, literally and figuratively, by the daughter she killed while escaping slavery in this devastating Pulitzer Prize-winning classic. This is a book about the abject horror and howling trauma of slavery, but it’s also about how we metabolise the nightmares of our lives before. In my own healing, I have even questioned the use of the word “recovery” in this context at all, since it implies a retrieval of something lost. Some new habits and practices have had to be built from the ground up.

I’m Just Happy to Be Here: A Memoir of Renegade Mothering by Janelle Hanchett

Jamison’s partner writes her a poem as a confirmation that he will always love her, no matter what, but she trips on a line that mentions her drinking and sees the poem as an indictment. Shame could be teased out of gestures of love, no matter what was offered. For a decade now I’ve written personal essays describing hidden bottles of cheap Chardonnay and the whine of ambulances and how the lip of the bumper of a 1999 Toyota Camry curls when it brushes a tree. The essays were meandering and hemorrhagic, overly personal in a pointless way. I wasn’t interrogating anything or exploring a greater concept; I was trying to make sense of one of the greater confusions of my life.

Science is used to back up the theory that addiction is not just willpower, or a “broken brain” but instead a learning/developmental disorder that lies on a spectrum. This book is powerful because it removes the stigma and takes a 21st-century look at an age-old problem. If you are wondering how you or your loved one got to a place where addiction took hold this book will help to provide you answers. best addiction memoirs In this book, Rod Colvin sheds light on a serious and prevalent issue in the United States—prescription drug abuse. This book explores the factors contributing to the rise of this epidemic and explores treatment options. Learn the difference between inpatient and outpatient treatment centers, read advice from medical specialists, learn how to recognize addiction and more in this informative piece.

Recovery Memoirs to Inspire You to Quit Drinking

But she ultimately forges a path ahead to find a new life worth living. This book will resonate with those who’ve had a tough time at rock bottom. Although the details of our addiction and recovery stories may be different, the core of our experiences is often the same. Identifying with others who have been through the hell of addiction and made it to the other side can provide a cathartic sense of relief, providing both hope and the opportunity to feel seen and perhaps a little less alone. Prolific, brilliant memoirist Mary Karr shines a light on the dark years she spent descending into alcoholism and drug use as a young writer, wife, and mother.
best addiction memoirs
Ryan Hampton is a former White House staffer and opioid addict who is now a national recovery advocate with ten years clean. Overall, the message is uplifting, giving hope of new directions and possibilities for treatment. We’ve broken down the most important reads on substance use — covering everything from lived experience in memoir, to the latest research, to explorations of what society gets wrong about addiction, and creative interpretation. Learning more about addiction can help you make sense of your struggles and inspire you to seek a life of sobriety. While books are a useful tool, you deserve support from trained professionals in your journey to recovery. Gain practical knowledge in this science-based work by clinician and psychiatrist Adam Bisaga. In this work, Bisaga explains why opioid addiction requires a unique treatment approach compared to other drug dependencies. The book also details various methods of treatment for opioid addiction and how to select the right method for yourself or a loved one.

Caroline describes how she drank through her years at an Ivy-League college, her award-winning career, while masking herself as a dutiful daughter and professional. Readers looking for sobriety books geared towards women will appreciate Caroline’s honest account. In this memoir, he talks about the car accident that killed his mother and baby sister when he was just two years old. Then about how he lost his beloved big brother to brain cancer… and all of the hardships that led to his Sober Home years-long battle with addiction. Here, he retells his journey from substance use disorder to a torturous path to sobriety. Journalist Jenny Valentish knows treatment, AA, and the pathways to addiction and recovery. It’s brutally honest, and her story reads like so many others – some who didn’t make it to recovery. She further educates the reader with research and a better understanding of the psychology and physiology that drive female addiction with humor and exceptional insight.
best addiction memoirs
It’s a book that emphasizes the lack of discrimination in addiction by highlighting common addiction problems that occurred in people from all walks of life. There are countless memoirs about addiction and recovery, but not quite so many about stopping drinking and its aftermath. When author Kristi Coulter stopped drinking, she began to notice the way that women around her were always tanked, and how alcohol affected those around her. Admittedly, there are a lot of lists out there about the best recovery memoirs, but ours is a little different. We were inspired by the diverse experiences of our own community members.

Wherever you are on your journey to recovery, this practical guide to dealing with emotional and psychological challenges is here to help. Clinical psychologist Lisa M. Najavits imparts her three decades of experience treating patients to create this research-based manual. In it, you’ll learn how to cultivate coping skills, confront personal struggles and alter your behaviors in a more positive direction. This addiction recovery book is also helpful for family and friends looking to support a loved one as they recover. Quit lit books and addiction memoirs are powerful ways to connect best addiction memoirs with other people who have been exactly where you are. You can learn more about addiction and relate to authors through their stories, reminding yourself that you aren’t alone in your journey. While this listen might appear to be autobiographical, it’s actually a work of fiction that’s meant to be experienced as if it were a memoir. And the portrait of heroin addiction it depicts is a painful reality for many people. Memoirs Aren’t Fairytales tells the story of Nicole, a 19-year-old girl who leaves college life in Maine behind to start over in Boston with her best friend, Eric.
Eco Sober House
The simplicity of this idea makes so much sense and is often forgotten in everything from AA to drug law. You don’t need to agree with all of Gabor Maté’s theories to see that he has brought a level of hope and humanity to the conversation surrounding addiction. MATClinics are outpatient Suboxone treatment programs located in Maryland in Laurel, Dundalk and Towson. MATClinics provide monthly maintenance medication assisted treatment in addition to personalized addiction case management. This book details her 15-year battle with the drug and how she finally overcame her addiction.

When we aren’t posting here, we build programs to help people quit drinking. With incredible wit and skill, Sacha Scobie manages to tell you both what alcohol used to mean for her and how her sober life is going now. She relied on alcohol, so now that this is no longer an option she has to re-evaluate everything in her life, which leads to some great and very witty observations on her newfound life. That bottle of merlot was all Kerry Cohen could think about as she got through her day. She did all she had to do but always with this reward on top of her mind. This book is a positive tale where she narrates the year in which she went from a cancer diagnosis to her happiest and best self ever. In this journey, she became sober, beat cancer, and finally built a richer life than she could have possibly imagined. It’s a beautifully told story about how alcohol seduced her at fourteen and secretly subjugated her through her university years and most of her award-winning career.

What are addiction memoirs?

In an era of opioid addiction, wellness obsession and internet oversharing, stories of substance abuse are back. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.

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