20 Popular Recovery Books

They offer insight, authenticity and a voice of support for others who are facing addiction as members of marginalized communities. advocates the 12-step approach to sobriety by explaining in great detail how the steps can apply to your life. A Professor of Psychiatry and of Community and http://hpmilking.com/2021/01/28/distinguishing-essential-tremor-from-parkinson-s/ Family Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, his professional career is devoted to research into the needs of persons with co-occurring disorders. She is an award-winning health and medical writer, speaker, and consultant on the topics of addiction and lifestyle change.

This book explores the next fifteen years of her life, including the various lies that she told herself, and others, about her drug use. With tons of heart and wisdom, Khar eventually helps readers recognize the shame and stigma surrounding addiction and how there is no one path to recovery. At the end of the day, you’ll want to devour this book because it is ultimately a life-affirming story of resilience Drug rehabilitation that is a must-read. Admittedly, there are a lot of lists there about the best recovery memoirs, which is why ours is a little different. We were inspired by the diverse experiences of our own community members. Since we care about all kinds of recovery, we wanted to emphasize that drugs and alcohol are not the only ways that women suffer and not everyone recovers through a 12-Step program.

He works throughout the story to manage that grief as well as learn to manage new expectations for Nic post recovery. Attempting to shame or punish people with a substance use disorder is a popular approach, but it’s one that never works. was first published in 1990, but each printing has involved updating the information to reflect contemporary views. The title is regularly recommended alcohol addiction counseling by members of 12-step groups as well as people who struggle with process addictions such as gambling addiction and sex addiction. The journey to self-improvement is often filled with hardships. In this book, Laura McKowen shares how addiction showed made her realize that every obstacle is an opportunity to learn from her mistakes and live honestly without being ashamed of her struggles.

books on addiction and recovery

Darlene is literally held captive and drugged by a sinister food chain, human trafficking operation. In this book, McKowen talks about her personal story along with how she faced the facts, the question of AA, and dealing with other people’s drinking. Although she doesn’t sugarcoat how difficult sobriety can be (and yes, it’s not without its struggles), she continues to write about the many blessings of living an honest life without the debilitating shame of addiction. Using her relatable voice, which is equal parts honest and witty, Holly tackles the ways that alcohol companies target women.

Popular Recovery Books

She had already beat alcohol in the past and there was nothing wrong with celebrating the birth of her child with some champagne, right? That celebration threw her once again into the depths of alcoholism.

books on addiction and recovery

Rausing, the editor of Granta and heiress to a Swedish beverage-packaging fortune, writes beautifully of the idyllic seaside summers of her 1970s childhood and the heavy bonds of family. She does not recover in any straightforward way from worry, obsession, or attempts to control her brother or – obviously – the narrative, but she makes her way towards a kind of serenity. , understanding the similarity of other people’s experiences – and how they eventually overcame addiction – can be a powerful example that provides hope. Here are some book recommendations for people who are in addiction recovery. This book takes a holistic approach to fighting addiction and improving your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being through honesty, gratitude, self-awareness, and authenticity.

Alcoholism: How To Deal With An Alcoholic Partner

We know the struggle, which is why we’re uniquely qualified to help. This autobiography leaves no gruesome detail out of one woman’s personal story of opioid addiction, imprisonment, blackmail and her journey to recovery. may be written from the perspective of someone who has struggled with addiction or the perspective of the parents or friends of people who struggle with addiction issues. Mindfulness and self-awareness are essential tools for successful addiction recovery. This book is a step-by-step guide for tapping into your present-moment awareness and letting go of worry and fear that can hold you back in recovery.

books on addiction and recovery

If you want even more books, we’ve got 16 books about the unglamorous parts of addiction here. Cynnie vows she’ll never be an alcoholic–-she’s sees the damage alcohol can cause in her mother every day. The stress of being the real adult of the house gets to be tough, though and Cynnie has an idea about what might numb the pain. ), Nic Sheff describes the challenges of staying sober after several rounds of rehab and his non-linear but ultimately successful path to recovery. Journalist and recovery addict Salavitz marries Addiction journalism and memoir in this exploration of how and why addiction develops–-and how we should think about treating it. Much of that problem involves the incarceration Black men and the failed “war on drugs.” In treating addiction, it’s just as important to understand what doesn’t work as it is to understand what does. The answer to the country’s drug problem is not the incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders–-and racial bias in conviction and sentencing is nothing more than, well, a new era of Jim Crow.

Rosie Ferguson’s mother, in the first bloom of young womanhood, is obsessed with tournament tennis. Her mother is a recovering alcoholic still grieving the death of her first husband; her stepfather, a struggling writer, is wrestling with his own demons. And now Rosie finds that her athletic gifts, once a source of triumph and escape, place her in peril, as a shadowy man who stalks her from the bleachers seems to be developing an obsession of his own. Regardless of how in denial one may be, being a blackout drinker is freaking scary. There are whole parts of your life you simply can’t remember.

The story follows the course of four interconnected as they become destroyed by addiction. There is the woman who becomes addicted to prescription diet pills, her addict son, his addict friend/dealer, and his addict-turned-prostitute girlfriend. It can be painful to read at times as the characters’ respective hopes and dreams are slowly killed by the force their addictions, but it is the type of pain that makes you remember how to truly feel and sympathize. Allen’s story of being a young woman in a teenage marriage that eventually runs away to Cincinnati, where she begins the destructive pattern of weekend partying and drinking, is a powerful tale. Eventually, she finds sobriety through a commitment to God and humanity to spend the rest of her life doing anything she can to help anybody suffering from alcoholism.

I strongly recommend reading this book if you believe you are in a codependent relationship. Allen is a master at removing the psychological triggers that lead to drinking.

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Journalist Reding tells the story of Oelwein, Iowa (pop. 6,159), which is struggling with economic decline and an influx of the highly addictive drug. A compassionate portrayal of all those afflicted by a situation increasingly out of their control. To be honest, I tried to read this and Transitional living couldn’t get through it. But people who are smarter and/or more patient than me insist it’s about addiction. Years before I got sober, Caroline Knapp pulled me into this book with her gorgeous prose. Once I was hooked on her writing, I began to see a reflection of my story in her own.

This memoir is a frank, feminist look at life after recovery. Kristi Coulter stopped drinking, she began to notice the way that women around her were always tanked, and how alcohol affected those around her. is often recommended by people who don’t feel that the 12-step approach of AA is the right fit for their needs but aren’t sure what alternatives are available.

books on addiction and recovery

The book serves as a powerful corrective to the fallacy that queer relationships are by nature egalitarian. And the reader roots for Machado fiercely as she finds her way out. In those stories, the decision to get better often arrives like a bolt of lightning, but this is rarely the case. My own recovery from codependency and alcoholism, which I write about in my memoir Good Morning, Destroyer of Men’s Souls, has felt elusive, circuitous, and sometimes rather boring. Since I don’t love the word “journey”, I prefer to think of it as a kind of endurance art, the term performance artists give to work that requires long periods of hardship, solitude or pain.

Inspirational Books About Recovery

In this heartbreaking memoir, George McGovern recounts his daughter’s ultimately fatal struggle with alcoholism. “Set in northwest London, Zadie Smith’s brilliant tragicomic novel follows four locals—Leah, Natalie, Felix, and Nathan—as they try to make adult lives outside of the council estate of their childhood. Black Out, a memoir by Sarah Hepola, is a funny, sad portrayal of an unstoppable, unattached, driven woman who early on mistakes recklessness with feminism and freedom. But her sassy wine-drenched sisterhood quickly cascades into a life of forgotten staircases and stranger’s air mattresses. Hepola’s appealing, smart slumber party voice and achingly honest observations of her own progressive alcoholism are at once heartbreaking and deliciously funny. Here are some books that will not only make you want to quit doing the thing that is killing you, but also offer an interesting narrative structure for writers because they flout the conventional hero journey template.

I included this book to point out that depression and addiction can happen to anyone. Learn to live your own life and stop assisting a loved one in destroying theirs. Rewiredis a new, breakthrough approach to fighting addiction and self-damaging behavior by acknowledging our personal power to bring ourselves back from the brink.

While neither of these two novels is especially long, they provide deeper dives into the psyches of the central characters. Both Burroughs and Jackson demonstrate the inner workings of an addicted mind amazingly well. I’ve read both of them twice within the last year and will probably read them again. My own experience began with alcoholism and eventually transitioned to heroin so I felt that I closely identified with both books and this is probably true for many of us in recovery.

  • This is why Amatus supports Drug Abuse Response Team (D.A.R.T.), a program that connects people willing to enter addiction treatment to resources and help to minimize jail time.
  • This a different memoir because it focuses not on the road to sobriety, but on what happens with your life now that you’ve done the thing that once seemed impossible.
  • The stress of being the real adult of the house gets to be tough, though and Cynnie has an idea about what might numb the pain.
  • But when June was about 7 or 8, her mom started drinking a lot—and stopped showing up for her.
  • From navigating intimate relationships to handling high-risk situations and environments, this addiction workbook offers practical tools and hands-on exercises that you can use in your home, work, and personal life.
  • A comprehensive introduction that helps you understand your addiction and outlines the path to recovery.

She writes with evocative prose about the anxiety that fueled her addiction to masturbation as a young girl, and eventually, her sex and pornography addiction as an adult. Through failed relationships, serial hook-ups, blackouts, and all of the shame that comes with these experiences, Garza writes a riveting memoir narrating a journey of exploration as she seeks therapy.

Best 20 Books About Addiction Recovery To Read In 2020

There aren’t many books out there specifically for family members, making this an invaluable resource. The author dealt with addiction to multiple drugs and unsuccessfully pursued recovery on his own. His story acknowledges the power of drug addiction and the challenges to overcome substance abuse. Szalavitz’s perspective focuses on the notion of how we form bad habits in spite of the toll it can take on our lives. From losing jobs to suffering physically https://samiye24.com/?p=480 from drug or alcohol abuse to suffering emotionally due to failed relationships, she claims that our addictions are not deterred by even the most negative outcomes. Instead, our unhealthy habits stem from problems much deeper than the addictive potential of drugs. Some of us will struggle to be sober long term, some of us will be recovering addicts and some of us will not develop addictions at all despite negative outcomes we may face, she claims.

He advocates for compassion towards addicts, as sick people trying to get well the best way they know how. 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. Senate for 18 years and was the 1972 Democratic candidate for president. Rarely has a public figure addressed such difficult, intimate issues with such courage and bravery.

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