You can have freedom from alcohol, and This Naked Mind wants to help you get there. If you are a loved one of someone who’s an active addict or in recovery, it’s likely that life will take you to many unexpected turns and you will have to deal with many situations. ” brings these much needed insights to families and friends, and offers practical solutions about co-dependence, dealing with a relapse, financing addiction treatment, staging interventions, letting go, and many other topics. This is one of the best reads for families of addicts, but also for anyone else who is wondering what addiction compulsion is and how recovery takes place. By gathering the narratives of fifteen people in recovery, author Mary Addenbrooke provides an overview of how and why people become addicted, and explores what happens once the addiction is left behind.
The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober
We apologize if the book that saved your life in recovery did not make this list. In fact, if you have a book in mind that people should read, send it to us! Your recommendations are welcomed in the comments section below, and also feel free to ask your questions related to this topic. We’re here 24/7 to help you get the care you need to live life on your terms, without drugs or alcohol.
Why Is Mixing Prescription Drugs With Alcohol Dangerous?
But though our world-views are in some ways profoundly different, few books have enriched me as a reader and a person more than hers. Ditlevsen’s trilogy, by contrast, plunges us into the perspective of a succession of her former selves. When she’s a child, we’re presented with the world as a child might see it. When she’s hooked on Demetrol, we perceive events through the distorted viewpoint of an addict. This is the kind of myopic or unreliable narrator we encounter frequently in novels – conspicuously naïve or self-delusive, and unchaperoned by a consolingly wise authorial presence—but almost never in memoir.
In My Skin: A Memoir of Addiction
The various accidental similarities between these books began, before long, to harden into a blueprint, which countless books have faithfully reproduced. Most are forgettable and forgotten, but some accomplished authors—like https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/alcoholics-heart-problems-cardiomyopathy/ Caroline Knapp and Sarah Hepola—have created very good books by bringing real skill to the standard formula. I started reading addiction memoirs in college, well before I admitted to having an alcohol use disorder.
Where the story they have to tell echoes others, they let us hear that echo. One characteristic I think I discern in the best addiction memoir is a certain humility that doesn’t strive after innovation for its own sake. Serious addiction has a way of annihilating your sense of exceptionalism, stripping away your autonomy and character, and reducing you to the sum of your cravings. Meanwhile solidarity and communion are often touchstones among recovering addicts. I think a trace of that worldview finds expression—again, in the best addiction memoirs—in the form’s tendency to value the authentically commonplace over sensational performance.
Recovery from drug or alcohol addiction is not a quick fix, but rather a journey that lasts a lifetime. It involves making healthy choices every day and staying true to one’s commitment to sobriety. This process requires individuals to address not only the physical aspects of addiction but also the emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of their lives. Exploring the thoughts of an addict and a life unraveled by narcotics, this memoir spans the author’s struggles with opioid use disorder, to her time in jail, and ultimately to her recovery. High Achiever offers hope and inspiration and a raw and page-turning read.
- We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.
- Discussing alcohol’s impact on our health and minds, author Catherine Gray illustrates how a sober life can truly be intoxicating.
- Now, in The Book of Boundaries, out November 2023, Urban, who has been in recovery for more than 20 years, shows how setting clear limits can help protect your time, energy, health, security, confidence, and freedom.
- I found this book uncomfortable at times and very funny at other times.
- David Carr’s memoir, “The Night of the Gun,” presents a captivating exploration of his life as a cocaine addict, journalist, and single parent.
- These movies and books let me know I was not alone, that there were other people walking around who drank like I did.
The Sober Diaries is one of the best books in the quit lit category. Funny, informative, and authentic, Poole has a welcoming light-hearted voice on the very serious topic of substance use. This book serves as a beacon to anyone who’s best alcoholic memoirs looking to change their relationship with alcohol. This is one of the best memoirs on alcohol recovery in my opinion. She highlights not only her relationship to alcohol, but also key takeaways from her many attempts to get sober.
The Mental and Physical Effects of Heroin
Told in the present tense (another rarity in autobiography), the result is a stunningly immersive and intimate story. We seem to experience Ditlevsen’s life with her, moment by vivid moment. Only a handful of the addiction memoirs of recent decades are also, in my view, singular works of art. No matter where you are on your journey to recovery, it helps to have stories from peer groups who understand what you are going through.
- Here are three compelling narratives that can be lifechanging for those seeking inspiration on their own path to recovery.
- Ditlevsen’s failure of nerve, causing her to wrap up three volumes of the most trenchant and unillusioned autobiography ever written with a feeble daydream, is easily explained.
- Elizabeth Vargas takes off her perfectly poised reporter mask and shows you the authentic person behind the anchor desk.
- Although she makes faltering progress in building a simulacrum of grown-up life, her relationship with alcohol—“I had an appetite for drink, a taste for it, a talent”—steadily overtakes everything.
- But, unlike the angry, abusive kind of alcoholic, Terry is a highly-functioning one.
In Addict in the Family, Beverly Conyers educates us through heart-wrenching stories that validate all of the feelings families of addicts feel. Some of this book can be painful to read, but it’s so cathartic to learn that others feel the same intense pain that we’ve felt. James went to my college, Denison University, and is friends with many of my friends, so I loved reading the parts that took place (“fictionally”) in Granville, Ohio. This is one of the first books I read about addiction ever, before I realized I had a problem. This book reads like a conversation, and teaches us to get curious.
