Powerful Addiction and Recovery Memoirs

She went on to drink her way through four years at an Ivy League college and an award-winning career as an editor and columnist. After more than 500+ author interviews, I remain fascinated by the many different ways that writers approach their craft and how they turn their “what-ifs” into interesting stories. The writing books that I am recommending are books I used to guide me in my interviews. I hope they will provide insight and inspiration in your writing journey. 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.

Journalist Jenny Valentish takes a gendered look at drugs and alcohol, using her own story to light the way. Mining the expertise of 35 leading researchers, clinicians and psychiatrists, she explores the early predictors of addictive behaviour, such as trauma, temperament and impulsivity. 3
authors picked
Girl Walks Out of a Bar
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.

My Fair Junkie: A Memoir of Getting Dirty and Staying Clean by Amy Dresner

It’s fun until it is scary-fun until it is scary, an entropic joyride that ends in an inevitable, spectacular crash. There’s a climactic epiphany snatched from a debauched bottom, then an earnest striving toward sobriety. For the most part, the story arc is tidy, allowing readers the rubbernecky thrills of second-hand vice with a dose of hard-won redemption as a chaser. It’s like scarfing a bacon cheeseburger and washing it down with a shot of wheatgrass.

Not everyone who uses a substance or experiences physical dependence will develop an addiction. Some people may benefit from knowing they’re not alone, so memoirs may offer inspiration and help them take the first steps toward recovery. The right book for someone experiencing addiction can depend on their unique needs and preferences.

Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol by Holly Whitaker

Of all his books, In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts is one of his best. Mate describes how he believes much of addiction best alcohol recovery books in your adult years stems from childhood trauma. Implicit memory is memory without recollection of the actual event.

AA does, in fact, help many people in recovery — but it’s not right for everyone. And according to Ellis, REBT offers an alternative by teaching people new methods to challenge unwanted or unhelpful thoughts and beliefs and replace them with more helpful ones. You can find many of these books in hardcover, paperback, or e-book formats, but our pricing reflects the price of the paperback version, where available. Electric Literature is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2009. Know My Name by Chanel MillerThis should be compulsory reading in every high school. Miller was long known as Emily Doe, the anonymous victim of a sexual assault at Stanford University and the voice behind a viral victim impact statement that changed the terms of debate around consent, violence and rape.

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6
authors picked
Running with Scissors
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it. 10
authors picked
Bird by Bird
as one of their favorite https://ecosoberhouse.com/ books, and they share
why you should read it. 12
authors picked
The Glass Castle
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.

• 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.
• 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.
• We seem to experience Ditlevsen’s life with her, moment by vivid moment.
• But the experiences of those addicted differ vastly, based on race, class, the substances in question, the time and place.
• 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.

Years later, well into my thirties, I started reading sobriety stories that weren’t just from people who had barely avoided dying. This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific
disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs. There are certain jobs that are simply more difficult; being an Emergency Room physician is certainly one of them.

Shazia Omar on Drug Addiction Books

“Unlike some popular memoirs that have fictionalized and romanticized the degradations of drug addicts, Broken is a true-life tale of recovery that stuns and inspires with virtually every page. At any given time in America, there are approximately 400,000 using crack cocaine. Leslie Jamison’s “The Recovering” is a memoir and a collection of essays, with stories, memoirs, and cultural history behind alcohol and drug abuse – from the perspectives of both men and women. The work offers value to those in recovery and those who are trying to make the leap, because it shares about the history of addiction and recovery, the history of criminalization of addiction, and the history of recovery itself. Jamison’s story details recovery as well as addiction, talking about cravings, the ongoing battle against drugs and alcohol, and making life work in recovery – not just fighting addiction. In this memoir, Vargas recounts the childhood that led to her anxiety and panic and how alcohol gave her a release from her painful reality.

• 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.
• No substance user enters a rehab center or considers positive change unless they see and feel the need to do so.
• Professional addiction specialists have mandated reporters, and if we see something, we will say something, especially when we know you won’t.
• In other words, they never let another person get close to them for fear of rejection later.

Lisa Smith details her experience as a high-functioning professional with the money for addiction, using substance abuse to escape stress and unwind, and using self-medication to cope with high-stress and high-pressure environments. Smith’s memoir details her interventions, her eventual treatment, and her recovery – while showing how she hid her addiction, functioned around it, and used drugs and alcohol to cope with real life problems. Rather than dwelling on the pain of addiction,Tracey focuses on her journey of recovery and rebuilding her life, while exposing the failings of the American rehab system and laying out a path for change. Starting with the first step in her recovery, Tracey re-learns how to interact with men, build new friendships, handle money, and rekindle her relationship with her mother, all while staying sober, sharp, and dedicated to her future.