The meaning behind this comment is people with alcohol and drug addiction, and their affected families are their own worst enemy. Their distorted perceptions and belief systems largely have them in their very predicament. Quit Like a Woman is a sobriety book that delves into the toxic culture of alcohol in society—and specifically, its impact on women. In the book, Holly Whitaker speaks on the irony of a world that glorifies alcohol yet looks down on people who get sick from using it. Beyond being informative, this powerful book has helped countless people dive deeper into their relationship with alcohol and make positive changes in their lives.
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It’s a memoir of her addiction to alcohol, and her subsequent recovery, and her conversion to Catholicism. I really liked this book because it focuses a lot on her spiritual crisis and how it related to her alcoholism. She is a Christian, as am I, and I often battled in my head with being a Christian and being an alcoholic. Eventually my faith brought me to my knees and I began my journey of sobriety after having a spiritual experience.
Recovery by Russell Brand
As we stated above, alcoholics are addicts, and their drug of choice is alcohol. ACOA is a program for children raised in dysfunctional homes primarily due to alcohol and drug use, although they address other concerns relating to abuse, trauma, neglect, etc. ACOA is a 12-step group, and members of ACOA will be around others who can relate and who have gone through similar experiences. Two books that we believe every parent of an addict should read in addition to those listed above and below the book of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Both do an outstanding job of providing insight into the problems of behavior and perception for the addict and alcoholic. Whether the parents of an addict agree or disagree with the 12-step philosophy, we are pretty sure that there will be many eye-opening moments while reading either of these two books.
There’s a long, beautiful history of writers chronicling how they’ve dealt with alcoholism and addiction. Nina Renata Aron’s relationship with her boyfriend is a passionate fairy tale, right up to the day he relapses. Whether the man she loves recovers or not, Aron is forced into a reckoning of her own — that she is an enabler in a codependent relationship. Whether you want to better understand the mindset of addiction or find inspiration in how they got out of it, these memoirs are nothing short of inspiring.
- What happens when an ambitious young woman is keeping a secret of addiction?
- Although both are worth reading, it’s the first I find myself returning to, marvelling at its ability to conjure the insanity of addiction from inside its diabolical reality.
- This is a story of faith and love through the journey of recovery, more than just a tale from alcoholism to sobriety.
- The book begins with Smith’s introduction to alcohol at a young age and traces her descent into addiction as she navigates the pressures of her high-powered career and struggles with her mental health.
“Beautiful boy: A father’s journey through his son’s addiction” by David Sheff
The Lost Weekend is a powerful and compelling read that offers deep insight into the struggles of those battling with alcoholism, making it a must-read for anyone interested in the complexities of addiction. For now I’ll mention one more convention of addiction memoirs, although it differs slightly from the others because it’s more directly concerned with how they’re read than with how they’re written. The pleasures we expect from the form range from the edifying (empathy, inspiration) to the unseemly (voyeurism, vicarious transgression) to mention just a few.
Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Meth Addiction, David Sheff
With a reputation for hilarious honesty, as read in previous memoirs detailing her struggles with everything from mental illness to single life, Bryony Gordon is true to form in this detailed account of her alcohol-fueled downward spiral. Bryony puts her family, career and future at risk https://www.rajasthanleafes.com/cannabis-marijuana-and-cannabinoids-what-you-need/ before a stint in rehab, loads of AA meetings and self-discovery help her to become a mother, partner and person she can be proud of. Also, through a blend of vulnerability and wit, he shares personal stories that shed light on the hidden struggles behind his public persona.
Stories About Loving Someone with an Addiction
Best known for penning the woman-in-the-attic-focused prequel to Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, English writer Jean Rhys was always a little out of step. She was intimately acquainted with displacement and battled an inner duality since childhood. As a privileged girl from a family of colonists in early 20th-century Dominica, she clashed with her environment, her peers, and her parents. She was neither here nor there, but spent most of her life looking for a place to belong to.
Whether you’re trying to understand it from a scientific, psychological, or emotional perspective, books offer a powerful way to deepen your empathy and knowledge. The Empathy Exams author’s stunning book juxtaposes her own relationship to addiction with stories of literary legends like Raymond Carver, and imbues it with rich cultural history. The result is a definitive treatment of the American recovery movement—a memoir in the subgenre like no other.
) Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp
- The book is not only an emotional exploration of a parent’s struggle but also a testament to the hope and resilience required in the face of addiction.
- She recalls her childhood experiences with anxiety, her time in rehab, and the guilt she felt as a mother who was seemingly never able to find the balance between work and family life.
- Her quest for sobriety includes rehabs and therapy — necessary steps to begin a journey into realizing and accepting an imperfect self within an imperfect life.
- Behind the infamous hairdo and metal bikini, Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher was leveling out the mood swings of bipolar disorder with a cocktail of cocaine, prescription medication, LSD, and alcohol.
That bottle of merlot was all Kerry Cohen could think about as she got through her day. It took her until she was forty to realize this was neither normal nor healthy. Beneath her perfect life and incredible success hides a girl who thought she had cheated her way out of her anxiety and stress via alcohol, but now has completely best alcohol recovery books surrendered to the powers of this magical liquid.
“Beautiful Boy” by David Sheff
Don Birnam in The Lost Weekend (1944) is really its creator, Charles R. Jackson. One hint that the author and protagonist of A Fan’s Notes (1968) are really the drug addiction treatment same person is that they are both called Frederick Exley. All these books might have been published as memoir in a less stigmatising age. Best-selling memoirist Mary Karr longs for the family and stability that eluded her in childhood.