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You would not treat other diseases the same way you treat a substance use disorder. One of the many differences is that family and friends of loved ones suffering other diseases do not have to set boundaries, consequences, and accountability for the patient to seek help. People with diseases other than addiction often fight for the cure and the solution. Substance users do the opposite; they manipulate and break people down as they battle to stay sick. Reading a book and taking no action will do nothing more than allow you to say you read the book. Books on drug and alcohol addiction do not make you better; you best alcoholic memoirs have to take action and find guidance from someone other than just yourself. If you read the book of Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous and did nothing more than that, chances are you wouldn’t be any soberer than you are now; it is possible, yet highly unlikely. Knowledge may be power, but taking action is what brings change. A stunning debut novel about a short but intense friendship between two girls that ends in tragedy, Marlena pinpoints both what it feels like to bethe addict and what it’s like to be the friend of one. Blackouts are a special horror and humiliation, and not all drinkers experience them.

• The book covers her whole first-year experience of sobriety, as well as the unexpected challenges she faced along the way.
• For any mother or person who has felt like an outsider in your own life, you might just relate.
• The sooner you can get in front of a child affected by substance use, the less damage may be done.
• More than just a memoir, this book is about the societal traps that lead us to drink, how drinking affects our brains and our bodies, and the psychology and neuroscience behind it all.
• And the portrait of heroin addiction it depicts is a painful reality for many people.

You will never be able to forget this powerful story about, well, trying to remember your life and what happened while Carr was addicted to crack and alcohol. Eventually, he goes on to become a regular columnist for The New York Times. But this tale is all about the three years of reporting that it took Carr to figure out his past. This book details her 15-year battle with the drug and how she finally overcame her addiction. This novel is a reminder that no one, not even the people who look the most put together, is immune to addiction. Many family members try to control the situation for fear of the situation improving.

This Naked Mind

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. She’s just someone who uses alcohol to muster up courage, and well, survive life. This is just how it has always been since her introduction to Southern Comfort when she was just fourteen. When women are in a blackout, things are done to them,” Hepola writes. As a child, Helaina Hovitz witnessed the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Being so close to this leaves her with a serious case of PTSD throws her into despair and later lands her in the throes of addiction. This is 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. Baker is a former NBA all-star whose career was derailed by his substance use disorder. In his story, he convinces himself that he is a better player under the influence, but eventually lost everything to his SUD. In this dark but incredibly comedic memoir, Smith tells all about her story and the road she finally took to recover from her perpetual numbing.

As long as you go into the book looking for similarities rather than differences, you may find some books helpful. There is an overwhelming amount of book choices about drug and alcohol addiction. A wise man once said that the only problem with self-help books is starting with self. 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. Substance users and their families may be the least qualified people to read a self-help book and then go and try and fix a problem themselves. The substance user and their family will most likely read the material through a distorted lens. With that being said, many books are great reads, including Alcoholics Anonymous, which is not a self-help book but rather a textbook of insight and suggestion.

Recommended Books on Drug and Alcohol Addiction

The most widely recognized book and a book on which almost every drug and alcohol treatment center bases its curriculum is the book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Whether you like Alcoholics Anonymous or not, the book has amazing insight. We believe every addict, alcoholic, and family should read it as they will find themselves in the text at some point. For the first time in a long time, hope doesn’t feel dangerous. Right now, there is just pain, but after the coda of recovery, pain can be retrofitted to have meaning. The clawing desperation to fix her, the senselessness of dramatic falls, the sadness of drinking in a closet over the holidays can have value, even if it doesn’t have it in the moment. There is hope that once things get better, this moment that I’m living in now will actually have been something useful instead of just pain.

In it, Annie talks about her own experiences with addiction while keeping things deeply relatable to anyone who’s questioned alcohol’s role in their life. Having been in recovery for many years, and working here at Shatterproof, I often get asked to recommend books about addiction. So here’s a list of my all-time favorite reads about substance use disorders. Ann Dowsett Johnston brilliantly weaves her own story of recovery with in-depth research on the alarming rise of risky drinking among women. The marketing strategies employed to sell booze to women are as alarming as the skyrocketing number of women who qualify as having alcohol use disorders. Ann’s book is such a unique and insightful combination of personal experience and scientific research. This memoir tells of her painful descent from depression into drug addiction and, eventually, how she broke free. Despite its dark beginning, this is ultimately a hopeful book that inspires readers to root for her throughout. Wurtzel sadly passed away at the age of 52 in January of 2020. Her confessional style of writing has left an indelible mark that remains influential today.

The books which do it best, in my opinion, are often not consciously “about” addiction at all, but show its effects lingering in the corners of every page. I am, probably, by way of my history, more attuned to picking up on it than others. Addicts often face similar problems in addiction recovery, although the details vary. There are plenty of ways people can share their stories, such as group meetings, therapy, and even online communities. But it’s not always possible to connect with others in recovery.

Families continue to control the situation instead of facing the fear of the change that will come if they stop. Anne Lamott famously says, “You own everything that happened to you. But still, I always added a nice scene from my childhood that showed her at her best — patient and generous and funny. I wanted to tell the truth, that she was a good mother, a good person, and, also, an addict. 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. Courtney Todd is the digital marketing coordinator at Workit Health. She has a passion for raising awareness in the addiction treatment, recovery, and public health space.

Recover from addiction at home with medication and online therapy––from the leader in virtual addiction care. The cost of survival … Oprah Winfrey as Sethe in the 1998 film version of Beloved. Written for those of us who struggle with codependency, these daily meditations offer growth and renewal, and remind us that the best thing we can do is take responsibility for our own self-care…. This book provides wisdom and information for all Adult Children of dysfunctional families…. In Quit Drinking Without Willpower, Allen Carr’s Easyway method has been applied to problem drinking…. Annie Grace presents the psychological and neurological components of alcohol use based on the latest science and reveals the cultural, social, and industry factors that support alcohol dependence…. Times Best Seller and memoir has been described as “unblinking honesty and poignant, with laugh-out-loud humor.” It’s about giving up the thing you cherish most–but getting yourself back in return. Minnesota-based freelancer and health advocate who aims to empower others through her work. Blackout shows how you can grow into the person you want to be and leave alcohol in the past—no matter where you are now.

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 that is a must-read. In Amy Dresner’s memoir My Fair Junkie, she recounts her life from her idyllic childhood to her methamphetamine addiction. Dresner offers an honest and shameless account of her struggles with meth abuse and recovery.

My Dad Loves Me, My Dad Has a Disease

Sarah also explores how alcohol affected her relationships with her friends, family, and even her cat. Dove “Birdie” Randolph is doing her best to be a perfect daughter. She’s focusing on her schoolwork and is on track to finish high school at the top of her class. But then she falls for Booker, and her aunt Charlene—who has been in and out of treatment for alcoholism for decades—moves into the apartment above her family’s hair salon. The Revolution of Birdie Randolph is a beautiful look at the effects of alcoholism on friends and family members in the touching way only Brandy Colbert can master. best alcoholic memoirs I too was a high-functioning professional with a drinking and cocaine addiction. My addiction always took me to new lows, and cost me many jobs over the years. If you’ve wondered what it would be like to live your life sober, this book is for you. More than just a memoir, this book is about the societal traps that lead us to drink, how drinking affects our brains and our bodies, and the psychology and neuroscience behind it all. Her beloved habit of overdrinking and staying until bars closed, however, meant that her nights and the following mornings were also all about her regular blackouts.

While This Naked Mind shows that you have the tools to reprogram your mind and live a life free from alcohol, Cold Turkey offers practical steps to get you through the first month of recovery. Like Annie Grace, Mishka Shubaly uses his own messy history with alcoholism and recovery to show just how difficult the road to recovery can be. The author argues that “one-size-fits-all” plans, like 12-step programs, do not set you up for success. Rather, to Sober House become truly free from addiction, he recommends finding a way to define sobriety in your own terms. Shubaly narrates his work exclusively for Audible, and his reading feels like a good friend telling you a story and offering advice. If you struggle with alcoholism or think you might have issues with alcohol, Annie Grace’s This Naked Mind is a practical listen to help you reconsider what drinking does for you and understand what recovery can mean.

“It’s very simple to say the guy should have known, but that puts you in the position of being a passive object,” Barnett said. “If you’re finding yourself in that situation over and over, like I was, it’s probably time to stop drinking. Provides insight and meaning to the adult child of an alcoholic and addict. Tony is the Co-Founder of ACOA and provides insight into a child’s struggles while raised in a dysfunctional home.

Hepola’s tone is often funny and loose but she writes with a journalist’s precision and the book reads almost like a thriller. After one particularly harrowing experience in a hotel, Hepola gets sober and the reader realises she has been holding her breath for a couple hundred pages. This recovery story captures the anguish and doubt that accompany the choice to quit drinking. 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. Here’s a celebrity memoir from famous actor and comedian Russell Brand that also offers helpful advice for recovery. The actor performs the audiobook himself with the right balance of humor and sincerity. This Naked Mind by Annie Grace is one of the most loved sobriety books ever written.