Month: October 2020

Psychedelics aren’t romanticized with examples of the counterculture movement of the 1960s or hyped by listing celebrities currently using them. The author often questions how much of what he’s part of is “a cult” and if what he’s taking is “voodoo,” not medicine. Calling street drugs and hallucinogenics best addiction memoirs such as psilocybin, MDMA/ecstasy, LSD and ayahuasca “medicine” is problematic. Psychedelic psychiatry has had a resurgence in the past decade, though only among a minority of medical professionals. Mainstream psychiatry largely abandoned psychedelics by the 1970s, for a variety of reasons.

Related: Who Are Whoopi Goldberg’s Ex-Husbands? See Her Relationship History

• The simple fact that we are not alone in our struggle can be enough to find our way out of the dark.
• If you’re looking to break free of the social pressure of cocktails and bar hopping, this is the book for you.
• Granted, books certainly can’t replace treatment and professional guidance.
• They transformed the killers who had marred their lives forever into characters, with backstories and traumas of their own.
• Memoirs can be highly influential — to find some of the best, look at The 20 Most Influential Memoirs of All Time.
• Self-help books are yet another device that can support your efforts.
• It got me thinking the one thing I never wanted to be true… maybe it is the alcohol that’s making me so miserable?

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.

Murder City

She drinks to cope with life’s difficulties, like the death of her parents, but it’s only after twenty years of dependency that she sees how the “cure” to her stress and anxiety is the real problem. Burroughs thought he was managing to keep it all together as a suit-wearing, hard-partying Manhattanite until he landed in rehab at the bequest of his employers. With the same wit and candor https://ecosoberhouse.com/ found in his other popular works, we follow the writer from a rehab reality check back to the bustling city, where he must learn to navigate life on the wagon. Whereas my progress was from religion to addiction, Mary Karr’s was the other way around. 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.

• Telling myself I would write about what happened to Sabina someday meant I didn’t have to fully face the horror of it just yet.
• We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.
• Jamison writes about her recovery as well as she does about her addiction.
• Receive free access to exclusive content, a personalized homepage based on your interests, and a weekly newsletter with the topics of your choice.
• It explores how society’s perception and targeted marketing campaigns keeps groups of people down while simultaneously putting money into “Big Alcohol’s” pockets.

Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher

• In Quit Like a Woman, author Holly Whitaker examines the drinking culture, specifically surrounding alcohol and women, and gives women a step-by-step guide to quitting—or at least, changing their relationship with alcohol.
• It’s an inspiring and, at times, unbelievable tale told with unflinching honesty and a heavy dose of self-deprecation.
• This was the first book I read on this subject, and I instantly could relate to her feelings.
• Talks about her experience of growing up as a young lesbian Muslim woman who develops her understanding of her sexuality through her engagement with her faith and her study of the Quran.

If you’re looking for more of the most influential books of a certain genre, be sure to check out these lists of most influential horror novels, romance novels, fantasy books, historical fiction, and sci-fi books. Didion adapted the book to a Broadway play, and it toured the world in various forms for nearly a decade. One of the most influential — and heartbreaking — memoirs is Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. In the span of a week, she watches her daughter fall horribly ill and be put into an induced coma. In the year following, she meditates on grief and the loss of her 40-year relationship. Augusten Burroughs was 12 when his poet mother sent him to live with her psychiatrist.

Terry achieved long-term sobriety at one time, and she helped many women. It made me realize the pain I would have brought to my parents if they had lost me. — early into her sobriety, she realized that she was actually the lucky one. Thanks to an alcohol- and drug-free life, McKowen now feels all of her feelings, no longer has to balance multiple lies, and is fully present with her daughter.

Coping with Death in Recovery