If you’re struggling with alcohol addiction, drug addiction or other addictive behaviors, you may have reached the point where you are ready to consider a path to recovery. You may be reaching out to friends and loved ones for guidance. Or you may be researching addiction treatment options and support groups. You are likely also be coming to grips with the fact that addiction and overcoming it can be challenging. They both require your mind, body and spirit to work together as you reframe your life and take steps to claim long term recovery. As you begin that work toward addiction recovery and renewed mental health, here is our top 4 list of books on addiction and recovery.
#1: Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction
This book brilliantly highlights the author’s recovery from cocaine and heroin addiction to delve into the science behind what addiction does to your brain. Her take on addiction is that it is a learning disorder, not a disease.
Szalavitz’s perspective focuses on the notion of how we form bad habits in spite of the toll it can take on our lives. From losing jobs to suffering physically from drug or alcohol abuse to suffering emotionally due to failed relationships, she claims that our addictions are not deterred by even the most negative outcomes. Instead, our unhealthy habits stem from problems much deeper than the addictive potential of drugs. Some of us will struggle to be sober long term, some of us will be recovering addicts and some of us will not develop addictions at all despite negative outcomes we may face, she claims.
Szalavitz also covers:
historical, social and political arguments on addiction
legalization of marijuana
effectiveness of 12-step programs
how drug crimes should be penalized
the opioid crisis
effective addiction treatment options
#2: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
This memoir on addiction by David Sheff was born from his 2005 article in The New York Times Magazine entitled “My Addicted Son.” It examines the life and addiction of his son Nic as well as how he reacts to Nic’s unhealthy choices.
The beauty of this story was recently adapted for the big screen with Steve Carell as the lead. The audience is placed in the shoes of a father who is grieving. He grieves for the son he once had – happy, safe, full of potential and close to him. He also grieves for the son he wanted Nic to be. But his grief is much different than that of a parent who loses a child to death; he has lost his child to addiction. He works throughout the story to manage that grief as well as learn to manage new expectations for Nic post recovery.
Sheff also covers:
the pain of accepting that he can’t control his son’s addiction
the struggle of letting his son make his own mistakes
how to learn, persevere and heal in the face of addiction
#4: Behind the Eight Ball: Sex for Crack Cocaine Exchange and Poor Black Women
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