Beyond Addiction


Book Description

The most innovative leaders in progressive addiction treatment in the US offer a groundbreaking, science-based guide to helping loved ones overcome addiction problems and compulsive behaviors. The most innovative leaders in progressive addiction treatment in the US offer a groundbreaking, science-based guide to helping loved ones overcome addiction problems and compulsive behaviors. Beyond Addiction eschews the theatrics of interventions and tough love to show family and friends how they can use kindness, positive reinforcement, and motivational and behavioral strategies to help their loved ones change. Drawing on forty collective years of research and decades of clinical experience, the authors present the best practical advice science has to offer. Delivered with warmth, optimism, and humor, Beyond Addiction defines a new, empowered role for friends and family and a paradigm shift for the field. Learn how to tap the transformative power of relationships for positive change, guided by exercises and examples. Practice what really works in therapy and in everyday life, and discover many different treatment options along with tips for navigating the system. And have hope: this guide is designed not only to help someone change, but to help someone want to change.




What Addicts Know


Book Description

New York Times bestselling author Christopher Kennedy Lawford revisits addiction in his latest book, What Addicts Know, this time framing the discussion in an entirely new way—the lessons addiction and recovery offer to those of us who haven't battled addiction. For too long, society has considered addicts as an unfortunate group that faces incredible and unique challenges. The reality is that the challenges of the addict are faced—to a greater or lesser extent—by all of us. In a “more is better" society, it's indisputable that we've all experienced cravings and denied the truth about our destructive behaviors—traits shared by addicts who've successfully overcome them. What Addicts Know offers the coping and wellness skills necessary to overcome life's obstacles and self-improvement tips for everything from conquering an unhealthy consumption of junk food, to overcoming toxic relationships. These techniques are not just for addicts; they are for all of us. No one until now has related the lessons and life skills that can be drawn from the collective experience of people in recovery from addiction, particularly the ways those lessons or principles can be used by those in the broader non-recovery community. In What Addicts Know, Lawford recounts the inspiring stories and wisdom of recovering addicts, combining them with cutting-edge scientific findings to give hands-on, practical techniques for recognizing unhealthy impulses and managing them. If you're ready to change for the better your habits, your frame of mind, your relationships, your community, and your life, What Addicts Know is the resource that will educate and inspire you along the way.




Everyone's an Addict


Book Description

'Everyone's an Addict' is aimed at anyone. The hypothesis is that we're all addicts. If not to the major league isms, alcohol, drugs, food, gambling and sex; or the second division clutter, hoarding, shopping, video games and work; then to the minor league smoking, sudoku, TV shows and the like - something. Addiction robs us of time that would better be spent in improving our own lives and, as a byproduct, other people's. Even those who think they are not addicted but would like to improve themselves, can all benefit. It has a secular approach - supporting freedom of religious belief, or none, for all. And, inline with the UN's ideas, anyone should be able to change their beliefs at any time. So it is suggested that people who attend meetings primarily address their addictions and keep the meetings non-religious. There are plenty of opportunities to practice religion, atheism and agnosticism elsewhere. 12-step meetings are non-religious, so they are aimed at everyone, too. Not everyone addresses addiction through a twelve step meeting, though, and those that choose an alternative route will find 'Everyone's an Addict' equally helpful to them, whether they attend a clinic or choose another method. This book takes the format of an inspirational comment for each day of the year. Therefore the appropriately numbered 'step', 'tradition' and 'concept' from AA is covered month-by-month. Further 12 step programs like NA, OA, GA, SA and others are given coverage, too. Are you an addict? For the inquisitive drinker asking the question 'Am I an alcoholic?' the question is: Do you have trouble stopping drinking once you have started? If so, you are most likely an alcoholic. Is it the same for you with drugs, eating, gambling or violent behavior? Did you indulge in it when your intentions were dead set against it? Do you have other disorders around eating, like bulimia? Is sex something that preoccupies you unduly? Do you have behavioral problems in other directions such as anger, over-dependence on other people, hiding away from the world, lying, bullying and so on? Sometimes it is a multiple problem and the prime addiction needs to be identified. In Twelve Step programs these disorders must be self-diagnosed and the stepper must be a willing participant. Simply, it is anyone with a desire to stop doing whatever is causing the problem. Members hope that when potential newcomers reach their rock bottom they will have a moment of clarity and turn into a willing, or at least inquisitive, customer before it is too late. They hope the existence of these programs will come to the prospect's mind at the appropriate time, maybe due to the seed planted by information in a school talk years before, or through information passed on through doctors, magistrates, police, and the press. If you don't feel your behavior is obsessive or addictive, if you are interested in this book to make a general improvement in your behavior, ask yourself a similar question to the one above. Have you behaved badly towards someone when you had not intended to, or perhaps your behavior was over the top? Do you ratchet up an argumentative situation rather than try to take the heat out of it or walk away? Are you determined to have your way for the sake of it when there are many suitable ways to go? Are you controlling of other people or a compulsive helper? Results of these 12-step programs include: the relief of identifying yourself as an addict or someone with problem behavior after years of denial; the pride of being honest with yourself and the beginning of building your self-esteem; knowing yourself better and accentuating the positives. Then there is further self-improvement in the calming influence of meditation. Finally there is the task of helping other addicts and people at large because the programs are bridges to normal living.




The Biology of Desire


Book Description

Through the vivid, true stories of five people who journeyed into and out of addiction, a renowned neuroscientist explains why the "disease model" of addiction is wrong and illuminates the path to recovery. The psychiatric establishment and rehab industry in the Western world have branded addiction a brain disease. But in The Biology of Desire, cognitive neuroscientist and former addict Marc Lewis makes a convincing case that addiction is not a disease, and shows why the disease model has become an obstacle to healing. Lewis reveals addiction as an unintended consequence of the brain doing what it's supposed to do-seek pleasure and relief-in a world that's not cooperating. As a result, most treatment based on the disease model fails. Lewis shows how treatment can be retooled to achieve lasting recovery. This is enlightening and optimistic reading for anyone who has wrestled with addiction either personally or professionally.




The Addict's Widow


Book Description

Witnessing the addiction of a family member or loved one is a heart-breaking experience. This candid, raw, and unforgettable memoir is a true-life story of how a loving wife tried to save her husband from an opioid addiction. Unlike some popular memoirs, this story alternates between the human and evil sides of living with an addict. She discovered that not only was her husband's drug addiction spiraling out of control, but that his doctor was at the root of it all. The Addict's Widow gives voice to the emotions and pain shared by the families of addicts. Above all, it is a powerful personal story of how a mother struggled to keep her children from witnessing the unthinkable while trying to keep her husband alive. Part 2 of Claudia's memoir, Picking Up the Pieces is her continued journey on how her and her children recovered from this life shattering experience and found happiness and peace after all.




The Man I Was Destined to Be


Book Description

When Michael was twenty-seven years old, his lengthy battle with drug addiction resulted in a seven-year prison sentence. It would take three years and the death of his father before he realized that his former life prevented him from becoming the man his father hoped he would be. Walking the road to recovery enabled him to change his life and become the man he was destined to be.




We All Fall Down


Book Description

In his follow-up to his bestselling memoir Tweak: Growing Up On Methamphetamines, Nic Sheff reveals a brutally honest account of a young person's struggles with relapse and rehab. In his bestselling memoir Tweak, Nic Sheff took readers on an emotionally gripping roller-coaster ride through his days as an addict. In this powerful follow-up about his continued efforts to stay clean, Nic writes candidly about eye-opening stays at rehab centers, devastating relapses, and hard-won realizations about what it means to be a young person living with addiction. By candidly revealing his own failures and small personal triumphs, Nic inspires readers to maintain hope and to remember that they are not alone in their battles. A group reading guide is included. Nic Sheff's Tweak, We All Fall Down, and his father's memoir about him (Beautiful Boy) are the basis of the film Beautiful Boy starring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet.




My Name Is Erin, and My Mom's an Addict


Book Description

Raised by her grandparents since her heroin addict mother abandoned her at age five, Erin deals with feelings of anxiety, anger, sadness and confusion about her past. Just as she starts to feel happier in her situation, her mother wants to come back into her life.




Chasing the Scream


Book Description

The New York Times Bestseller What if everything you think you know about addiction is wrong? Johann Hari's journey into the heart of the war on drugs led him to ask this question--and to write the book that gave rise to his viral TED talk, viewed more than 62 million times, and inspired the feature film The United States vs. Billie Holiday and the documentary series The Fix. One of Johann Hari's earliest memories is of trying to wake up one of his relatives and not being able to. As he grew older, he realized he had addiction in his family. Confused, not knowing what to do, he set out and traveled over 30,000 miles over three years to discover what really causes addiction--and what really solves it. He uncovered a range of remarkable human stories--of how the war on drugs began with Billie Holiday, the great jazz singer, being stalked and killed by a racist policeman; of the scientist who discovered the surprising key to addiction; and of the countries that ended their own war on drugs--with extraordinary results. Chasing the Scream is the story of a life-changing journey that transformed the addiction debate internationally--and showed the world that the opposite of addiction is connection.




Broken


Book Description

Candid, shocking, and unforgettable, Broken is a haunting and clear-eyed tale that offers hope for all those wrestling with addiction Unlike some popular memoirs that have fictionalized and romanticized the degradations of drug addiction, Broken is a true-life tale of recovery that stuns and inspires with virtually every page. The eldest son of journalist Bill Moyers, William Cope Moyers relates with unforgettable clarity the story of how a young man with every advantage found himself spiraling into a love affair with crack cocaine that led him to the brink of death-and how a deep spirituality allowed him to conquer his shame, transform his life, and dedicate himself to changing America's politics of addiction. "William Cope Moyers's lucid, measured tale of his own plunge into crack-addled hell [is] frightening in its very realism." -USA Today




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