It includes recipes for zero-proof cocktails for all seasons and has tips for navigating the dating scene while completely sober. If you’re feeling down about “missing out” on life if you cut back on alcohol or got sober, read this book. Ward and Libaire show you how to get intoxicated, but with life instead of alcohol. Finally, at the behest of his coworkers and boss, he ends up in a rehab that specifically caters to gay and lesbian patients.
Why did I love this book?
- The 20 best books about substance abuse offer valuable insights, personal stories, and practical strategies for understanding and addressing this challenging issue.
- Although the first two volumes aren’t overtly about Karr’s addiction, they show its makings in her traumatic home life and a lost adolescence.
- Finding that her creativity didn’t come from a bottle, she gets sober and finds a life she didn’t know she wanted.
- Burroughs’ story is one of triumph and loss, professional success and personal failure, finding your way to sobriety, falling into relapse, and starting all over again.
- The result is a definitive treatment of the American recovery movement—a memoir in the subgenre like no other.
My guess is that most addiction memoirs involve some kind of compromise between the author’s aesthetic and ethical impulses. This ethical dimension (or an aesthetic impurity) is a distinctive aspect of addiction memoir as a literary form. Whether you’re just beginning your recovery journey, started reading addiction memoirs for inspiration, or are seeking ways to maintain your sobriety, these books provide guidance, understanding, and support. Remember, recovery is not just about physical sobriety; it’s about finding yourself, healing your past, and creating a future filled with hope and resilience. Although she makes faltering progress in building a simulacrum of grown-up life, her relationship with alcohol—“I had an appetite for drink, a taste for it, a talent”—steadily overtakes everything. By the Substance abuse end of her drinking she is reduced to crouching on a stairwell outside her apartment, glugging whisky with her one-year-old son and failing marriage inside.
- Whether you are struggling with drug addiction, alcohol use disorder, or simply seeking to improve your mental health, books can be a powerful tool on your journey to recovery.
- Louise Foxcroft chooses her best books on the history of medicine and addiction, looking at medical practices of the past, from treatment of madness and non-existent diseases, to drug use and the origins of hypochondria.
- Part memoir and part how-to, many former drinkers credit Alcohol Lied to Me with helping them to finally beat the bottle.
- The long awaited sequel to the beloved and bestselling ‘The Liars’ Club’ and ‘Cherry’ – a memoir about a self-professed ‘blackbelt sinner’s’ descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness, and her astonishing resurrection.
“Drinking: A Love Story” by Caroline Knapp
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 https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/10-best-alcohol-addiction-recovery-books/ having a spiritual experience. I did many things I am deeply ashamed of, and reading her book taught me that I am not alone.
The books I picked & why
- Stephanie Gillespie is a dedicated professional who has made a significant impact in the fields of developmental psychology, Autism, and Addiction Treatment.
- If you’re looking to break free of the social pressure of cocktails and bar hopping, this is the book for you.
- 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.
- They encourage you to embrace the sober “Irish exit,” leaving the party early to enjoy a starlit stroll home.
We use to get rid of the pain, the shame, the anxiety/depression, whatever ails us. We find reprieve through our addictions, but find best alcohol recovery books a loving life in recovery. I loved her first two memoirs and was excited when this one came out. I like to think of my own memoir as a thank you to my daughter, who I believe came to help me get sober.
The ‘sober curious‘ movement has spawned non-alcoholic bars in cities as different as Nashville and New York, zero-proof liquors and a whole lot of memoirs written by addicts in recovery. This was the first book I read on this subject, and I instantly could relate to her feelings. She made a huge impact on me and is someone I will always be grateful to. Ultimately, books about addiction serve as a bridge, connecting people in recovery with the wisdom, empathy, and insights of those who have walked the same path. They are a source of strength, empowerment, and understanding, providing the knowledge that recovery is not just possible but a pathway to a more fulfilling and joyful life. Recovery isn’t just about quitting a substance; it’s also about reconnecting with oneself.
When she’s hooked on Demetrol, we perceive events through the distorted viewpoint of an addict. This is the kind of myopic or unreliable narrator we encounter frequently in novels – conspicuously naïve or self-delusive, and unchaperoned by a consolingly wise authorial presence—but almost never in memoir. Told in the present tense (another rarity in autobiography), the result is a stunningly immersive and intimate story. We seem to experience Ditlevsen’s life with her, moment by vivid moment. They encourage you to embrace the sober “Irish exit,” leaving the party early to enjoy a starlit stroll home.
Best Quit Lit Books and Sobriety Memoirs to Inspire Your Recovery
Once his 30 days are up, he has to figure out how to return to his New York City lifestyle sans alcohol. Burroughs’ story is one of triumph and loss, professional success and personal failure, finding your way to sobriety, falling into relapse, and starting all over again. The acclaimed author of Prozac Nation goes from depression to addiction with this equally devastating personal account.
I read this book before I became a parent and was floored, but have thought about it even more since. It is the heartbreaking and astute account of Sheff’s experience of his son, Nic’s, addiction and eventual recovery. He viscerally paints the picture of the hope-tainted despair, anguish, and havoc that addiction wreaks on an entire family. Drugs and alcohol aren’t essential to life, but we need food to survive. This is what makes food addiction such a difficult thing to understand and overcome.
Diary of an Alcoholic Housewife by Brenda Wilhelmson
We were inundated with recommendations, encompassing everything from reflections on war, grief, sexuality and religion, to insider accounts of Hollywood life, political conspiracy, even philosophical sporting legends. I once heard a sober alcoholic say that drinking never made him happy, but it made him feel like he was going to be happy in about fifteen minutes. That was exactly it, and I couldn’t understand why the happiness never came, couldn’t see the flaw in my thinking, couldn’t see that alcohol kept me trapped in a world of illusion, procrastination, paralysis. Next time I drank it would be different, next time it would make me feel good again. And all my efforts were doomed, because already drinking hadn’t made me feel good in years. Ruta grew up with a drug addicted mom; in a turn of events that probably won’t be surprising, she eventually developed her own addiction issues.
In this post, we’ve put together nine of the best addiction memoirs and quit lit books for you to check out. From painfully honest stories to science-based tips, there’s a title on this list that’s sure to inspire and motivate you or someone in your life. The second major problem for anyone writing an addiction memoir—and it’s often connected to the first—is how to conclude it. Only in rare cases—as when the subject of a biography dies—is the answer simple. In other kinds, as in novels, endings are artifices of form, and the trick is not to let this feel true for the reader. But the challenge is particularly acute when the story is about a life that, as the reader well knows, has simply gone on and on beyond the final page.