10 Profound Books on Drug Addiction & Recovery to Read in 2023

Eventually my faith brought me to my knees and I began my journey of sobriety after having a spiritual experience. 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. 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. Pamela D. Pesta’s “Letting Go of the Thief” gives you a snapshot inside the mind of someone descending into full-blown alcoholism.

How-To Manuals and Recovery Workbooks

“Sober for Good” offers alternatives to AA (in case you find AA not cut out for you), provides support so you can recover on your own and without calling yourself an alcoholic. In this book you can get inspired by the success stories of other people who have walked the same path. The story of author Fran Simone, PhD and her husband Terry begins happy.

• When she realizes sobriety is her only path forward, she keeps a diary of her road to recovery, from finding a sponsor to discovering a new social life not centered around alcohol.
• It’s a thirty-day period when we take time to recognize and advocate for people in recovery, people working in recovery, and the friends, families, and loved ones of people in recovery and people working in recovery.
• “Recover to Live” is a self-treatment guide aimed at those who are looking for help with alcohol, drugs, eating disorders, gambling, hoarding, smoking, sex and porn addiction.
• Blackout reveals how sobriety helped her discover the confidence, intimacy, and creativity within her—all of which she previously thought could only be found at the bottom of a bottle.

The Addiction Recovery Workbook: Powerful Skills for Preventing Relapse Every Day

When people we love are struggling and hurting, it’s so easy to throw ourselves right into the middle of their situation. We can’t control or “fix” anybody but ourselves, and Beattie does a masterful job of explaining how to reign in our codependent tendencies. If you feel like you’ve lost sight of your own life while dealing with the drama of a loved one’s life, this book is for you. Dash also developed a drug addiction before he cleaned up and embarked on the road to recovery.

Being Sober

Peak Covid saw people giving into excess where alcohol was concerned, and the rise of sobriety following the pandemic seems straight out of a ‘nature is healing’ meme. 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. Loving someone who suffers from addiction is one of the hardest things a human being can go through. The situations and emotions a person experiences while a loved one struggles with drugs or alcohol can be completely overwhelming. Landmark Recovery was founded with a determination to make addiction treatment accessible for all.

Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp

The goal is to give an answer to the frequently asked question about “Who is to blame? This book can provide valuable insight to families, friends, therapists, healthcare professionals, and to women problem-gamblers. This well-written piece by Liz Karter covers the issue of women gambling problematically. It’s based on the author’s own research and theories that were developed throughout her extensive practice. Reading it, you will have a chance to explore what may lead to problem gambling in women and how unhealthy relationships and lonely, troubled, or damaging lives can move women closer to the trap.

While self-help books are not a solution for long-term recovery, they can be very helpful for your “emotional recovery”. Bryony puts her family, career and future at risk before a stint in rehab, loads of AA meetings and self-discovery help her to become a mother, partner and person she can be proud of. Below are fifteen incredible books by drinkers who battled alcohol addiction and lived to tell the tale. Tragic, inspiring, humorous and heart-wrenching—these true accounts of the struggle for sobriety will move you and maybe inspire you to see what the sober life is all about. Sober celebrities, reality stars in rehab and the sudden ubiquity of mocktail recipes… the culture is shifting, and abstinence is in.

Lifechanging Books on Addiction & Recovery

• It is a useful book for understanding addiction as a chronic illness and the physical challenges of recovery.
• In “Beautiful Boy,” journalist David Sheff details his sporty son’s descent into crystal meth addiction.
• Readers might get a clearer indication of some of the thought processes typically shared by heavy drinkers.
• Her increasingly dysfunctional relationship with alcohol had to stop, but after decades of social drinking, she was terrified of what that might mean.
• 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.

But knowing you aren’t alone on the journey brings comfort and confidence that other reads may fall short of. The artist discusses his journey, including his descent into drug use and finding light through the darkness. I did many things I am deeply ashamed of, and reading her book taught me that I am not alone. 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.

Stash: My Life in Hiding

“Addiction Dilemmas” discusses how addiction impacts the families and loved ones of addicted persons in a series of narratives, then pairs that information with research on addiction. Divorce, abandonment, foreclosure and a mass shooting… Mishka Shubaly had plenty of reasons to wallow in drink and drugs, and he does so with wild abandon in I Swear I’ll Make It Up to You. His first full-length memoir follows best alcoholic memoirs him from a seemingly endless rock bottom to a passion for running that leads him out of a life of self-destruction and chaos. It’s an inspiring and, at times, unbelievable tale told with unflinching honesty and a heavy dose of self-deprecation. Macy gives you the lowdown on this opioid crisis from start to finish, showing how big pharma misled doctors into believing these painkillers were not addictive.

Seven Motivational Books on Addiction Recovery

• To vote on books not in the list or books you couldn’t find in the list, you can click on the tab add books to this list and then choose from your books, or simply search.
• In “Recovery,“ he shares for the first time some of the tools he used to stop smoking crack cocaine and to help others stay clean.
• Good books allow readers to connect with characters and develop an understanding that can be used in their recovery journey.

Finding real and fictional characters in books about recovery that you can relate to is even better. Working with the right team and with an approach fit for your needs, you can set achievable goals, make positive changes, and build a support network of family and friends while in co-occurring disorders recovery. The handbook “Co-occurring Addiction And Mental Health Disorders” is written and designed to help people with co-occurring disorders thrive in recovery. Whether someone you love or yourself are a recovering addict, we have outlined suggestions about self-help literature and books to help you with alcoholism, drugs, behavioral addiction, or co-occurring disorders recovery. Supporting a loved one through addiction and recovery is incredibly challenging.

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America

Determined to get clean, Beck develops a unique approach to sobriety that changes the trajectory of his life. Part memoir and part how-to, many former drinkers credit Alcohol Lied to Me with helping them to finally beat the bottle. I started reading addiction memoirs in college, well before I admitted to having an alcohol use disorder. Why else would I have been mesmerized by When a Man Loves a Woman or 28 Days in my early 20s? These movies and books let me know I was not alone, that there were other people walking around who drank like I did. Our culture puts alcohol at the center of most social activities.