Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way Of Understanding Addiction
More people than ever before see themselves as addicted to, or recovering from, addiction, whether it be alcohol or drugs, prescription meds, sex, gambling, , or the internet. But despite the unprecedented attention, our understanding of addiction is trapped in unfounded 20th century ideas, addiction as a crime or as brain disease, and in equally outdated treatment.
Challenging both the idea of the addicts broken brain and the notion of a simple addictive personality, Unbroken Brain offers a radical and groundbreaking new perspective, arguing that addictions are learning disorders and shows how seeing the condition this way can untangle our current debates over treatment, prevention and policy. Like autistic traits, addictive behaviors fall on a spectrum and they can be a normal response to an extreme situation. By illustrating what addiction is, and is not, the book illustrates how timing, history, family, peers, culture and chemicals come together to create both illness and recovery- and why there is no addictive personality or single treatment that works for all.Combining Maia Szalavitzs personal story with a distillation of more than 25 years of science and research, Unbroken Brain provides a paradigm-shifting approach to thinking about addiction.
Crank By Ellen Hopkins
In Crank, Ellen Hopkins chronicles the turbulent and often disturbing relationship between Kristina, a character based on her own daughter, and the monster, the highly addictive drug crystal meth, or crank.
Kristina is introduced to the drug while visiting her largely absent and neer-do-well father. While under the influence of the monster, Kristina discovers her sexy alter-ego, Bree: there is no perfect daughter, / no gifted high school junior, / no Kristina Georgia Snow. / There is only Bree.
Bree will do all the things good girl Kristina wont, including attracting the attention of dangerous boys who can provide her with a steady flow of crank.
My Dad Loves Me My Dad Has A Disease
Dr. Claudia Black does a fantastic job of reaching children with her book. Written for children between the ages of 5-12, Dr. Black reaches children with exercises that allow them to express their feelings. Children are greatly affected, and Dr. Black understands the impact of them holding their true feelings inside and not talking about their feelings. If you know a child that could benefit from this book, we highly recommend that you have them go through it.
Resentments mean to re-feel something. As you re-feel the event, you become angrier with every passing thought. When a child cannot discuss what is going on at home, it has a profuse effect on their brain development and ability to form healthy relationships and bonds. The resentments that develop for young children can lead them to substance use themselves and unhealthy choices in relationships. The sooner you can get in front of a child affected by substance use, the less damage may be done.
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Other Great Books About Addiction
Clean by Amy Reed
A captivating novel about five teens in rehab. Olivia, Kelly, Christopher, Jason, and Eva have one thing in common: Theyre addicts. Addicts who have hit rock bottom and been stuck together in rehab to face their problems, face sobriety, and face themselves. None of them wants to be there. None of them wants to confront the truths about their pasts. And they certainly dont want to share their darkest secrets and most desperate fears with a room of strangers. But theyll all have to deal with themselvesand one anotherif they want to learn how to live. Because when you get that high, theres nowhere to go but down, down, down.
One of the Workit counselors says about this book, Its not exactly recovery specific, but its really well done on why and how Cognitive Behavioral Therapy works. It also gives examples, stories, and exercises to try!
Recovery From Trauma Addiction Or Both: Strategies For Finding Your Best Self By Lisa Najavits
Lisa Najavits discusses the effects that past trauma has on a persons addiction. This is an inspirational book that provides real-life examples of developing coping mechanisms and realistic goals that lead to a healthier life. In the book, Najavits links trauma with addiction and presents readers with science-based self-help strategies that can be used no matter where you are in your recovery process.
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Born To Lose: The Memoirs Of A Compulsive Gambler
My history of gambling really began before I was born. So opens Born to Lose, Bill Lees self-told story of gambling addiction, set in San Franciscos Chinatown and steeped in a culture where it is not unheard of for gamblers to lose their children to a bet. From wagering away his beloved baseball card collection as a youngster to forfeiting everything he owned at blackjack tables in Las Vegas, Lee describes what gambling addiction feels like from the inside and how recovery is possible through the Twelve Step program.
Finding Your Best Self: Recovery From Addiction Trauma Or Both
Lisa M. Najavits
Wherever you are on your journey to recovery, this practical guide to dealing with emotional and psychological challenges is here to help. Clinical psychologist Lisa M. Najavits imparts her three decades of experience treating patients to create this research-based manual. In it, youll learn how to cultivate coping skills, confront personal struggles and alter your behaviors in a more positive direction. This addiction recovery book is also helpful for family and friends looking to support a loved one as they recover.
Review: A welcome contribution. Dr. Najavits provides a comprehensive framework for recovery. She has woven her extensive clinical experience with the voices of people in recovery to create a rich resource.ââ Stephanie S. Covington, Ph.D.
Meera Patel
DO
Addiction is a complex disease that can impact an individual, as well as their family and loved ones. Overcoming addiction is a long and difficult process, so it can help to have some extra perspective on the topic. Whether youre looking for information on the science of addiction or personal stories of triumph over it, theres something for you on this list.
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The Heart Of Recovery: Real People Real Loves Real Success Stories
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A series of open and honest interviews with people who have battled addiction and entered into periods of recovery.
In The Heart of Recovery Bopst speaks with people of all ages, from all backgrounds, in every stage of recovery.
The interviews are short, searching, and often heartfelt they go to the core of what it means to seek recovery, forgiveness, and a new way of living in a world so riddled with temptation.
The interviewees themselves range from fitness experts and recovery advocates to celebrities and experts they each offer advice, tips, and tricks from their own lives in the hope they will help someone else.
This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol By Annie Grace
Reviewers say this book reframes sobriety as a choice rather than as a consequence, a dichotomy that many struggling with addiction must face early in the recovery process. Published in 2015, This Naked Mind explores the societal norms associated with alcohol and draws on the latest addiction research to create a thorough understanding about how one shapes the other.
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In The Realm Of Hungry Ghosts By Gabor Mat
This is the single best work about the psychology of addiction. Maté writes about his time as a physician working with heroin and crack addicts in Vancouvers Downtown Eastside, telling the heart-wrenching stories of the people he treated while providing a radical new way of understanding addiction. Synthesizing his clinical experience, deep scientific research, and profound insight into the childhood trauma that triggers dependency in adults, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts is a powerful call for compassion and understanding in the treatment of drug usersand offers hope for healing and change.
Best Books About Addiction Recovery
The best books on sobriety tackle the challenges and triumphs of people in recovery.
If you are well on your way to a sober life, these books will give you the empowerment, enlightenment, and courage you need to continue. These best books about addiction recovery give affirmation that recovery is a continuous process and that youre never alone while youre at it. Find out how to get over an addiction and live the best life you can have with these inspiring addiction recovery stories.
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I Love You More: Short Stories Of Addiction Recovery And Loss From The Familys Perspective By Blake Cohen
A compilation of three powerful fictional short stories, this book shows how addiction affects not only the person with the substance use disorder but also their families. Often, family members do not know where to turn to for guidance, help, or support. The book offers emotional support and education to families affected by addiction and tries to remove the stigma associated with it. The book is a quick, easy read that allows the reader to see the world through the eyes of the substance user and their family.
Here Are Some Of The Best Books Related To Drug And Alcohol Addiction:
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Top 10 Books About Recovery
Finding a life beyond addiction, or other kinds of damaged personal life, is more complicated than we might wish. But as these books show, it is possible
When we hear the word recovery, especially alongside literature, we tend to think of books on alcoholism or drug addiction. But humans recover from all manner of trials and they do so in ways that defy the traditional arc of addiction lit a heros journey through denial to rock bottom and back up again.
In those stories, the decision to get better often arrives like a bolt of lightning, but this is rarely the case. My own recovery from codependency and alcoholism, which I write about in my memoir Good Morning, Destroyer of Mens Souls, has felt elusive, circuitous, and sometimes rather boring. To me, recovery is a long and always-occurring process. Since I dont love the word journey, I prefer to think of it as a kind of endurance art, the term performance artists give to work that requires long periods of hardship, solitude or pain.
3. The Outrun by Amy LiptrotThis recovery story captures the anguish and doubt that accompany the choice to quit drinking. The book, set mostly in the authors native Orkney also explores the legacies of family and geography, and includes exquisite writing on the wildness as well as the rhythms and cycles of natural life in a remote locale.
Sonic Recovery: Harness The Power Of Music To Stay Sober
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As a board-certified music therapist, Tim Ringgold is a firm believer in the power of music and its potential to help those struggling with addiction, grief, and trauma.
Sonic Recovery is a clever and entertaining mix of music, neuroscience, psychology, and current research that neither dumbs down the facts nor swamps you with professional jargon.
Quick, witty, and to the point, Ringgold offers actionable tips and hints for those seeking to use the transformative power of music in their own lives.
There are many alternative recovery programmes and theories out there, of course, but Sonic Recovery only presents what can be corroborated, and this makes it a powerful tool
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Comfortably Insane: A Journey From The Hell Of Alcoholism To A Healthy And Productive Life
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Unflinching, but humorous at times, Comfortably Insane is the story of how Neal Linares, after an unsettled childhood shuttling between the USA and El Salvador, fell into the bottle and stayed there for decades.
He reports how he drank himself out of military school, relationships, and his sanity before achieving 8 years of sobriety and a happy second marriage through the power of will alone.
However, sanity proved uncomfortable and he fell back into comfortable insanity until a run-in with local police shook him awake and he began the long road to sanity and wellness one day at a time.
Linares offers more than just a memoir this is a manual for anyone seeking to recognise and neutralise their own flaws.
Up From Down: A True Story Of Recovery From Addiction
If you or someone you know is struggling to find out how to recover from addiction, this book can help.
Up from Down: A True Story of Recovery from Addiction, tells the story of how Ted Adamson got out of heroins claws. He details how he spent years of his life satisfying his hunger for heroin.
Ted Adamson also talks about his journey from county jail to state prison and the raw truth of what happened to him when he was a junkie. This is one of the best books about addiction recovery that offers hope for people who are struggling to find the light at the end of the tunnel. Find the motivation you need to beat addiction with this book.
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From The Brink Of The Drink: A Personal Story Of Tribulations And Triumphs Of Alcoholism
amazon.com
Few books on the subject of alcoholism are quite so horrifying as From the Brink of the Drink alcoholism is a predominantly male affliction, and so Karla Juvonens story is shocking and heartbreaking, Turning to drink at just 12, Juvonen used alcohol to cope with insecurities, pressures, and her uncontrollable fears.
Despite this, she led a successful life until her dependency spiralled out of control and she lost it all her family, her job, her home, her health, and nearly her life.
Harrowing and heartwrenching, From the Brink of Drink, nonetheless has a hopeful message for other young women fighting drink, drugs, and their own fear.
Codependent No More By Melodie Beattie
Treating codependency is often an integral part of addiction treatment, and one that often involves the individuals partner and family members. Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself, which was groundbreaking when it was published in 1986, remains the cornerstone of healing from codependency. Youll be able to understand whether you are in a codependent relationship, learn from the experiences of others, and complete workbook exercises and personal reflections to support your recovery.
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Beautiful Boy: A Fathers Journey Through Addiction
Beautiful Boy is a book written by David Sheff. It gives an account of how his son David became addicted to meth. This is one of the books about drug addiction that shows the impact of addiction on ones family.
Through this book, David Sheff was able to show what a fathers love can do to help his son get back to his beautiful life. The story details the many instances where his son was able to get the help he needed despite falling off the wagon several times. This book beautifully showcases the journey to recovery for both David and his son.
Heroine By Mindy Mcginnis
When a car crash sidelines Mickey just before softball season, she has to find a way to hold on to her spot as the catcher for a team expected to make a historic tournament run. Behind the plate is the only place shes ever felt comfortable, and the painkillers shes been prescribed can help her get there.
The pills do more than take away pain they make her feel good.
With a new circle of friendsfellow injured athletes, others with just time to killMickey finds peaceful acceptance, and people with whom words come easily, even if it is just the pills loosening her tongue. But as the pressure to be Mickey Catalan heightens, her need increases, and it becomes less about pain and more about want, something that could send her spiraling out of control.
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