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We also discuss how her relationship with alcohol has changed since this time and the unexpected joy of being sober. Learn how rising to the top of an MLM led to her addiction and recovery in a pyramid scheme. For more resources in sobriety, online alcohol treatment programs like Ria Health can help as well. Ria Health is a smartphone-based program that assists people in reaching their unique alcohol-related goals, whether that means cutting back or quitting for good. All in all, this is an excellent quit lit story for those interested in an eye-opening perspective on alcohol’s role in our society today.
- Her first memoir is an inside look at her famous parents’ marriage and her own tumultuous love affairs (including her on-again, off-again relationship with Paul Simon).
- I looked up to see an enormous brown horned animal charging at me.
‘Moose! - “And a little window opened and I crawled through it and I no longer want Oxycontin anymore.”
- Dove “Birdie” Randolph is doing her best to be a perfect daughter.
Prolific, brilliant memoirist Mary Karr shines a light on the dark years she spent descending into alcoholism and drug use as a young writer, wife, and mother. As her marriage dissolved and she struggled to find a reason to stay clean, Karr turned to Catholicism as a light at the end of the tunnel. A person of extraordinary intellect, Heather King is a lawyer and writer/commentator for NPR—as well as a recovering alcoholic who spent years descending from functional alcoholism to barely functioning at all. From graduating cum laude from law school despite her excessive drinking to languishing in dive bars, King presents a clear-eyed look at her past and what brought her out of the haze of addiction.
Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families
This book is a positive tale where she narrates the year in which she went from a cancer diagnosis to her happiest and best self ever. In this journey, she became sober, beat cancer, and finally built a richer life than she could have possibly imagined. It’s a beautifully told story about how alcohol seduced her at fourteen and secretly subjugated her through her university years and most of her award-winning career.
And yet—even though each of these books goes its own way, never hesitating to flout a trope or trample a norm to serve its story—they don’t go in terror of the conventions either. Where the story they have to tell echoes others, they let us hear that echo. One characteristic I think I discern in the best addiction memoir is a certain humility that doesn’t strive after innovation for its own sake. Serious addiction has a way of annihilating your sense of exceptionalism, stripping away your autonomy and character, and reducing you to the sum of your cravings.
Matthew Perry Opens Up About His Addiction Journey with a New Memoir: ‘I’m Grateful to Be Alive’
But it is still an almost perfect account of, and metaphor for, a broader kind of recovery. After the collapse of her marriage and the death of her mother, with whom she shared a fierce bond, Strayed decided to hike 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. With little guidance and less experience, she begins her life-changing journey in a pair of too-small hiking boots.
- Clegg had a thriving life as a literary agent when he walked away from his seemingly-fulfilling world for a two-month crack binge.
- Step by step, she learns to reconcile the grief of her past and move forward.
- Weller has a relatable story for any high-achiever who finds themselves with boozy, foggy evenings that turn into hangovers the next morning.
- Instead she presents herself as a kind of Godly schmuck, chronically slow on the spiritual uptake.
The rock legend is known for putting his own stories—as well as those of his family, his friends, and characters from his imagination—to music in a magical combination that feels raw and personal while also selling out arenas. Far from a celebrity tell-all, Springsteen’s memoir is gritty and down-to-earth, filled with spirituality and symbolism, tapping into the sense of raw humanity that inspired the working-class anthems for which he’s best known. A Grammy nominee and an Audie winner for Best Autobiography/Memoir, Born to Run is more than an audiobook; it’s a universal experience. While self-help books are not a solution for long-term recovery, they can be very helpful for emotional sobriety throughout the journey of recovery. There is no replacement for a comprehensive treatment program for those that are struggling with substance abuse, but reading the true stories of those with similar experiences can be an excellent complement to treatment.
The Addictive Personality
Ann Dowsett Johnston masterfully weaves personal story, interviews, and sociological research together to create a compelling, informative, and even heartbreaking reality about drinking and womanhood. Written with courage and candor this book leaves you ready to push against a society suggesting alcohol is the solution to women’s problems. With his mother in a mental hospital and his father gone, Asante grew up best alcoholic memoirs on the streets of North Philadelphia. Quickly learning to become self-sufficient, he finds that selling drugs, smoking weed and drinking feel like survival. But hustling itself becomes an addiction and, before long, selling (and consuming) drugs and making money are the only things that matter to Asante. When his best friend is killed and his mother barely survives an overdose, he commits to a different path.
