Recovery Reading List: 17 Best-Selling and or Award-Winning Books on Addiction and Recovery

It also chronicles the true pain that stems from depression and anxiety, the causes that lead many people to engage in substance abuse. Today, some of my favorite works of fiction are those which manage to portray the complex multitudes of ways in which alcoholism affects people—not just the addicts themselves, but their friends, family, and co-workers. It best alcoholic memoirs is easy to use addiction as a crutch, a way to build plot or signal “here’s a bad dude,” but it is much harder to accurately and humanely depict the life-warping pain of struggling with alcoholism. The books which do it best, in my opinion, are often not consciously “about” addiction at all, but show its effects lingering in the corners of every page.

• Whitaker’s book offers a road map of non-traditional options for recovery.
• Exploring the thoughts of an addict and a life unraveled by narcotics, this memoir spans the author’s struggles with opioid use disorder, to her time in jail, and ultimately to her recovery.
• With compassion and an erudite viewpoint, this book offers advice and hope for those who struggle with a loved one’s addiction.
• The following are a smattering of the books about alcoholism I’ve found meaningful.
• Elizabeth Vargas takes off her perfectly poised reporter mask and shows you the authentic person behind the anchor desk.
• The author reveals startling details of her own struggle with her daughter’s addiction, reassuring the reader that she truly empathizes and understands the complexities of loving an addict.

The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober: Discovering a Happy, Healthy, Wealthy Alcohol-Free Life by Catherine Gray

Fill out this form and one of our recovery specialists will reach out. Jerry Stahl was a writer with significant and successful screenwriting credits — Dr. Caligari, Twin Peaks, Moonlighting, and more. But despite that success, Stahl’s heroin habit began to consume him, derailing his career and destroying his health until one final, intense crisis inspired him to get clean. American Addiction Centers (AAC) is committed to delivering original, truthful, accurate, unbiased, and medically current information. We strive to create content that is clear, concise, and easy to understand.

Here are some of the best books related to drug and alcohol use disorders.

Countless people in recovery have found the simple advice to be a comfort when faced with cravings, helping them to avoid a potentially disastrous relapse. One of the most important messages that resounds throughout this work is that sobriety is more than just not drinking, it is a daily practice of commitment to healthy and engaged living. Living Sober is a recommended read for anyone using the 12 step method. A stunning debut novel about a short but intense friendship between two girls that ends in tragedy, Marlena pinpoints both what it feels like to be the addict and what it’s like to be the friend of one. Often, when we think of books about addiction and specifically alcoholism (in my case), we think of important, tell-all works of nonfiction. Memoirs like Sarah Hepola’s Blackout, Augusten Burroughs’ Dry, and Drunk Mom by Jowita Bydlowska are recent, searing examples of first person accounts of being drunk and then, eventually, being sober.

#6 – Addicts in the Family: Stories of Loss, Hope and Recovery by Beverly Conyers

Wurtzel’s book clearly illustrates the link between mental health issues and addiction. As a young woman, Wurtzel struggled with severe depression marked by manic highs and extreme lows. She turned to alcohol and drugs in an attempt to self-medicate and treat her emotional pain. She also poignantly expresses the feeling of emptiness and longing that so many addicts seek to fill through the consumption of their drug of choice. Prozac Nation is an important piece of work, notable for its distinctive youthful voice and confessional nature.

• Any information published on this website or by this brand is not intended as a substitute for medical advice, and you should not take any action before consulting with a healthcare professional.
• Lewis provides a description of life in recovery that I relate to myself; that sober life is not a life of deprivation, but one of fulfillment, continued growth, and personal development.
• In and out of rehab, he falls into relapse, engaging in toxic relationships and other self-destructive behaviors that threaten to undo the hard-won progress he’s made.
• The Revolution of Birdie Randolph is a beautiful look at the effects of alcoholism on friends and family members in the touching way only Brandy Colbert can master.

These insights can introduce a whole new dimension of healing while on a sobriety or moderation journey. A 1996 bestseller, Caroline Knapp paints a vivid picture of substance use and recovery that every reader can appreciate, whether you struggle with substance use or not. Knapp writes elegantly about her 20+ years of ‘high-functioning https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/alcoholics-heart-problems-cardiomyopathy/ drinking’. Winning career accolades by day and drinking at night, Knapp brings you to the netherworld of alcohol use disorder. This is one of the best memoirs on alcohol recovery in my opinion. She highlights not only her relationship to alcohol, but also key takeaways from her many attempts to get sober.

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

By the time she was an adult in a big city, all she did was drink. Blackout is her poignant story of alcoholism and those many missing hours that disappeared when she had just enough to drink to wipe out her memory. Hepola gets through the darkest parts of her story with self-deprecating humor and a keen eye on what she was burying by drinking. Authored by addiction professionals, Beyond Addiction illustrates how people can use positive reinforcement, behavior strategies, and kindness to help their loved ones achieve sobriety. Pairing insights on treatment options and how to navigate the rehab system, content is designed to not only help someone change but also prompt them to want to change.

Question About Treatment

• Today, some of my favorite works of fiction are those which manage to portray the complex multitudes of ways in which alcoholism affects people—not just the addicts themselves, but their friends, family, and co-workers.
• This is one of the best memoirs on alcohol recovery in my opinion.
• She’s focusing on her schoolwork and is on track to finish high school at the top of her class.
• The book is short, easy to read, and will leave you with some immediate tools for addressing social situations, sex, and friendship while navigating an alcohol-free lifestyle.
• Quit Like a Woman is her informative and relatable guidebook to breaking an addiction to alcohol.

For anyone hiding in the shadows of shame, this book is a guiding light. For every parent riddled with guilt, for anyone waking up in the shame cave (again), for every person who has had a messy struggle forward towards redemption… this book is for you. In his first novel, Burroughs gives a vivid, semi-autobiographical account of heroin addiction in the early 1950s. Prior to getting sober, memoir author Sarah Hepola often drank until she blacked out.

Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp

This book is unique in the fact that it chronicles his childhood trauma, as well as how it directly related to his first forays into drug and alcohol use. Although his childhood experience was remarkably different from the norm, it still illustrates the vulnerability that emotional abuse creates in relation to the formation of addiction. 20) A Happier Hour by Rebecca WellerAt 39 years of age – and a health coach, no less – Weller knew better than to drink several bottles of wine each week. Her increasingly dysfunctional relationship with alcohol had to stop, but after decades of social drinking, she was terrified of what that might mean. She takes us through her journey of recovery in this moving, inspiring story about giving up something you think you love to live the life you truly want.

Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget by Sarah Hepola