Growing up on her family’s 25-acre farm in Maine, Erin French developed a lifelong passion for cooking and food. She worked as a line cook in her family’s diner and eventually became a professional chef herself, opening the world-renowned restaurant The Lost Kitchen. Along the way, single motherhood, a broken marriage, and an addiction to prescription pills presented obstacles that French wasn’t sure she could overcome. But she prevailed, thanks to the lessons first learned on the farm and the love and support of her community.
- Former New York Times reporter Karoline Kan tells the story of three generations of women in Beijing, all willing and ready to defy the odds.
- 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.
- Developed by registered dietitians, this book takes a new twist on classic cocktails.
- I cracked up laughing as many times as I nodded my head in knowing, alcoholic agreement.
- Until I read this book, I felt a combination of broken (or, at the very least, defective) and hopeless.
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk
The various accidental similarities between these books began, before long, to harden into a blueprint, which countless books have faithfully reproduced. Most are forgettable and forgotten, but some accomplished authors—like Caroline Knapp and Sarah Hepola—have created very good books by bringing real skill to the standard formula. Books provide the opportunity to learn from others’ experiences, their mistakes, setbacks, and successes. Authors like Russell Brand, Tiffany Jenkins, and Amy Dresner offer relatable, often humorous accounts of addiction and recovery. These stories demonstrate that setbacks are part of the process, and they offer lessons that can help others avoid similar pitfalls. Witnessing someone else’s award-winning career or life transformation after addiction can be incredibly powerful, reminding readers that they, too, can achieve great things.
Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story by Mac McClelland
- I want to know what the science says but also how other people have applied that knowledge in ways that actually helped them quit.
- This book offers inspiration for alcohol-free drinks and activities, and tangible tips on how to navigate a month (or beyond!) without alcohol.
- Nina Renata Aron’s relationship with her boyfriend is a passionate fairy tale, right up to the day he relapses.
- Bydlowska’s memoir is an eye-opening account of her relapse, the many ways she justifies her “mommy needs wine” moments, and her eventual second recovery.
- Gilbert helps us understand the noisy voice in our head, which can often be our greatest critic.
- When she’s a child, we’re presented with the world as a child might see it.
- This gem of a book by Clare Pooley is a nice departure from the intensely introspective books I just mentioned.
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. With a reputation for hilarious honesty, as read in previous memoirs detailing her struggles with everything from mental illness to single life, Bryony Gordon is true to form in this detailed account of her alcohol-fueled best addiction memoirs downward spiral.
Lifechanging Books on Addiction & Recovery
- She’s brilliant in writing and shares many actionable tips and strategies.
- If you read enough addiction memoirs, the genre’s particular narrative cadence become easy to spot.
- After his descent into addiction, we follow Clune through detox, treatment, and finally into recovery as he returns to his childhood home, where the memory disease and his heroin-induced white out begin to fade.
- After graduation, she begins dating the town’s deputy sheriff.
- Subtitled “Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget,” Hepola’s debut memoir is a vulnerable story about refocusing her attention from finding her next drink to learning how to love herself without liquid enhancements.
When I stopped drinking alcohol, I was desperate to know the stories of other people who’d also taken this road less traveled. During the most unsettling time of my life, I craved all the messy, tragic, complex, wonderful stories that could show me what was on the other side. Nobody in my real life could meet that need, so I turned—as I always do when I need comfort, encouragement, or inspiration—to books. Having said that, I did—while reading Ditlevsen’s Dependency—occasionally need to put the book down and take a few deep breaths. Even the second time around I found it so viscerally powerful that at times I was overwhelmed.
Science Daily: Mind & Brain
Mikel Jollett, front man for the band The Airborne Toxic Event, has endured more than most of us can imagine. As a child, he and his family were members of the Church of Synanon, an abusive cult that separated children from their parents. After years of isolation, his mother finally decides to escape with Mikel and his brother.
Drink: The Intimate Relationship between Women and Alcohol by Ann Dowsett Johnston
Here, Nikki shares the https://ecosoberhouse.com/ diary entries—some poetic, some scatterbrained, some bizarre—of those dark times. Joining him are Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars, Slash, Rick Nielsen, Bob Rock, and a host of ex-managers, ex-lovers, and more. Well, of course I tried my best to steal from them whatever I could.
This Naked Mind by Annie Grace
She takes the reader on a very humbling journey through her recovery and experience with AA where she (rightfully so) gets knocked off her high horse and into a reality that I believe saves her from herself. In a brilliant Sobriety narrative style, she constantly flips back and forth between her personal story and the history of the alcoholic creatives who came before her, their lives intersecting in fascinating ways. For the first time in my life, I could relate to another person’s experience with drinking. I felt understood and seen in both the best and worst ways. I am not sure I’d be sober today if it weren’t for Tired of Thinking About Drinking. Belle’s consistent messaging on our faulty thinking led to a major mindset shift for me.