By the end, you’re just rooting for him to get better, making the fact that the actor died only a year after his memoir’s publication even more poignant. While there are moments of the confessional, hapless Hart we all know and love, the book is largely everything she has learnt from being chronically ill. She references and quotes many of the self-help books in which she found solace, which equally might reassure readers going through something similar. In the darkness of trying times, she also recounts finding love, letting her guard down and getting the happy ending she deserves. This book chimed with millennials and Gen Z in its candid exploration of growing up in the suburbs, university years, house shares, dating and friendships. A nod to Nora Ephron’s seminal Heartburn, recipes are peppered throughout, while lessons learned from her childhood through to her thirties will resonate with readers.
How to Be a Woman’ by Caitlin Moran, published by Ebury Press
Next we have Mary Karr’s Lit, which is also the third book in a trilogy; it followed The Liars’ Club and Cherry. It’s a memoir of her addiction to alcohol, and her subsequent recovery, and her conversion to Catholicism. Ditlevsen’s trilogy, by contrast, plunges us into the perspective of a succession of her former selves.
We are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life by Laura McKowen
Lauren Smith has worked as a journalist and copywriter for the last decade, covering a range of topics including health, energy, and technology in the US and UK. It’s a theory Szalavitz, a science writer and former cocaine and heroin addict, is uniquely equipped to advance and one that may reframe addiction entirely for you. Wishful Drinking has more than a sprinkle of Hollywood stardust (Fisher’s mother, MGM musical queen Debbie Reynolds, recruited Cary Grant to tell her teenage daughter to stop using LSD) and uproarious one-liners on every page. But under the bon-mots and Star Wars anecdotes, there’s a well of deep sadness in this book, made even more poignant by Fisher’s 2016 death, attributed to a relapse. The Italian cardiologist and fellow of the International Association for Cannabis as Medicine proposes five books on Medicinal Marijuana and explains why we should be reading them.
The best books on The History of Medicine and Addiction, recommended by Louise Foxcroft
She discusses her struggle with self-esteem, the controlling relationship she had with Burt Reynolds, and even her own childhood experience of sexual assault. The memoir, seven years in the making, is an honest, occasionally chilling look at the life of one of Hollywood’s most timeless actors. The real story is a powerful (and empowering) tale about the writer’s decision to leave behind what seemed from the outside like a perfect life to seek truer fulfillment in food, romance, and spirituality during a yearlong journey around the world. I chose Atlas of the Heart because it touches on the important theme of second chances. This book provides language for sharing our most heartbreaking moments as a way to connect. The simple fact that we are not alone in our struggle can be enough to find our way out of the dark.
The Cost of Living’ by Deborah Levy, published by Penguin
Second, they contain sections describing the lurid drama and dreadful effects of addiction in unsparing detail. Unvarnished accounts of the havoc and disaster of addiction, whether played for farce or pathos, are as reliably found in the most artistically ambitious addiction memoirs as in the least. Meanwhile the reader is tacitly licensed to enjoy all this mayhem and calamity with a degree of voyeuristic relish and, equally, to take a vicarious pleasure in the best alcoholic memoirs author’s recklessness and transgression. Ultimately, books about addiction serve as a bridge, connecting people in recovery with the wisdom, empathy, and insights of those who have walked the same path. They are a source of strength, empowerment, and understanding, providing the knowledge that recovery is not just possible but a pathway to a more fulfilling and joyful life. Books like the «Addiction Recovery Skills Workbook» and «Rewired» introduce actionable strategies and exercises to help individuals craft their own personalized recovery plans.
- As well as exploring their love story, this book is an engrossing look into the making of an artist, as Smith dabbles in music journalism before embracing the burgeoning punk movement.
- Along with educational insights on substance use disorders, the books provide multiple perspectives from those who have successfully traversed the road to recovery.
- Obama is refreshingly frank in giving a sense of what it’s like to be president, while his journey itself is inspirational and uplifting.
They quickly became friends, bonding over their shared desire for an exciting, outside-the-lines life. Most of their friends spent their weekends living the “rose all day” lifestyle, and every first date wanted to meet at a bar. — early into her sobriety, she realized that she was actually the lucky one. Thanks to an alcohol- and drug-free https://ecosoberhouse.com/ life, McKowen now feels all of her feelings, no longer has to balance multiple lies, and is fully present with her daughter. As a result, her groundbreaking perspective reshapes how we think about treatment, recovery, and the people affected by addiction. From her excessive drinking and smoking to disordered eating and falling for the wrong men, Caroline Knapp is seemingly attracted to anything and everything that isn’t good for her.
Fi: A Memoir of My Son, by Alexandra Fuller
More than anything, this is a book about art, how the love of it (and the right people) can bring us back to ourselves. They also expose the insidious ways in which addiction can unfold in the most unlikely places and at the most inopportune times. They are also full of hard-earned grace and/or humor, two things we all need more Alcoholics Anonymous of when we look in the mirror. Substance abuse can be just as destructive for loved ones as for addicts themselves, as journalist David Sheff’s devastating memoir of his teenage son’s methamphetamine addiction attests. He worries ceaselessly, continuously anticipating another late-night phone call, from Nic, from an emergency room, from the police.
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. At the age of 15, Cat Marnell began to unknowingly «murder her life» when she became hooked on the ADHD medication prescribed to her by her psychiatrist father. A Xanax dependence led to cocaine, ecstasy, and a tumbling rabbit hole of prescription drug abuse as she manipulated doctors, lied to loved ones, and struggled to maintain her high-profile job at Condé Nast amidst the highs and lows of addiction. His troubles didn’t begin with fame, but in his late teens, when he discovered drinking as a way to push down negative thoughts. His relentless quest for fame was another addiction, which he believed would solve all his problems. Bouncing between rehab, therapy sessions, detox programmes and romantic relationships, he relives moments of shame, happiness and success.
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing’ by Matthew Perry, published by Headline
As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. Methamphetamine is a highly destructive drug, and he does not mince words when conveying the ruination that it brought to his life. His raw and graphic accounts of youthful experimentation with drugs and alcohol segues quickly into an out of control addiction.