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Books > Health, Home & Family > Family & health > Coping with personal problems > Coping with drug & alcohol abuse
***2020 winner of the Christopher Bland Prize*** "Beautifully
crafted and written, filled with darkness and light, compelling...
She fights addiction with honesty and humour. And, like her, [we]
come away changed forever." Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, RSL Christopher
Bland Prize When Michele Kirsch's father is killed in a train
crash, her mother gets the vapours and Michele gets extremely
nervous. By her mid-teens, she has found salvation in valium. Her
favourite words on the prescription sheet are "Take As Needed",
which she interprets as Take All The Time. Later, as a wife and
mother, she adds alcohol into the mix, and before long her life is
spinning out of control. Leaving home "for the sake of the family",
she takes the scenic route to rehab, redemption and reinvention.
But this is no misery memoir. Clean is a darkly comic tale about
the difficult choices we have to make as we navigate our lives.
While working as a domestic cleaner in her 50s, Michele finds
herself living vicariously through other people's messes, tidying
her way through early sobriety. As the Duster of Large Things, she
taps into her natural nosiness to reveal the absurdities of a
seemingly banal job. This is a remarkable, powerful, and often
unbearably funny story in which cleaning and getting clean lead to
a strange and magical form of redemption.
Don't Forget Me is a survival manual and a lifeline for those whose
lives have been touched by substance use and addiction. With the
pervasiveness of drugs today and death by overdose as the leading
cause of death for people under 50 in the US, almost everyone has
been directly or indirectly affected by this drug epidemic. Loving
someone with substance abuse can be terrifying. Steve Grant shares
what he learned during his own difficult journey to encourage and
guide other parents who are living with children who are struggling
with substance abuse. Don't Forget Me tells the story of Steve's
two sons, Chris and Kelly, who took distinctly different paths to
the same outcome: death by overdose. Steve reveals not only a
highlight reel of the things he got right but takes an honest look
at the mistakes he made along the way to help other parents avoid
those same mistakes. Don't Forget Me offers time-tested, practical
suggestions to assure family members of those struggling with
substance abuse they have not lost their mind and encourages them
to find hope-even on the darkest days.
Psychologist to the Hollywood elite Dr. Carder Stout delivers a
page-turning memoir about his fall from grace into the gritty
underbelly of crack addiction, running drugs for the Shoreline
Crips, surviving homelessness, escaping a murder plot, and finding
redemption in the most unlikely of places. As a therapist to
Hollywood's elite, Dr. Carder Stout's clientele includes Oscar-,
Golden Globe-, Emmy-, Tony- and Grammy-winners, bestselling
authors, and billionaires. He may not be able to share their dark
secrets, but for the first time, everyone will know his. At the age
of thirty-four, Carder would have gladly pawned the silver spoon he
was born choking on for a rock of crack. His downfall was as swift
as his privilege was vast...or had he been falling all along?
Raised in a Georgetown mansion and educated at exclusive
institutions, Carder ran with a crowd of movers, shakers, and
future Oscar-winners in New York City. But words like "promise" and
"potential" are meaningless in the face of serious addiction. Lost
years and a stint in rehab later, when Carder was a dirty, broke,
soon-to-be-homeless crackhead wandering the streets of Venice,
California. His lucky break came thanks to his old Ford Taurus: he
lands a job of driving for a philosophical drug czar with whom he
finds friendship and self-worth as he helps deliver quality product
to LA's drug enthusiasts, from trust-fund kids, gang affiliates,
trophy wives, hip-hop producers, and Russian pimps. But even his
loyalty and protection can't save Carder from the peril of the
streets--or the eventual contract on his life. From a youth of
affluence to the hit the Shoreline Crips put on his life, Carder
delves deep into life on the streets. Lost in Ghost Town is a
riveting, raw, and heartfelt look at the power of addiction, the
beauty of redemption, and finding truth somewhere in between.
When they were first released in the 1980s, Janet Woititz's
groundbreaking works, Adult Children of Alcoholics, Struggle for
Intimacy and The Self-Sabotage Syndrome, provided a new message of
hope to adult children who had grown up in the shadow of alcoholic
parents. Their message today is as profound and timeless as it was
two decades ago.
Now, in this complete collection, readers will learn again the
insight and healing power of Janet Wotitiz's words. The Complete
ACoA Sourcebook is a compilation of three of Dr. Woititz's classic
books, addressing head-on the symptoms of The Adult Children of
Alcoholics syndrome and providing strategies for living a normal
life as an adult. Readers will find help for themselves: at home,
in intimate relationships and on the job. They will discover the
reasons for the way they think, believe and feel about themselves;
ACoAs often feel isolated, have difficulty in relationships, in the
workplace and in feeling good about themselves.
Readers who are familiar with Woititz's work will find wisdom
once again in this classic collection. Those new to ACoA will gain
fresh insight into their behavior patterns and find an avenue for
self-love and healing. Noted ACoA expert Dr. Robert Ackerman,
author of the best-selling Perfect Daughters and Silent Sons,
provides a foreword and explains why Janet Woititz's message will
continue to help millions of readers for generations to come.
Packed with information, advice and learning activities, this book
tells you what you need to know about drugs, young people's drug
use, and how you can help them stay safe. It covers everything from
what the effects are and why young people take drugs, to how to
negotiate drug rules and ways to prevent and minimise harm. An easy
to use section contains factual information about various drugs,
covering a description of each drug, street names, a brief history,
legal status, availability, extent of use and cost, effects,
possible harms, and harm reduction advice. The newest and emerging
drugs, such as legal highs, are included, as well as illegal drugs,
alcohol, caffeine and tobacco. If you are working with or
supporting young people or are a parent or carer, this is the book
you need to help you understand drugs and respond positively and
effectively to young people's drug use.
Refuge Recovery is a proven practice, a process, a set of tools,
a treatment, and a path to healing addiction.
Refuge Recovery is a Buddhist-oriented, nontheistic recovery
program that does not ask anyone to believe anything, only to trust
the process and do the hard work of recovery. In fact, no previous
experience or knowledge of Buddhism is required. Recovery is
possible, and this book provides a systematic approach to treating
and recovering from all forms of addictions. When sincerely
practiced, the program will ensure a full recovery from addiction
and a lifelong sense of well-being and happiness.
Designed as an aid for the study of the book, "Alcoholics
Anonymous, The Little Red Book" contains many helpful topics for
discussion meetings. Drawing from the practical experience of
alcoholics who found peace of mind and contented sobriety by
following a way of spiritual life set forth in "Alcoholics
Anonymous, The Little Red Book" can help members quickly develop an
acceptable 24-hour schedule of A.A. living.
Based on the many past study guide formats and beginner classes
for "The Little Red Book" and modeled after Twelve Step instruction
programs offered at A.A. meetings, this new study guide provides a
solid and comprehensive study structure for men and women in A.A.
Twelve Step groups and for individuals studying "The Little Red
Book" on their own. While "The Little Red Book" interprets the
Twelve Steps, the "Guide" gives newcomers to A.A. the structure
needed to live them.
Holding a Masters degree in Addiction Studies with an internship
at the Alcoholics Anonymous Headquarters Archives, Bill P. has
worked in the alcohol/drug addiction field for 18 years as a
counselor, historian, educator, and author, including four years
with the AA Grapevine Magazine.
This breakthrough new treatment approach by a Harvard psychologist
and trauma and addiction expert offers a step-by-step program to
help women overcome the often-overlooked core problems that drive
their drug and alcohol addictions. Women and girls are now becoming
addicted at greater rates than at any other time at history-and
until very recently women in recovery were dependent on treatment
models based solely on work with men. Harvard addiction and trauma
expert Lisa Najavits contends that women often stay addicted
because of core, untreated problems that then underlie their
addiction. Najavits has now developed a breakthrough new treatment
model for women based on specific factors underlying women's
addiction and on elements vital to their recovery. In this
strengths-building workbook, women pinpoint their core problems and
take steps to come to terms with their personal addiction stories.
Through exercises that help them overcome these deep-seated
problems and break the cycle of "using to forget," readers begin to
build newfound strengths and self-respect and go on to learn how to
tolerate distress, endure being alone, reach out to others, express
needs, and set boundaries. A final chapter offers advice on getting
help and a directory of recovery options.
Research and clinical experiences show that people engaging in drug
addiction for some years usually embrace severe mental illnesses
including schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder,
depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Schizophrenia
usually occurs in patients with prolonged use of amphetamine and
hallucinogens. Borderline personality disorder commonly happens in
female addicts who have experienced abandonment and childhood
abuse. On the one hand, drug addiction can be used to cope with
symptoms of severe mental illness. On the other hand, prolonged
drug addiction can also induce severe mental illness. A close look
into individuals with chronic drug addiction usually review that
they encounter suffering, hardship and traumas. There are two types
of traumas encountered by people with drug addiction. The first one
is trauma before drug addiction and substance abuse. Many of them
may have suffered through abuse, oppression and abandonment in
their lives. Another one is drug led traumas because of
psychosocial deprivation and medical problems induced by chronic
addiction. In this book, apart from describing a comprehensive
model in understanding and interpreting the complexity of trauma,
mental illness and drug addiction, this model is applied and
illustrated in clients with borderline personality disorder and
schizophrenia, drug addiction and those who have experience
different forms of trauma. Related psychosocial interventions are
also thoroughly discussed.
It has been ten years since Rachael Keogh was catapulted into the
public consciousness, when a shocking image of her needle-ravaged
arms - skin burnt from injecting heroin into her wasted veins -
made front pages around the country. Desperate for help, she made a
public appeal to get one of 27 detox beds in Ireland so that she
could reclaim her life from the drugs that had ravaged it. What
followed was an extraordinary story of grit and determination as
she embarked on her recovery journey. Her story became an instant
bestseller and has resonated with readers ever since. This edition
contains a new introduction from Rachael where she reflects on her
story and considers what has changed for her and in the drugs
culture in Ireland over the last decade. 'The best book by far
about the drugs explosion in Dublin' Irish Independent 'This book
should be on the school curriculum' Evening Echo
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