Is addiction a disease, a sin, a sign of hypersensitivity, a personal failing, or a unique resource for the creative mind? However it is defined, addiction can have devastating consequences, often shattering lives, sundering families, causing impoverishment, and even triggering suicide. Yet it can also be a source of inspiration. In these frank essays, leading American and Canadian writers explore their surprisingly diverse personal experiences with this complex phenomenon, candidly recounting what happened when alcohol, heroin, smoking, food, gambling, or sex -- sometimes in combination -- took over their lives.

"Aanavi's story takes us into the belly of the beast in an exploration of the soul's wounding and stands eye-to-eye with the demons in an honest attempt to make a different relationship with these entities. Aanavi hones in on the entity of heroin, which is the one spirit visitor that has given him the gift of insight during this lifetime."--From the foreword by Dr. Eduardo Duran. Carl Jung spoke of pistis, the trusting heart. He said that this fundamental capacity for trust is the precursor to faith, and that without this essential quality, faith in something greater faith in one's own process, faith in the wholeness of the psyche is impossible. For the author of this book, pistis involves the ability to trust one's own subjectivity, one's felt sense, regardless of whether it jibes with what is externally acceptable or valid, regardless of the outcome. In The Trusting Heart, Dr. Aanavi writes about his experience over the past twenty-plus years, both as a person in recovery and as a clinician. The book is about his exploration, his process, and his commitment to both the profoundly personal and the remarkably vast. It is about telling the stories of one s experience and committing to the integrity of one's felt truth and to following one s energetic thread wherever it might lead.

In the first book to directly integrate the Twelve Steps with the practice of Catholicism, Scott Weeman, founder and director of Catholic in Recovery, pairs his personal story with compassionate straight talk to show Catholics how to bridge the commonly felt gap between the Higher Power of twelve-step programs and the merciful God that he rediscovered in the heart of the sacraments. Weeman entered sobriety from alcohol and drugs on October 10, 2011, and he's made it his full-time ministry to help others who struggle with various types of addiction to find spiritual wholeness through Catholic in Recovery, an organization he founded and directs. In The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments, Weeman candidly tackles the struggle he and other addicts have with getting to know intimately the unnamed Higher Power of recovery. He shares stories of his compulsion to find a personal relationship with God and how his tentative steps back to the Catholic Church opened new doors of healing and brought him surprising joy as he came to know Christ in the sacraments. Catholics in recovery and those moving toward it, as well as the people who love them will recognize Weeman's story and his spiritual struggle to personally encounter God.

Did You Know

• Female alcoholics are twice as likely to die as male alcoholics in the same age group
• Women metabolize alcohol differently from men, more quickly developing such physical complications as liver disease, high blood pressure, and hepatitis.
• A female alcoholic is more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, which may not go away even if she stops drinking.
• An astonishing four million women in the U.S. meet the diagnostic criteria for abuse or dependence.
• When a woman drinks, she is five times more likely to be raped.

These are just a few of the alarming facts you will learn from this book -- facts every woman needs to know. Mixing cutting-edge research with affecting stories of women who struggle with alcohol problems, Happy Hours challenges our assumptions and expands our awareness of the role alcohol plays in women's lives.

A revised and expanded edition of the recovery classic by Patrick Carnes, Ph.D., a leading expert on addictive behaviours. "The Twelve Steps tap into the essential human process of change and will be regarded as one of the intellectual and spiritual landmarks in human history. "--Patrick Carnes It was out of his reverence and respect for the wisdom and therapeutic value of the Twelve Steps that Carnes wrote A Gentle Path through the 12 Steps , now a recovery classic and self-help staple for anyone looking for guidance for life's hardest challenges. Hundreds of thousands of people have found in this book a personal portal to the wisdom of the Twelve Steps. With updated and expanded concepts and a focus on the spiritual principles that lead to lifelong growth and fulfilment, Carnes' new edition invites a fresh generation of readers to the healing and rewarding experience of Twelve Step recovery.

This wise book provides practical exercises that will help us to develop conscious awareness and inner understanding, and the ways and means to free us from unsatisfying habits, addictions, and unconscious behavior patterns. I recommend it highly.
--Lama Surya Das, author of the bestselling Awakening the Buddha Within
""Anyone interested in finding a kind, spiritual guide to recovery that focuses on flexibility rather than the 'one true way' will benefit from this enjoyable and helpful book.""
--Maia Szalavitz, coauthor with Joseph Volpicelli, M.D., of Recovery Options: The Complete Guide
In Mindful Recovery, you'll discover a fresh and effective method for healing from addiction that can help you handle important challenges, from managing anxiety and resisting cravings to dealing with emotional and physical imbalance.
Drawing on both ancient spiritual wisdom and the authors' extensive clinical psychological work with their patients over many years, Mindful Recovery shows you how to use the simple Buddhist practice of mindfulness to be aware of-- and enjoy-- life in the present moment without the need to enhance or avoid experience with addictive behaviors. Mindful Recovery guides you step by step through ten powerful ""doorways"" to mindful recovery, giving you specific strategies that can help you cultivate a sense of calm awareness and balance in your life.
Filled with personal stories of recovery, practical exercises, instructions for meditation, and more, Mindful Recovery accompanies you on a journey of exploration and healing that will help you find the strength and the tools to change, leading you to a fresh new experience of everyday living.

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.

A clear and compassionate guide to overcoming substance problems
""A no-nonsense, state-of-the-art guide.""--Laurie Garrett, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Coming Plague
""Comprehensive, illuminating, easy to read.""--William Cope Moyers, Vice President of Public Affairs, Hazelden Foundation
In Recovery Options: The Complete Guide, Joseph Volpicelli, M.D., Ph.D., an award-winning addiction research pioneer, and Maia Szalavitz, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and former addict, provide frank and impartial appraisals of all the major treatment options, including:
* Alcoholics Anonymous
* Moderate drinking programs
* Alternative treatments
* Therapeutic communities
* Cognitive therapies
* Other 12-step programs
* Medications
* Methadone
* Harm reduction
* How families can help

In Recovery Options: The Complete Guide, you will learn what addictionis--and what it isn't. You will examine both the mechanism of addiction and how you can make the best treatment choices . . . why some people are particularly prone to substance problems . . . and the genetic and learning mechanisms that help create these conditions. You'll explore the various types of treatment and the ideas on which they are based, and find out how effective each treatment is--and which ones are not effective. Finally, you'll find supportive information on staying clean and sober, preventing relapse, and minimizing damage caused by slips that may occur. Featuring the dramatic real-life stories of patients' experiences (both good and bad) with various methods of recovery, this warm, sympathetic, and accessible guide to overcoming alcohol and other drug problems will help you and your loved ones begin the journey away from substance misuse toward a better life.

"The most lacerating tale of drug addiction since William S. Burroughs' Junky." The Boston Globe

"Again and again, the book delivers recollections that leave the reader winded and unsteady. James Frey's staggering recovery memoir could well be seen as the final word on the topic." San Francisco Chronicle

"A brutal, beautifully written memoir." The Denver Post

"Gripping ... A great story ... You can't help but cheer his victory." Los Angeles Times Book Review

Living Sober is an extremely informative book which does not offer a plan for getting sober but does offer us sound advice about how to stay sober. Basic, essential information from Alcoholics Anonymous. As the book states, "Anyone can get sober. . .the trick is to live sober."

'This book could save your life' John Crace 'An unblinking account of living with - and more importantly, beyond - addiction. Brave, clear-eyed and inspiring' John Niven 'A rich, uplifting memoir: Hoskyns portrays how painful inadequacy, masked by drugs, can be replaced by the messiness of ordinary life' Oliver James A few months after graduating with a 1st class honours degree from Oxford University, Barney Hoskyns sat in a damp Clapham basement and asked his best friend to inject him with heroin. From that moment on, for the next three years, Hoskyns is hopelessly hooked. This is the searingly honest story of what brought him to this place - and how he got himself out of it. Barney Hoskyns is one of the leading music writers of our time: his books have ranged the musical landscape from Led Zeppelin to Tom Waits, from Laurel Canyon to Woodstock. His articles have appeared in NME, Melody Maker, Rolling Stone and Vogue, and in 2000 he founded Rock's Backpages. Hoskyns beautifully describes the relationship between music and addiction, between love and infatuation. Never Enough is Hoskyns's raw, uncompromising and utterly compelling account of the highs and lows of life under the needle. Interspersed with photos and diary entries, Hosykns examines why he so willingly gave himself up to the death-grip of heroin, and what it took to finally free himself from it.

Pastor and director of re:generation--one of the largest and most effective Christ-centered, community-based recovery programs in the world--offers a 90-day addiction-breaking, spiritual-awakening process for readers to walk in daily freedom from sin struggles.

Every church is filled with people who are struggling--often secretly--with addictions of all kinds. Porn, pills, food, money, alcohol, social media, body image, status, sex, anxiety--the list goes on and on. John Elmore is no stranger to addiction. Fifteen years ago, he put a loaded shotgun to his head and later had three doctors tell him he was going to die of alcoholism. More than 15 sober years later, he leads the world's largest weekly recovery gathering, re:generation, where people journey toward healing in Christ.

In Freedom Starts Today, he makes a huge promise to the addicted: you can be free from your struggle, and much sooner than you may think. Through easily digestible readings grounded in Scripture and the practice of daily surrender, Elmore shows you how to break the cycle of addiction, make war against sin, and find your identity in who you are and not the shame of what you have done--one day at a time.

Leave behind struggles, addiction, and shame as you walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the love, mercy, and forgiveness of the God who is not only by your side but on your side.

Euphoric will guide you on your journey to an alcohol-free lifestyle, putting the focus on happiness, well-being and self-love to create the life you want. Breaking old habits is never easy, and when the temptation of alcohol is always present in your social life, it can be hard to make the change to go teetotal. But what if you found a new way to maximise the joy a drink can offer without the health implications? Certified alcohol-free life coach Karolina Rzadkowolska has helped thousands of casual drinkers transform their relationship with drinking. In Euphoric, she shares a proven, eight-week strategy to ditch alcohol and learn how to: * Create a natural buzz that alcohol can only mimic * Be fully present with your friends and family * Feel more energised, look better and live healthier * Enjoy the best sleep of your life * Have fun in any social situation without drinking * Accomplish new goals with your newfound drive Reclaim yourself and rejuvenate your passions, as you make alcohol insignificant in your life and get motivated to chase your biggest dreams.

From the creator of the blog "Renegade Mothering," Janelle Hanchett's forthright, darkly funny, and ultimately empowering memoir chronicling her tumultuous journey from young motherhood to abysmal addiction and a recovery she never imagined possible. Pregnant at 22 by a man she'd known three months, Janelle Hanchett embraced motherhood with the determined optimism of the recklessly self-confident. After giving birth, she found herself bored, directionless, and seeking relief in wine, which she justified as sophisticated and going well with chicken. But over time, her questionable drinking habit spiraled into full-blown dependence, until life became bedtime stories and splitting hangovers, cubicles and multi-day drug binges--and eventually, an inconceivable separation from her children. For ten years, Hanchett grappled with the unyielding progression of addiction, bouncing from rehab to therapy to the occasional hippie cleansing ritual on her quest for sobriety, before finding it in a way she never expected. Hers is a story we rarely hear--of the addict mother not redeemed by her children; who longs for normalcy but cannot maintain it; and who, having traveled to seemingly irreversible depths, makes it back, only to discover she is still an outsider. Like her irreverent, laugh-out-loud funny, and unflinchingly honest blog, Hanchett's memoir calls out the rhetoric surrounding "the sanctity of motherhood" as tired and empty, boldly recounting instead how she grew to accept an imperfect self within an imperfect life--and think, "Well, I'll be damned, I'm just happy to be here."

Described as the Tony Hancock of journalism, for forty years Bernard wrote only about himself and the failures of his life - with women, drink, doctors, horses - which have become legendary. Low Life is an irresistible collection of the best of Bernard's celebrated autobiographical contributions to The Spectator, once described as 'a suicide note in weekly instalments'. Previously published in two volumes entitled Low Life: A Kind of Autobiography and Reach for the Ground, these books are now available in a single volume containing all his derisive reflections on life. Antiauthoritarian, grumpy, charming, politically incorrect, funny, drunk and always mischievous, Bernard could usually be found at the Coach and Horses pub on London's Greek street, a lit cigarette in his mouth and a drink in hand. He was joined by famous friends including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Graham Green, Peter O'Toole, Ian Fleming and many others and their conversations - as well as with whomever was tending bar at the time - served as the basis for his writing. There were in fact times when he was too drunk to write, hence the famous "unwell" notice that went next to the large, hastily-sketched cartoon that filled its space in the magazine.

When "retired party girl" and popular therapist Amanda White admitted she was an alcoholic, it wasn't because she'd done something outrageous while under the influence, like land herself in jail or get married in Vegas. It was because she realized three things: 1. Alcohol was making her life worse. 2. Moderation wasn't helping. 3. She could not be a therapist if she continued to use alcohol to numb her life. Something needed to change-not just her relationship with alcohol, but her relationship with herself. Choosing not to drink can be daunting. It's everywhere in our culture, our socializing, and our destressing. And it can seem black or white: you drink, or you don't (and if you don't, people ask why). That's where Not Drinking Tonight comes in. Judgement-free and relatable, Amanda helps you unpack your relationship with alcohol by showing you how to: 1) Find out why you drink. Whether it's a glass of wine after work or a weekly bar crawl, your drinking habits can be the result of everything from biology to trauma. 2) Heal your relationship with alcohol. Understand how your relationships have been affecting your life, and learn how to set boundaries and create true self care. 3) Build the sober life you love. Learn what comes next-how to maintain your social life, navigate sex and relationships, and love yourself. Not Drinking Tonight isn't a program to stop drinking. It's the first book to help you address the root issues that cause you to reach for a drink, and create a life you love-one that is not perfect, but is messy and real and one you are fully present for.

"The sky was painfully big, but our worlds were small, our lives little. So when we found each other in the muddle of it all, that feeling of belonging was addictive." Mal, Ama, Lewis and Oskar have grown up together; hedonistically charging through life - and any house party going - in rural Devon. They're railing against the stories that have been written for them as they stand at the precipice of adulthood. But all the space can be suffocating, and it's tough sometimes - feeling so low in a place so beautiful. The powerful poetics of Malaika Kegode and soaring music of Bristol band Jakabol combine in this autobiographical gig-theatre show directed by Jenny Davies. Genre-defying and emotional, Outlier explores the impact of isolation, addiction and friendship on young people in the often-forgotten places.

WHAT CAME BEFORE HER NEW #1 BESTSELLER UNTAMED ... 'IT'S AS IF SHE REACHED INTO HER HEART, CAPTURED THE RAW EMOTIONS THERE, AND TRANSLATED THEM INTO WORDS THAT ANYONE WHO'S EVER KNOWN PAIN OR SHAME CAN RELATE TO' OPRAH WINFREY, Oprah's Book Club 'EPIC' ELIZABETH GILBERT | 'BLEW ME AWAY' BRENE BROWN ... Just when Glennon Doyle was beginning to feel she had it all figured out - three happy children, a doting spouse, and a writing career so successful that her first book catapulted to the top of the New York Times bestseller list - her husband revealed his infidelity and she was forced to realize that nothing was as it seemed. A recovering alcoholic and bulimic, rock bottom was a familiar place to Glennon. In the midst of crisis, she knew to hold on to what she discovered in recovery: that her deepest pain has always held within it an invitation to a richer life. Love Warrior is the story of one marriage, but it is also the story of the healing that is possible for any of us when we refuse to settle for good enough and begin to face pain and love head-on. Love Warrior is a gorgeous and inspiring tale of how we are born to be warriors: strong, powerful, and brave; able to confront the pain and claim the love that exists for us all. This chronicle of a beautiful, brutal journey speaks to anyone who yearns for deeper, truer relationships and a more abundant, authentic life. AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB SELECTION