***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.

Kate Holden's] road to recovery begins when she starts working in a brothel. The clients seem to fit the same distribution curve - brutish at one end, sweet at the other - but now that the trade is coming to her, she draws strength from the power of her allure, starts to take pride in her work, and discovers she's good at it. This surprising trajectory, along with its searing intellectual and emotional honesty and the quality of the writing, easily sets In My Skin apart from most other my-substance-abuse-hell memoirs. - The Independent on Sunday 21/05/06. Her vivid narrative voice lends a gritty poetry to her tale of heroin addiction, half-hearted rehab and prostitution. The book's power to shock rests in its contrasts; the life Kate led during her 20s may have been unexceptional for many young women, but not for a pretty, intelligent, middle-class girl with a classics degree, a job in a bookshop and a loving family of liberal, politically aware academics. She conjures with glittering clarity the sense of invincibility that comes with the first taste of adult life, the belief that drugs can make love and art transcendent, the conviction that you are in control.In My Skin is a compelling story of love and squalor that retains humanity and sympathy. - The Observer, 14/05/06.

Turning down a drink isn't easy. Not only do you have to deal with your own desire for that chilled and glistening glass of white, you also have to tackle the: "Why aren't you drinking?" "Are you pregnant?" "Go on... just one!" And the worst one of all: "You're no fun without a drink!" Well here's the thing: you are fun! And this book shows you how and why you can still be the life and soul of the party, keep your friends, and be sober. Through a broad range of tips and tricks, you'll feel empowered to take on those trigger moments (stressful work day; challenging family life; break ups), as well as classic big occasions (the wedding toast; the bachelorette party; the Christmas lunch). Through the tips, you'll learn more about yourself (why you're giving up/cutting back), how to keep your relationships tight (with your partner, colleagues and friends) and ways to enjoy your new found sobriety, from understanding the benefit to your health to appreciating the improvement in your bank balance.

Came to Believe - the spiritual adventure of A.A. as experienced by individual members. Over 75 A.A. members from all over the world describe the wide diversity of convictions implied in "God as we understood Him." Especially helpful to those who confuse "spiritual" with "religious."

It's 1953 in Southern California, Patty is five years old, and her mother hasn't been home in two days. A police officer eventually arrives and takes Patty and her brothers to juvenile hall-their mother has been drinking again. Twenty-eight years later, Patty herself is an alcoholic mother to three children. Divorced and homeless, she soon realizes that she can't support her children with her job cleaning houses, so she accepts the offer of a man who works at the gas station: she'll have sex with him for money. For the next seventeen years, Patty lives a double life as a sex worker. Though she supports her family with the money she makes, she struggles to be the parent she wants to be, until she realizes she has become just like her own mother: an alcoholic who doesn't give her children what they need. When Patty gets sober, her life begins to change. She finds healing through therapy, spirituality, community, and, most importantly, speaking the truth to her children. Powerful and insightful, Patty's story is proof that we all are capable of healing ourselves-and that forgiveness can transform our lives completely.

A book that should start a long-overdue national conversation. Dave Barry With the F.D.A. agreeing to new trials to test MDMA (better known as Ecstasy) as a treatment for PTSD which, if approved, could be available as a drug by 2021 Acid Test is leading the charge in an evolving conversation about psychedelic drugs. Despite their current illegality, many Americans are already familiar with their effects. Yet while LSD and MDMA have proven extraordinarily effective in treating anxiety disorders such as PTSD, they still remain off-limits to the millions who might benefit from them. Through the stories of three very different men, award-winning journalist Tom Shroder covers the drugs roller-coaster history from their initial reception in the 1950s to the negative stereotypes that persist today. At a moment when popular opinion is rethinking the potential benefits of some illegal drugs, and with new research coming out every day, Acid Testis a fascinating and informative must-read. "

If you're thinking about going sober for Dry January or looking to make a long-term change, How to Go Alcohol Free is the easy guide to kicking the drink in 100 simple steps. Drinking is on the decline, with more and more people turning away from the bottle. The financial and wellbeing benefits of going alcohol free - from more financial stability to better sleep, relationships, skin and mental health - are undeniable. There has never been a better time to give sobriety a go. Whether you're a diehard drinker or a sometimes sipper, How to Go Alcohol Free is here to help you take control and change to a no-alcohol lifestyle. Helping you to understand your alcohol intake and its effects, and offering practical ways to take a break from booze, Kate Bee will help you plan for, switch to and enjoy a life beyond booze.

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.

A bravely honest and brilliantly comic account of how one mother gave up drinking and started living. This is Bridget Jones Dries Out. Clare Pooley is a Cambridge graduate and was a Managing Partner at one of the world's biggest advertising agencies, and yet by eighteen months ago she'd become an overweight, depressed, middle-aged mother of three who was drinking more than a bottle of wine a day, and spending her evenings Googling 'Am I an alcoholic?' In a desperate bid to turn her life around, she quit drinking and started a blog. She called it Mummy Was a Secret Drinker. This book is the story of a year in Clare's life. A year that started with her quitting booze having been drinking more than a bottle of wine every day. It sees her starting a hugely successful blog, then getting and beating breast cancer. By the end of the year she is booze free and cancer free, two stone lighter and with a life that is so much richer, healthier and more rewarding than ever before. Sober Diaries is an upbeat, funny and positive look at how to live life to the full. Interwoven within Clare's own very personal and frank story is research and advice, and answers to questions like: How do I know if I'm drinking too much? How will I cope at parties? What do I say to friends and family? How do I cope with cravings? Will I lose weight? What if my partner still drinks? And many more.