Addiction Memoirs

No topic is too taboo or off limits, from the sexual assaults she suffered as a child to the exhibitionism displayed and multiple abortions she had as an adult. Garland weaves the seedy and secretive world of a sex addict with her words, removing the erotic and replacing it with the reality of what it means to live a double life: lying to and cheating on the ones you love.

Sam Delaney was Jack the Lad. He was confident, loud and funny; an absolute legend, to be honest. Or at least that was what he pretended to be. But when he reached his thirties, work, relationships and fatherhood started to take their toll. Like so many blokes who seemed to be totally fine, he often felt like a complete failure whose life was out of control; anxiety and depression had secretly plagued him for years. Turning to drink and drugs only made things worse.

Renegade MD: A Doctor's Stories from the Streets is a powerful and inspiring memoir by Dr. Susan Partovi, a renowned street doctor who has dedicated her life to treating the impoverished around the world and people experiencing homelessness on LA's Skid Row. Through her stories, Dr. Partovi takes us on a journey to the heart of the challenges faced by those living on the streets, and shines a light on her unwavering commitment to advocate for social justice and to provide compassionate care to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

Alone. Forgotten. Ashamed. What do these words mean to you? What about junkie? Loser? To someone, these words become part of their everyday life. Does this mean they are no longer human? As the human race, do we completely understand the suffering others go through? And what do we do to help? Nothing.

A doctor’s personal and unsparing account of how modern medicine’s failure to understand pain has made care less effective In The Song of Our Scars, physician Haider Warraich offers a bold reexamination of the nature of pain, not as a simple physical sensation, but as a cultural...

The son of renowned author Joe McGinniss—celebrated for works like The Selling of the President and true crime blockbusters Fatal Vision and Cruel Doubt—delivers a raw and deeply moving memoir that explores the complicated bonds between fathers and sons, set against a backdrop of fame...

Hermosa Beach, California, in the mid-1960s. Sun, surf, and sand castles along The Strand to a soundtrack of “Fun, Fun, Fun.” But the hang-loose life of the locals was soon being drowned out—by a social storm able to turn even the most perfect wave into a brutal riptide. How do you go from planning vacations and evaluating investments to planning prison visits and evaluating defense pleas? How do you watch your surfer-champion sons turn into drug lords? Inmates? How do you watch your entire family die, one by one? Yet never stop fighting. It takes a rare and special person: Karl McMillen.

There wasn't one major reason that Kate Gunn decided to give up alcohol, more a few minor ones. She had an inkling that alcohol was holding her back from getting on top of her life. Plus the hangovers were getting worse. No longer just a dull headache throughout the day. At the worst times, entire weekends wiped out by one fun night she could hardly remember.

Dan W., possibly related to Bill W., shares his experience, strength, and hope in this powerful book, Dan 2. 0, on recovering from his addictions to alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine. Following his childhood in Africa, the son of missionaries, he became a career Marine, serving nearly 39-years on active duty. Deciding to quit his three addictions, after retiring from the Marines, he discovered that he could not do it on willpower and discipline alone. He needed help, which he found in a Higher Power and in the rooms of AA.

From finding common ground with warlords, introducing the Taliban to change, and working with NFL greats such as Marshawn Lynch, this uplifting memoir and “study of resilience” (General Paul Selva, United States Air Force) from coach and personal development expert, Tareq Azim, will help you...

A poignant, “raw[,] and tender” (The New York Times Book Review) memoir told in essays and graphic shorts about what life looks like twenty years after recovery from addiction—and how to live with the past as a parent, writer, and sober person—from a regular opener for David Sedaris. In...

The author's young adulthood basically amounts to a how-to primer for addiction. Paranoia and impulsiveness, obsession, and manipulation. Throw in compulsion, false pride, fear and dishonesty, all driven by self-centered thinking. The gateway behavior for all the others. Blessed with a good memory, almost granular for certain events and circumstances, Mike Matson turns his journalist's eye on his own past and the result is an honest, unflinching look at his decades-long struggle with addiction.

After his father died on 9/11 in the World Trade Center, nine-year-old Matthew John Bocchi began an obsessive quest to find out exactly how he died. He researched video tapes, pictures, blogs, anything that could potentially answer the question looming in his mind: Was his father one of the jumpers? In the first memoir told by a child of 9/11, Matt intimately delves into the psychological and emotional torment that ensued after his father's death.

In 1984, John Hanrahan was featured in Interview magazine's iconic Olympic Issue as one of America's top athletes vying for a spot on the US Olympic Team. He had come within a point of defeating the mighty Soviet world medalist and had defeated other prominent world competitors. He was within reach of a lifetime dream, but then abandoned the Final Trials. He was nowhere to be found. He hadn't exactly fallen off the face of the earth, but he'd become a full-blown drug addict, unable to face his competition, and unwilling to confront the truth of his situation.

Ryan never envisioned just how far his football career would take him. But bubbling under the surface of his entire NFL career was a collision course between his secret sexuality and his hidden drug use. As injuries mounted and his daily intake of opioids reached a near-lethal level, he wrote his suicide note to his parents and plotted his death. Yet, someone had been watching. A member of the Chiefs organization stepped in, recognizing the signs of drug addiction. Ryan reluctantly sought psychological help, and it was there that he revealed his lifelong secret for the very first time.

In Young Offender we see what turned a good kid into a wanted criminal. Abused by his uncle, bullied at school, at the age of 12 he found the safety he craved in the ranks of a local gang in West London. He graduated from shoplifting to armed robbery and for five years Michael was in and out of Feltham, on a downward spiral of crime and drug and alcohol addiction. At rock bottom, he began attending AA meetings. But the road to recovery would mean changing himself in the deepest possible ways. Could Michael finally learn what it meant to be a good man?

A congresswoman and her son reveal how he survived a ten-year battle with opioid abuse—and what their family’s journey to recovery can teach us about finding hope amid the unspeakable. “Beautiful and inspiring.”—Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper (Book of the Week) When Madeleine Dean...

A deeply personal exploration of fatherhood, addiction, and resiliency from Craig Melvin, news anchor of NBC’s Today show. For Craig Melvin this book is more an investigation than a memoir. It's an opportunity to better understand his father; to interrogate his family's legacy of addiction...

Wenn die Droge zu deiner Schwester wird, wenn du schon einen Abschiedsbrief an dich selbst verfasst hast, dann bist du am Ende. Eric Stehfest hat es erlebt, zehn Jahre war Christin seine "Schwester", seine ständige Begleiterin - Crystal Meth. Mit ihr fiel er unglaublich tief und hat sich dennoch gerettet. Nun berichtet er schonungslos, direkt, unverstellt und berauschend literarisch von seinem Doppelleben, seinem Entzug und dem Leben danach. Die ungekürzte Lesung des packenden Bestsellers, gelesen von Eric Stehfest.

A career-spanning selection of the legendary reporter David Carr’s writing for the New York Times, Washington City Paper, New York Magazine, the Atlantic, and more. Throughout his 25-year journalistic career, David Carr was noted for his sharp and fearless observations, his uncanny sense of...