Category: Sober Homes

Whether the parents of an addict agree or disagree with the 12-step philosophy, we are pretty sure that there will be many eye-opening moments while reading either of these two books. When you read any Masters or Ph.D. level textbooks on counseling theories and strategies, you find strategies utilized in Alcoholics Anonymous. Looking back to the psychoanalytic theory developed by Sigmund Freud and collective unconscious developed by Carl Jung, there are similarities to the suggestions of Alcoholics Anonymous. As you read through all the other counseling strategies that came after, you will find equal similarities. The point is, the foundational message, vision, and solution of Alcoholics Anonymous cannot be completely avoided regardless of which method works for someone to achieve sobriety. Trying to strategize and find solutions with other family members affected by the addiction is not always the best course of action either and often results in ineffective outcomes. Janelle Hanchett chronicles the story of embracing motherhood through the devastating separation from her children at the height of addiction. Her quest for sobriety includes rehabs and therapy—necessary steps to begin a journey into realizing and accepting an imperfect self within an imperfect life. For any mother or person who has felt like an outsider in your own life, you might just relate.

• Author Laura McKowen wrote the 248 page self-help book as a combination of personal stories and methods of recovery through emphasizing mindfulness and all the blessings that come with living a healthy, constructive life.
• Weaving together poems, historical documents, and photos, this is an essential book about, among many other things, alcoholism and survival.
• Millions of Americans currently suffer from drug and alcohol addiction, yet many of those people feel alone or misunderstood.
• She has a passion for raising awareness in the addiction treatment, recovery, and public health space.
• Even with all his talent and jobs coming his way, he was not able to get clean and stay clean, eventually dying from an overdose in 2015 at age 29.

The rest were invaluable resources for me after I quit drinking, when I still needed guidance for repairing my brain, rebuilding my body, and resurrecting my spirit. Extremely timely as more and more children are being raised by grandparents due to their parent’s addiction. Krosoczka is a well-known children’s illustrator and author who didn’t realize till later in life that his mother is an addict. Growing up, he was raised by his grandparents after she can no longer care for his basic needs due to being in and out of rehab and his father is out of the picture. When a child does not feel love, attention, and affection, they can trust and form healthy relationships and bonds later in life. Many who have suffered this emotional abuse believe that if their own family did not love them or care, how could anyone else. Later in life, the affected person goes into relationships with escape hatches. In other words, they never let another person get close to them for fear of rejection later. They always seem to have to control the relationship by holding off saying I love you or fully trusting the other person.

Drink: The Intimate Relationship between Women and Alcohol by Ann Dowsett Johnston

Anxiety, depression and cravings are not a sustainable way of a life, nor are they inevitable symptoms of a permanent disease. By the time I found this book, I already knew from experience that supplements can repair your brain after you quit drinking. Her masterpiece provided me with a wealth of new information and a blueprint for further supplementation. Next to running sprints and lifting heavy weights, reading is my favorite Sober Home way to let go of stress and achieve a renewed sense of possibility. Opening a good book every night before bed was one of my first strategies for finding a replacement activity for drinking alcohol. All of these books contain pieces of the puzzle, in one form or another, for transcending addiction and living the best life that you can possibly live. For some time, I’ve wanted to make a list of the best books for alcoholism.

Family members of addicts develop an unhealthy dysfunctional family system. Unless the book helps the family members identify their role in the unbalanced family system, the book of choice may not be as helpful as one would hope for. If you’ve wondered what it would be like to live your life sober, this book is for you. More than just a memoir, this book explores the psychology and neuroscience behind the societal traps that lead us to drink and how drinking affects our brains and our bodies. In this memoir, he talks about the car accident that killed his mother and baby sister when he was just two years old. Then about how he lost his beloved big brother to brain cancer… and all of the hardships that led to his years-long battle with addiction. Here, he retells his journey from substance use disorder to a torturous path to sobriety. Based on Fisher’s hugely successful one-woman show, Wishful Drinking is the story of growing up in Hollywood royalty, battling addiction, and dealing with manic depression.

The Easy Way for Women to Stop Drinking

Many celebrated authors have walked the long, painful road to recovery, spinning their experiences into powerful reads. Ahead, see the 15 stories of struggle, failure, recovery, and grace that move us the most. Allen’s story of being a young woman in a teenage marriage that eventually runs away to Cincinnati, where she begins the best alcohol addiction books destructive pattern of weekend partying and drinking, is a powerful tale. Eventually, she finds sobriety through a commitment to God and humanity to spend the rest of her life doing anything she can to help anybody suffering from alcoholism. Her timeless tale is a powerful one, and definitely one that needs to be read by all.

ACOA is a program for children raised in dysfunctional homes primarily due to alcohol and drug use, although they address other concerns relating to abuse, trauma, neglect, etc. ACOA is a 12-step group, and members of ACOA will be around others who can relate and who have gone through similar experiences. For any child or adult who has experienced trauma, abuse, neglect, and substance use during childhood, ACOA can be a tremendous resource. In this book, McKowen talks about her personal story along with how she faced the facts, the question of AA, and dealing with other people’s drinking. Although she doesn’t sugarcoat how difficult sobriety can be (and yes, it’s not without its struggles), she continues to write about the many blessings of living an honest life without the debilitating shame of addiction. Using her relatable voice, which is equal parts honest and witty, Holly tackles the ways that alcohol companies target women. She also divulges the details on her emerging feminism, an alternate way out of her own addiction, and a calling to create a sober community with resources for anyone who is questioning their own relationship with alcohol. At the end of the day, this memoir is a groundbreaking look into our current drinking culture while providing a road map to cut alcohol out of our lives so that we can truly live our best lives. By David Sheff is the heart-breaking story of a father’s struggles to hold his family intact throughout his son’s battle with drug addiction.

Wurtzel reveals how drugs fueled her post-breakout period, describing with unbearable specificity how her doctor’s prescription of Ritalin, intended to help her function, only brought her down. James went to my college, Denison University, and is friends with many of my friends, so I loved reading the parts that took place (“fictionally”) in Granville, Ohio. This is one of the first books I read about addiction ever, before I realized I had a problem. I really liked this book because it focuses a lot on her spiritual crisis and how it related to her alcoholism. She is a Christian, as am I, and I often battled in my head with being a Christian and being an alcoholic. Eventually my faith brought me to my knees and I began my journey of sobriety after having a spiritual experience. This was the first book I read on this subject, and I instantly could relate to her feelings. She made a huge impact on me and is someone I will always be grateful to. There’s a new kind of thinking in the recovery world, and all of that is thanks to McKowen’s upcoming memoir . Eventually, she goes through a series of 9-to-5 jobs that end with her living behind a Dumpster due to a descent into crack cocaine use.

This begins when one of the parents chooses one child and their addiction over the other children or family members. Others may believe the ideas and suggestions do not apply to them and discredit any insight or solutions. Think about a person who reads the books Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous while in detox or actively using or drinking alcohol. Would the book read the same way as it was when the person is healthy and ten years clean and sober? As long as you go into the book looking for similarities rather than differences, you may find some books helpful. There is an overwhelming amount of book choices about drug and alcohol addiction. A wise man once said that the only problem with self-help books is starting with self. The meaning behind this comment is people with alcohol and drug addiction, and their affected families are their own worst enemy. Their distorted perceptions and belief systems largely have them in their very predicament.