10 Must-Read Books for Addiction Recovery

To be successful in sobriety, you must learn new coping mechanisms to replace dependency. When you run into life stressors, these coping mechanisms can calm and relax you. They can replace either the addiction you’re struggling with currently or another one that could take its place.

  • Elton shares his journey through the highs of superstardom and the lows of substance abuse, offering an honest glimpse into how addiction affected his life and relationships.
  • Smith’s narrative is raw, gripping, and ultimately uplifting, offering readers a glimpse into the complexities of addiction and the path to healing from alcohol and drug use.
  • Readers find the content insightful and relatable, as it explains therapeutic strategies in easily understood terms and offers many actionable tips for one’s recovery plan​.

Must-Read Books for Addiction Recovery

best book for addiction recovery

Employing an integrative, 7-step program for addiction, The Addiction Recovery Skills Workbook helps readers to better understand the roots of their substance misuse issues. A powerful tool when used in conjunction with treatment, the concept pairs motivational techniques, cognitive behavior therapy, and mindfulness strategies. Exploring the thoughts of an addict and a life unraveled by narcotics, this memoir spans the author’s struggles with opioid use disorder, to her time in jail, and ultimately to her recovery. High Achiever offers hope and inspiration and a raw and https://ecosoberhouse.com/ page-turning read. So here are 10 best-selling and/or award-winning books on addiction and recovery.

best book for addiction recovery

Addict in the Family: Stories of Loss, Hope, and Recovery

She also closely examines both the internal and external factors that drove her to seek help in ending her destructive cycle of binge drinking. This book provides a step-by-step guide to help you break free of your addiction and overcome the painful breakup period. When you are addicted to someone, you may not be aware that your mind is constantly trying to deceive you to stay in the relationship. This book is about treating alcoholism and drug addiction as a biological disease. A brain disease can be treated with medications just like other chronic illnesses.

Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp

best book for addiction recovery

Using herself as the narrative’s anchor, she gives us readers herself to connect with while holding a mirror to the things we’ve written off in our own lives. I best alcoholic memoirs read this book before I became a parent and was floored, but have thought about it even more since. It is the heartbreaking and astute account of Sheff’s experience of his son, Nic’s, addiction and eventual recovery.

“Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction” by Maia Szalavitz

You will get comprehensive examples, facts, and checklists that will help you to identify red flags in a relationship. With the help of others, Arnie found a way out in 1968, and he and Sheila devoted themselves to helping other families affected by gambling. Their combined insights provide both a cautionary tale and a message of hope. What sets this book apart is that it also includes perspective from his wife, Sheila, illustrating how his addiction pushed their marriage to the brink​. While intended for professionals and serious recovery work, motivated individuals (and their therapists) can use this resource to design a multidimensional treatment plan. Therapists often recommend this book as an accessible, up-to-date resource for quitting gambling and rebuilding one’s life​.

Discussing alcohol’s impact on our health and minds, author Catherine Gray illustrates how a sober life can truly be intoxicating. Self-help books are yet another device that can support your efforts. Granted, books certainly can’t replace treatment and professional guidance. But they can provide fresh perspectives and inspiration—and reinforce that you’re not alone.

Drop the Rock: Removing Character Defects – Steps Six and Seven – Bill P., Todd W., Sara S.

“Long Walk Out of the Woods” by Adam B. Hill, MD, is a harrowing story of recovery and a thoughtful new perspective on how we treat individuals in addiction recovery. As a palliative care physician and pediatric oncologist, Hill sheds light on the broken systems within the medical field and provides a road map for improved practices, fighting stigma and teaching vulnerability. The esteemed and late New York Times columnist David Carr turned his journalistic eye on his own life in this memoir, investigating his own past as a cocaine addict and sifting through muddied memories to discover the truth. The story follows Carr’s unbelievable arc through addiction, recovery, cancer, and life as a single parent to come to an understanding of what those dark years meant. In his follow-up to his first memoir, Tweak, which dealt with his journey into meth addiction, Sheff details his struggle to stay Drug rehabilitation clean. In and out of rehab, he falls into relapse, engaging in toxic relationships and other self-destructive behaviors that threaten to undo the hard-won progress he’s made.

The book begins with Smith’s introduction to alcohol at a young age and traces her descent into addiction as she navigates the pressures of her high-powered career and struggles with her mental health. Smith’s narrative is raw, gripping, and ultimately uplifting, offering readers a glimpse into the complexities of addiction and the path to healing from alcohol and drug use. Drawing from her experience both as a marriage and family therapist and a woman who personally experienced the devastation of sexual betrayal, Dr. Sheri Keffer walks women impacted by betrayal through the pain and toward recovery. She explains how the trauma of betrayal affects our minds, bodies, spirits, and sexuality. She offers practical tools for dealing with emotional triggers and helps women understand the realities of sexual addiction. Finally, she shows women how to practice self-care, develop healthy boundaries, protect themselves from abuse or manipulation, and find freedom from the burden of shame and guilt.

  • Don’t Call It Love dives deep into relationship dependency and what a healthy relationship looks like.
  • It’s a thirty-day period when we take time to recognize and advocate for people in recovery, people working in recovery, and the friends, families, and loved ones of people in recovery and people working in recovery.
  • She has a knack for turning complex concepts into relatable, everyday language, making her teachings easy to understand and encouraging a deeper dive into self-exploration.
  • She made a huge impact on me and is someone I will always be grateful to.
  • Brown’s a researcher who has spent her life studying vulnerability and shame.

‘Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life’

His descriptions perfectly capture the out of control life of a youth growing up with addiction, yet his story ultimately yields hope for the future. Dr. Malloy is a published researcher, contributing to academic journals on addiction, depression, spirituality, and clinical personality pathology, and has facilitated research for more than a decade. She is a sought-after speaker, presenting at national and international conferences on substance use disorders, co-occurring mental health conditions, and high-risk sexual behaviors. Scar Tissue is the raw, brutally honest memoir of Anthony Kiedis, lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The book chronicles his decades-long struggle with heroin addiction and recovery, revealing both the glamour and devastation of substance use.