Best Books About Addiction & Recovery.
Find Your Path to Recovery: The Best Books on Addiction, Sobriety, and Healing
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Addiction is a complex and challenging disease that affects millions of people around the world. Whether it’s smoking, alcoholism, drug dependency, or sexual addiction, recovery is a lifelong process that requires dedication, patience, and support. Fortunately, there are many books available on the market that offer guidance, insight, and inspiration to those struggling with addiction and those who want to help them. In this blog post, we’ll be exploring the best books about addiction and recovery, with a specific focus on books about smoking and tobacco, alcoholism, drug dependency, and sexual addiction.
Books about Smoking & Tobacco:
Smoking and tobacco addiction can have devastating consequences on your health and well-being. To quit smoking, you need to understand the root causes of your addiction, develop healthy coping mechanisms, and create a plan for long-term recovery. There are many books available on the topic of smoking and tobacco addiction, ranging from memoirs and personal stories to scientific research and practical advice. Whether you’re a smoker struggling to quit or a loved one looking to support someone in their recovery, there is a book out there that can help.
The Craving Mind
The most crucial concerns regarding addiction are answered in this book in a ground-breaking manner. Neuroscientist and psychiatrist Dr. Judson Brewer describes how we might use the identical mechanisms that promote addictive habits to break free from them. He first discusses how habits and addictions are formed, then how mindfulness exercises help break these patterns. Brewer provides a way to overcome our desires, lessen stress, and have a richer life.
The Easy Way to Stop Smoking
All you need to stop smoking is this classic instruction to the most effective stop smoking technique in the world. Even smoking is permitted while listening. There are no fear tactics, you won’t put on weight, and quitting won’t make you feel deprived. Go for it if you want to break the habit.
Allen Carr’s Stop Smoking Now
The most effective self-help stop-smoking approach ever is Allen Carr’s Easyway, which has assisted millions of smokers in quitting quickly, simply, and painlessly. The approach is updated in the new, cutting-edge presentation Quit Smoking Now, which is presented in an understandable, easy-to-listen style. It dispels the anxieties that keep smokers addicted and is effective for both heavy and occasional smokers, regardless of how long they have smoked. You may even smoke while listening, and there aren’t any gimmicks or fear-mongering techniques.
The Easy Way for Women to Stop Smoking
The Easyway approach is equally effective for women as it is for males, but many of the concerns are interpreted differently by women, as their inquiries in Easyway sessions indicate, and women who wish to quit the habit confront special challenges. Invoking the listener in a personal session, this audiobook investigates these discrepancies and issues and provides precise counsel on how to fix them.
Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Quit Smoking
The most recent, cutting-edge, and best-practice iteration of Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Quit Smoking is contained in this audiobook. It offers a well-organized, simple process for quitting instantly, without needing willpower, aids, alternatives, or gimmicks. It is intended to assist busy smokers who value straightforward advice. This book will be ideal for you even if you don’t smoke cigarettes but instead use another nicotine-containing substance.
Books about Alcoholism:
Alcoholism is a chronic and progressive disease that can have a significant impact on your physical, mental, and emotional health. To overcome an alcohol addiction, you need to address the underlying issues that drive your drinking behavior, develop healthy coping mechanisms, and create a support system that will help you maintain your sobriety. There are many books available on the topic of alcoholism, ranging from personal memoirs and scientific research to practical advice and self-help guides. Whether you’re a recovering alcoholic or someone who wants to support a loved one in their recovery, there is a book out there that can help.
This Naked Mind
This Naked Mind presents the psychological and neurological aspects of alcohol consumption and reveals the cultural, social, and industry variables that encourage it, offering a novel, constructive approach to the problem of alcohol dependency. It gets rid of the psychological dependency so you won’t want alcohol, making it simple to cut back or stop drinking. Anybody who drinks should give it a listen because it will lead you to the life you have been longing for.
The Easy Way to Control Alcohol
Allen Carr is a renowned authority on smoking cessation, with his best-selling book Easy Way to Stop Smoking sold in over 40 languages. In Easy Way to Control Alcohol, he applies his revolutionary method to drinking, removing deprivation and psychological dependence, allowing individuals to enjoy life to the full.
The Sober Diaries
Clare Pooley left her successful role as a managing partner in one of the world’s biggest advertising agencies to look after her family. She found herself 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?’ This book is the bravely honest story of a year in Clare’s life, which started with her quitting booze and then being given the devastating diagnosis of breast cancer. By the end of the year, she is booze-free and cancer-free, no longer has a wine belly and two stone lighter. She has a happier family and a more positive outlook.
Blackout
Alcohol was “the gasoline of all adventure,” according to Sarah Hepola, but it had a price. She frequently passed out, which forced her to investigate her own past and apologize for things she couldn’t recall. She used self-deprecating humor to mask her humiliation in public, but the blackouts were depleting her soul.
Girl Walks Out of a Bar
Girl Walks Out of a Bar follows Smith through her adolescent years, a decade of alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, and her path to recovery. She discusses how her circumstances, along with her susceptibility to despair and self-medication in an environment ripe for addiction, conspired to create a perfect storm. When her close-knit circle of high-achieving pals celebrate the end of their long days at work with alcohol-fueled nights at the city’s clubs, the good times sometimes get out of hand.
Dry: A Memoir
Augusten Burroughs is a twenty-something advertising executive who drinks excessively. He is taken to rehab at the insistence of his bosses, where his hopes for group therapy are shattered by fluorescent lights and paper hospital slippers. When he is forced to analyze himself, something clicks and he finds himself in the most difficult situation of all: after his thirty days are over, he must return to his drunken Manhattan existence sober. Dry is a book about love, grief, and Starbucks as a Higher Power that is as emotional as it is amusing and as tragic as it is truthful.
Alcohol Explained
Alcohol Explained is the definitive guide to alcohol and alcoholism. It explains how alcohol affects human beings on a chemical, physiological, and psychological level, from those first drinks right up to chronic alcoholism. This audiobook provides a logical, easy-to-follow explanation of the phenomenon and detailed instructions on how to beat it.
The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober
This inspirational, aspirational, and highly relatable narrative champions the benefits of sobriety through a three-pronged approach that combines the author’s personal experience, factual reportage and contributions from expert sources, and self-help advice for anyone who wants to reduce or eliminate their alcohol intake. The Unexpected Pleasure of Being Sober is the new sobriety bible.
We Are the Luckiest
Laura McKowen realized that she was the lucky one when drinking brought her to her knees. She was able to feel her feelings, live honestly, be with her daughter, and change her legacy. In her book, she addresses issues such as facing facts, the question of AA, and other people’s drinking. Without sugarcoating the struggles of sobriety, she emphasizes the many blessings of an honest life.
Quit Like a Woman
Holly Whitaker’s book Quit Like a Woman is a groundbreaking look at drinking culture and a road map to cutting out alcohol in order to live our best lives without the crutch of intoxication. Whitaker’s journey revealed the insidious role alcohol plays in society and in the lives of women in particular, and her resultant feminine-centric recovery program focuses on getting at the root causes that lead people to overindulge and providing the tools necessary to break the cycle of addiction. It is a relatable voice that is honest and witty, and it will never look at drinking the same way again.
Alcohol Lied to Me
Craig Beck is a successful family man who struggled to control his drinking for 20 years. He eventually discovered the truth about alcohol addiction and realized that he didn’t want to drink anymore. He is known as “The Stop Drinking Expert” and many thousands of people have quit drinking using his method. This updated edition of the best-selling Alcohol Lied to Me offers a permanent cure, not a lifetime struggle, with no group meetings or expensive rehab.
Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions
Russell Brand is a comedian and movie star who has been in recovery for 14 years. He speaks to those suffering from addiction, from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame. He believes that the question is not “why are you addicted” but “what pain is your addiction masking?” He has been in 12-step fellowships, started his own men’s group, and is a therapy regular and a practiced yogi. He provides a recovery plan and an attempt to make sense of the ailing world.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions is a collection of 24 foundational essays by Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill W. that have helped millions of A.A. members worldwide to get and stay sober. The first 12 essays expand upon the Twelve Steps and explain how spiritual principles such as anonymity, humility and self-support serve to safeguard the unity of Alcoholics Anonymous and shield it from internal and external challenges. The book has been approved by the General Service Conference and is a valuable resource for those seeking a deeper understanding of the Steps and Traditions.
Allen Carr’s Quit Drinking Without Willpower
Allen Carr’s Easyway approach has been applied to problem drinking by explaining why you feel the urge to drink and offering step-by-step directions to set you free. It eliminates the temptation to use alcohol and helps you to reclaim control over your life.
Drinking Games
Drinking Games is a memoir and social commentary written by Sarah Levy, a 28-year-old New York City woman whose connection with drink had become poisonous. It investigates the importance of alcohol in our early years and what it means to opt out of a drinking society. Sarah takes us on a personal journey through blackouts, dating, relationships, wellness culture, businesses, social media, friendship, and self-discovery, exploring the influence alcohol has on relationships and identity, and how life’s messiest times may turn out to be the most meaningful.
Books about Drug Dependency:
Drug dependency is a complex and challenging disease that can have profound consequences on your life and relationships. To overcome drug addiction, you need to understand the root causes of your addiction, develop healthy coping mechanisms, and create a plan for long-term recovery. There are many books available on the topic of drug dependency, ranging from memoirs and personal stories to scientific research and practical advice. Whether you’re a recovering addict or someone who wants to support a loved one in their recovery, there is a book out there that can help.
The Language of Letting Go
Melody Beattie’s daily meditations help individuals living with codependency develop and refresh, and they remind us to take responsibility for our own self-care. She gives us a concept to help us get through the day and reminds us that every day is an opportunity for development and rejuvenation.
Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender
Dr. Hawkins offers a straightforward and practical method for letting go of mental baggage and moving through impediments to enlightenment. Any professionals involved in mental health, psychology, medicine, self-help, addiction rehabilitation, and spiritual growth can benefit greatly from it. The earlier volumes by Dr. Hawkins concentrated on higher levels of awareness and enlightenment, but this audiobook offers a method for letting go of such barriers in daily life.
Blitzed
Norman Ohler’s Blitzed reveals that the Third Reich was saturated with drugs, such as cocaine, opiates, and methamphetamines, which were consumed by everyone from factory workers to housewives to millions of German soldiers. Drugs also reached the Nazi high command and Hitler himself, who became increasingly dependent on injections of a cocktail of drugs administered by his personal doctor. Ohler’s investigation makes an overwhelming case that if drugs are not taken into account, our understanding of the Third Reich is incomplete.
High Achiever
Tiffany Jenkins was arrested for 20 felonies and was captain of the high school cheerleading squad. Her boyfriend was a Deputy Sherriff, and his friends were the ones who arrested her. High Achiever is a raw and twisty, pause resisting memoir that covers Tiffany’s life as an active opioid addict, her 120 days in a Florida jail, and her eventual recovery. Jenkins is a born storyteller who lived an incredible story, from blackmail by an ex-boyfriend to a soul-shattering deal with a drug dealer. She breaks through the stigma and silence to offer hope and inspiration to anyone battling the disease.
This Is Your Mind on Plants
This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan is an examination of the compelling human attraction to psychoactive plants and a fundamental challenge to the way we think about drugs. In his exploration of these plants from a variety of perspectives and circumstances, Pollan contends that ingesting them and allowing them to influence our thoughts is one of the most profound forms of interaction with nature. His article serves as a mirror to our core human desires and wants, as well as to how our minds work and how we interact with the natural environment
The Fifth Vital
Mike Majlak was a 17-year-old from a loving middle-class family in Milford, Connecticut when he got caught up in the opioid epidemic. His life was a wasteland of darkness and despair, as he snorted Oxycontin, climbed out of cars at gunpoint, and buried his childhood friends. Despite his despair, he survived and is now a social media personality with millions of followers and an entrepreneur, marketer, podcaster, YouTuber, and author who hopes to use his voice to shine a light for those whose own lights have grown dim.
My Fair Junkie
Amy Dresner had it all growing up in Beverly Hills, but at 24 she started dabbling in meth and unleashed a fiendish addiction monster. She was arrested for “felony domestic violence with a deadly weapon” and found herself penniless, divorced, and looking at 240 hours of community service. For two years, she bounced from rehabs to halfway houses, struggling with sobriety, sex addiction, and starting over in her 40s. Her memoir My Fair Junkie is an insightful, darkly funny, and shamelessly honest memoir of her battle with addiction, hitting rock bottom, and forging a path to a life worth living.
Drop the Rock
Drop the Rock is a practical guide to letting go of character defects that can hinder recovery. It combines personal stories, practical advice, and powerful insights to help listeners move forward in recovery. The second edition features additional stories and a reference section.
The Weight of Air
David Poses, a man struggling with depression and heroin addiction, recounts his journey through medical detox, rehab, 12-step programs, and a halfway house. He initially saw his drug use as a symptom of depression, but experts believed addiction was the problem. Over 13 years, he relapsed, eventually finding an evidence-based treatment that saved his life and helped him thrive. The Weight of Air exposes the dangers of traditional recovery models, highlighting the risk of overdose, relapse, and death.
Blood Orange Night
The 2008 recession caused Melissa Bond to lose her employment and suffer from sleeplessness. Her doctor often ups her dosage of benzodiazepines, a class of medications that includes Xanax, Valium, Klonopin, and Ativan. Even though Melissa takes the medicines every night, her body starts to malfunction, and she falls while holding her kid. When the prescription benzodiazepine pandemic in our country approaches a crisis stage, Blood Orange Night sheds light on it.
Books about Sexual Addiction:
Sexual addiction is a misunderstood and stigmatized disease that can have a significant impact on your relationships, self-esteem, and well-being. To overcome sexual addiction, you need to understand the underlying issues that drive your behavior, develop healthy coping mechanisms, and create a support system that will help you maintain your sobriety. There are many books available on the topic of sexual addiction, ranging from personal memoirs and scientific research to practical advice and self-help guides. Whether you’re a recovering sex addict or someone who wants to support a loved one in their recovery, there is a book out there that can help.
Going Deeper
A therapy approach called the Inner Child Recovery Process is founded on the idea that your childhood is the first step on the road to recovery from a sex/porn addiction. It can assist you in overcoming your addiction and has proven effective with a large number of people in my counseling practice.
Sex Addicts Anonymous
From the perspective of SAA, Sex Addicts Anonymous defines sex addiction and shows how it becomes worse over time. It also paints a picture of hope for the addict through a 12-Step-based treatment program. Several first-person accounts from fellowship members are presented in a distinct portion of the audiobook to highlight the difficulties and promise of recovery. Due to the content, this audiobook is meant for mature audiences.
Your Brain on Porn
Gary Wilson’s book Your Brain on Porn provides an introduction to the phenomenon of Internet porn addiction and offers advice for those who want to stop using it. It is a landmark in understanding and remaining balanced in a world where addiction is big business.
Conclusion:
Recovering from addiction is a challenging and rewarding journey that requires courage, commitment, and support. Reading books about addiction and recovery can provide valuable insight, inspiration, and guidance on this journey. Whether you’re struggling with smoking and tobacco addiction, alcoholism, drug dependency, or sexual addiction, there is a book out there that can help you overcome your addiction and build a healthier, happier, and more fulfilling life.
