“If you can quit for a day, you can quit for a lifetime.”– Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Recovery is not a day’s game- it is a way of living. It requires us to explore our existence in a whole together different way. We cannot just follow a series of steps and call to quit. It means we reframe our relationship with ourselves- align our bodies, thoughts, emotions, spirit, relationships, communities, and our environment.
Books, movies, music, and other art forms are fundamental to addiction recovery. You discover yourself through art. Connecting your recovery phase with art can do wonders for you.
Books have always been my favorite healer. They help you paint a picture you rather ignore. Instigate your brain to see the color of life and create your healing roadmap. A mental therapist recommends book reading as an authoritative source to recover from drug or substance abuse disorder. Do you find yourself juggling through google or bookstore to buy a book that will make the recovery process easier for you?
Well, you have arrived at the right place. I’ve listed out seven books that have helped me in my addiction recovery journey. Let’s take a look-
This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol: Find Freedom, Rediscover Happiness & Change Your Life by Annie Grace
To drink or not to drink, the question persists in your recovery phase. Annie Grace offers a new psychological and neurological aspects of alcohol abuse based on research. She also explains the cultural, social, and economic factors that drive alcohol dependence in us.
This book will open your eyes to the surprising role of alcohol in our lifestyle, and how you can mentally prepare yourself for sobriety. Annie adds her personal story that makes the book easy to relate. The experiences connect with you at a different level.
The book works on your psychological dependency—you do not crave alcohol, allowing you to drink responsibly or quit. The latest findings in the addiction field are shared through drawings that delivers a fantastic conclusion.
“Alcohol erases a bit of you every time you drink it. It can even erase entire nights when you are on a binge. Alcohol does not relieve stress; it erases your senses and your ability to think. Alcohol ultimately erases yourself.” –Annie Grace.
Drink by Ann Dowsett Johnson
I love how this book touches both the areas of addiction. Anne shares in-depth research, insightful description, interviews with researchers of the alcohol epidemic while sharing her heartbreaking story. Her moving story on addiction left me not only inspired but gutted.
It argues how society has glamorized drinking and ignored the consequences of individual lives. It’s shocking to witness a steep rise in teen drug addiction, risky drinking among women and girls.
In the end, you ask yourself- what has gone and what you can do today to overcome the challenge. Alcohol addiction is an epidemic, and no one says it like Ann.
“Most people who drink too much aren’t addicted to alcohol. Most of these people are not dependent. What’s the big picture? This is a major public health problem.” – Ann Dowsett Johnson
In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Mate
If you want to understand the deep and complex roots of addiction, you should read Dr. Gabor Mate’s work. He has worked drug addicts, and he shares an incredible insight on the cause of addiction, the failed attempt of the “war on drugs” and the call for effective addiction treatment.
He believes empathy and understanding our keys to addiction recovery. We learn the science of addiction through his work from a person who has decades of experience in addiction treatment.
Addiction is everywhere- a gambler, internet addict, workaholic, the compulsive shopper. The wound can be deeper or maybe entirely hidden—but we all know it’s there.
“It is impossible to understand addiction without asking what relief the addict finds, or hopes to find, in the drug or the addictive behavior.” – Gabor Mate
Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction by Maia Szalavitz
Maia Szalavitz is one of the world’s leading neuroscientists and addiction journalists. She shares a fresh perspective on addiction theory and addictive personality. We learn the “broken brain” concept offers a groundbreaking approach to learning disorders, addiction treatment, prevention, and policy.
She clarifies the idea of how the brain reacts to addiction and how we can focus on individual approaches and work on our healing. Maybe it’s not about “broken brains” or no willpower to recover, addicts could be suffering from the formation of habits. Habits define your addiction recovery journey.
In this book, we learn about brain chemistry, addiction physiology, and the long-term impact of drug abuse politics. Her twelve-step program illustrates a new way to fight substance abuse.
“Our brains are embodied—much of the problem with the debate over addiction and psychiatry more generally is a refusal to accept this and our ongoing need to see “physical,” “neurological,” and “psychological” as entirely distinct.” ― Maia Szalavitz.
Integral Recovery by John Dupuy
How do you elevate your mere recovery to integral recovery? This book has an answer. It is for everyone who is going through the recovery phase for addicts’ families and friends or health care providers. John helps you shift your recovery in high gear from just surviving and confusing path to becoming the best version of yourself.
This book offers a holistic recovery approach to drug treatment. He improves the 21st-century therapy with the latest techniques, knowledge, and neurotechnology. Integral Recovery is a life-changing practice to initiate the healing journey, transformation, and the awakening that offers lifetime health and sobriety.
Here’s some more to add to your recovery library-
- Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget by Sarah Hepola
- Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp
- Girl Walks Out of a Bar: A Memoir by Lisa Smith
- Terry: My Daughter’s Life-and-Death Struggle with Alcoholism by George McGovern
- Portrait of an Addict by Bill Clegg
- The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
- Awakening Joy by James Baraz
- The Dark Side of The Light Chasers by Debbie Ford
- Nothing Good Can Come from This by Kristi Coulter.
- The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind, and Body, In the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD.
- The Easy Way to Stop Drinking by Allen Carr
- Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself by Melody Beattie
