Coulter shares her struggles with alcohol use and also the challenges of getting sober. In her early 20s, writer Jamison (The Empathy Exams) started drinking daily to ease her chronic shyness and deal with the stress of getting her master’s degree at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Identifying with accomplished writers whose creativity seemed to thrive in a haze of intoxication, she fell further into the depths of alcoholism before hitting rock bottom. After failed attempts at sobriety, she found a combination of treatments—attending meetings, sharing her story and the 12-step https://ecosoberhouse.com/ AA program—that worked for her.
Open Book by Jessica Simpson
A great starter book for anyone looking to begin changing their relationship with alcohol. This book serves as a guide for anyone starting their journey with a 30 day sobriety challenge. The Dry Challenge can be especially helpful for people who drink socially, and are looking to take a structured step back to re-evaluate their habits. This book offers inspiration for alcohol-free drinks and activities, and tangible tips on how to navigate a month (or beyond!) without alcohol. A 1996 bestseller, Caroline Knapp paints a vivid picture of substance use and recovery that every reader can appreciate, whether you struggle with substance use or not. Knapp writes elegantly about her 20+ years of ‘high-functioning drinking’.
- Dr. Maté shares the powerful insight that substance use is, in many cases, a survival mechanism.
- The fact that even a great artist like Ditlevsen can capitulate to such dictates, if only once, demonstrates how powerful they are.
- Sometimes, a slow realization of enough being enough is all it takes to start your recovery.
Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man
Her first memoir is an inside look at her famous parents‘ marriage and her own tumultuous love affairs (including her on-again, off-again relationship with Paul Simon). Most notably, it’s a brutally honest — and hilarious — reflection on the late writer’s path to sobriety. Ann Dowsett Johnston brilliantly weaves her own story of recovery with in-depth research on the alarming rise of risky drinking among women. The marketing strategies employed to sell booze to women are as alarming as the skyrocketing number of women who qualify as having alcohol use disorders. Ann’s book is such a unique and insightful combination of personal experience and scientific research.
“Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol”
Maybe This Will Save Me will also chart Dorfman’s sobriety journey and the relationships that have influenced her. Occasionally reminiscent of Sylvia Plath, Karr’s writing style is simultaneously unsentimental and moving. Before his death in 2015, Carr was a beloved New York Times journalist.
Reading these books about alcoholism (memoirs, nonfiction, and fiction) and recommending them to you is part of my personal therapy. Pooley walks us through a year of her life spent battling alcohol addiction and a recent breast cancer diagnosis, two battles — spoiler alert! Alongside this deeply personal story, she includes scientific research and a wealth of advice, including how to recognize if you have alcohol use disorder (AUD) and how to navigate the social pressures that come with a life of sobriety. I am not sure I’d be sober today if it weren’t for Tired of Thinking About Drinking. Belle’s consistent messaging on our faulty thinking led to a major mindset shift for me. She provides actionable steps for anyone looking to drink less or none at all.
- The interplay of real life and the generation or dissemination of ideas serves as the fascinating focus of the intellectual biography.
- Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances.
- His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Rolling Stone, and many other publications.
- Subtitled “Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget,” Hepola’s debut memoir is a vulnerable story about refocusing her attention from finding her next drink to learning how to love herself without liquid enhancements.
The Sober Diaries by Clare Pool
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. At the age of 15, Cat best alcoholic memoirs Marnell began to unknowingly „murder her life“ when she became hooked on the ADHD medication prescribed to her by her psychiatrist father.
- Sober celebrities, reality stars in rehab and the sudden ubiquity of mocktail recipes… the culture is shifting, and abstinence is in.
- My guess is that most addiction memoirs involve some kind of compromise between the author’s aesthetic and ethical impulses.
- The best known of these drugs is Ozempic, a medication for diabetes often prescribed for its off-label use as a weight loss aid.
- Reading a few chapters of a recovery-related book each day can help weave your sobriety or moderation goals into your everyday life.
- Beyond the camaraderie of knowing you’re not alone, these books offer practical guidance about the road to sobriety (or your road to changing your relationship with drugs and alcohol).
More than anything, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts provides a voice of kind generosity and understanding to anyone who is looking to learn more for themselves or a loved one. Punch Me Up to the Gods is a beautifully written series of personal essays that describe Brian Broome’s experience growing up Black and queer in Ohio, and the effect early substance use had on his upbringing. This book tells an incredible story of not only recovery, but also how it connects to race and sexual identity.