Blackout shows how you can grow into the person you want to be and leave alcohol in the past—no matter where you are now. In an era of opioid addiction, wellness obsession and internet oversharing, stories of substance abuse are back. This popular subgenre is filled with timeless, brilliant entries.
- If you’re looking for more sobriety resources, check out Monument’s therapist-moderated alcohol support groups and anonymous online forum.
- I am not sure I’d be sober today if it weren’t for Tired of Thinking About Drinking.
- Quit Like a Woman is her informative and relatable guidebook to breaking an addiction to alcohol.
- Ashley continues to pass the keepsakes down to future generations of Black women, including her granddaughter Ruth, who embroiders “It be filled with my love always” on the bag.
- In addition to personal stories, many of these books delve deep into the personal and societal psychology of drinking and drug use.
It got me thinking the one thing I never wanted to be true… maybe it is the alcohol that’s making me so miserable? That’s the thorny question at the center of this moving and courageous memoir authored by the son of Robert S. McNamara, Kennedy’s architect of the Vietnam War. In this conflicted son’s telling, a complicated man comes into intimate view, as does the “mixture of love and rage” at the heart of their relationship.
“Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol”
Wong was born with a form of progressive muscular dystrophy; as a young woman, she attended her dream college, but had to drop out when changes to Medicaid prevented her from retaining the aides she needed on an inaccessible campus. In one standout essay, Wong recounts her struggle to access Covid-19 best alcoholic memoirs vaccines as a high-risk individual. The author’s rage about moving through an ableist world is palpable, but so too is her joy and delight about Lunar New Year, cats, family, and so much more. Innovative and informative, Year of the Tiger is a multidimensional portrait of a powerful thinker.
In this soulful, enriching portrait of these extraordinary artists’ struggles and triumphs, Smith widens the canon to usher in new luminaries. I 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.
The Most Influential Memoirs
5) Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis & Larry Sloman
Another New York Times Best Seller, Scar Tissue is the “vivid and inspiring” account of Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman, Anthony Kiedis and his journey through fame in the rock world. The artist discusses his journey, including his descent into drug use and finding light through the darkness. When people start to evaluate their relationship with alcohol, they often “collect different prompts and data points,” said Aaron Weiner, a clinical psychologist practicing in Chicago. “Books are one of these data points” that help people realize they might have a problem, he said. Take our short alcohol quiz to learn where you fall on the drinking spectrum and if you might benefit from quitting or cutting back on alcohol. Dry is a heartbreaking memoir of Augusten Burrough’s story of addiction, beginning with an intervention organized by his coworkers and boss and his first bout of sobriety.
- In this often heart-wrenching look into the life of one mother yearning for freedom and for her children’s happiness, you’ll find out just what a mother is willing to sacrifice for the sake of her children.
- She discovers in Catholicism a spirituality that makes sense to her and seems to keep her sober, but she doesn’t proselytise or become too holy for irony.
- After finishing A Happier Hour, the bar was set high for future reads (no pun intended).