7 Memoirs About Addiction by Women Writers

Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will. These books offer a range of perspectives on Alcoholics, covering various aspects and approaches to the subject.

Best Books About Alcoholics

Ahead, see the 15 stories of struggle, failure, recovery, and grace that have moved us the most. Access State-Specific Provider Directories for detailed information on locating licensed service providers and recovery residences in your area. Calls to numbers marked with (I) symbols will be answered or returned by one of the treatment providers listed in our Terms and Conditions, each of which is a paid advertiser.

Wishful Drinking

best memoirs about alcoholism

Vargas’s memoir has been described as “honest and hopeful,” and that tone comes across in the author’s accomplished and moving narration of Between Breaths. The Recovering is a wide-ranging and frequently excellent book about addiction, but it is stymied when it attempts to be too zoomed-out. Addiction, with its cyclical copping, its single-minded want, is a monotonous thing. But the experiences of those addicted differ vastly, based on race, class, the substances in question, the time and place. Jamison set out to write a different sort of addiction memoir, and she wrote one of the most exhaustively researched, lyrical, and thoughtful additions to that canon in recent years. The book flags only when she reaches for universality instead of focuses on writing her own story, which is already an expansive account of a woman confronting her best books for addiction recovery addiction and her obsession with writers who drink.

by Leslie Jamison

This memoir chronicles Gray’s personal journey from struggling with alcohol addiction to finding unexpected joy in a sober lifestyle. Through candid and humorous storytelling, she shares the challenges and triumphs of navigating social situations, dating, and self-discovery without alcohol. This book about alcoholics offers practical advice, heartfelt encouragement, and a refreshing perspective on the benefits of sobriety. Whether you’re sober-curious or seeking inspiration on your own journey to recovery, Gray’s honest and relatable writing will leave you feeling empowered and hopeful. The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober is a must-read for anyone looking for a thought-provoking and uplifting take on the sober life.

This Naked Mind by Annie Grace

It’s a witty, straightforward tale of the shenanigans, shame, and confusion that occurs in the morning-afters. Sarah also explores how alcohol affected her relationships with her friends, family, and even her cat. Ria Health offers several FDA-approved medications Sober living house for alcohol use disorder. When combined with counseling, this approach is proven highly effective. Claudia Acevedo-Quiñones is a writer from Puerto Rico whose poems and short fiction have appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, wildness, Ambit Magazine, Radar Poetry, and other publications. Her chapbook, Bedroom Pop, was published by dancing girl press in 2021.

There’s a long, beautiful history of writers chronicling how they’ve dealt with alcoholism and addiction. If you are seeking drug and alcohol related addiction rehab for yourself or a loved one, the SoberNation.com hotline is a confidential and convenient solution. In this provocative and paradigm-shifting book, Szalavitz argues for a new conception of addiction, not as a brain disease but rather as a developmental disorder. It’s a learning disorder, she says, by which she means addicts, primarily young people, learn their addiction, developing habits of action, reaction, pleasure, and reward when their brains are malleable. Nic also penned a memoir, Tweak, revealing that as grisly as his father’s nightmares for him were, the reality of his addiction was far darker.

How to Quit Cocaine: Overcoming Addiction & Withdrawal Symptoms

This book tells an incredible story of not only recovery, but also how it connects to race and sexual identity. Interestingly, Russell Brand was fourteen years sober at the time of writing Recovery. Overall, this book is perfect for anyone who’d enjoy an entertaining and surprisingly uplifting story about https://ecosoberhouse.com/ ending the cycle of addiction. Blackout by Sarah Hepola is a brutally honest quit lit memoir of living through blackout after blackout—something that many who’ve struggled with heavy alcohol use can relate to.

best memoirs about alcoholism

We seem to experience Ditlevsen’s life with her, moment by vivid moment. Meanwhile successful writing always surprises and challenges us, perhaps by defying the conventions of the form to which it belongs or simply by refreshing them in some way. Joseph Naus beats the odds by overcoming a difficult childhood and becoming a successful civil trial lawyer. Still, his insatiable desire for alcohol and sex upends his entire life on one fateful night. Here, Naus recounts jail time, an attempted murder charge and an uphill battle to reclaim a life nearly lost to the stranglehold of addiction in this outrageous memoir. Michael Pond has treated people with addiction for years as a psychotherapist but finds himself homeless, broke and alone when he succumbs to his own battle with alcohol use disorder.

  • His writing is startling in its earnest simplicity, drawing a vivid picture of his descent into heroin use and addiction.
  • Instead she presents herself as a kind of Godly schmuck, chronically slow on the spiritual uptake.
  • “The first day of my second sobriety, I crashed my friend’s car into a concrete wall,” she writes, as if to bang home how wild, mistake-filled, and exciting life without drinking can be.
  • The second major problem for anyone writing an addiction memoir—and it’s often connected to the first—is how to conclude it.

Van der Kolk describes our inner resilience to manage the worst of life’s circumstances with our innate survival instinct. Quit Like a Woman takes a groundbreaking look at America’s obsession with alcohol. This is a lesser known series of essays on the intersection of alcohol and womanhood.

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