30 Powerful Womens Recovery Memoirs to Inspire Your Own Journey

Sober Evolution, through which he offers one-on-one personal development coaching, plans alcohol-free social events, and runs a recovery-themed Instagram account with more than 40,000 followers. “It’s different dealing with emotions raw, without a crutch of weed or alcohol. That is one of the difficult parts for me,” he said. ” the main thing is realizing that I’m not a bad person, I’ve just made some bad decisions. And that there’s a beautiful life there for everybody if you want it.” 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. In his first novel, Burroughs gives a vivid, semi-autobiographical account of heroin addiction in the early 1950s.

• “Celebrated my 10 years yesterday,” he captioned the pic.
• It doesn’t do anything for my spiritual state, my mental state, or my creative state.
• That is why alcohol detox and alcohol withdrawal treatment is administered by medical professionals.
• Outwardly, I was vivacious and self-confident, but inside I felt unworthy and hollow as my behaviors blanketed my soul in a shame I fought to ignore.
• Eventually, she goes through a series of 9-to-5 jobs that end with her living behind a Dumpster due to a descent into crack cocaine use.
• This is a darkly comic book about the slow road through recovery, really growing up, and being someone that gets back up after screwing up.

Soon, I drank daily in isolation, hiding the quantity of my drinking from my wife, secretly replenishing the supply in the liquor cabinet with bottles I hid elsewhere. I still didn’t think I had a problem with alcohol since I had never missed a day of work and continued to excel in my profession.

“Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol” by Ann Dowsett Johnston

Meanwhile, I met a girl from back home with whom I began a relationship during the summer between my freshman and sophomore years. She was being raised in an old world male-dominated society. We would see each other for vacation breaks and long weekends.

SELF does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any information published on this website or by this brand is not intended as a substitute for medical advice, and you should not take any action before consulting with a healthcare professional. A lot of recovery memoirs end when the writer gets sober, leading us to wonder, “What happened next? ” British writer Catherine Gray tells us, and the good news is that what happened next for her was pretty amazing. Allen’s powerful, uplifting tale was first published in 1978, and while the slang may belong to another era, the message is timeless. The road to recovery is different for everyone, but with a little courage and faith , it’s possible for many of us to walk it. There’s still a huge amount of stigma around being a black woman in recovery, which makes Chaney Allen’s voice crucial in the recovery sphere.

Alcohol Lied to Me – New Edition

Ahead, see the 15 stories of struggle, failure, recovery, and grace that move us the most. Situated in the heart of St. Lucie County, our retreat-like environment provides a tranquil setting in which our patients can heal. We offer 24 hour mental health services provided by licensed professionals in various disciplines.

Get Your Loved One Sober describes this multi-faceted program that uses supportive, non-confrontational methods to engage substance abusers https://ecosoberhouse.com/ into treatment. In our culture, social events often center around alcohol, and it can be difficult to abstain from or lessen your drinking.

Day Eight

I managed to crawl in the dark to huddle over the commode. I rationalized that the vomiting might be due to food poisoning.

That fall, the afternoon before my first evening jazz band rehearsal, I distinctly remember my first drunk — on Orange Tango. What a great feeling of belonging I had had — something I had never felt before. Shortly this led to nearly daily drinking or sober success stories smoking marijuana, which at times was easier to obtain. Despite my increasingly frequent substance use, I excelled as a student. I attended all my classes and did my assignments and readings. I did not need to study very hard for tests to ace them.

Alcohol Hallucinations: Types, Causes, and Treatment

Author Erica Garza grew up in a strict Mexican household in East Los Angeles. She writes with evocative prose about the anxiety that fueled her addiction to masturbation as a young girl, and eventually, her sex and pornography addiction as an adult. Through failed relationships, serial hook-ups, blackouts, and all of the shame that comes with these experiences, Garza writes a riveting memoir narrating a journey of exploration as she seeks therapy. Eventually, she begins a 12-Step program to find relief, if not salvation, from her addictions.

That siren song eventually led to broadcast journalist Elizabeth Vargas to admit her addiction on national television. Hoping to make her dreams a reality, Michelle Tea recounts her awkward attempts to gain literary fame as she smokes, drinks, and snorts her way through San Francisco. She begins to slowly grow into a healthy, reasonable, self-aware, and stable adult. Her passionate writing shines as she tells of her often difficult relationship with money, her relationships, and more. But wherever that journey starts, these memoirs prove that struggle can lead to something beautiful and healing in the end. Engaging, readable, and honest, this book is like getting a hug from your best sober buddy.