The result was a tale whose bracing darkness is ultimately redeemed not by its perfunctorily hopeful ending but by the extraordinary force and beauty of its telling. Ditlevsen’s failure of nerve, causing her to wrap up three volumes of the most trenchant and unillusioned autobiography ever written with a feeble daydream, is easily explained. She surely felt the reader (and perhaps the author) had endured too much pain in the preceding story to be sent away without solace. The fact that, in so doing, she effectively obeyed a formal convention of addiction memoir helps explain how many of those conventions arose. The fact that even a great artist like Ditlevsen can capitulate to such dictates, if only once, demonstrates how powerful they are.

Woman of Substances: A Journey Into Drugs, Alcohol and Treatment

Rather than dwelling on the pain of addiction,Tracey focuses on her journey of recovery and rebuilding her life, while exposing the failings of the American rehab system and laying out a path for change. You got sober by attending AA, an institution that the writer in you thought of as peddling cliches. It’s true that I had a resistance to the kind of cliched language I would hear over and over again; it didn’t satisfy the part of me that always craves or seeks the most original way of putting something. Hearing people fit their lives into a pattern also felt reductive. But as a writer, I’ve always loved other people’s stories.

Oar Health Member Stories: Cutting Back on Alcohol

A car accident, the slow and painful unraveling of her marriage, a stay in a mental hospital and an eventual spiritual awakening finally free Karr from the substance that nearly took her life. A person of extraordinary intellect, Heather King is a lawyer and writer/commentator for NPR — as well as a recovering alcoholic who spent years descending from functional alcoholism to barely functioning at all. From graduating cum laude from law school despite her excessive drinking to languishing in dive bars, King presents a clear-eyed look at her past and what brought her out of the haze of addiction. I miss it in a different way than in the beginning, when it was acute and overpowering, and it was hard to imagine not missing it. But there are times when, say, I’ll go back to a city where I used to live, or hit a certain season. I’ll remember what it felt like to drink dirty martinis in the autumn or white wine in the summer.

Powerful Addiction Memoirs that Sober People Love

Check out our picks for the best addiction and recovery memoirs. A New York lawyer, Lisa F. Smith, spirals downward while her friends reach new heights in their careers, life, and relationships. Cocaine, booze, lies, and depression fuel her descent. It’s raw; it’s honest, and it’s a beautiful story of redemption and recovery. Interestingly, Russell Brand was fourteen years sober at the time of writing Recovery.

• Although both are worth reading, it’s the first I find myself returning to, marvelling at its ability to conjure the insanity of addiction from inside its diabolical reality.
• I’d like to think Jerry Stahl’s Permanent Midnight influenced me, too, particularly by encouraging me to try and be harrowing and funny at once.
• Winning career accolades by day and drinking at night, Knapp brings you to the netherworld of alcohol use disorder.
• Horrified and enthralled, we see the world through Clegg’s increasingly despairing gaze—and a part of us longs as much as he does for another fix to provide some relief from the horror.

The author, Kristi Coulter, engages the reader with her deep insight and quick wit. This combination makes her story heartening, funny, and thought-provoking at the best alcoholic memoirs same time. Coulter shares her struggles with alcohol use and also the challenges of getting sober. This is a very refreshing book in the world of recovery memoirs.

Dr. Brown gives us tools to shape and share our thoughts in the most honest way possible, which can be a crucial step towards healing. This is an approachable recipe book using everyday healthy ingredients to make delicious alcohol-free drinks for every occasion. Developed by registered dietitians, this book takes a new twist on classic cocktails. You’ll also find options for dessert drinks, frozen drinks, and holiday drinks without relying on sugar for flavor. Although this book isn’t specifically about alcohol recovery, it has become a go-to guide in many recovery circles. (And for good reason!) Atomic Habits offers practical strategies for making meaningful changes to your habits and routines, one tiny step at a time.

• Weller has a relatable story for any high-achiever who finds themselves with boozy, foggy evenings that turn into hangovers the next morning.
• It was every bit as gruelling and heartbreaking as the truth required it to be.
• Ditlevsen’s trilogy, by contrast, plunges us into the perspective of a succession of her former selves.
• Although this book isn’t specifically about alcohol recovery, it has become a go-to guide in many recovery circles.
• When she’s a child, we’re presented with the world as a child might see it.

She covers why alcohol is so detrimental to a person’s well-being, and how your life and health can blossom without it. This Naked Mind by Annie Grace is one of the most loved sobriety books ever written. In it, Annie talks about her own experiences with addiction while keeping things deeply relatable to anyone who’s questioned alcohol’s role in their life.

Run Your Week: Big Books, Sure Bets & Titles Making News July 17 2018

Alec Baldwin is reflecting on his sobriety journey and being 39 years drug-free. In addition to authoring two books (her second comes out March 2023), McKowen hosts the Tell Me Something True podcast. In 1992, Mishka Shubaly survived a mass shooting at his school, his parents divorced, his father abandoned him, and he swore he would right all the wrongs for his mother. Instead, he began a love affair with the bottle and barely crawled out, but he did, and we cheer him on at each twist and turn in his journey. Nigeria is a vast, vibrant, and highly diverse country that offers endless inspiration for fiction writers.

Finally, at the behest of his coworkers and boss, he ends up in a rehab that specifically caters to gay and lesbian patients. Once his 30 days are up, he has to figure out how to return to his New York City lifestyle sans alcohol. Burroughs’ story is one of triumph and loss, professional success and personal failure, finding your way to sobriety, falling into relapse, and starting all over again. Drinking felt like freedom, part of her birthright as a strong, enlightened twenty-first-century woman. She often blacked out, waking up with a blank space where four hours should be.

Maybe you’ve been leaning on alcohol too much to try to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Maybe you enjoyed a successful Dry January, so you’re questioning alcohol’s role in your life. Maybe you’re a pretty moderate drinker, but you feel like booze just isn’t your friend anymore. Maybe none of these things apply to you when it comes to alcohol, but there’s something else in your life that’s not a positive force. The acclaimed author of Prozac Nation goes from depression to addiction with this equally devastating personal account.