Winterson’s mother loomed over her life, as she looms over this book. In a quiet way she is one of the great horror mothers of English-language literature. When she was angry with her daughter, https://ecosoberhouse.com/ she would say, “The Devil led us to the wrong crib.” This memoir’s narrative includes Winterson’s search for her birth mother and the author’s self-invention, her intellectual development.

He noticed how his indolent relatives clung to their privileged position in South Africa’s brutal racial hierarchy through cruelty and a raw assertion of power. Out in the world, he lived in constant fear of violence and humiliation; at home he was cosseted by his mother and presided like a king. The only child of European Jews who settled in the Promised Land, Oz grew up alongside the new state of Israel, initially enamored of a fierce nationalism before becoming furiously (and in one memorable scene, rather hilariously) disillusioned. As a lonely boy, Oz felt unseen by his awkward father and confounded by his brilliant and deeply unhappy mother. She taught him that people were a constant source of betrayal and disappointment. Hearing about what happened to those Jews who stayed in Europe, the young Oz wanted to become a book, because no matter how many books were destroyed there was a decent chance that one copy could survive.

Original Sins: A Memoir

At the late age of twenty-eight and after nineteen rejections, he is finally accepted to Harvard Medical School, where he gains purpose, a life, and some control over his condition. There are the manic episodes, during which he felt burdened with saving the world, juxtaposed against the real-world responsibilities of running a pediatric practice. Many of them, like Caroline Knapp, started in their early teens and began to use alcohol as “liquid armor,” a way to protect themselves against the difficult realities of life. In this extraordinarily candid and revealing memoir, Knapp offers important insights not only about alcoholism, but about life itself and how we learn to cope with it.It was love at first sight.

• An incisive look at sex, addiction, relationships, and art, this literary listen soars.
• It’s fun until it is scary-fun until it is scary, an entropic joyride that ends in an inevitable, spectacular crash.
• It can provide ongoing reminders of why you’re making a change, and give you new tools to incorporate as you continue on your journey.
• In this stellar collection, Samantha Irby tackles subjects savory and unsavory alike, wielding her status as a deeply imperfect yet accomplished woman to great comedic effect.
• Mental health memoirs offer an eye-opening look at the lives of the mentally ill and those around them.
• Sarah also explores how alcohol affected her relationships with her friends, family, and even her cat.
• With insight and heart, journalist Stephanie Land describes years spent as a single mother just scraping by, taking low-paying domestic work under wealthy employers to make ends meet.

Former “20/20” anchor Elizabeth Vargas shares her story of anxiety and alcohol use disorder in this compelling memoir. Between Breaths reveals how she lived in denial and secrecy for years before finally entering rehab and a life of sobriety. From inspirational bestsellers to celebrity memoirs, these tales of addiction and recovery offer advice, encouragement, and tips to help you face the challenges of sober living head-on.

“The Sober Lush: A Hedonist’s Guide to Living a Decadent, Adventurous, Soulful Life–Alcohol Free”

As her marriage dissolved and she struggled to find a reason to stay clean, Karr turned to Catholicism as a light at the end of the tunnel. Lars Eighner’s memoir contains the finest first-person writing we have about the experience of being homeless in America. Yet it’s not a dirge or a Bukowski-like scratching of the groin but an offbeat and plaintive hymn to life.

Next we have Mary Karr’s Lit, which is also the third book in a trilogy; it followed The Liars’ Club and Cherry. It’s a memoir of her addiction to alcohol, and her subsequent best alcoholic memoirs recovery, and her conversion to Catholicism. In his first novel, Burroughs gives a vivid, semi-autobiographical account of heroin addiction in the early 1950s.

Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction

The book is short, easy to read, and will leave you with some immediate tools for addressing social situations, sex, and friendship while navigating an alcohol-free lifestyle. Written by a cognitive neuroscientist with former substance use struggles, Marc Lewis emphasizes the habitual reward loop in the brain that can cause a substance use disorder to develop. This book also examines the brain’s ability to create new neural pathways and lose the desire to use substances. Lewis provides a description of life in recovery that I relate to myself; that sober life is not a life of deprivation, but one of fulfillment, continued growth, and personal development. Having said that, I did—while reading Ditlevsen’s Dependency—occasionally need to put the book down and take a few deep breaths. Even the second time around I found it so viscerally powerful that at times I was overwhelmed.

These autobiographies, often narrated by the authors themselves, shine with raw, unfiltered emotion sure to resonate with any listener. But don’t just take our word for it—queue up any one of these listens, and you’ll hear exactly what we mean. Here is Mark’s life childhood as the son of a struggling writer, as well as the world after Mark was released from a mental hospital.

Stories About Loving Someone with an Addiction

In a love story for the ages, actor Tembi Locke lovingly recalls her marriage to an Italian chef and her path toward healing after his death. Featuring audio-exclusive live recordings, this collection of essays zeroes in on the life of legendary humorist David Sedaris as he unearths memories from his childhood in North Carolina and the successes of adulthood alike. Through the art form of a one-woman show, Delanna Studi retells a resonant journey she took alongside her father—walking the hundreds of miles that comprised the Trail of Tears.

Sarah also explores how alcohol affected her relationships with her friends, family, and even her cat. In addition to authoring two books (her second comes out March 2023), McKowen hosts the Tell Me Something True podcast. To vote on books not in the list or books you couldn’t find in the list, you can click on the tab add books to this list and then choose from your books, or simply search. To vote on existing books from the list, beside each book there is a link vote for this book clicking it will add that book to your votes. A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of
people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.