Books to Read to Help with Recovery
Books can be a powerful and productive use of time when you are in recovery. As well as seeking help from your therapist, you can read books that explain more about addiction as well as other people’s experiences to better relate. Here are examples of the best books to read to teach you about recovery.
One of the most popular books to read about recovery is “The Big Book: Alcoholics Anonymous” by William G. Wilson, more affectionately known by “Bill W.” written in 1939. It has sold 30 million copies and is on Time Magazine’s list of 100 Best and Most Influential Books Written in English since 1923. This book teaches you how to recover from alcoholism and is the start of where the 12 Steps came from which can be applied to not just alcoholics but overeating, gambling addiction, sex addiction, marijuana, and heroin. The book uses examples of other people’s experiences as an addict as well as examples of how to use the 12 Step programs. There are also chapters devoted to employers, wives, and agnostics. The goal of this book is to find a Higher Power and know that you cannot beat addiction alone. William Duncan Silkworth M.D. is the one who treated Wilson for alcoholism and introduced him to the 12 Steps.
There is also the book “Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines” written by Nic Sheff that was released in 2009. This book is a memoir of Sheff’s struggles with addiction to alcohol at the age of eleven and then marijuana, heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, and Ecstasy growing up. What started as a teenage experimentation with substances ends with After a near fatal relapse in California, Sheff decided that it was time for him to seek help. We learn about Sheff’s past, his family, and who he is as a person with the book ending in hope.
A book that ended up on Amazon’s Best Books of 2015 list is “Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget” by Sarah Hepola. This memoir is about how Hepola had a bad drinking problem as she would spend evenings at cocktail parties and bars. The problem is that she would experience blackouts where she would not remember what she said or did and constantly having to apologize for behavior she does not remember. This book is about forcing herself to leading a sober life and can help inspire others to do the same.
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