Addiction is a disease; it takes over your life and makes it hard to make good decisions. When you start taking drugs or drinking, you don’t plan on getting addicted, but it can become an overpowering urge to drink or dose again. Soon, you need those substances just to feel normal. If you feel alone when you think of your addiction, you shouldn’t. It affects many people all around the world, and you will not be the first or last to suffer from this condition. Fortunately, there are therapies and programs that can help you overcome addiction.
If addiction has taken hold in your life, one way to start working through it during your recovery program is to begin reading about addiction and how it has affected other people. Reading can give you new insight into your own addiction as well as give you the understanding of how addiction can strike at any time and cause problems for anyone, regardless of age, socioeconomic status, or gender. Understanding how others deal with addiction as they learn about how it’s affecting their lives and the stories behind their addictions can help you overcome your own. Finding that you’re not alone in your struggle can be an empowering tool to use as you move through your program, whether you decide to be an inpatient or outpatient.
Why Is Reading About Addiction Important?
Reading about addiction can allow you to immerse yourself in a different world where you’re not the one struggling. Instead, you become familiar with someone new who is living through a situation much like your own. This new world may be one you’re familiar with or a completely new environment.
There are so many kinds of books about addiction that it’s hard to describe them all. You can find how-to books about reducing addictions to substances, 12-step program books, fictional stories and non-fictional memoirs about people in the public eye or everyday people who want to share their stories for overcoming addiction and dependency. Depending on what you want out of reading, you can immerse yourself in fantasy, enjoy real stories about others who have succeeded at addiction recovery, or learn more about psychotherapies and how you can overcome your own mental health or emotional concerns. Some books provide daily meditations while others provide encouragement or journaling topics to try.
How Can Reading About Addiction Help Me With My Own Sobriety?
Reading about addiction is more than just learning about someone else’s story. It can help you learn more about yourself and what you want out of life. It can give you ideas for how to stop certain negative behaviors or motivate you to work on something you want to do. It can provide you with structure and even a hobby to participate in if you are working through a stressful time in your life. It also can give you a new outlook on living a healthy lifestyle and the steps to achieve that.
What Are Some Good Titles to Read?
Several popular titles about addiction include:
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Graceland
Graceland is a book about a life in poverty in Nigeria. The main characters live in a ghetto; the father is an alcoholic, and the son turns to crime. The overriding theme is that no matter how far off the path you go, you can always recover.
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How to Grow Up
This is a book by Michelle Tea. It discusses how a woman struggling as an artist and alcoholic deals with the realities of being poor, working through broken relationships, and getting sober.
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Just for Today: Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts
A book by Tedi Anne Templeton. It’s a book with 365 daily meditations and positive thoughts. The book is based on the 12-step programs available today, so if you’re participating in one, it can be good to use alongside it. Each day has a suggested prayer and reading.
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Symptoms of Withdrawal: A Memoir of Snapshots and Redemption
A book by Christopher Kennedy Lawford. The book discusses the life story of Christopher Kennedy Lawford, including the symptoms of withdrawal he faced trying to get sober. Nephew to John F. Kennedy, this man’s story highlights the difficulties of growing up wealthy and in the public eye.
How Can I Find Out More About Popular Books on Addiction?
Reading about addiction can give you new insight and even help those around you understand what you’re going through. To find out more about great titles you can read and to get started with a program for recovery, call us today by dialing 1-844-489-0836 to speak with someone who can help. If you prefer to work online and want to learn more about the programs offered in your area or in a new location, you can visit us at www.firststepsrecovery.com.
