20 Best Books on Alcoholism to Transcend Addiction

Books that focus on enabling and codependency are often recommended for parents of addicts. Al-Anon support groups and individual and marriage counseling can help parents. Addiction is often viewed differently and affects parents differently. One of the biggest challenges we face as addiction intervention professionals is the family. Books that help families and parents understand family systems, codependency, enabling, boundaries, consequences, and accountability can help parents unite on a common strategy and solution. Almost all of our inquiries that come into our office are from moms, sisters, aunts, wives, and grandmothers. Nearly every inquiry that is rejected and sabotaged from moving forward with an intervention is by the dad, brother, uncle, husband, and grandfather; in other words, shot down by the male. We would like to see unification and understanding of how working together produces effective solutions for families and parents. The most widely recognized book and a book on which almost every drug and alcohol treatment center bases its curriculum is the book of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Below are my top five most cherished books in Christian literature. They offer insight to anyone—whether in recovery from drugs and alcohol or not. However, when I consider the best Christian books Sober House for alcohol and drug addiction, my list remains the same. The wisdom contained in these books will provide guidance and comfort to anyone pursuing recovery in the context of their Christian faith.

Quit Lit: The Best Sobriety Books to Help You Quit Drinking in 2021

None of the suggestions are to correct the problem without help and a solution from someone other than yourself. “Why You Drink and How to Stop” seeks to help individuals decipher how drinking became a toxic habit and then, swiftly, what methods can be employed to take control over the drinking habit and be rid of it. Getting off the rollercoaster of alcoholism can seem like a lonely battle, but with a book like “Why You Drink and How to Stop,” Valli’s knowledge as a counselor is right at one’s fingertips, which is incredibly valuable. In this memoir, Vargas recounts the childhood that led to her anxiety and panic and how alcohol gave her a release from her painful reality.

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. Similar to Cherry, Ohio is also a devastating depiction of the aftermath of returning from war and getting swept up by the opioid epidemic and is set in Ohio. This novel is about four former high school classmates who return to a small fictional town in southeast Ohio, called New Canaan, one night in 2013. Each one has experienced hard times during their 20s and now wants to make things right.

Drinking

Addiction can profoundly affect children, and the quicker they get into Alateen and individual therapy, the greater the opportunity for them to understand what is going on with themselves and the substance user. Beautiful Boy is a good book and movie that does an excellent job of bringing the reader or viewer into the life of a substance user and the affected family. One of the most profound parts of the movie was when Nic’s father, David, was packing a bag to rescue his son. When his wife Karen, Nic’s stepmom, asked David where he was going, he said he would make Nic better. Karen said in a stressed tone, “You can’t fix this.” Whether that happened in real life or not, it was a genuine truth. The book and movie sent a strong message that detachment from the addiction and not from the substance user can be effective.

With that being said, any book on addiction, drugs, or alcohol can be helpful. There was a time when your children were young, and you had no problem saying no. If your 5-year-old reached for a pair of scissors or a lighter, anything other than saying no and stopping them dead in tracks was not an option. Sure, it never feels good to raise your voice or tell your children no, and that feeling was a secondary thought to the initial instinct of stopping them and saying no to protect them. So how, where, why, and when did that change now that they are adult addicts? Why was it so easy to set boundaries and say no when they were children, yet it seems incomprehensible or impossible today? Is the addict going to control you, or will you take back control with boundaries?

Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood by Koren Zailckas

Blackouts are a special horror and humiliation, and not all drinkers experience them. Hepola’s tone is often funny and loose but she writes with a journalist’s precision and the book reads almost like a thriller. After one particularly harrowing experience in a hotel, Hepola gets sober and the reader realises she has been holding her breath for a couple hundred pages. This recovery story captures the anguish and doubt that accompany the choice to quit drinking. More than a journey through addiction and recovery from it, this is a tale about how trauma shapes us, and how we can only free ourselves from its hold by facing it. This is the book for you if you’re looking for masterful prose. It is also the book for you if you consider faith to be a necessary piece for the puzzle that addiction recovery entails.

Through strategic marketing campaign concepts, Alyssa has established Banyan as an industry leader and a national household name. “The Sober Lush” is meant to be a road-map that outlines how to have a pleasant life without drinking. Written by Mackenzie Phillips, former star of the 70s sitcom One Day at a Time, “High on Arrival” is a 304 page autobiography published in 2009. Phillips’ life started off very unique, with parents who were fully engaged in the counterculture hippie movement of the 1960s, which guided Phillips into a life of drug use, and then abuse, very quickly. Published in 2018, “Unwifeable”, written by Mandy Stadtmiller, is a 352 page memoir by a columnist and comedian who wrote for New York magazine amongst many other jobs in journalism and publishing. The book begins with Mandy, just divorced, moving all the way to Manhattan to pursue a career in journalism. As she meets success, she falls into the traps of addiction, and her memoir details her battle with alcohol and other addictions over many years. “The Big Book”, written by William Griffith Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (more commonly referred to as Bill W.) is also known as “The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism”. Completed in 1939, “The Big Book” is considered a predecessor to the twelve-step process, as it details the foundational elements of the tradition of recovery and sobriety utilized by Alcoholics Anonymous. That bottle of merlot was all Kerry Cohen could think about as she worked through her day.

Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget by Sarah Hepola

Each of these authors demands that we face addiction as an intimate, human story as well as a broad public health and safety issue. Drop the Rock digs deeper into steps six and seven of the twelve-step program. The authors describe anger, fear, intolerance, and self-pity as the“rocks”that can sink the recovery process. After returning to the states after his tour in Iraq, he and his girlfriend become addicted to heroin. She discusses the twelve-step program and points out some of its shortcomings. This book illustrates some fresh ideas in the fight against substance abuse. Setting boundaries is healthy for the family member as well as the addict. I strongly recommend reading this book if you believe you are in a codependent relationship. Allen is a master at removing the psychological triggers that lead to drinking. He explains why the benefits people believe they are getting from drinking alcohol are fictitious.

You’ve probably already heard the name Augusten Burroughs or at least his first memoir , Running with Scissors. But in this memoir, Burroughs recounts his very regular and ordinary life of working in advertising and enjoying a drunken Manhattan life—until his employers force him to attend rehab. You will never be able to forget this powerful story about, well, trying to remember your life and what happened while Carr was addicted to crack and alcohol. Eventually, he goes on to become a regular columnist for The New best books on alcohol addiction York Times. But this tale is all about the three years of reporting that it took Carr to figure out his past. He also addresses his experience of feeling out of place in the music industry as a rapper who also practices a Christian faith, feeling excluded at red carpet events due to discussing his faith in his lyrics. In this essay collection, Coulter writes with wit about a life in transition—and what happens when you suddenly look up and realize that maybe everyone else isn’t quite doing things the right way.

Why does a person become an alcoholic?

Annie Grace, the author of This Naked Mind, uses a blend of science and personal experiences to reveal reasons for alcohol addiction. She touches upon not only psychological elements of addiction, but also cultural and social expectations that contribute to alcohol abuse. As a mother, I relate to her story so deeply—our children were the same young age when we stopped drinking. She’s an iconic, witty literary voice, an engrossing storyteller, and this book too is a great study in memoir. Alcoholism, or the inability to control drinking due to a physiological and cognitive/emotional dependence on the substance, affects many adults today. According to a survey done in 2018, 14.4 million adults ages 18 and older had alcohol use disorder . AUD can lead to serious health issues for the individual and alcoholism’s impact on family and relationships can be devastating. Not just an explanation of how modern science perceives addiction, “Alcohol Explained” also provides insight into how to defeat the addiction.

• This book includes some of Terry’s journal entries outlining her drinking habits and feelings.
• Author Veronica Valli is an addiction therapist and recovered alcoholic herself, offering a deep and sincere understanding of an alcoholic’s journey.
• This is a story of faith and love through the journey of recovery, more than just a tale from alcoholism to sobriety.
• This can range from emotional, sexual, and physical abuse to growing up in a one-parent home, being adopted, or not feeling your parents’ love, attention, or affection.
• I loved it because I felt like it dealt with the subject of depression and self-harm in a really relatable and compassionate way.
• No dream is beyond your reach simply because you suffered from a biochemical disorder.

It contains millennia of accumulated Eastern wisdom that has either been forgotten or repackaged as stunted cliches. Since mainstream recovery culture preaches an implicit ethic of self-denial, I found that it was important to find fresh sources for resurrecting my own positive sense of self. This is a fantastic read whenever you feel unsure of what to focus on or simply overwhelmed by negativity. Times Best Seller and memoir has been described as “unblinking honesty and poignant, with laugh-out-loud humor.” It’s about giving up the thing you cherish most–but getting yourself back in return.