Books That Help You Understand Your Loved One’s Addiction
Understanding Addiction
Addiction is a disease that doesn’t just affect the person suffering from the addiction. Family, friends, and loved ones all feel the fallout.
Sometimes, the signs of a drinking problem or a drug addiction are not so clear. Whether you’re certain a loved one is heading toward addiction or is already in the depths of one, it’s important to stay informed about the realities of addiction.
In this age of information, there are endless videos, websites, and blogs that offer suggestions and tips on how to deal with a loved one’s addiction. Below you’ll find several books that can help you to understand your loved one’s addiction better.
This book is written as a guide to help the family members of those with substance abuse issues understand addiction and help their loved ones. Published in 2019, this guide is up-to-date in regards to how addiction affects the family today, the cost of treatment, and addresses many other questions like:
- why people choose addiction over their family
- how to motivate someone into starting recovery
- what to expect from recovery
- how to deal with relapse
- how to keep your loved one with addiction out of trouble
- how to keep a family together
2.Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction
This is a first-person account of what author David Sheff experienced while watching his son, Nic Sheff, struggle through a methamphetamine addiction and how these experiences put David in tremendous stress as a father and husband.
Though the book is geared toward parents of those with addiction, this book can still be read by siblings and relatives of someone close to someone with substance use disorder. With painstakingly harsh anecdotes, this is a true and honest look at what trying to get someone sober may look like.
As a companion piece to his father’s book listed above, Nic Sheff wrote his own account of his methamphetamine addiction. In grueling detail, Nic describes his times being homeless, wanting sobriety but unable to achieve it strictly through self-will, and how he felt putting his family through so much pain and turmoil.
Together, Beautiful Boy and Tweak provide a father-son perspective on the pitfalls and triumph of a relationship strained by addiction. These books also provide hope: Nic is one-year sober by the time of the book’s publishing.
Also known as the ”Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), this book is meant to inform alcoholics how they can recover from a grave addiction. Through telling the stories of other recovered alcoholics, laying out the 12 steps of AA, and giving thoughtful suggestions on how to reconstruct a life after an addiction, the “Big Book” is a guide on how to live a fruitful life sober.
Even though it was written with the alcoholic in mind, those close to an alcoholic can learn from these pages just how different a mind suffering from addiction works, and better equip them to understand and aid in recovery.
Final Words to Understanding Addiction
Whether you have a child, spouse, relative, or close friend with an addiction, the above books can help to shed light on their experience with substance abuse and the recovery process. Take the time to learn about addiction and how it affects the body and mind, empathizing with your loved one.
These books might also open the doorway to conversations you couldn’t have before. Understanding Addiction is the first step. After reading about addiction, use it as an opportunity to connect with your loved one and learn more about their personal experience with addiction.
Interesting sidebar, The Author (F. Scott Fitzgerald )of one of my favorite books, The Great Gatsby also had an addiction to alcohol. Check the book out and download it HERE
Author Bio:
Ben Shani is a content specialist with Detoxrehabs.net, an informational site that educates both people with an addiction and their loved ones with information about mental health, substance abuse, and treatment options.
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