6 Best Books on Addiction

Books on addiction and recovery are becoming popular with an increasing number of people lapping them up. Whether it is because of one's personal substance use problem or a loved one's addiction to a dangerous drug, people regularly glean for whatever help is possible from these informative books.

Here, we take a look at six such popular books dealing with addiction and sobriety:

Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: A Memoir: Published in 2010, the book by Bill Clegg is an irresistible account of a flourishing literary agent about his tryst with rehabilitation and how to resist temptation and prevent a possible relapse. The writer captures the imagination of the reader with a vivid description of scenes, tension, drama and the lure of drug.

The Liars' Club: A personal account of author Mary Karr, the book beautifully depicts her alcoholism, recovery, and subsequent conversion to Catholicism. A book which took memoirs to a new level, it jocularly presented Karr's comic childhood in an east Texas oil town, her alcoholic father, a sister who could talk down the police at 12, and anecdotes about her mother who married many times. The book was published in 1995.

The Basketball Diaries: It is a 1978 published memoir of author and musician Jim Carroll. The book is an amalgamation of his diaries he'd painstakingly written through the 1960s. Set in the New York of the 60s, the book portrays Carroll's sexual escapades, his basketball career, the anti-culture movement, and primarily his addiction to heroin that started at the age of 13. The book is still considered a gem in adolescent literature. The book was also adapted into a 1995 movie with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead.

How to Stop Time Heroin from A to Z: This book by Ann Marlowe is more about the drug itself than addiction as a process, but still, it is a riveting tale of heroin usage and its vagaries. It is a gripping tale about snorting heroin during the 90s. The book throws light on the consumer culture of the 90s from which stemmed the heroin boom. However, people were flabbergasted by the way she glorified heroin use. Despite her rendezvous with the drug, it did not qualify to be an addiction. "Addiction is a mourning for the irrecoverable glories of the first time," she said.

Junky: A book by William Burroughs, it is a blatant narration of heroin addiction by a Harvard graduate from a Social Register family. Though the book was written more than half a century ago, it still holds a universal appeal which never stops enthralling readers. Published in 1953, it's a must-read for those who want to enjoy some thrilling addiction trivia.

Permanent Midnight: Penned by Jerry Stahl, the book raised quite a few eyeballs the moment it was released. Laden with grotesque scenes where Stahl injects heroin directly into his neck and much more, the book explores the depth and agonies of addiction. Another impelling aspect of the book is its sheer depiction of Hollywood's flirtations with drugs, which the readers love.

Books like these give some unknown perspectives to readers about addiction, recovery and people's struggle with substance use. Literature of this kind always offers some take-home message.

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Letting Go of the Past, of Attachments and of Fears

I am sure you have heard the phrase ‘let go’, more than a few times.

What do these words mean? What do you let go?

This phrase is often said, when someone is having pain for something that happened in the past. Most people are unable to quit the past and go on. They keep thinking about it, causing themselves suffer.

The problem is people don’t know how to let go.

There is attachment, and there is the fear of letting go.

People fear they might lose something in this process, but losing what is causing pain is a blessing. It is not a loss.

Too much involvement past memories, suffering, unhappy thoughts and negative people, take too much of your time, energy and health. This involvement agitates your mind and feelings, obstructs common sense, and prevents you from enjoying inner peace. Letting go is the answer.

What Is Letting Go?

• It is stopping the attachment to the past, especially to painful past memories, and focusing on the present. When you release the past you can start accepting the present.
• It is non-attachment to results. This means that you do your best in every situation, but if things do not turn well or as planned, you don’t dwell on them and don’t get disappointed or discouraged.
• Letting go is like lifting the anchor of your ship, so that it can sail away. In order to move on, you need to release thoughts, habits, fears and worries. These are you anchor, your shackles that tie you down to the same habits, circumstances and a certain way of life.
• Letting go requires a certain degree of emotional detachment. This leads to non-attachment, about which all the spiritual traditions speak about.

If you don’t let go, you remain tied and not free. You limit your perception, cause yourself stress and tension. If you cannot detach yourself from painful memories, envy, jealousy, bad relations, you suffer. It is like being in a swamp, doing nothing to get out.

On the other hand, letting go, detaching yourself from the causes of suffering, brings relief, ease, joy, and love.

Letting go is so valuable, but few people do something about it. It might seem strange, but they prefer to stay where they are, emotionally, mentally and physically, even this hurts them.

People love the familiar and unknown, and feel more comfortable and safer in familiar situations, even if this causes suffering. They fear of the unknown, and therefore, don’t want to let go. They also don’t know how to let go. No one has ever taught them.

Learning to let go requires more than a short article. It requires, guidance inner work and training, and that’s why I wrote a book about it.

Simple Guidelines for Letting Go

1. Make peace with the past. What happened belongs to the past. Don’t let it tie you down. It is time to go on and live. Will thoughts about the past help you? Absolutely not!

Yes, the mind keeps returning to thoughts and memories you would be glad to forget. That’s okay. Be smarter, and use the same technique the mind is using.

Whenever you catch yourself thinking about painful memories, immediately replace them with opposite thoughts. Replace them with positive and happy thoughts. In time, this will turn into a habit.

2. Did you love somebody and you separated?

If you want to get back, and there is such a chance, keep on trying. However, if you see no chance, let go and move on.

Thinking about him or her and suffering is useless. No one gains anything from this situation. It might be easier said than done, but you should move on with your life and meet other people. Don’t stay stuck.

3. Sometimes goals change. Sometimes priorities change. Learn to change with them and take another course, another direction.

4. Fear might be holding you back. Letting go also means facing the fears and disappointments of the past, and then severing you connection with them. Try it, and you will see that it is not so difficult.

5. Are you holding on to old grudges? Do you play in your mind something someone said that hurt you? You are hurting yourself, not the one who hurt you. You are the one suffering and that’s foolish.

Don’t hold on to grudges and hurt feelings. It is like pouring fuel into the fire. Holding on to anger, resentment and hatred will hold you back. It will make you unhappy. Throw away these feelings. Yes, you can. Refuse to have anything to do with them. That might not be easy, but that’s the direct way.

6. If some people discourage you and stand in your way, move on. Meet new people.

7. Open your mind to opportunities, new starts, and new things. Do what makes you happy, improves, improves your life, and benefits you and the society where you live. Don’t be afraid to let go what holds you back.

http://www.successconsciousness.com/blog/personal-development/letting-go-of-the-past/