Addiction Memoirs

For 21 years, Paul Merson played professional football. He won two First Division titles with Arsenal and was one of the finest players of his generation. But for 30 years, Paul Merson has also been an addict. Alcohol, drugs, gambling: a desperately unenviable cocktail of addictions and depression which has plagued his entire adult life and driven him to the verge of suicide.

When we battle low self-esteem, and that voice in the back of our mind tells us we are not good enough, all too often, we believe it. This is how Tamar's journey from a happy upbringing, into the depths of addiction and co-dependency, began. Through the use of drugs, alcohol, and other substances, Tamar found a way to silence the voices. Hope Elevated is about learning how to accept that the events of our past can serve as a means to building a better future. This book is a story about addiction, obesity, and destructive behavior. It serves to remind us all that we are not alone in our...

Lost and Found: A Sober Living Story is a powerful and inspiring journey of transformation, healing, and hope. In this deeply moving narrative, Dr. Brenda Combs introduces readers to Jennifer—a woman who has lost everything to addiction but finds the courage to reclaim her life inside a sober living home. Through raw honesty and emotional depth, Jennifer’s story reveals the pain of her past, the challenges of recovery, and the strength it takes to rebuild from the ground up. As she confronts trauma, temptation, and self-doubt, she also discovers the power of community, accountability, ...

Incurable Hope is a loving mother's memoir of her only child's disease of addiction and overcoming the multiple traumas he endured. This book examines how substance use disorder, mental health, and trauma can collide with the legal and medical systems. More importantly, it is a survival guide, a resource guide, and a desperately needed tour guide through the labyrinth of addiction.

Dan W., possibly related to Bill W., shares his experience, strength, and hope in this powerful book, Dan 2. 0, on recovering from his addictions to alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine. Following his childhood in Africa, the son of missionaries, he became a career Marine, serving nearly 39-years on active duty. Deciding to quit his three addictions, after retiring from the Marines, he discovered that he could not do it on willpower and discipline alone. He needed help, which he found in a Higher Power and in the rooms of AA.

"A Fight for Me: A Journey from Wreckage to Redemption" is a powerful and honest memoir adapted for young readers from the international bestseller "The Devil Inside Me" by Joshua T. Berglan. This gripping narrative chronicles the author's tumultuous journey through addiction, mental health struggles, and personal turmoil, ultimately leading to resilience, faith, and redemption. Berglan shares his raw and unfiltered story of overcoming immense challenges, including substance abuse, trauma, and the consequences of harmful choices. This book offers a message of hope and transformation, ...

A child survives the miracle of birth. Regrettably, the doctor discovers an abnormality. Born March 7th, 1973 as the 28th recorded birth to survive with a diagnosis of Eagle-Barrett Syndrome. The rare birth defect involves three triads of urological complications. Continued survival meant multiple surgeries, painful examinations, with tubes inserted into the urethra as the corrective procedures healed. The doctor’s frightening revelations, “a child rarely survives to the age of two.” Each birthday celebration an unknown, "The chance for your survival to the age of sixteen is rare," ...

Sam Delaney was Jack the Lad. He was confident, loud and funny; an absolute legend, to be honest. Or at least that was what he pretended to be. But when he reached his thirties, work, relationships and fatherhood started to take their toll. Like so many blokes who seemed to be totally fine, he often felt like a complete failure whose life was out of control; anxiety and depression had secretly plagued him for years. Turning to drink and drugs only made things worse.

Diario de una ninfómana es el conmovedor relato de una mujer francesa, de buena familia, licenciada en dirección de empresas, que narra su evolución vital a través de las relaciones sexuales que va teniendo: con los sepultureros de un cementerio, con un árabe muy aficionado a la Coca-Cola, con un policía sin escrúpulos, con desconocidos en lugares imprevistos... Multitud de vivencias que asume con la máxima libertad que tiene cualquier persona: la que uno se concede a sí mismo y no la que se ve obligado a tener.

When Robert Imbeault began writing this book, he did so with the intention of ending his life once the book was finished. Robert was in the midst of a five-year suicidal drug and alcohol binge that began after the sudden resurfacing of a buried memory from when he was eight-years-old. Robert turned to writing, determined to chronicle his life before and after the violent encounter that shattered his reality.

Matt Rowland Hill had two great loves in his life: Jesus and heroin. The son of an evangelical minister, Hill grew up with an unwavering devotion to the tenets of his parents’ Baptist church. But by high school, he began to experience a crisis of faith. To fill the void, he turned to literature, and then to heroin and cocaine. By his twenties, Hill’s substance abuse escalated into a full-on addiction. As he grew increasingly suicidal, he knew he had to come to terms with both religion and drugs to survive.

The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions – Harvard; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Oxford; the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations in the arts and the sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing Oxycontin, a blockbuster painkiller that was a catalyst for the opioid crisis – an international epidemic of drug addiction which has killed nearly half a million people.

Since he was a young boy, Joe Balzer dreamed of flying. He pursued his goal with passion and earned his pilot licenses, piling up hours of flight time with a wide variety of planes and jets with one overarching goal: to one day fly for a major airline. But Joe had a problem. He was an alcoholic and refused to admit to himself that he had a problem. His alcoholism caught up with him in March 1990, when Joe was arrested with two other pilots for flying a commercial airliner while under the influence of alcohol.

There wasn't one major reason that Kate Gunn decided to give up alcohol, more a few minor ones. She had an inkling that alcohol was holding her back from getting on top of her life. Plus the hangovers were getting worse. No longer just a dull headache throughout the day. At the worst times, entire weekends wiped out by one fun night she could hardly remember.

Ivor Dennidge had chosen his way of life and planned to stick to it. He had found a perfect work/benefits balance which allowed him to live as he saw fit and avoid the slavery of full-time work. He had everything he needed to enjoy life and an abundance of what he valued most; spare time. This is the story of a day which began in much the same way as the previous 2,878 days of Ivor Dennidge’s post-rat-race existence. A short story of about 9000 words from the author of ‘Northern Dole’.

She had big plans of becoming a country music star, but her life went in a different direction than her dreams. She developed an eating disorder early in life to gain a sense of control in her strict upbringing. As she continued to struggle with body image and her obsession with being perfect her entire adult life, she was also met with other difficult situations. Her husband and father of her two eldest daughters, Dallas and Demi, had his own troubles that effected the entire family. She coped with alcohol and pills, forming a long-lasting addiction.

Ryan never envisioned just how far his football career would take him. But bubbling under the surface of his entire NFL career was a collision course between his secret sexuality and his hidden drug use. As injuries mounted and his daily intake of opioids reached a near-lethal level, he wrote his suicide note to his parents and plotted his death. Yet, someone had been watching. A member of the Chiefs organization stepped in, recognizing the signs of drug addiction. Ryan reluctantly sought psychological help, and it was there that he revealed his lifelong secret for the very first time.

Nearly every American knows someone who has been affected by the opioid crisis. Addiction is a trans-partisan issue that impacts individuals from every walk of life. Millions of Americans are tired of watching their loved ones die while politicians ignore this issue. Where is the solution? Where is the hope? Where's the outrage? Ryan Hampton understands firsthand how easy it is to develop a dependency on opioids, and how destructive it can quickly become. Now, he is waging a permanent campaign to change our way of thinking about and addressing addiction in this country.

Famously neurotic comedian Richard Lewis finds himself on a gurney in the ER at the age of 44, hallucinating from excess cocaine use and his body poisoned by acute alcoholism. The same dysfunctions that had been the basis for his successful stage persona and inspired his best material had, it seemed, turned on him. In this very funny, deeply honest, and inspiring book, Lewis explores how he got there, how he finally got on the road to recovery, and how he copes with being Richard Lewis sober on a daily basis.

I decided to write this book to share the last 20 years and how opiates devastated my life. I hope that people who listen to this book will learn about the disease of opiate addiction and seek help before it's too late. I share details about my life as it was before the injury and the many ways this injury turned my life and the lives of all those dear to me into a living hell over the next decade. This included my wife, children, extended family, and friends who also share their stories and experiences in this book.