Recovery Memoirs

When SPC Kayla Williams and SGT Brian McGough met at a mountain outpost in Iraq in 2003, only their verbal sparring could have betrayed a hint of attraction. Neither could have predicted the sequence of events that would shape their lives. Brian, on his way back to base after mid-tour leave, was wounded by a roadside bomb that sent shrapnel through his brain. Kayla waited anxiously for news and, on returning home, sought out Brian. The two began a tentative romance and later married, but neither anticipated the consequences of Brian’s injury on their lives.

The story is about Sue, who started out living in a trailer with her uneducated, teenage parents in the backwoods in the 1960s. Moving out on her own at 15, she made "headline news" with record-breaking car sales in a man's world in the late '70s and '80s. Sue had to hang tough as the jealous men were sure she had slept with her customers to make so many car deals. The office women with college degrees resented giving a high school dropout pay checks exceeding their own.

At the age of 15, Kelle Groom found that alcohol allowed her to connect with people and explore intimacy in ways she'd never been able to experience before. She began drinking before class, often blacked out at bars, and fell into destructive relationships. At 19, already an out-of-control alcoholic, she was pregnant. Accepting the heartbreaking fact that she was incapable of taking care of her son herself, she gave him up for adoption to her aunt and uncle. When he was nine months old, the boy was diagnosed with leukemia....

Welcome to my story. This story is about a journey into the world of anxiety and depression. If you are currently suffering from these conditions, then you can understand how difficult it can be to simply get up in the morning and try to live a normal life. The truth is that there are days when you just can’t, and it’s hard to make it through the day, but you try your hardest to do it. You try so hard to live a normal life. But it’s like walking around with a boulder around your neck. It’s been a long road for me. That’s why I wanted to share this book.

This is never more important than when life takes a downturn in the form of a sick loved one. Love Heals is the true story of a doctor's journey from successful physician to patient facing illness after illness, until his life depended upon a heart transplant so risky, few hospitals would even dare to attempt it. At one point, the family faced the dilemma of choosing between an artificial heart or taking a risk of waiting for a donor heart when the patient was given 24 hours to live.

Have you or a loved one ever struggled with addictions, codependency, trauma, or shame? Do you often feel "not good enough", alone, or hopeless? Have you ever wondered if God is real, alive, or cares about your mess? This book is for you. Laura McCarthy writes from both her personal struggles and professional point of view.

After 24 years in healthcare, one fateful evening transformed Mandi from practitioner to patient. A motor vehicle accident left her with a significant traumatic brain injury that has taken her much longer than expected to recover from. Follow along as she shares her journey back from her worst day through the first year.

Sherri Wyatt was raised by loving parents in a Christian home. However, perversion of grace by religion and religious rituals spoke the fire-and-brimstone message of condemnation, guilt, and shame. Confusion prevailed from an early age about the love of God. As life-threatening childhood health issues mounted, she felt God was mad at her. She tried to do good and be good, yet more trauma was inflicted.

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," ...

Ever heard of someone hitting rock bottom before they finally have a come-to-Jesus moment? Well, Brian will be the first to admit he couldn’t tell you which rock bottom finally did the trick! In this riveting account of his personal testimony, he tells the story of how he went from a life in ruins from the consequences of his addictions to sober, clean, and studying for the ministry, as well as inventor of several medical devices already beginning to change countless lives.

After the disintegration of the most significant relationship of his life, the demons Luke Turner has been battling since childhood are quick to return - depression and guilt surrounding his identity as a bisexual man, experiences of sexual abuse, and the religious upbringing that was the cause of so much confusion. It is among the trees of London's Epping Forest where he seeks refuge. But once a place of comfort, it now seems full of unexpected, elusive threats that trigger twisted reactions.

With an audacious persistence to reclaim her life, Tia set off on a 15-year path to psychological health. The result is an emotionally regulated, actualized, self-aware woman able to tell her hard story without retraumatizing herself, a woman able to reach a hand back to help others claim what’s theirs. If trauma took your past, it shouldn’t get your present and future too. Through a series of personal stories, therapeutic stages, and resources built around a multi-step model, Tia Levings will guide you through the journey that helped her leave abuse, rediscover selfhood, and heal her mind.

Her Name Was Lola is the story of Trish Ryan’s triumphant recovery from a stroke that should have killed her. She had a successful career in the entertainment industry for over 30 years until May 5th, 2017, when she suffered a severe stroke that changed her life forever. Living a very fast-paced life had not prepared her for when it all came to a grinding halt. Lost and confused with no roadmap to follow, she relied on her faith to show her the way to embrace what happened and move forward.

A riveting and raw story of how one woman overcame alcoholism and mental illness and broke free from the genetic blueprint of addiction that demonized her family for generations. She sets you in a front row seat as she shares her life story and experiences, which show the strength, determination and courage of how she refused to continue with this way of life, and how she would do whatever it took to protect her children from being exposed to a life of addiction which is so normalized and influenced within society.

From the Edge of the Cliff: Understanding the Two Phases of Recovery and Becoming the Person You're Meant to Be provides addicts with practical lessons on how to understand and successfully navigate the two phases of recovery from drug and/or alcohol addiction. However, it is also a remarkably touching, real-life story of someone who has used these same lessons to maintain 28 years of successful recovery. This audiobook contains an entire section on the hazards of drugs prescribed by physicians not well versed in addiction recovery.

An adventurous and free-spirited young man, Winston "Win" Williams, was destined for adventure. He spent years sailing around the world, experiencing life many only see through the movies or TV. From Tahiti to New Guinea and the far east, to the Indian Ocean, Africa, and the Philippines, Win had it all under a cloud of sails. Until he didn't. This dramatic memoir brings us from the highs of life on the seas to the lows of addiction and, devastatingly, losing it all. Win shares openly and honestly his experience of recovery from alcoholism, and the restoration of relationships and a new life...

The year 2013 was my year of Job. In the Bible, Job was a very wealthy man with a large family who loved God. For reasons Job did not understand, he lost his family, wealth, businesses, and then health--quickly and violently. For about nine months, he was lost to grief and despaired even of life. But God. But God.

What is the thing most of us search for, sing about, cry about, that research has all wrong? The secret to the rarest, most passionate love that never ends.

This memoir entitled “A Safe Place for Brent” is the experience of a UCC and Disciples of Christ minister named Peter Denbo Haskins who founded and directed a ministry in Knox County, Indiana called “Life After Meth.” It is his experience working in the local jail where he combined Christian ministry and secular social work to create a program to combat the methamphetamine epidemic from 2005 until 2018. This book is written to share this story of hope for any minister, social worker, recovering drug addict and struggling family member of an addict or a member of a community that is ...

While most people meet their child for the first time in a delivery room, some parents have to meet their child in the reception area of an administrative building. Not Always Happy is a humorous and sharp chronicle about adopting and raising a son with Down syndrome from the Maine foster care system. The author quickly learns that life is best lived by expecting the unplanned when she makes the decision to become a parent in her late forties.