Best Books On Addiction

There are a ton of books out there about addiction, but in this video, I'm going to tell you about my top seven favorite books on addiction and why. That is. For those of you who are new here, I'm Amber Hollingsworth, and I want to welcome you to Put the Shovel Down. This channel is dedicated to helping you get your life back on track by teaching you the science and psychology of addiction so you can beat it. But you know what? There's a lot of other people out there that know a little something about addiction, too. And today I'm going to tell you about 7 of those people and some books that I definitely recommend you check out. Now, although I'm giving you my top seven books, these are not in order because I like them on. I don't really know if I can rank them, like, least favorite to favorite of the seven, but what I can do is kind of put them in categories for you so that you might know, oh, if I like this kind of thing or that kind of thing, which one? Which one might suit you the best? All right, let's start with the sort of what I call, like, the nerdy recovery books. So there's a book that I read. I had this quite a while back. It's by a guy named Mark Lewis, and it's called the Addicted Brain. And let me tell you what's really interesting about this book. It's written by a neuroscientist who's in recovery. So this book is the perfect balance of science and story. And y' all know how much I'm a nerd for that kind of thing. So if you love that kind of thing, you're gonna like this. It has some really heavy science in it, but it breaks it down in a way that you really can't understand what is happening in that brain. And it tells you that information alongside a personal story, which totally keeps your attention and keeps you engaged throughout this whole book. In fact, I actually read this book. I know you're thinking, well, Amber didn't read all these books. Well, usually I listen to books because I'm pre ADD and I like to do things on the go, but I actually sat down and read this whole book. And so for me being ADD and I read this whole thing, that tells you it's a pretty good book. Next on the list, which I might also kind of put in that nerdyish category, if you really like to understand how things work, is Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari. And if you've seen a lot of my videos, you may have met. You may have heard me mention this before, but this is one of my favorites. This book is a total game changer and it really explores addiction through so many lenses. And so you get to take a look at addiction historically and politically and legally. And so the author of this book, Johann Hari, is like a reporter. And so he looks at this thing from all these different points of view. He looks at it through the research point of view and through the person who has an addiction point of view and from the family point of view and from a drug dealer's point of view and from the legal system or the police point of view. Just looking at it from all angles. For me, this book was a total game changer. I mean, it's like after I read this book, it was almost like questioning your religion. Like I had to really back up and rethink some of my, some of my long held philosophical values about how we deal with addiction. That's just how powerful this book is. Again, it's called Chasing the the first and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari. And don't worry, I'm going to put a of all these books for you right in the description. Okay. This next book is the last one that I'm gonna put in the real like science Y category and it is a book about alcoholism. It's called the Naked Mind and it's by Annie Grace. And I just love this book. In fact, Annie Grace has a YouTube channel and I encourage you to check it out. If you haven't seen it, she's got a whole different approach for helping people stop drinking. It's totally different than this 12 step way. In fact, she really focus on helping people decide that they just don't want to drink anymore, which is really different from the typical approach which is like, this ain't working for you and you need to stop drinking. So a lot of people think, well, I should stop drinking, I need to stop drinking. But like I said, this naked mind helps you to kind of come to terms with, dude, I don't even want to drink anymore. So if alcohol is the issue, definitely consider checking out Annie Grace's YouTube channel and of course get the book this Naked Mind. And if you're the family member worried about someone that has an addiction, particularly if you're a parent, this next book is for you. It's called House on Stilts by Paula Becker. And this book really is Paula's personal story of dealing with her own son's addiction. And I mean, this is really the up close and personal point of view about what it's like to have a child going through this. The struggles that you have, the decisions that you have to make, the heartstrings that get pulled on the other siblings and how to balance all that in. So if you're a parent of someone struggling house on stilts. This is a great book. Okay, now, these next three books I'm going to tell you about are written from people who are in recovery about their experiences. And the other thing you should know about these next three books is that there's some language and there's some language in there and a lot of sarcasm. Now, me personally, if you see my videos, you probably know I'm a little bit sarcastic. So I love the sarcasm and the humor. And you like a good, real life, true recovery story. Check out these three books. Okay, the first one I want to tell you about in this category is the book Recovery by Russell Brand. You know who Russell Brand is? The comedian. You know, the British guy who's got the really sort of funny, dark sense of humor, like he was in that movie Saving Sarah Marshall. That's the movie I remember him from the most. He is hysterical and he talks about the 12 steps in his book, and he really sort of explains it in a really blunt, kind of crass, kind of deep, philosophical way. So I really feel like his book is this bizarre mix of humor and sarcasm and deep depth, like deep stuff and 12 steps and story, you know, different stories from his life. So it is a great combination and it really appeals to a lot of different senses. But there will definitely be some points in this book where you're gonna be like, did he just say that? What I thought he said? At least I had a few of those moments. Okay, next on the list is a book called High Achiever by Tiffany Jenkins. Oh, my gosh. I just read this book this week and I am in love with it. In fact, I got the book and I thought, oh, I'll listen to a little bit of this before I go to sleep. Guess what? I stayed up all night and binged this book. I know, it's like Netflix or something. Totally love this book. Like, secretly sniffling, trying not to wake up my family. Because I'm like, listening to this book all night. It's her personal story. And although this is such a deep and difficult and personal topic, this author uses a lot of humor, but it is very real. And so if you like that kind of thing, check out High Achiever. Again, that's by Tiffany Jenkins. Okay, last book. And this is the one that I have most recently read. This is a book called Idiot by Laura Cleary. Now my husband actually sent this to me recently. Sometime this week over, he sent me like this funny little Facebook video. And he's like, this is like a funny view on recovery I thought you might like. And it's hysterical. And you can see her on this little video that I got from my husband. It's like she's this, this woman, Laura, the author, is talking to her baby and she's like, let me tell you how I met your father. And then she sort of tells these sort of antics and these tales which are like really far out there. And she's got such a great sense of humor and deep insight, but the way she tells it was with such self deprecation. You really just laugh all the way through this book. Now a lot of you may be thinking, you know, why do you pick all these books that sort of use all this humor and lightness? Well, I think a lot of times for me, one of the ways I can tell someone's getting better is that they are able to talk about their experiences in a way. A lot of times that does have humor or that doesn't feel like it's going to break them in pieces. That to me is a sign of recovery. And I think if you're struggling with this, it might help you to sort of be able to laugh at yourself and move forward from some of these really dark, difficult moments that you've had. So there you have it. That's my top seven books. And I'll make sure you have the titles, the authors, and the links in the description below.