Books About Addiction and Recovery

So many people wrestle daily with addiction. It is an illness that doesn't just impact the person affected, but also everyone around them: family, friends, co-workers. While it seems like we're finally moving more towards seeing addiction and recovery as medical issues to be treated rather than criminal issues to be punished, we still have a long way to go. Reading about people who've experienced addiction whether through fiction or memoir can be a powerful way to learn about how this challenging illness impacts the day-to-day lives of those affected. Check out these books that contain humanizing portrayals of people dealing with addiction and recovery and those who love them. And if you or someone you know are coping with addiction, here are some resources you can turn to:

NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse)— https://www.drugabuse.gov

NIDA for Teens — https://teens.drugabuse.gov

SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)— https://www.samhsa.gov

Fix

by J. Albert Mann 

Eve and Lidia have been friends since Kindergarten. Eve was born with severe scoliosis. Lidia was born with one hand. Their structural deviations are not what brought them together, but they are what rips them apart.

Trapped and alone inside of an un-working body following surgery and filled with obvious regret, Eve is forced into her mind, an unhappy place since her split with Lidia. Under an increasing dependence on opiates and struggling to tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined, Eve strikes up a relationship--and a pact--with the devil. She wishes for everything to go back to the way it was, to have Lidia in her life again. But as she starts to unravel the past, she comes to realize that her memory is far from reliable and must come to grips with what she thinks she knows.

The Revolution of Birdie Randolph

by Brandy Colbert

Dove "Birdie" Randolph works hard to be the perfect daughter and follow the path her parents have laid out for her: she quit playing her beloved soccer, she keeps her nose buried in textbooks, and she's on track to finish high school at the top of her class. But then Birdie falls hard for Booker, a sweet boy with a troubled past...whom she knows her parents will never approve of.

When her estranged aunt Carlene returns to Chicago and moves into their apartment above the family's hair salon, Birdie notices the tension building at home. Carlene is sweet, friendly, and open-minded-she's also spent decades in and out of treatment facilities for substance abuse. As Birdie becomes closer to both Booker and Carlene, she yearns to spread her wings. But when long-buried secrets rise to the surface, everything she's known to be true is turned upside down.

Far From You

by Tess Sharpe

Sophie Winters nearly died. Twice.

The first time, she’s fourteen, and escapes a near-fatal car accident with scars, a bum leg, and an addiction to Oxy that’ll take years to kick.

The second time, she’s seventeen, and it’s no accident. Sophie and her best friend Mina are confronted by a masked man in the woods. Sophie survives, but Mina is not so lucky. When the cops deem Mina’s murder a drug deal gone wrong, casting partial blame on Sophie, no one will believe the truth: Sophie has been clean for months, and it was Mina who led her into the woods that night for a meeting shrouded in mystery.

After a forced stint in rehab, Sophie returns home to a chilly new reality. Mina’s brother won’t speak to her, her parents fear she’ll relapse, old friends have become enemies, and Sophie has to learn how to live without her other half. To make matters worse, no one is looking in the right places and Sophie must search for Mina’s murderer on her own. But with every step, Sophie comes closer to revealing all: about herself, about Mina?and about the secret they shared.

We All Fall Down

by Nic Sheff

In his bestselling memoir Tweak, Nic Sheff took readers on an emotionally gripping roller-coaster ride through his days as an addict. In this powerful follow-up about his continued efforts to stay clean, Nic writes candidly about eye-opening stays at rehab centers, devastating relapses, and hard-won realizations about what it means to be a young person living with addiction. By candidly revealing his own failures and small personal triumphs, Nic inspires readers to maintain hope and to remember that they are not alone in their battles.

Nic Sheff’s Tweak, We All Fall Down, and his father’s memoir about him (Beautiful Boy) are the basis of the film Beautiful Boy starring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet.

MedHead

by James Patterson and Hal Friedman

Cory Friedman knows how it feels to have a body that won’t stop moving, to be really different from everyone else, to be made fun of every day, to be totally reckless, to never relax, to be shut out of everything, to break free and take control.

James Patterson’s Against Medical Advice riveted adults with the page-turning drama of one teenager’s courage, sacrifice, and triumph in confronting an agonizing medical condition. Now this deeply personal account of Cory Friedman’s intense struggles with Tourette’s Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder-as well as depression, anxiety, and alcohol addiction-is available for teen readers.

Begging for Change

by Sharon Flake

It's been a year since Raspberry's mother threw her hard-earned money out the window like trash, so to Raspberry money equals security and balance. And she's determined to do anything to achieve it. But when a troubled neighborhood teenager attacks her mother and Raspberry's drug-addicted father returns, Raspberry becomes desperate for her life to change and ends up doing the unthinkable, potentially ruining her friendships and losing her self-respect along the way. Will Raspberry accept that nothing good comes of bad money? Or is she destined to follow in her father's footsteps?