Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Maybe This Will Save Me will be published on May 27, 2025 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold. In this memoir, a middle-aged woman’s seemingly perfect life unravels because of her husband’s alcoholism. Self-help books are yet another device that can support your efforts. Granted, books certainly can’t replace treatment and professional guidance. But they can provide fresh perspectives and inspiration—and reinforce that you’re not alone.
The 9 Most Moving Memoirs About Addiction
Written with courage and candor this book leaves you ready to push against a society suggesting alcohol is the solution https://ecosoberhouse.com/ to women’s problems. This is a lesser known series of essays on the intersection of alcohol and womanhood. The author, Kristi Coulter, engages the reader with her deep insight and quick wit. This combination makes her story heartening, funny, and thought-provoking at the same time.
Twenty-Four Hours a Day
- I am not sure I’d be sober today if it weren’t for Tired of Thinking About Drinking.
- Weaving together poems, historical documents, and photos, this is an essential book about, among many other things, alcoholism and survival.
- It can be read alone, but why would you want to miss out on reading all three in order?
- Although she makes faltering progress in building a simulacrum of grown-up life, her relationship with alcohol—“I had an appetite for drink, a taste for it, a talent”—steadily overtakes everything.
- This powerful memoir follows Cain’s life as she navigates a substance use disorder, incarceration, and sex work over the course of 19 years.
After finishing A Happier Hour, the bar was set high for future reads (no pun intended). Weller has a relatable story for any high-achiever who finds themselves with boozy, foggy evenings that turn into hangovers the next morning. Written with raw vulnerability, the pages of this book are filled with an honest look at her own relationship to alcohol.
This Naked Mind by Annie Grace
- For every parent riddled with guilt, for anyone waking up in the shame cave (again), for every person who has had a messy struggle forward towards redemption… this book is for you.
- The books on this list will stock your bookshelves with hilarious, shocking, and tragic stories about the downward spiral of alcohol addiction.
- Offering an easy-to-grasp explanation of the brain and addiction, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts promotes compassionate self-understanding as a pillar of health and healing.
So many of us look at “blacking out” as benign, or normal—an indicator of a “successful” night of drinking. In Blackout, Sarah clearly explains why there’s nothing benign about it and describes what is actually happening to the brain when we reach that point of alcohol-induced amnesia. I love her perspective on drinking as an act of counter-feminism—that in reality it actually dismantles our power, our pride, and our dignity as women, though we intended the opposite. So here are 10 best-selling and/or award-winning books on addiction and recovery. Along with educational insights on substance use disorders, the books provide multiple perspectives from those who have successfully traversed the road to recovery. Beck is a loving husband, father, and respected business owner who drinks two bottles of wine a night.
Quit Like a Woman by Holly Whitaker
- Dry is a heartbreaking memoir of Augusten Burrough’s story of addiction, beginning with an intervention organized by his coworkers and boss and his first bout of sobriety.
- If you’re looking to break free of the social pressure of cocktails and bar hopping, this is the book for you.
- Dr. Brown gives us tools to shape and share our thoughts in the most honest way possible, which can be a crucial step towards healing.
- But many readers —like the one I was during my time in rehab in 2015—also come to it seeking something often considered antithetical to art.
It removes the psychological dependence; allowing you to easily drink less (or stop drinking entirely). Pairing scientific research with real-life stories of addiction, the author and world-renowned trauma expert provides a holistic explanation of addiction. Offering an easy-to-grasp explanation of the brain and addiction, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts promotes compassionate self-understanding as a pillar of health best alcoholic memoirs and healing. When 15-year-old Cat moves to a new town in rural Michigan, she’s ecstatic to find a friend in Marlena, a beautiful, pill-popping neighbor.
