2 Book Recommendations

I’ve been searching bookstores for addiction resources.

Many books, written by experts, tackle this complex subject from an academic
standpoint.  I’ve found a number of books, written by the addicts themselves, chronicling their personal journeys through hell and back.

Books written by the parents of substance abusers are notably scarce, 
probably because reliving the experience is excruciating.

Two that I highly recommend:
A Beautiful Boy: A father’s journey through his son’s addiction, by David Sheff 
Stay Close: A mother’s story of her son’s addiction, by Libby Cataldi.

The emotional wild ride of parenting addiction is distinct from the addict’s
experience.  
For parents, staying connected to those feelings and attempting to
understand them is a necessary ingredient in their own healing process.

According to an article written by Karen A. Baikie and Kay Wilhelm
“writing about traumatic, stressful or emotional events has been found to 
result in improvement in both physical and psychological health”.

After the fact, it’s easy to let the painful parts blur, just like we forget the 
pain of childbirth.  
But what if the confusion, fear and doubt of one parent can guide, reassure 
or ignite other parents to take action?

I’m writing it down to bring it out of the shadows.












In the past few months, I have been to several of the big-box bookstores as well as explored online to see what addiction resources are on the shelves.  There is comprehensive material written by the experts, who have spent many years studying this complex subject.  There are a number of books written by the addicts themselves, chronicling their personal journeys.  

There are but a few books written by parents of the addict, probably because reliving the experience is excruciating.  
Beautiful boy: a father’s journey through his son’s addiction, by David Sheff and Stay Close: A Mother’s Story of her Son’s Addiction, by Libby Cataldi,  are two that I highly recommend.

My overriding objective in writing this blog is to expose the emotional side and the harsh reality of my own experience with parenting addiction.  It’s difficult to quantify emotions, but staying connected and attempting to understand them is such an important ingredient in the personal healing process.

According to an article written by Karen A. Baikie and Kay Wilhelm, 
“writing about traumatic, stressful or emotional events has been found to result in improvements in both physical and psychological health”….