The Addiction Recovery Handbook

Addiction is rapidly becoming one of the most significant challenges to mental health today. According to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH, 2018), 19.7 million Americans, aged 12 and older, battled a substance disorder alone in 2017. Additionally, 8.5 million of those individuals also suffered from a mental health disorder, with millions more suffering from a range of other addictive disorders and associated behaviors that interfere with physical, social and emotional health. These alarming statistics highlight the crucial need for mental health providers to be kept up to date with the latest research on the full range of addiction treatment and recovery. ‘The Recovery Handbook: Understanding Addictions and Evidenced-Based Treatment Practices’ provides a comprehensive examination of the various forms of addiction, its physical and mental complexities, and, unlike other sources on addiction, effective evidence-based interventions that promote a healthy recovery. Particular attention is given to the nature of addiction, including environmental, genetic, and developmental factors; with authors examining the short- and long-term effects of a variety of addictions such as drug, alcohol, gambling, food, sex, shopping, work, and video gaming to name a few. This book will serve as a valuable resource for counselors, psychologists, professors, graduate students in the helping professions, as well as families of addicts, co-workers, and those suffering from addiction themselves.

What Richard Clark presents in The Addiction Recovery Handbook: Understanding Addiction and Culture is long overdue. Since 1939, Bill Wilson’s important and influential books, Alcoholics Anonymous and AA’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, have helped millions of people struggling with addiction to recover. In more than 80 years since then, a lot has changed: the definition of addiction, its demographics, social attitudes to addiction, politics, religious influence, treatment modalities, and the epidemiology of the illness. These have taken tolls on our modern network of relationships and treatment that culture and community now depend upon. The Addiction Recovery Handbook examines the changing historical views of addiction, outlines how this culture developed its contemporary perceptions and values, and how society contributes to this growing problem. Richard Clark proposes AA’s traditional religious model of God’s help-and-forgiveness can no longer address the needs of a diverse and largely irreligious society where atheism is becoming mainstream. His updated analysis of the traditional ‘AA’ approach proposes that self-understanding and awareness—through knowledge and education, psychology, and compassion, be the significant components of any recovery framework. This will guide both caregivers and addicts to develop expertise regarding more successful treatment and recovery protocols. This would be in a supportive environment of self-knowledge and mutual respect, whether theist or atheist. All concerned will acquire the ability to live a spiritual life, which is clearly defined. The Addiction Recovery Handbook is an interesting and readable book and is intended for everyone: addicts, medical professionals, counsellors, therapists, clients, sponsors, social workers, family members, partners, friends, employers—every stakeholder in a healthy, non-judgmental society that cares about the wellbeing of all its members.

Addiction Recovery Tools: A Practical Handbook presents verified recovery tools with a methodical "when and how" approach for each available tool. Including both Western and Eastern methods, the book catalogs the motivational, medical-pharmaceutical, cognitive-behavioral, psychosocial, and holistic tools accessible in a wide variety of settings and programs.

A profound yet practical guide to understanding addiction and recovery from an authority on the subject. No social problem today causes greater confusion than addiction. Whatever form it takes — alcohol, heroin, cocaine, nicotine, etc. — it tears apart homes and relationships, destroys careers and futures, and leaves loved ones asking: Why couldn't he stop once and for all? Or "get better"? Or control himself? Despite everything that's been said and written, many people remain deeply confounded about these problems. The addiction-treatment field itself is in a state of civil war because there is no consensus on what addiction is, much less what to do about it. Based on years of hard-won experience by a preeminent specialist in addictive behavior, Thinking Simply About Addiction explains the core truth of addiction: It is not a neurosis, a physical malady, a behavioral choice, or, in the narrowest sense, a moral failure. It is an automatism — an involuntary, non-stoppable behavior that once triggered leaves the addict powerless. It is a human problem and a part of human nature. As such, it is something that we all experience. In four to-the-point chapters, Thinking Simply About Addiction rises above the noise level and provides real-world help and new ways of thinking for addicts and those who care for them. Its insights are so profoundly clear and sensible that many readers will be able to say: Finally, someone gets it.

Are you sick and tired of being addicted? Do you want to recover but think the 12-Step programme is not for you because you don’t believe in God? This book presents a new version of the Steps which is simple and do-able by everyone, whether they have a particular faith or not. Research now proves beyond doubt that the 12-Step programme is a way to long-term recovery, so if you are suffering from addiction, or are a GP who knows your addicted patient needs more support than you can provide, this book is for you. Lynden Finlay has over twenty years’ experience both in addictions counselling and personally recovering from addictions herself, working closely with the Twelve Steps programme during that time. Over the years she has seen many residents benefit from this version which has at its heart not a focus on God, but on the healing power of one addict helping another.

Author Jack Alan Levine has put together an all-encompassing, never-before-seen compilation of addiction recovery opinions, ideas, and principles based on the real-life experience of addiction professionals and experts. The book details what has worked and what hasn't, providing all the information you need to make intelligent decisions regarding your personal struggle or a loved one's struggle with addiction and, more importantly, with recovery. The chapter authors did not discuss their chapters with each other prior to writing, but spoke only from their own point of view. Yet many similar themes on addiction and recovery appear throughout the book. There are priceless truths, undeniable wisdom, and many great insights and ideas in these pages that will last for generations and impact the world for recovery for decades to come. You can read any chapter you want in any order you want. When you look at the table of contents, start with the chapter that appeals most to you. Definitely read the whole book, but it does not matter the order in which you read the chapters. Addiction has haunted, destroyed, and ruined the futures, hopes, dreams, and lives of too many individuals and their families. The authors believe that together can break that chain and we've given you the tools to begin do so in this book. Book contributors include Raymond Alvarez, Graham Barrett, Dr. Adam Bianchini, Dr. Karl Benzio, Keith Brooks, Joe Bryan, Lui Delgado, Philip Dvorak, Dr. KJ Foster, Dr. Anthony Foster, Dr. David Jenkins, Jack Alan Levine, Douglas Lidwell, Pasco Manzo, Craig Nichols, Trinity Phillips, Dr. Jared Pingleton, Kerry Roesser, and Anonymous (Mike W. and Alice H).

12 Secular Steps: An Addiction Recovery Guide is a Step working guidebook for agnostics, atheists, and others who believe addicts should be active in and accountable for their recovery. Unlike traditional Twelve Step literature, this secular adaptation of 12 Step approach neither promotes nor rejects religion and spirituality; it de-emphasizes the active role of God or a Higher Power in favor of a secular, cognitive-behavioral framework. The adapted methodologies are grounded in a biology-based foundation and philosophy.

Living with Co-occurring Addiction and Mental Health Disorders