Product Description
We define ourselves by the way we relate to other people. We get deep, lasting, and meaningful satisfaction from giving selflessly to, and being present with, others …
My patients can’t do that. They’re struggling with the effects of trauma suffered early in life when they were still developing the brain mechanisms that allow them to relate to other people and the world in general. Unable to trust, they grow up without a sense of self. They’re overwhelmed by feelings, unable to cope, always out of control. Their brains tell them to manage the pain by getting loaded. Then, when they find their way to us, we ask them to go back and experience that powerlessness, the very thing that sent them off the rails in the first place. No wonder they resist.
— from Cracked
Dr. Drew Pinsky is best known as cohost of the long-running advice program Loveline. But he is also the medical director of an addiction rehab clinic in Southern California, treating the severest cases of drug dependency and psychiatric breakdown. Now, in this emotionally arresting narrative, Pinsky takes readers into the hospital with him, sharing the stories behind his struggle to help the patients he calls “the disconnected” regain control of their lives.
It is a struggle that feels triumphant one moment, catastrophic the next. The patients Pinsky treats come from every walk and stage of life — from a young graphic artist to an elderly onetime socialite, from a music-industry talent scout to a BMW-driving soccer mom. Their nemeses include alcohol and marijuana; ecstasy, GHB, and heroin; speed, cocaine, Klonopin, and Vicodin. Yet their trials are eerily similar: Pinsky’s patients are all fighting a disease that seizes control of mind and body alike, shattering their lives and depriving them of the very thing they need to survive — the ability to maintain lasting connections with other people. Each of these patients is rendered with a doctor’s compassion and an eye for telling detail. Some we encounter on the promising road to recovery, others are aggressive, subversive, and actively damaging to those around them. Yet the most indelible portraits are those of victims teetering uneasily between recovery and oblivion — patients like Earle, whose capacity for human connection has been eroded by a lifetime of crack cocaine, and the dynamic, heartbreaking Amber, whose harrowing struggle with opiate addiction tests Pinsky’s patience, self-control, and faith.
And at the quiet heart of the book is Pinsky himself, his voice urgent, intimate, vulnerable, and utterly compelling. As he struggles to manage his own compulsions, we witness the extraordinary human toll addiction and other behavioral and psychological dysfunctions can take on patient and doctor alike — and also the life-affirming magic that each can find on the road to recovery.
I first became familiar with Dr. Pinsky through his radio show. When I first heard Loveline, I couldn’t believe these people were putting minors on the air, quizzing them about past abuse and addiction problems. Evidently that’s legal, but how exploitative.
Then I found out that one of the hosts was an MD. I thought they were kidding; surely there’s some kind of ethics oversight for board-certified physicians: How is it all right for him to be using his title in this way?
But the worst was when I found this book, released in the wake of the show’s popularity.
This guy’s shtick is that he’s *helping* kids, dispensing advice and reaching out to kids who might not otherwise have access to medical care, etc. His smarmy self-congratulatory statement in this book’s summary: “I turned to rescuing…”
What garbage. If he gave a damn about helping kids, he’d be setting up free clinics and outreach programs, lobbying for better health care, etc. What he’s doing is taking advantage of the fact that so many poor families lack access to health care. Mostly likely he learned that in his own practice. And certainly as a physician he’s learned first-hand that sexually abused kids, addicts, and other desperate people would lack the skills to guard their privacy. He surmised that this would make entertaining radio, so he’s moved into a lucrative second career.
I’m dumbfounded that he still has a medical license.
Rating: 1 / 5
Drew is full of (…). I get high almost every day for the last ten years and I have a great life. I make good money drive a kick@ss car my girlfriend is smoking and I havent been arrested except one time about three years ago, thats more than I bet Drew can say. He wants everybody to throw money at him and act like hes some kind of genius but his partner Adam even has more intelingence then that, and he’s an idiot! Go ahead and toke cause its better than listening to this (…) who has his head of his @ss! People who read this book are dumb losers
Rating: 1 / 5
I really hate to give your book 1 star, but it’s the only way I know to get your attention, Dr. Drew. You see, I’m very lonely and nobody understands me except you, Dr. Drew. I know this from listening to Loveline every single night for the last 9 years. Your voice is a healing balm unto my demon-plagued soul. For those two blissful hours when you’re on, I can find the strength to go on living. I can tell you are just like me in every way and it’s like you can see right into my soul, like we were kindred spirits separated at birth or something. When you speak, it’s like you’re deep inside me, taking control of me, filling me with your warm soft wonderful wisdom. But then those two hours are over and I’m left with the realization that it isn’t really real. I need the personal touch from you to keep me going, to let me know it’s not just a fevered fantasy, that you care about me personally. If you don’t call me soon, I will die. Call or write me now, Dr. Drew. You are my last hope. My email address is sadsack@loser.com
Don’t wait or it’ll be too late!
Rating: 1 / 5
Drew along with Adam did not treat Hawaii with respect on Love Line (radio show), therefore I am not going to purchase this book. It is truly a shame.
Rating: 1 / 5
Dr. Drew stop writing good reviews under different names. You aren’t fooling anyone.
Rating: 1 / 5