As a director of an outpatient chemical dependency program, I came across this book in my professional life. While the book is well intentioned and covers a wide range of topics about addiction and recovery, I was ultimately quite disappointed in it’s presentation. The content is clearly a repackaging of 12 Step (e.g.: Alcoholics Anonyomous) concepts such as acceptance of powerlessness, etc. While this is not by itself a bad thing, the author incessantly uses commanding language beginning with “We need to …” that many readers, I anticipate, will experience as preaching and condescending. (Implicitly telling the reader: “You need to!”) The author places a heavy emphasis on labeling (”alcoholic”, “addict”) and de-emphasizes a person’s ability to be their own agent of change; both contrary to scientific principles about what is effectively in achieving change. Some chapters contain exercises that invite reader participation but the exercises are not well developed and seem secondary to the overall lecturing tone of the material. Those interested in 12 Step recovery might do better to go to the primary sources (AA, NA). Others might seek out material from sources such as Smart Recovery.
Rating: 2 / 5