Showing results by publisher "Penguin Audio" in Addiction & Recovery

Dr Gabor Maté is one of the world’s most revered thinkers on the psychology of addiction. His radical findings - based on decades of work with patients challenged by catastrophic drug addiction and mental illness - are reframing how we view all human development. In this award-winning modern classic, Gabor Maté takes a holistic and compassionate approach to addiction, whether to alcohol, drugs, sex, money or anything self-destructive. He presents it not as a discrete phenomenon confined to a weak-willed few but as a continuum that runs through (and even underpins) our society.

At the age of 15, Cat Marnell unknowingly set out to murder her life. After a privileged yet emotionally-starved childhood in Washington, she became hooked on ADHD medication. This led to a dependence on Xanax at boarding school, and she experimented with cocaine, ecstasy - whatever came her way. By 26 her life had become a twisted merry-go-round of parties and pills at night and trying to hold down a high-profile job at Condé Nast during the day.

A startlingly frank memoir, Quitter documents one woman's struggles with alcoholism and recovery, with essential new insights into addiction and treatment.

Have you ever woken up feeling anxious after a night of drinking? Do you cringe with embarrassment when reminded of your wild antics at girls' night? Are blackouts increasingly becoming a problem? Whichever way you look at it, it's hard to avoid how alcohol really makes some of us feel: terrible. Whether you're simply sober-curious or determined to make a more permanent change, this book shows not only why you should but also how you can, in a way that will change your life forever.

On Mother's Day, 2002, Glennon Doyle was unmarried, addicted to drugs, booze, food and bad love. But by a strange twist of fate, it was on this day that she discovered she was pregnant. After twenty years of wilful self-destruction, how could Glennon rise to the challenge of looking after the helpless, innocent child growing within her, when she couldn't even look after herself? This is the inspiring story of Glennon Doyle; the mother who, for the love of her child, was determined to change her life forever.

As sober personal development coach Amanda Kuda can attest, you don’t need to have a drinking problem for alcohol to be holding you back. Like a lot of successful young professionals, her life was a carousel of opportunities to drink that ultimately left her feeling unfulfilled in her spirit, relationships, and career. She didn’t hit “rock bottom” or need a recovery program, but she did need a change. It was only when Kuda tried Dry January that she realized sobriety was the linchpin for a better life.

Vaping has become an urgent public health crisis. Vapers are dying, health professionals are sounding the alarm, and parents are struggling to help their addicted teenagers. Certified interventionist Brad Lamm debunks the myths spread by the thriving e-cigarette industry and its supporters, revealing the truth about the effects of inhaling these highly dangerous aerosols. Then he offers a step-by-step blueprint to break free of its grip. This simple, 28-day program provides specific actions to take, day by day, as you free yourself from nicotine addiction.

When Kristina Kuzmic started to see signs that her otherwise sunny, resilient teenage son was struggling, she felt sure that a few simple fixes would right the ship. Over the following months, the issues her family faced were more nuanced, complicated, and pervasive than she could've predicted. Not only that, the obligations, ideas, and unrealistic standards she'd unintentionally aborbed from parenting culture and social media made it impossible to ask for help, or even put into action the tools she'd been sure she'd deploy in a crisis.

Are you increasingly distracted, demotivated and unable to focus on simple tasks? There's a good chance your smartphone is to blame. In the always-on age of notifications, emails and the news cycle, it's easy to waste the majority of our days mindlessly scrolling. But according to psychiatric specialist and mental health guru Dr Anders Hansen, being tethered to our devices 24/7 is taking its toll on our mental wellbeing. Hansen shares an informative guide to what unrestricted social media use is actually doing to our brains, and the practical steps we can take to break the addiction cycle.

What causes addiction, and how should we treat it? Today it is understood primarily as a brain disease, yet in this bold reimagining of addiction, pioneering psychiatrist Elias Dakwar argues that this is false. It fails to explain, among other things, why many people can enjoy drugs without developing a dependency on them. In The Captive Imagination, Dakwar argues that addiction is an existential challenge, requiring a more philosophical and multidisciplinary approach, as well as a lens through which we can better understand ourselves.

In the summer of 2012 a woman named Eva was found dead in the London townhouse she shared with her husband, Hans K. Rausing. The couple had struggled with addiction for years, often under the glare of tabloid headlines. Now, writing with singular clarity and restraint, Hans' sister, the editor and publisher Sigrid Rausing, tries to make sense of what happened. Mayhem is an eloquent and timely attempt to understand addiction and a memoir that is as poignant and riveting as it is devastating.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Stick with It by Sean Young, read by Roger Wayne. We all have bad habits - whether it's a weakness for junk food, a smartphone addiction or a lack of exercise. But change is hard. Forty percent of dieters quit within a week. Eighty percent of New Year's resolutions don't last beyond January. How can we kick bad habits - and stick with it?

In 2014, novelist Leslie Schwartz was sentenced to 90 days in Los Angeles County Jail for a DUI and battery of an officer. It was the most harrowing and holy experience of her life. Following a 414-day relapse into alcohol and drug addiction after more than a decade sober, Schwartz was sentenced and served her time with only six months' sobriety. The damage she inflicted that year upon her friends, her husband, her daughter, and herself was nearly impossible to fathom. Incarceration might have ruined her altogether, if not for the stories that sustained her while she was behind bars.