Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America's Greatest Tragedy

Front Cover
HarperCollins, Apr 2, 2013 - Self-Help - 401 pages

A myth-shattering look at drug abuse and addiction treatment, based on cutting-edge research

Addiction is a preventable, treatable disease, not a moral failing. As with other illnesses, the approaches most likely to work are based on science — not on faith, tradition, contrition, or wishful thinking. These facts are the foundation of Clean. The existing addiction treatments, including Twelve Step programs and rehabs, have helped some, but they have failed to help many more. To discover why, David Sheff spent time with scores of scientists, doctors, counselors, and addicts and their families, and explored the latest research in psychology, neuroscience, and medicine. In Clean, he reveals how addiction really works, and how we can combat it.

“A guide for those affected by addiction, but also a manifesto . . . for America as it confronts its drug problem. [Sheff] has performed a vital service by compiling sensible advice on a subject for which sensible advice is in short supply.” — New York Times Book Review

“As a journalist, father, and clear-eyed chronicler of addiction, David Sheff is without peer.” — Sanjay Gupta, M.D., chief medical correspondent, CNN

 

Contents

II WHY WE USE
27
III WHEN DRUG USE ESCALATES
75
IV GETTING CLEAN
125
V STAYING CLEAN
147
VI TREATING A CHRONIC ILLNESS
235
VII ENDING ADDICTION
269
Epilogue
307
The Clean Paradigm in Twelve Steps
311
Back Matter
314
Back Flap
375
Back Cover
376
Spine
377
Copyright

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About the author (2013)

DAVID SHEFF is the author of several books, including the #1 New York Times best-selling memoir Beautiful Boy. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Wired, and many other publications. His ongoing research and reporting on the science of addiction earned him a place on Time magazine's list of the World's Most Influential People. Sheff and his family live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit David at DavidSheff.com, and on Twitter @david_sheff.

 

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