RECOMMENDED READING FOR FAMILY MEMBERS
NONFICTION
Under the Influence
by James Milam
“Ten million Americans suffer from alcoholism, yet most people still wrongly believe that alcoholism is a psychological or moral problem, and that it can be cured by psychotherapy or sheer will power. Based on groundbreaking scientific research, Under the Influence examines the physical factors that sets alcoholics and non-alcoholics apart, and suggests a bold stigma-free way of understanding and treating the alcoholic.”
Recovery: A Guide for Adult Children of Alcoholics
by Julie D. Bowden and Herbert L. Gravitz
“Rich with insight and awareness, Recovery explores the secrets, fears, hopes and issues that confront adult children of alcoholics. Authors and widely respected therapists and ACOA workshop leaders, Herbert Gravitz and Julie Bowden detail in a clear question-and-answer format the challenges of control and inadequacy that ACOAs face as they struggle for recovery and understanding, stage-by-stage.”
Adult Children of Alcoholics
by Janet Woititz, Ed.D.
“The legacy of growing up in an alcoholic home–or any type of dysfunctional environment–can follow us into adult life with negative consequences on health, work and love. Rather than continuing to allow our actions and reactions to be governed by an unhealthy childhood, author Janet Woititz offers answers on how to recognize, change and prevent the ghosts of our past from deleteriously influencing the present and future.”
Love First: A New Approach
by Jeff Jay and Debra Erickson Jay
“If alcoholics and addicts won’t accept help until they’re ready, what gets them ready? This book provides an answer in clear, concise terms. Dispelling two damaging myths–that an addict has to hit bottom and that intervention must be confrontational–the author’s proven approach puts love first and shows families, step by step, what to do next.”
It Will Never Happen to Me
by Claudia Black
“It will never happen to me’ is a line spoken by all who have been raised in a family where one or both parents have a problem with addiction. In addictive families most children move through adolescence appearing to survive the problems and hardships of life. They abide by the laws—Don’t Talk, Don’t Trust, Don’t Feel. As resilient as children are, their survival techniques frequently contribute to a variety of problems in adulthood, among them depression, inability to maintain relationships, marrying an addict, or becoming addicted.”
I’ll Quit Tomorrow
by Vernon Johnson
“This bestselling recovery classic has helped untold thousands of alcoholics onto the road to recovery…[it] presents the concepts and methods that have brought new hope to alcoholics and their fmailies, friends and employers. Abstinence is not the only objective of Johnson’s breakthrough methods—his therapy aims at restoring the ego strength of the victim to assure permanent recovery.”
After the Tears: Reclaiming the Personal Losses of Childhood
by Jane Middelton-Moz and Lorie Dwinell
Codependency and Family Rules
by Robert Subby
Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself
by Melody Beattie
Necessary Losses: the Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow
by Judith Viorst
Struggle for Intimacy
by Janet Woititz
The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self
by Alice Miller
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alanon Faces Alcoholism
MEMOIRS
Drinking – A Love Story
by Caroline Knapp
“It was love at first sight. The beads of moisture on a chilled bottle. The way the glasses clinked and the conversation flowed. Then it became obsession. The way she hid her bottles behind her lover’s refrigerator. The way she slipped from the dinner table to the bathroom, from work to the bar. And then, like so many love stories, it all fell apart. Drinking is Caroline Knapp’s harrowing chronicle of her twenty-year love affair with alcohol.”
The Los Angeles Diaries
by James Brown
“Plagued by the suicides of both his siblings, heir to alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, and economic ruin, novelist Jamest Brown lived a life clouded by addiction, broken promises, and despair. Beautifully written and limned with dark humor, these twelve deeply confessional, interconnected chapters address personal failure, heartbreak, the trials of writing for Hollywood, and the life-shatttering events that finally convinced Brown he must ‘change or die’.”
Parched
by Heather King
“I didn’t know that when it came to alcohol, I was bodily and mentally different from normal people. I didn’t know that when that first drink entered my system, I was hardwired to want a second, and a third, and on to infinity. I didn’t know that a craving had been triggered whereby I was bound to keep drinking until I got locked up in a mental institution, or landed in jail, or died.”
FOR CHILDREN
Emmy’s Question
by Jeannine Auth
“This book is incredibly powerful in its depiction of an alcohol-addicted mother and the effect it has upon the family unit.” – Joan Simon, Psy.D.
Alcohol (non-fiction)
by Elaine Landau
“Alcohol can be found in many different types of beverages, such as beer, wine, and liquor. While it is illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to drink, many young people are exposed to alcohol in social settings and at home. Learn more about the physical effects, social costs, and health risks related to alcohol.”
My Dad Loves Me, My Dad Has a Disease: A Child’s View Living with Addiction
by Claudia Black
“Growing up in an addicted family usually means living by the rule: it is not all right to talk about the drinking or using in your family. Working through the loneliness, fear, and frustration by expressing feelings is what this book is all about. This workbook gives children the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings and to better understand addiction.”
A Room on Lorelei Street
by Mary E. Pearson
“A room is not much. It is not arms holding you. Not a kiss on the forehead. Not a packed lunch or a remembered birthday. Just a room. But for seventeen-year-old Zoe, struggling to shed the suffocating responsibility of her alcoholic mother, a rented room on Lorelei Street is a fierce grab for control of her own future.”
An Elephant in the Living Room
by Marion H. Typpo
A workbook for children and teens to help them understand alcoholism and drug addiction and their own feelings.
Twee, Fiddle and Huff (may be hard to find)
by Hazelden
What’s “Drunk,” Mama? (may be hard to find)
by Al-Non Family Groups