Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America's Greatest Tragedy

David Sheff

Apr 2013 · HarperCollins

About this ebook

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

Ratings and reviews

I live near the city of Saint Louis, Missouri. As I was commuting home from my job one evening, I habitually tuned into the local National Public Radio station. The in-progress programming was an interview with the author of this book, as he was promoting his tour that was in support of this book. I only caught the last half-hour of the program. However. This IS an issue that almost certainly affects the vast majority of the citizens of the nation that is held within the focus of this book. So naturally that would include myself, my dear family, both my nuclear and extended family--by direct consequence of my own action and inaction, this applies--and even coworkers and acquaintances. I have personally travelled the path that is the evolution of an addiction. I have directly been involved with the cause of personal harms, unfortunate consequences, and the subsequent self-destruction of my own actions upon others and to my self. And all in the name of self medication. And for what? Read this book with an open mind, free of judgement. Read this book with a closed mind, shackled by prejudice. Read this book and you WILL be changed.

A real life look at addiction through the eyes of a concerned father who's own expieriences sought the truth about addiction. Davis Sheffs research was able to help me awnser questions I have been contemplating my whole life. He has inspired me and given me hope. This is a MUST READ book for anyone effected by addiction or anyone working in addiction science.

Having a son going through addiction recovery is a process for the addict as well as the parent. This book is a honest, gut wrenching story of how it feels to travel the road with your child and the experiences that give insight to the reader. It was hard to put down.

About the author

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.