Addiction by prescription by Joan E. Gadsby

One Woman's Triumph and Fight for Change

They are the most widely-prescribed drugs in the world. Benzodiazepines-including such tranquillisers and sleeping pills as Ativan, Dalmane, Librium, Restoril, Rivotril, Serax and Valium-are the best-selling drugs in the history of medicine, with annual world-wide sales of an estimated $21 billion. With such a lucrative market at stake, high-powered promotional campaigns have convinced millions that tranquillisers and sleeping pills are needed to cope with life's everyday challenges. Thousands of prescriptions-close to two-thirds for women, and almost 75 percent for refills-are written each day, despite known and often serious physical, cognitive and emotional side-effects. Dependency is not uncommon, and withdrawal can be lengthy and frightening. The bottom line? Millions of people throughout the world are becoming addicted by prescription.

In 1966, when Joan Gadsby's four-year-old son died of brain cancer, her doctor prescribed a 'chemical cocktail' of tranquillisers, sleeping pills and anti-depressants. It was the first step in a twenty-three year addiction to benzodiazepines - an addiction which threatened her family relationships, financial security, career and personal health. Gadsby has emerged from her addiction to become a tireless advocate in the area of prescribed sedative and hypnotic drugs, and formed the Benzodiazepine Call to Action Group. Its objective is to create awareness and lobby for systemic and legislative change that will hold physicians, drug manufacturers, pharmacists, health authorities and political decision makers to a higher standard of ethics and accountability.

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Beating the Dragon by McIntosh & McKeganey

The use of illegal drugs is widespread in many societies. In much of the media coverage an impression is often conveyed that the use of illegal drugs other than cannabis is a one way street leading inevitably to addiction, destitution, family breakdown and death. The perception of addiction as a fixed end point characterized by personal and social dissolution fails to recognize that many dependent drug users nevertheless still manage to overcome their dependence upon illegal drugs. This process of recovery, either with or without the assistance of helping agencies, has been variously described by researchers, drug counselors, clinicians and others.

We still lack much of an understanding of the process of recovery as seen from the addict's own viewpoint. Beating the Dragon describes in detail the road from addiction as experienced by 70 ex-addicts. All the people interviewed had been using major illegal drugs for many years and yet managed to overcome their addiction through a variety of means. By looking in detail at the experiences of this group of recovering addicts the authors aim to produce a ground-breaking ethnography of the recovery process.

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Relapse Prevention by G. Alan Marlatt and Judith R. Gordon

Maintenance Strategies in the Treatment of Addictive Behaviours.

Mark Twain is reported to have said about smoking that quitting is easy; he had done it hundreds of times. Staying off tobacco was the problem. Accordingly, the focus of Marlatt and Gordon's self management approach to the treatment of addiction is on helping clients develop the skills to remain abstinent once they have kicked the habit-regardless of whether the habit in question is smoking, drinking, overeating, drug abuse or compulsive gambling. The high relapse rates associated with many therapies may stem, Marlatt and Gordon suggest, from the lack of emphasis on the third and most difficult phase of quitting-coping with stressful or high-risk situations that may trigger a relapse. The focus in this volume is on the development of new adaptive behaviours, cognitions and general problem-solving skills to enhance the client's sense of self-control and ability to cope with such high-risk situations.

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Sober for Good by Fletcher

Finally someone has gone straight to the real experts: hundreds of men and women who have resolved a drinking problem. Best-selling author Ann M. Fletcher asked them a simple question: how did you do it? The result: the first completely unbiased guide for problem drinkers, which shatters long-held assumptions about alcohol recovery.

Weaving together the success stories of ordinary people and the latest scientific research on the subject, Fletcher uncovers a vital truth: no single path to sobriety is right for every individual. There are many ways to get sober - and stay sober.

The most comprehensive book on alcohol recovery available, Sober for Good includes:

• motivational strategies from former problem drinkers
• suggestions on what to do if you're not ready to quit
• advice for family and friends of problem drinkers
• a complete "Consumer Guide" to the many recovering options - how to find what's right for you.

Sober for Good is for anyone who has ever struggled not to drink, coped with someone who has a drinking problem, or secretly wondered, "Do I drink too much?"

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The Heroin Users by Tam Stewart

If you take heroin you're a hopeless junkie. A thieving smackhead and a lost cause. Right?

Wrong. This book, the inside story of the people who take heroin, tells you how it really is. Author Tam Stewart was part of the heroin scene in Liverpool for years, and in The Heroin Users she reveals with great insight and unprecedented honesty what kind of people really take heroin, why they do it, how it changes lives.

Heroin is portrayed as an evil and invincible force at large in our society-try it once and you are consigned to perdition. Tam Stewart moves beyond the tabloid screamers and TV shock images, and in doing so provides informed and realistic hope, not just for addicts, but for all those around them.

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