At nineteen, I was a drug addict and alcoholic when I nearly died in a car bombing. My book is called "It cost me an arm and a leg". I'll let you guess why.This is the true story of how I found my way from a middle class upbringing into addiction, violence and crime. I got mixed up with motorcycle gangs, criminals and almost died more times than I can remember.In 1987, at thirty years old, a culmination of events brought me to recovery. CA, NA, and AA meetings were my salva...

Rachael Keogh was catapulted into the public consciousness when a shocking image of her needle-ravaged arms – skin burnt from injecting heroin into her wasted veins – made front pages around the country. Desperate for help, she made a public appeal to secure one of just 27 detox beds in Ireland so that she could reclaim her life from the drugs that had consumed it. What followed was an extraordinary story of grit and determination as she embarked on her recovery journey. Dying to Survive i...

This candid memoir of addiction and recovery shares an intimate chronicle of life from Midwestern childhood to NYC's drug-fueled underground.Patrick Moore's account of life as a crystal meth addict combines heartbreaking honesty with rare insight and surprising humor. It chronicles a twenty-year trip stretching from Moore's lonely childhood in Iowa to the day he sits, naked, in a Los Angeles rental, hallucinating about psycho-robbers while talking to a possum he's ...

Julie grew up in the heart of Dublin’s north inner city, in Sheriff Street. Living in this tough area, she was exposed to crime and drugs. She started using heroin when she was 16. By the time she was 18 she was a chronic addict. This story details how she spent the next four years living on the streets of Dublin; dealing drugs and stealing to feed her habit. It is a snapshot of how a young girl became a victim of circumstances. It happened in Dublin, but it could have happened anywhere in...

As a young man from a loving, middle class family living in a small English village, Ben Rogers appeared to have it all….but then he found drugs. As his life descended into chaos and despair, Ben began to chronicle his daily struggles with the aid of a video camera. He was hopeful that one day his experiences could be used to educate others. Ben lost his battle against addiction and died when he was 34 as a result of medical withdrawal. His family decided to release the tapes in the hope t...

Her world was falling apart. The once joyfully alive Bridgett, married the wrong man. One bad choice and no knowledge of what an abuser looks like, she fell in love. Three children later, things got worse instead of better. Now a desperate housewife, Bridgett started drinking straight Vodka to comfort herself. Soon she was taken from her perfectly polished, suburban neighborhood, to the County Jail for a 22 day stint from one too many… of everything. Enter her world, I dare you. You will l...

ADDICTION: CUNNING, BAFFLING, & POWERFUL  In this gripping debut novel by Andrew Seaward, the lives of three addicts converge following an accidental and horrific death. Monty Miller, a self-destructive, codependent alcoholic, is wracked by an obsession to drink himself to death as punishment for a fatal car accident he didn't cause.  Dave Bell, a former all-American track star turned washed-up high school volleyball coach, routine...

Jan Nargi, a single mother of two, is a registered nurse who worked in enough emergency rooms to know the signs of addiction, but failed to recognize them in her own family. Her son, Tommy, is a heroin addict. He started abusing Oxycontin when he was sixteen and graduated to mainlining heroin by age eighteen. This is their story. The one of his life chasing the high, and her life chasing after him. They hope their collaboration will strengthen their relationship, assist Tommy on the road t...

This is a true story and first began in Singapore. Many names and events have been altered to protect the identity of the individuals mentioned in this story. "When Sally was 9..." is part of a series that discusses abuse in an Asian society.Abuse, regardless of its forms, is a repressive situation where the victim is self-induced into a constant state of submission, sometimes, bearing little or no ability to protect from this perpetual onslaught of terror and injustice. At most ti...

When Brienne Joelle began attending a new mommies group, she was simply an overstressed mother who was trying to keep up with all the other supermoms around her. But when a fellow mommy took her aside one day and made an incredible proposition, Brienne could not believe her ears. We all do it, said the mommy who had just offered Brienne cocaine. In her poignant and honest memoir, Brienne shares the story of her real-life journey through the pressures of parenthood and into the dar...

A gripping and compelling story of one mothers journey raising her heroin addicted daughter.On the night of August 22, 2009, her beloved 32-year old daughter died from heroin overdose.Despite all the sorrow, this story is neither gloomy nor depressing, but rather an unflinching account of one woman's life, and her daughter whom she did not abandon to the bitter end.

At age 14, Lori Stephens was thrown out into the streets by her mother. This was the beginning of a life no one deserves to endure, ever.Through her struggle to stay alive, in a world she barely understood. Lori survived the next 30 years of drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness, rape, domestic violence, assault, conflict with the Law and jail. See how she was forced to resort to physical violence to stay alive.How she escaped with the courage and the will to stay alive,...