Addictions Books

I just met with the investigator from the state board, and he was amazed how prepared I was for our meeting. I had all the meetings, treatment plan etc. documentation together. I am not as afraid to go in front of the board now. I think I have a good idea of what to expect because of this book!

Gambling is one of the most rapdily spreading forms of addiction. In response, the biomedical addictions establishment has responded in its typical fashion of first denial, then quick evaluation whether these "new" patients can make the practitioner more financially comforable. Following this comes the inevitable third generation of turf squabbles, where various segments of the addictions and other interested communities attempt to cut themselves the largest portion of pie they can.

McCown & Chamberlain are brutally honest with this grim reality, as they are equally blunt regarding the multi impediments anyone with a gambling problem faces. While their review of the literature is not academically pedantic, it is sufficient to cause the run-of-the-mill clinician or even parent to give serious consideration to the idea that gambling may be the crack of the next quarter century.

However, these authors are not pessimists! Nor are they idealogues with a turf to defend. Instead they insist that only a unified campaign from the biological, behavioral, and social sciences will help those whose gambling has crossed the line from harmless hobby to life threatening addictions.

These authors argue from a morally neutral tone-despite having witnessed the horror of gambling disorders first hand. They admit that a major limitation of the effort is the mental health community has committed so resources into treatment that we lag behind progress made in other fields of addiction be a half century or more. McCown & Chamberlain are not afraid to attempt to experiment and to admit failures. They are open when they are stymied by our social policy and lack of treatment technology. Yet in the best spirit of scientist/clinicians they have faith that progress is always possible and site just enough science to make the reader convinced.

In addition to the above, their outstanding case studies, sensitivities to women and minorities, scientific ecclecticism and almost missionary sense of calling the scientific community to arms makes this book most readable.

Finally, their continued explorations into addictions as nonlinear constructs, often with a family sytstemic root, remains one of this books most fascinating hypotheses. We can only hope that these researcher scratch time somewhere to continue practicing both good science and good clinical practice.

This is the only book out there that deals with children who have died from substance abuse. Most grief books have a sentence or two but because this type of death is considered one of the disenfranchised griefs - deaths from a reason not acceptable to society - it is not touched upon. This book shows that these people did not set out to be addicts and due to various reasons, started to use substances, never realizing the hold drugs take.
These young people were someone's sons and daughters/they were loved/and are missed. This book tells some of their stories.

This book is a MUST for partners of sex addicts who want to work a recovery program and try to reach a place where they break out of their OWN dysfunctional behavior patterns. Most of us in this situation are drawn to sex addicts for a reason -- this book, in conjunction with other codependency recovery materials, is EXTREMELY helpful in breaking through denial about OUR problems and coming to terms with the betrayal we face as partners of sex addicts. It helps us refocus on OUR lives and break out of our obsession with the sex addict(s) and all their garbage.

My one BIG complaint about this book is that it is written as though all partners of sex addicts are women. This is obviously not the case (other studies state that 4-6% of women are sex addicts; we KNOW some of them have male partners!). The author refers to the reader as female and talks about the reader's interactions with other women in recovery when it is really not necessary for him to have been gender specific. This book should be VERY helpful to both men and women co-sex addicts; just be warned that the language may be offensive because it is so unnecessarily gender-specific.

Like any other kind of compulsive behavior that rises to the level of mental illness, sexual addiction, the victim must deal not only with the self-destructive behaviors, but also the social and spiritual stigma associated with sexual promiscuity or deviancey, and the condemnation of them by the Christian community as sexual sinners. Steve Gallahger (Founder and President of Pure Life Ministries) has come to the aid of such unfortunates and the clergy charged with the responsibility of providing them with pastoral counseling with A Biblical Guide To Counseling The Sexual Addict. Organized into three major sections (Applying the Fundamentals of Biblical Counseling; Counseling Specifics; Running A Successful Support Group), A Biblical Guide To Counseling The Sexual Addict is a complete course in a single volume that will materially assist any pastor, priest, or lay leader in effectively assisting their afflicted brothers and sisters in Christ to understand and ultimately end their compulsive behavior. Enhanced with a Bibliography, a Recommended Reading list, and indexes by Scriptures and by Subjects, A Biblical Guide To Counseling The Sexual Addict is an essential and strongly recommended instructional reference.

This Author walked From Florida to Boston and was a guest on Regis and Kelly.
Once I started reading this book I could not put it down. Gary is an inspiration! This soft covered book has large print. Chapter after Chapter, I laughed and Cried. I felt like he was talking to me as I was reading this book. This book will help anyone trying to lose weight every step of the way. It is worth every penny and then some...A great book for anyone no matter what size you are Big or Small! This is how the "Million Calorie March" was Born.Fighting obesity in todays society.
The Reality, The humor and the Results all in one!
If I could give it 10 Stars I would.

College-level health holdings will welcome BIOMEDICALIZATION OF ALCOHOL STUDIES: IDEOLOGICAL SHIFTS AND INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES. It covers the science and assumptions of risk assessment and treatment, covering the controversial issues surrounding the biomedicalization of alcohol studies and describing, critiquing and assessing its influence as a social trend in the health field. Casual holdings will find it too technical but dedicated health and psychology collection will find it just the ticket, covering in detail a most controversial new discipline.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

What an insight into the world of a bipolar affected young man! A riveting true story of his first encounter with this two faced illness, allowing the reader to release and realize every extreme emotion involved. Caregivers, medical professionals and sufferers alike can all connect with Keith's unique perspective and positive attitude. A great read with all the right ingredients to satisfy young and old. Very uplifting and informative, and I highly recommend it, well done!!!

Cassy

We worry about plagues; AIDS is still scary even though it is being treated with considerable success, and the recent (although unfounded) scare about a woman with ebola virus entering Canada made headlines. There may have been bigger plagues before and since, but _The Black Death_ (Tempus Publishing) by William Naphy and Andrew Spicer is about _the_ plague, the one that is commemorated in countless paintings and woodblocks and in literature. It is still a mysterious and scary illness, and while the authors skimp on some of the horrors and medical explanations, they describe the atmosphere around the disease and the changes it wrought in fascinating detail. Christians and Muslims were agreed that the new arrival of the plague was sent upon humans by Divine Will, but Muslim clerics interpreted their Koran as insisting that no one should try to flee a plague deliberately sent from Allah. Bear it with humility, was the advice, and when you die, you get straight admittance to Paradise. Being sent straight from Allah precluded the understanding of the plague as contagious. The fairly monolithic Catholicism of the time could not see the plague as a blessed ticket to paradise. It did not insist that parishioners remain to stick out an infection, but it did insist that people consider their sins and those of their societies.

The decrease in population meant that it was harder to get priests, and that apprenticeships were shortened and younger men became masters; guilds recruited outside of the families that had been their historic sources. Women entered trades which had never welcomed them before. Attempts were made to hold wages down and agricultural workers were forbidden to leave their lands for better prospects. "Sumptuary laws" were instituted to make it illegal for one class to dress like the ones above it, implying that luxury goods were more available to the reduced market. Mere shopkeepers gave fine banquets. The plague is historically significant for bringing a sort of populism. Society was also turned upside down by people fleeing the communities that had nurtured them. People took solace from their saints. Mary was often depicted as wounded by arrows of grief for her son, so she became somewhat of a specific saint for those fearing plague; similarly, Saint Sebastian who was martyred by being an archery target was held to be particularly good for deflecting the arrows of the plague. Just how these secondary religious figures managed to thwart the marksmanship of God was never explained. Then the flagellants came to town, traveling to whip their bodies bloody to appease God's wrath and make the plague go away. They would go to the church, surround it, and start whipping themselves with cruel barbed whips. The clergy were horrified not by the blood, but by the threat to their monopoly on spiritual power, and Pope Clement VI quickly condemned the flagellants in 1349. A frequent recourse of religious people was scapegoating, and as usual the Jews got blamed as the cause of everything. It is nice to think that we have risen above such behavior, and of course we do have enormous technical expertise in dealing with diseases now, as well as refusing to accept that they are simply manifestations of angry deities. However, human nature is not really any different than it was seven centuries ago. Although the plague quite mysteriously collapsed in virulence, there will someday be a new one, I believe, to take a big chunk of us away. (What if ebola transformed into an illness that could be caught as simply as colds are?) _The Black Death_, with its descriptions of the plague process and many illustrations, gives a fine, sobering review of what happened before, and while it makes no attempt at prognostication, I think we may just see such things again.

What the heck is our Congress thinking of???? This book clearly lays out how easy it will be for terrorist to get us by easily crossing the border at will. Why is this still so??? If you like this book you should also read, "U.S. Customs, Badge of Dishonor" another narrative of our Government's border blunders.