Having gone through the experience of being addicted to opiates, counseling other opiate addicts, working at epidemiological studies focused on researching opiate addicts, and then formally studying the finer points of opiate addiction, I’ve pretty much hit every side of this addiction thing and what I’ve found are a ton of misconnections, misunderstandings and, sadly, people who are burnt out. So I want to write a book. Actually, I’ve had a few ideas:

• A Year in the Life of Dope Fiend – Have you noticed the spate of “A Year of Blankety Blank” books that are all over the book stores? One person goes without TV for a year or shopping, writes a book and it’s a big hit. Now my version, it could go a number of ways. It could be a personal chronically of addiction – the first year, the last year, the worst year – or it could be more a documentary style book following a group of people through a year of use.
• Getting Clean, Staying Clean – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: personal stories are essential to better understand how addiction works and how best to treat it. A few clicks online and you can find a number of resources detailing clinical methods to get clean. But how about the actual implementation of those methods? And I don’t mean the technical details that epidemiological studies track, like length of time without a relapse or length of relapse. I mean, what else are people doing to stay clean once the physical addiction has been dealt with and they’ve been handed a set of behavioral tools to use in place of getting loaded? Everyone’s story is unique. This could be one story or a collection of stories, and it wouldn’t matter if they stayed clean or not, because the stories of those who return to using are just as important as the stories of those who don’t.
• Guide for Substance Abuse Counselors by Addicts – That’s right. Finally, we get to tell the counselors, the medical professionals, the people who run the studies and do outreach exactly what it is we need, what we don’t need, what works and what doesn’t. Again, this is a very personal thing, so multiple voices would be necessary in order to make it well-rounded. There are a number of reasons so many people in the substance abuse industry end up turning to drugs themselves, and maybe if they could hear what they’re doing right and what they could be doing better, this would serve them as well as the people who come to them for help.

What do you think? Do you have a book you’re burning to write based on your experiences with opiate addiction? What about your experiences with getting clean? You know, buprenorphine has been available in this country for less than 10 years. Are there any books out there by people who have used it to get clean, whether or not it worked for them? Maybe that’s the book you need to write!

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"Opiate Addiction Books I Want to Write" posted in Addiction, Addiction Recovery.
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