A magnifying look into what addiction does to our families

books:


	• I Am Your Disease: The Many Faces of Addiction Sheryl Letzgus McGinnis, Heiko Ganzer Outskirts Press, 2006 - 392 pages average customer review:based on 30 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

As valuable as any clinical text.

As a Clinical Social Worker, I recommend this book be mandatory for any professional in the field. This book goes beyond a scientific understanding of substance abuse, beyond treatment methods and beyond clinical strategy. It explores substance abuse from the viewpoint of the mother or the family member who has lost a loved one. It reminds us that a life lost to substance abuse is a life victimized by an ugly and unrelenting disease. It reminds us that families left behind are victims themselves, as we see in the painful words of the book's many contributing writers. Our society so easily stereotypes "the addict", judges or places blame on the person for "choosing" that lifestyle. This book challenges us to break that stereotype, to see the beauty, the intellect, the passion and the energy that such individuals possess. It challenges us not to cast such individuals into the marginalized population but to do all we can to support them and help them find recovery when possible. Any loss is great, but there is no greater loss than that of a child. I commend the strength and honesty of the mothers and family members who have come together to write this book. May this book continue to act as a passionate and moving tribute to their children. May it also remind all professionals in the field of addiction to treat not "the addict", but the individual; to explore that person's capabilities and dreams, to find that person's sources of energy, creativity and strength, to use family support in treatment when possible. "I Am Your Disease: The Many Faces of Addiction" is a powerful and honest read, and a necessity for any professional in the field.

Sarah Thomas, LCSW

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The Real Costs of Addiction

This is a great book and makes the real costs of our prescription drug epidemic understandable to everyone. It is a must read for all Americans. We must educate the public that the prescription drug epidemic is going to ruin generations of our people unless we take action. We can no longer tolerate drug companies pushing legal "heroin" to our people and turning the other head when it causes the devastation pointed out by Sheryl McGinnis.

Steve Hayes
Medical Director
Novus Medical Detox Center

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I Am Your Disease - Review by Seven Dogs and a Baby

I Am Your Disease is not written by professional writers, its not scripted, its real stories, of real children, young adults, sons, daughters, written by people who loved them.

I have seen my own friends struggle with addictions and I saw it nightly at the hospital ER I worked in before Connor was born. I think some people like to believe that drug addictions come from broken homes, bad childhoods, homeless broken people who have no reason to live. I only wish this was true as the problem would be SO much easier to fix if this was really the case.

Drug addictions many times are born in perfectly happy, perfectly healthy people, that for some reason get involved with something that they just cannot control. Professionals, high school students, mothers, fathers, many many times people who otherwise have perfectly normal.. perfectly happy lives. Who knows why... a moment of weakness, a genetic predisposition, depression, boredom, peer pressure, I could go over a thousand reasons why... but thats really not important. What is important is as we look at our beautiful happy healthy babies, don't be blind to the fact that every child at some point in their life is given the choice at least once... and in my case many many many times have drugs passed in front of me and I had to make the conscious and sometimes difficult choice to say no.

One point I want to make to everyone out there... When I say drug addictions I do not just mean (street drugs), heroin, cocaine, meth, but some of the worst addictions I saw come through the ER on a nightly basis were prescribed that includes Valium.

I Am Your Disease, is a worthy read for every mom, dad, grandmother, out there.. these kids deserve to have their stories shared.

Though this book is not a self help book or a book that covers the recovery process it is a great source of support through stories from families dealing with the loss of a loved one through a drug addiction or an inspiration for those of you dealing with a drug addiction as to why its so important to find help.

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Tragic stories of addiction

Author Sheryl Letzgus McGinnis lost her son Scott to a drug overdose. She says she wrote this book as therapy for herself but also to warn others as to the dangers of addiction to drugs. This book is a compilation of many grieving parents who write the stories of their children's addictions. They come from all walks of life, social, and economic groups, but they have one thing in common--they have lost a child to addiction and subsequent death. They all tried to stop their child's downward spiral but none of them were successful. The book also contains poetry from grieving parents and an eye-opening look at a group of eighth graders' view of peer pressure. This is a sobering book which serves as a warning to any teenager or parent of a teenager. There is a list of support groups and there are some suggestions for heading off a serious addiction, but mostly the problem is presented in the stark reality of hopelessness. The only answer is not to start taking drugs in the first place and it is this point of view that the book is promoting.

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A magnifying look into what addiction does to our families

Sheryl has done a magnificent work by telling her story and the stories of other parents who have lost their children to addiction as well. Every story is the personal feelings of a parent that has gone through addiction with their child, going hand to hand combat with the monster and in the end slipping through their fingers and leaving pieces of a mother, father, sisters and brothers behind to somehow pick up their lives and and keep going. Every story is gripping and you can actually feel what they are feeling. I purchased 2 of these and sent them to my daughter Anna who is presently in prison for possession of Cocaine, and the other I donated to the Prison Library. I bought one from Sherry which she personally autographed to Anna, and I hope and pray I can actually present her with that copy one day. This book is a "must have" for every parent who deals with a child on addiction and especially for those who don't.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Compelling, provocative stories of Addiction and Loss

"Mom, nobody wakes up one day and decides to be an addict." The stories contained in this book are about people from every walk of life, socioeconomic levels, religious and ethnic backgrounds whose lives were intertwined with people who didn't "decide to be an addict."

They all share one common bond - living with, and loving an addicted person.
Contained within the pages of this book are stories by bereaved parents who have suffered the ultimate loss: The loss of their precious child.

Read how addiction, whether it be drugs, alcohol or gambling, destroys not only the addicted person, but their entire circle of friends and family.

No one escapes the tentacles of addiction. Like an octopus it reaches its deadly arms around us and squeezes the very life out of all of us. Our society is affected in ways we never imagined.

Read excerpts from middle school students on the peer pressures they face today.

Read the stories of parents who have gone through hell, sacrificing their very sanity trying to save their child.

The profiles of these children will change your mind about what kind of people do drugs. GOOD KIDS DO DRUGS TOO!

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