Against Such Things: A Memoir of Trauma, Addiction, & Survival

by Rachel K. Baldwin

If you are born into ineffable darkness, can you even comprehend the light?

Take one-part volatile home life, two-parts haphazard nomadic experience, zero-parts social connection, and shake well. Our protagonist's only constant is that, and the charismatic, fundamentalist hammerings from the pulpit.

But when a sheltered child goes nuclear? Just pray you are FAR from the exclusion zone.

Can a toxic cocktail of compounded trauma, spiritual warfare, and an unfettered nosedive into addiction be overcome?

Join Rachel on her passage through the underworld as she searches for the means to reassemble her splintered psyche while wrestling "Against Such Things."

377 pages, Paperback

Published October 24, 2020

About the author

Rachel Baldwin is both a chronic wanderer and a homebody at heart. She is passionate about criminal justice reform, helping the still-suffering addict, and collecting children.

She is a first-time author, long-time writer. After years of traversing compounded trauma, addiction, and its resulting consequences, she is proudly free of all mood-changing and mind-altering substances.

"Against Such Things" is her first book, and its completion is a lifelong dream fulfilled.

Reviews

[katie flack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful!

Eye opening, into a world I had no idea about! My heart is overwhelmed. Thank you for sharing your incredible story!

[Jessy Munch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. So much too it, not just addiction. Well written and always good to read others stories who figure it out and change their life and then be vulnerable and share their story. You never know who’s reading it and needs to hear that they aren’t alone. My heart goes out to the author, as a mom and someone who has a completely different story and drug of choice, I could still find similarities but my heart goes out to the author for things she carries to this day that are so heavy and I am not saying I don’t have them but I get it. Way to be real and vulnerable and congratulations on your hard work and turning your life around.

[Joseph Conniff · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fellow person in recovery from addiction working in the field of behavioral health, I've felt that I've heard some of the wildest tales of trauma and survival, until I sat down and read Against Such Things. In my first sitting with this book I took in 2/3 of it; not able to put it down. The author's ability to describe, in extensive and vivid detail, the early childhood experiences of  familial abuse and looking for connection and community wherever possible, only to be subjected to a further cycle of trauma, chaos and addiction, immediately captivated me and I was taken along for the full ride. Once again, due to the author's ability to put down in words some of the most unspeakable experiences that a human could endure and survive, I feel a reader cannot help but get the sense that they are there walking through these experiences with Rachel. The descriptions of substance use and the temporary but sure enough relief that drugs provide, as laid out here in the book, resonated deeply with me, since non-using individuals rarely understand what it is drugs and alcohol do for many people that I as an addict cannot do for myself. Also, this book does not just share information, but dives deeply into the emotional awareness the author has gleaned from surviving, adapting and working through some of the harshest conditions one person could be subjected to, and the eventual freedom of a life in recovery. I am in sincere gratitude that Rachel was willing to relive and reveal these experiences to share with readers everywhere.

[Windell Beaird · Rating 5 out of 5]

I CAN RELATE!!!

Thank you Rachel!!!
I knew there were others like me floating around this big ball we call Earth!
This is such an engaging book I read it in one sitting. I couldn't put it down!!!
This is a must read for anyone who dares to think miracles don't exist...

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on resilience and recovery. Inspiring!

[Sage Adderley]

Addiction and recovery is a subject matter that is very dear to my heart. Substance abuse is something my family members and friends have struggled with throughout my life. Some are in recovery, some still abuse drugs and alcohol, and others have died from addiction.

Against Such Things is a powerful read. In full transparency, I know Rachel but didn't know her while she was using or struggling. I found myself forgetting it was Rachel who I was reading about as I turned page after page. Her story is a relatable one: wanting to be loved, wanting to be a part of something, wanting to belong, and turning to something darker to ease the pain.

This book covers the beginning of Rachel's addiction, takes readers on a wild ride of what it could like, and finally, the bottom where Rachel decided to walk a different path. It's heart wrenching and beautiful.


Against Such Things is a testament that it takes one choice to shift your entire life. Rachel's story is about resilience, not giving up on yourself or others, and taking a chance. I'm forever grateful for her vulnerability.

[Caley Boyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ohhhh boy. I have so many issues with this book. So many incidents are quickly addressed and forgotten. Her father, who beats her mercilessly, suddenly stops one day and becomes some sort of hero?! Multiple rapes are just rattled off and brushed to the side. I almost completely stopped reading when the super natural parts came in. Ghost dragons?! There are at least three points in which the author interacts with other worldly beings and by the end of the book, it’s never mentioned again. One of the beings is Jim Morrison. The chapters (I believe there are 74) start as normal chapters then at one point reduce to one page. The use of “daughter” and “daddy” quickly became disturbing even though that was not the intention and when the author writes from the perspective of a child, she really turns on the baby talk by replacing the R in words to W’s.

I stopped reading the book three times to research it and the author. I cannot understand what people are raving about. There was a point where I was convinced I had just the shell of the book I thought I was getting and the publisher mixed up the content inside. I really had to push myself to finish it and honestly would not recommend reading it.

[Archie Yeomans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good stuff!

Awesome in depth look at how our untreated trauma can simmer inside of us. Left untreated it eventually boils over onto every aspect of our life and those around us.

[Michelle Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intense story. Painful, raw, honest and then it just ends. So that’s a bit disappointing. Good message, but very quick
For such an intense story.