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The Addict
Brand new book; nonfiction
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First published March 25, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
October 20, 2010
I didn't really care for this book much. It probably should've been called The Addiction Doctor as it was more about him rather than his patients. He came off a little judgmental and over-confident.
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March 24, 2010This book made me want to take vicodin. That's probably not a good thing.
September 28, 2011
Unfortunately, Stein had a very interesting story to tell. I say unfortunately because he is a very tedious writer. The story he spins is fascinating, helpfully punctuated by references to other addicts' experiences. It paints in equal parts the struggle of quiting narcotics and treating addicts, which is a fresh, interesting take.[return]What is not interesting is every minute detail that Stein thinks he needs to share with us. The shape of one woman's mouth, the article he read in the newspaper that day, the color of the birdbath he can see from his window. I'm the kind of reader that enjoys details that bring the world to life. I'm happy to take my time through the descriptions if it adds to my immersion in the world. Instead, Stein pulls me out by focusing on minute, meaningless details. It was a very enjoyable and gripping story (kind of like watching a car accident), I just wish it had been edited with a heavier hand.
April 27, 2014
This book is painful to read. It took me more than a month to finish it which shows you unfortunately just how much I struggled to read it since I usually finish a book I start reading within a day or two. This book was boring. There was no real ending. It was clinical and cold. I couldn't connect to the characters at all. The author had the doctor hold the patients at arms length but he also did that to the reader. I would not recommend this book at all.
July 4, 2009
This insightful book is written by a doctor about his treatment of prescription drug addicts. This is NOT the addict portrayed in the movies but the real life side from the doctor's viewpoint, factual, deep, and moving. This book gives you the "real scoop" on what addiction is like.
He mostly writes about one patient, Lucy, and her addiction to Vicodin, but he also mentions several other patients for comparison and insight. This is an inside look at how a doctor must think, feel, and then react to what his patient says, how he analyzes their behavior and hints at life outside his office. It also gives us an indepth look at what an addict is thinking and feeling, and how they can't control those feelings they have about the drugs, but most importantly about themselves, how they struggle day to day to keep on going. She sought help from this doctor, after 10 years of abuse, and said "for some reason I still believe that I could have a meaningful life.".
Quotes:
"Addiction is brain chemistry and life circumstance and a system of thought and a way of being. People change their behavior the way a train moves along a track. Sometimes one crawls along before getting up to speed. Sometimes work is being done to the track and one stops completely or even reverses. Sometimes one abandons forward movement after a bad, bumpy ride---feeling discouraged and despairing---and gets off. Sometimes one gets through the tunnel."
"Why do I like to work with addicts? There is a hint of something familiar to me that I want or need to hear or observe. A stubbornness, a resentfulness. They have a harassed, wary, tentative way of moving through the world that resonates with me. A sense they have survived something as I had after my father died and my mother left me alone in our house night after night, working late, staying over at the houses of her friends. Like Lucy, I had a sense that life, authentic life, was supposed to be a struggle and a search for affirmation, comfort, ease, love. I looked around the office I had worked in for fifteen years. Was staying in this room a way to be protected, guarded, concealed?"
"Lucy looked befuddled. I believed she had never been in love, and I thought again about Monica's description of heroin as a lover. What Lucy had been after, when she started flirting with opiates, was a feeling. It must have been a good feeling, unfamiliar at first, but one she must have felt grateful for and had to explore. Like love, opiate use must have felt so elemental it was beyond any choosing.
No wonder addicts drew me in. I invest them with myth and romance one day, even knowing that the next day, when one stands in my doorway, back from the dead after a month or a year away, there will be nothing romantic about the official report of cruelty and deception I will hear. I am interested in love's heedlessness, but I also know the ruinous course of its effects."
"When I tell friends about my addicted patients, they want to know: How did this catastrophy arise? But the more patients I've seen, the more I've come to understand that biography should never be taken for granted, that is is nearly always uninformed to believe that one can draw a straight line from childhood trauma to grown-up behavior. The jumble of personality, support, accomplishment, and love; the means to self-organize, self-regulate, and self-console; the storm of human details was too dense and intricate to explain why one person at thirty has a sense of purpose while another has had just about enough of life. Broken childhoods might lead to adulthoods that are uneasy or self-respecting; poetic, dreary, or metaphysical; or addicted. In my office, when patients offer painful personal history it is sometimes as proof of survival and sometimes in the hope that I will see them more clearly. It is also sometimes a declaration of independence from the brutalities of the past."
"Why did Lucy trade Vicodin for buprenorphine a year ago? The standard answer everyone wanted to hear---drugs are ruining my life---was the answer opiate-dependent patients gave. But it was only half the answer, because drugs had been ruining their lives for months or years (although in some ways drugs also made life manageable) by the time they tried to quit. I needed to hear something beyond this, a broader motive that explained the timing of a first visit to my office. What it often came down to was an unacceptable level of self-hatred, grief cascading like a waterfall, which in Lucy's case she experienced as fatigue: I'm tired.
Even when she was using, the first day she came to see me, she looked ordinary. Nearly every addict does, despite how they are depicted in the movies. Only after Lucy told her story did it become clear that she had aberrant needs that had crippled her for a decade. Anyone could look at her and think they knew the life she'd been living. But they didn't. If there is anything doctoring teaches, it is that routine human business is unfathomable."
"I really did want something to change. I started listening to a little thing in my head that said: there's a chance you can live. At other times in my life I'd felt I really wanted to change, but I guess that feeling didn't last. To come back from a lifelong problem is next to impossible. I don't know where my determination came from. Sometimes I think---and I'm not religious---that something stepped in, some force, and said, 'You have to do something with your life.' I've certainly had more determination this time than ever before."
He mostly writes about one patient, Lucy, and her addiction to Vicodin, but he also mentions several other patients for comparison and insight. This is an inside look at how a doctor must think, feel, and then react to what his patient says, how he analyzes their behavior and hints at life outside his office. It also gives us an indepth look at what an addict is thinking and feeling, and how they can't control those feelings they have about the drugs, but most importantly about themselves, how they struggle day to day to keep on going. She sought help from this doctor, after 10 years of abuse, and said "for some reason I still believe that I could have a meaningful life.".
Quotes:
"Addiction is brain chemistry and life circumstance and a system of thought and a way of being. People change their behavior the way a train moves along a track. Sometimes one crawls along before getting up to speed. Sometimes work is being done to the track and one stops completely or even reverses. Sometimes one abandons forward movement after a bad, bumpy ride---feeling discouraged and despairing---and gets off. Sometimes one gets through the tunnel."
"Why do I like to work with addicts? There is a hint of something familiar to me that I want or need to hear or observe. A stubbornness, a resentfulness. They have a harassed, wary, tentative way of moving through the world that resonates with me. A sense they have survived something as I had after my father died and my mother left me alone in our house night after night, working late, staying over at the houses of her friends. Like Lucy, I had a sense that life, authentic life, was supposed to be a struggle and a search for affirmation, comfort, ease, love. I looked around the office I had worked in for fifteen years. Was staying in this room a way to be protected, guarded, concealed?"
"Lucy looked befuddled. I believed she had never been in love, and I thought again about Monica's description of heroin as a lover. What Lucy had been after, when she started flirting with opiates, was a feeling. It must have been a good feeling, unfamiliar at first, but one she must have felt grateful for and had to explore. Like love, opiate use must have felt so elemental it was beyond any choosing.
No wonder addicts drew me in. I invest them with myth and romance one day, even knowing that the next day, when one stands in my doorway, back from the dead after a month or a year away, there will be nothing romantic about the official report of cruelty and deception I will hear. I am interested in love's heedlessness, but I also know the ruinous course of its effects."
"When I tell friends about my addicted patients, they want to know: How did this catastrophy arise? But the more patients I've seen, the more I've come to understand that biography should never be taken for granted, that is is nearly always uninformed to believe that one can draw a straight line from childhood trauma to grown-up behavior. The jumble of personality, support, accomplishment, and love; the means to self-organize, self-regulate, and self-console; the storm of human details was too dense and intricate to explain why one person at thirty has a sense of purpose while another has had just about enough of life. Broken childhoods might lead to adulthoods that are uneasy or self-respecting; poetic, dreary, or metaphysical; or addicted. In my office, when patients offer painful personal history it is sometimes as proof of survival and sometimes in the hope that I will see them more clearly. It is also sometimes a declaration of independence from the brutalities of the past."
"Why did Lucy trade Vicodin for buprenorphine a year ago? The standard answer everyone wanted to hear---drugs are ruining my life---was the answer opiate-dependent patients gave. But it was only half the answer, because drugs had been ruining their lives for months or years (although in some ways drugs also made life manageable) by the time they tried to quit. I needed to hear something beyond this, a broader motive that explained the timing of a first visit to my office. What it often came down to was an unacceptable level of self-hatred, grief cascading like a waterfall, which in Lucy's case she experienced as fatigue: I'm tired.
Even when she was using, the first day she came to see me, she looked ordinary. Nearly every addict does, despite how they are depicted in the movies. Only after Lucy told her story did it become clear that she had aberrant needs that had crippled her for a decade. Anyone could look at her and think they knew the life she'd been living. But they didn't. If there is anything doctoring teaches, it is that routine human business is unfathomable."
"I really did want something to change. I started listening to a little thing in my head that said: there's a chance you can live. At other times in my life I'd felt I really wanted to change, but I guess that feeling didn't last. To come back from a lifelong problem is next to impossible. I don't know where my determination came from. Sometimes I think---and I'm not religious---that something stepped in, some force, and said, 'You have to do something with your life.' I've certainly had more determination this time than ever before."
July 31, 2010
This book really makes me appreciate addiction with all of its complexities. In the beginning of the book, Dr.Stein made the assertion that although many people experimented with drugs, only a very small percentage of those who tried drugs become heavily addicted. Of those addicted, what were the contributing factors? It seems that a combination of factors are at play: genetic predisposition, personality, and a history of trauma, although in my experience I've also heard of patients who "fell into" addiction due to its routine use, "Back then that was just what my friends and I did. It was just what we do in the afternoons..."
What is new and fresh about Dr.Stein's perspective is the way in which he compares addiction to uncontrolled passions and paralleled it with falling in love. Indeed, some aspects of addiction greatly resemble this phase of falling in love: the euphoria, constant thoughts of the beloved, the planning of the next encounter, suppressing the beloved's flaw...and all of its compulsive and obsessive nature. The passion for the drugs becomes all consuming and the addicted is mastered by his/her desire. Explained in this way, I understand why addiction is so difficult to treat.
The book is peppered by flashes of brilliance. Some parts of the book are truly beautifully insightful and resembles poetry, but at other times, his book is ordinary and reduces itself into a simple journal chronicling concrete events of his day. Also, even though the title states "one patient, one doctor, one year," Dr.Stein actually discusses other patients within the book. In the part three of the book, where he discussed two patients almost interchangably: Lucy and Lauren, I was massively confused. Lucy and Lauren?! Can't he pick vastly different fictional names so as to avoid confusion?
Another problem I had with the book is he would discuss his patients at length and proceeded to talk about himself in parts of the book. I have no problem with him doing that, but he never describs himself in depth. Instead, he gives the readers little clues like "should I tell this patient my experience with my mother?" but never explains it fully. It is so annoying when the narrator also becomes a minor character. He should really make up his mind whether he should tell the readers his life story or just remain the narrator but should not be in between.
Despite these critiques, I really did learn so much more about the complex nature of addiction. I've definitely gained a new understanding of it and would recommend it.
What is new and fresh about Dr.Stein's perspective is the way in which he compares addiction to uncontrolled passions and paralleled it with falling in love. Indeed, some aspects of addiction greatly resemble this phase of falling in love: the euphoria, constant thoughts of the beloved, the planning of the next encounter, suppressing the beloved's flaw...and all of its compulsive and obsessive nature. The passion for the drugs becomes all consuming and the addicted is mastered by his/her desire. Explained in this way, I understand why addiction is so difficult to treat.
The book is peppered by flashes of brilliance. Some parts of the book are truly beautifully insightful and resembles poetry, but at other times, his book is ordinary and reduces itself into a simple journal chronicling concrete events of his day. Also, even though the title states "one patient, one doctor, one year," Dr.Stein actually discusses other patients within the book. In the part three of the book, where he discussed two patients almost interchangably: Lucy and Lauren, I was massively confused. Lucy and Lauren?! Can't he pick vastly different fictional names so as to avoid confusion?
Another problem I had with the book is he would discuss his patients at length and proceeded to talk about himself in parts of the book. I have no problem with him doing that, but he never describs himself in depth. Instead, he gives the readers little clues like "should I tell this patient my experience with my mother?" but never explains it fully. It is so annoying when the narrator also becomes a minor character. He should really make up his mind whether he should tell the readers his life story or just remain the narrator but should not be in between.
Despite these critiques, I really did learn so much more about the complex nature of addiction. I've definitely gained a new understanding of it and would recommend it.
July 10, 2011
I would happily give this book another 1/2 star rating if it were an option for me.
This book tells the story of an addict's road to recovery as seen through the eyes of the doctor treating her. It is informative and factual but rarely delves into an overly emotional narrative. Nevertheless, I found myself willing Lucy to succeed in her choice to seek treatment for her drug addiction.
Without spoiling the story, I will say the final two chapters were particularly moving and brought me close to tears.
If this a subject you are interested learning more about, then I recommend this book.
This book tells the story of an addict's road to recovery as seen through the eyes of the doctor treating her. It is informative and factual but rarely delves into an overly emotional narrative. Nevertheless, I found myself willing Lucy to succeed in her choice to seek treatment for her drug addiction.
Without spoiling the story, I will say the final two chapters were particularly moving and brought me close to tears.
If this a subject you are interested learning more about, then I recommend this book.
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February 16, 2010An amazing look at addiction from a treating physician's perspective. The view of the relationship with the clients is especially enlightening.
September 10, 2017
I found it a bit difficult to follow the plot. The book is full of medical terms of some drugs etc.
July 18, 2023
This was an interesting read. I didn't necessarily walk away with any new insights, but I appreciate Stein's logical, honest (sometimes uncomfortably honest) and curious perspective.
March 5, 2024
This had potential to be such a great book- but the author aka doctor talked to much about what was going on in his head and family- not enough about the addict
September 4, 2010
When I read the little blurb about this book I figured it was about one patient and everything that that patient went through for that whole year. As I read the book I started to realize that the author is talking about one kind of patient and not just one person.
Michael introduces us to Lucy, who is the main patient he talks about in the book. The kind of patient he is also talking about in the book is the patient that is an Opiate addict. The author mentions other addicts who are either addicted to OxyContin, Heroin or Lucy's drug of choice Vicodin.
It took me awhile to get into the book mainly because of the author being in a session with Lucy and then he would start to write about another addict he was seeing, facts about addiction in general or just some questions he wanted to ask but didn't.
Overall the book was great and I highly enjoyed it. I was interested in seeing how Lucy would handle the affects of going through withdrawal from Vicodin. This isn't your typical book about a drug addict going into detox. This is a story about a young lady wanting to have a normal life without drugs. The Doctor has a program for addicts. It is not open to just anyone. He chooses those that he feels will benefit from his program. It is a slow process and not something that can happen over a few days, weeks or even months, especially when the addict has been using for about 15 years.
I give this book 3 1/2 stars out of 5
Michael introduces us to Lucy, who is the main patient he talks about in the book. The kind of patient he is also talking about in the book is the patient that is an Opiate addict. The author mentions other addicts who are either addicted to OxyContin, Heroin or Lucy's drug of choice Vicodin.
It took me awhile to get into the book mainly because of the author being in a session with Lucy and then he would start to write about another addict he was seeing, facts about addiction in general or just some questions he wanted to ask but didn't.
Overall the book was great and I highly enjoyed it. I was interested in seeing how Lucy would handle the affects of going through withdrawal from Vicodin. This isn't your typical book about a drug addict going into detox. This is a story about a young lady wanting to have a normal life without drugs. The Doctor has a program for addicts. It is not open to just anyone. He chooses those that he feels will benefit from his program. It is a slow process and not something that can happen over a few days, weeks or even months, especially when the addict has been using for about 15 years.
I give this book 3 1/2 stars out of 5
March 5, 2009
I really enjoyed this book, which records one year of treating a woman addicted to Vicodin. It really isn't "Lucy's" story, however; it's really a meditation from Stein on the nature of addiction and its treatment, and the role of the doctor in this situation.
Lucy's story really isn't all that special. Really, she is just an in, a focal point for Stein's musings. The book as a whole is fascinating reading, though, particularly for the window it gives into the though processes of one doctor. I love knowing things like what it's like for a male doctor to give a female patient a physical exam, or what it's like to give a physical exam, period. Small things, like trying to observe all one can in the first pass, lest one cause undue stress by focusing on one part of the body more closely ("he looked at that spot on my arm a second time -- there must be something wrong!"). Reading a patient's body language to learn what their boundaries are. Those are the things that were most interesting about this book. I would recommend it to those who enjoyed Atul Gawande's books; those who are interested in addiction and its treatment will find it interesting, but probably not as informative as they would have liked.
Lucy's story really isn't all that special. Really, she is just an in, a focal point for Stein's musings. The book as a whole is fascinating reading, though, particularly for the window it gives into the though processes of one doctor. I love knowing things like what it's like for a male doctor to give a female patient a physical exam, or what it's like to give a physical exam, period. Small things, like trying to observe all one can in the first pass, lest one cause undue stress by focusing on one part of the body more closely ("he looked at that spot on my arm a second time -- there must be something wrong!"). Reading a patient's body language to learn what their boundaries are. Those are the things that were most interesting about this book. I would recommend it to those who enjoyed Atul Gawande's books; those who are interested in addiction and its treatment will find it interesting, but probably not as informative as they would have liked.
November 30, 2013
I'll be frank only because I know this can be an invaluable tool for anyone dealing with this disease. This book, with all it's minute, meaningless details actually precipitated my full recovery.
To see an addict from a doctors point of view was an interesting take you just don't come across often with these stories. I personally felt incredibly connected to a different part of every one of his patients.
Loneliness and to an extent, isolation, is a side effect of this particular strand of addiction. You don't need a buddy to pop a Vicodin and your doctor is your drug dealer. With the usual tell-tale signs gone one can go many years without anyone being the wiser.
For me this was the first time somebody truly understood the intricacies of a life so lost. And what happeneds when one realizes he isnt the Only One That Has Ever Been Through Something Like This? Well you get answers. Solutions. An outlet.
Yes this was definitely a catalyst :)
What Dr. Stein accomplished best though was humanizing his patient, the addict. Even the most hardened pollitical veteran of the so-called war on drugs (I'm looking at you late-president Nixon) can't help but to feel completely empathic towards our Lucy. Families of a pill popper who needs help will do well if they pick this up first.
To see an addict from a doctors point of view was an interesting take you just don't come across often with these stories. I personally felt incredibly connected to a different part of every one of his patients.
Loneliness and to an extent, isolation, is a side effect of this particular strand of addiction. You don't need a buddy to pop a Vicodin and your doctor is your drug dealer. With the usual tell-tale signs gone one can go many years without anyone being the wiser.
For me this was the first time somebody truly understood the intricacies of a life so lost. And what happeneds when one realizes he isnt the Only One That Has Ever Been Through Something Like This? Well you get answers. Solutions. An outlet.
Yes this was definitely a catalyst :)
What Dr. Stein accomplished best though was humanizing his patient, the addict. Even the most hardened pollitical veteran of the so-called war on drugs (I'm looking at you late-president Nixon) can't help but to feel completely empathic towards our Lucy. Families of a pill popper who needs help will do well if they pick this up first.
March 7, 2014
I was in the middle of reading this book when Philip Seymour Hoffman passed away. It is an interesting look into the relationship between an addiction treatment doctor and his patients. It is also a commentary on the way we see perceive individuals that are either current or recovering addicts. So many of the comments I saw upon hearing of Hoffman's death were that it was a "waste" of his life. I don't consider any life wasted. Hoffman made an impact. He had a family, children, and a world of fans who enjoyed watching him work. The only waste in his death is that we as a society blame him somehow for not being "strong" enough to stay away from opiates. Addiction is a disease; as real and as tough to fight as cancer. Just because with treatment it went into remission once, doesn't mean it won't ever come back. It's not a moral decision to be an addict. It's a moral decision how we choose to treat addicts.
All that being said, I probably won't read another book from this author. I didn't really enjoy his writing style, flip-flopping between patient stories and his own waxing poetic. And in this vein, he was also very sesquipedalian (I had to look it up and use it since the author would have). To us mortals, it means he likes to use big words just to use big words.
All that being said, I probably won't read another book from this author. I didn't really enjoy his writing style, flip-flopping between patient stories and his own waxing poetic. And in this vein, he was also very sesquipedalian (I had to look it up and use it since the author would have). To us mortals, it means he likes to use big words just to use big words.
August 18, 2015
Before I tell you this is the best book I have read in years I must first tell you I am a recovering addict/alcoholic w/bipolar disorder (I felt I must reveal this in order for you to get where I'm coming from). If you do not suffer from some form of addiction or are not close to someone suffering from addiction you may not get the same experience I did when when reading this book.
The book is written by an doctor of Internal medicine who, in addition to his regular practice treats opiate addicts with buprenorphine (it's like methadone for heroine addicts). He kept notes (as any good doctor will do), changed the names of his patients, focused the book primarily on one, Lucy, and wrote a great book.
The book was easy to read. Not easy as in simplistic, easy as in fluid and hit home in unbelievable ways. I had to start highlighting the passages that hit home there were so many, it was like a form of therapy, hence my opening revealations. I couldn't put the book down and started limiting how many pages I could read in a day so it wouldn't end. When it was over it took me nearly a week and attempts at reading four other books before I could find one that could measure up to this book. It was great.
The book is written by an doctor of Internal medicine who, in addition to his regular practice treats opiate addicts with buprenorphine (it's like methadone for heroine addicts). He kept notes (as any good doctor will do), changed the names of his patients, focused the book primarily on one, Lucy, and wrote a great book.
The book was easy to read. Not easy as in simplistic, easy as in fluid and hit home in unbelievable ways. I had to start highlighting the passages that hit home there were so many, it was like a form of therapy, hence my opening revealations. I couldn't put the book down and started limiting how many pages I could read in a day so it wouldn't end. When it was over it took me nearly a week and attempts at reading four other books before I could find one that could measure up to this book. It was great.
November 24, 2009
I would have given this a higher rating, but ask myself, "How much can a person ENJOY a book focused on drug addiction?"
It's very well written and helped me feel empathy for those dealing with addiction. I have some friends whose husbands have become addicted to opiates (perscription pain pills) after a work-related injury, etc. Their addiction destroyed their marriage and family. Very sad. Reading this book helped me understand what does on behind that ugly story. Why do people start abusing perscription drugs? How does one become 'addicted'? What is addiction? These questions are answered very well.
Dr. Stein does a few days each week in his internal medicine clinic in the city (read: patients less-than wealthy). The other days of the week he writes grants to get money for his addiction study. He pays addicts to come and talk with him and so he can study their lives, habits and behaviors. He is the only doctor of his colleagues in the city who is certified to give an opiate that counteracts the cravings for Vicodin.
It's interesting to read of the variety of patients he sees and his unique roll in the addiction saga.
Very intriguing.
It's very well written and helped me feel empathy for those dealing with addiction. I have some friends whose husbands have become addicted to opiates (perscription pain pills) after a work-related injury, etc. Their addiction destroyed their marriage and family. Very sad. Reading this book helped me understand what does on behind that ugly story. Why do people start abusing perscription drugs? How does one become 'addicted'? What is addiction? These questions are answered very well.
Dr. Stein does a few days each week in his internal medicine clinic in the city (read: patients less-than wealthy). The other days of the week he writes grants to get money for his addiction study. He pays addicts to come and talk with him and so he can study their lives, habits and behaviors. He is the only doctor of his colleagues in the city who is certified to give an opiate that counteracts the cravings for Vicodin.
It's interesting to read of the variety of patients he sees and his unique roll in the addiction saga.
Very intriguing.
October 31, 2013
Dr. Stein is an internist who specializes in treating patients who are addicted to opiates. One of the most difficult and rapidly growing addictions for humans to beat because the body quickly (in about 2 weeks of consistent use), develops a physiological dependence. Users experience a variety of very unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, that drives most of them to obtain more opiates and use again in order to alleviate the withdrawal, creating a vicious cycle. The book was informative, and in some ways surprisingly engaging. I didn't expect the story of one addict and one doctor for one year to be a page turner, but it turned out to be just that. At times I found the writer, Dr. Stein, to be arrogant, but perhaps one needs just that kind of bravado in order to go on treating patients who have an extremely high relapse rate. He attempts to address the fundamental questions of what we believe about addiction, but even he with all his experience can't decide if addiction is a disease, a moral failing, a response to psychic wounds, or a combination of them all. At times very sad, but certainly a good read.
September 2, 2009
The Addict follows Dr. Michael Stein in his treatment of Lucy Fields and a few other opiate addicts as they embark (or at least attempt to embark) upon a course of buprenorphine, a drug that eases dependence on opiates. It was interesting to read about addiction and treatment from the point-of-view of an internist rather than from a mental health professional or an addict herself, and Dr. Stein is clearly knowledgeable and seems to have a genuine interest in his patients wellness. I found the information he provided to be enlightening and not simply a reiteration of other addiction literature I have read.[return][return]I did feel that the book tended to drag at times and that Dr. Stein often began discussing a different patient without much of a transition. The writing definitely could have been edited to make it a little tighter. That said, this book was an interesting and informative read.
Read
October 9, 2009"Michael Stein is an MD with a practice designed to be able to treat some substance use disorders. This is of course dependent on the assumption that substance use disorders are inherently treatable.[return]In this book, Stein presents one long term case study of his relationship with a patient who comes to him for addiction treatment. He covers her psychosocial adjustments, outside influences, and medical issues in some depth (though not medical depth, just narrative detail). He also discusses various other substance users whom he treats, and their degree of success in treatment.[return]Ultimately the narrative is fairly engaging, if unrewarding. There is no complete resolution to any patient, and of course there is no simple or final treatment or solution to substance use disorders. Still, this comprehensive look at a the patient-practitioner relationship from inside is worth a read."
March 15, 2015
Many of us are quick to think of an addict as a monster. What the monster really is, however, is the addiction not the addict. Michael Stein does a wonderful job of showing us the people behind the addiction, not vilifying them, but not taking away any responsibility they have for their actions either. We are able to follow the story of Lucy, the main patient discussed in this book, as she struggles to remove the chains of her addiction. It does not take long for the reader to see that conquering an addiction is more than the just saying no to a certain drug or drugs, it is saying no to a life style and a self destructive way of thinking. While we watch Lucy as she takes steps forward and backward, we can see glimmers of self realization in not only her but the man telling her story and hopefully ourselves.
March 7, 2010
While I generally liked this book, I did find it a bit condescending on the side of the doctor toward his patients. I think this kind of treatment is important, and it was interesting to read about, and it does work for some people, but without psychological therapy - meaning I guess talk-therapy - along side, how does one ever get to the core of their pain? This doctor never prescribes it... He kind of "sits" in for a therapist as well as internist.
Also I know there's a need for confidentiality, but I was confused whether this story took place now or several years ago, 20 years ago? Maybe the timeline was played with as well - the patient has a cell phone, but she talks about her Burt Reynolds posters that she left behind when she leaves her boyfriend...? Doesn't really matter, but I was thrown for a minute.
Also I know there's a need for confidentiality, but I was confused whether this story took place now or several years ago, 20 years ago? Maybe the timeline was played with as well - the patient has a cell phone, but she talks about her Burt Reynolds posters that she left behind when she leaves her boyfriend...? Doesn't really matter, but I was thrown for a minute.
May 24, 2013
DNF
I just couldn't do it. It started out okay but got increasingly boring as it went on. I did stick it out to the half way mark hoping for a change but ,sadly, I finally had to acknowledge it was not for me. By 50 percent of the book I feel I should be emotionally invested in the characters or the issues being written about. This book just failed to engage me. Well documented and the doctors work is to be applauded. Stein did managed to feed me information on prescription drugs that I was unaware of. BUT, for me, he failed to give me the connection I was really wanting (and why I put the book on my tbr pile in the first place) to the main character Lucy. I'm not sure I can even explain it in a way that doesn't make it sound like a horrid book, because it's not. It is just that it never really felt like "Lucy's Story" and that was what I wanted to read. Just no emotional connect.
I just couldn't do it. It started out okay but got increasingly boring as it went on. I did stick it out to the half way mark hoping for a change but ,sadly, I finally had to acknowledge it was not for me. By 50 percent of the book I feel I should be emotionally invested in the characters or the issues being written about. This book just failed to engage me. Well documented and the doctors work is to be applauded. Stein did managed to feed me information on prescription drugs that I was unaware of. BUT, for me, he failed to give me the connection I was really wanting (and why I put the book on my tbr pile in the first place) to the main character Lucy. I'm not sure I can even explain it in a way that doesn't make it sound like a horrid book, because it's not. It is just that it never really felt like "Lucy's Story" and that was what I wanted to read. Just no emotional connect.
May 6, 2012
What a tremendous book. It was the story of a woman named Lucy addicted to vicodin and her treatment with the same doctor (the author) over the course of a year, the ups and downs of addiction. There were also other stories of patients he saw (not as detailed) but they were sprinkled throughout the book and updated regularly so I actually found them just as (and in some cases more) compelling as the main character's story. Lucy was a very complex character who changed in many ways as the story goes along. If you or anyone in your family/circle of friends has had addiction of ANY kind (booze, pills, other drugs, etc) this is a must read in my opinion. Fantastic! :)
January 8, 2010
I liked this book. There are many books out there by addicts and a handful by parents of addicts, but this offered a totally different perspective. At first I was a little uncomfortable with Stein's internal dialogue during Lucy's visits, but then I realized that what I was reading was an intimate look at one physician's view of a patient, not just a clinical view, but a human one, too. I think Stein's book was as much a personal reflection on and questioning of his role as it was a look at another form of treatment.
March 20, 2012
This was an eye-opening adventure, following a medical doctor's view, observations, and reflections of one patient over the course of one year. The patient is a young, single, white female who has her bachelor's degree, came from a "nice" family, but for some reason, took pain meds to kill the hurt in life. Now, she is near 30 years old, and finds that she is sick of depending on her abusive boyfriend for access to prescription pain killers - opiates. She turns to Doctor Michael Stein for help.
June 19, 2015
I didn't relate to the addicts in this book, I don't have an addictive personality or genetic inclination, but I also
couldn't relate to the doctor. He seemed cold and ineffective and I am not sure how any of his patients
ever recovered from their addictions. It seems maybe just luck. Whatever, this is a lesson not to take anything, not even prescribed medications because it seems addiction can sneak up on you and your life is ruined.
You would think this would make for an interesting read, but not really.
couldn't relate to the doctor. He seemed cold and ineffective and I am not sure how any of his patients
ever recovered from their addictions. It seems maybe just luck. Whatever, this is a lesson not to take anything, not even prescribed medications because it seems addiction can sneak up on you and your life is ruined.
You would think this would make for an interesting read, but not really.
May 16, 2009
In this book I was rooting for the addict and the doctor both. It was a very interesting peek into the doctors side of the chair, and his anxiety's and concerns and hopes. It leaves you feeling that addiction is a very serious disease and I found myself wondering, how does anyone sucessfully walk away from it for good. But they do. It makes you realize how resilent the human spirit is. God bless the people who love and care for addicts.
April 4, 2011
There are some very cool glimpses into the inner monologue of a doctor here, but overall I thought this book was pretty lacking. A large part of it might be that a lot of the book is extended quotes from the patient, waxing discursive about the why and how of her situation, and I thought the patient was full of shit. Maybe that was the point, but either way the end result isn't that engaging or enlightening.
January 19, 2012
I really liked this book. The writing was great and I could relate to the stories he told.
Even though it says "one patient", he actually talks about more then one, although he focuses mainly on the one.
The authors is an internist but specializes in addiction, specifically vicodin.
There were a lot of interesting facts in this book.
I really don't know what else to say about this book, except that I really liked it, and that is mostly do that I related.
Even though it says "one patient", he actually talks about more then one, although he focuses mainly on the one.
The authors is an internist but specializes in addiction, specifically vicodin.
There were a lot of interesting facts in this book.
I really don't know what else to say about this book, except that I really liked it, and that is mostly do that I related.
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