Beautiful Boy: A Heartbreaking Memoir of a Father's Struggle with His Son's Addiction and the Journey to Recovery

by David Sheff

At my worst, I even resented Nic because an addict, at least when high, has a momentary respite from his suffering. There is no similar relief for parents or children or husbands or wives or others who love them.

Teenagers with drug problems will not be prepared for adult roles . . . They will chronologically mature while remaining emotional adolescents.”

treating people whose drug use began when they were teenagers is further complicated because deconstructing or rerouting established pathways have biological as well as emotional and behavioral roots.

I am becoming used to an overwhelming, grinding mixture of anger and worry, each emotion darkening and distorting the other. It is a bleak and hopeless feeling. I may know it well, but it is no easier to bear.

“You can support his recovery, but you can’t do it for him,”

Al-Anon’s Three Cs: “You didn’t cause it, you can’t control it, you can’t cure it.”

Often relapse is part of recovery.