Status Updates From Now What?: An Insider's Gui...

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... genes matter when it comes to vulnerability to dependence on alcohol or other drugs.

The case can be made that the innate urge to feel better or just feel different never ends until we die.

"It helps those familiar with addiction and those who suffer with addiction come to an understanding that addictive behaviors and addictive thinking are the result of distinct alterations of brain functioning. Such recognition can relieve some of the shame and guilt that plagues those with addiction."

Addicts looking for the next high almost always know what they're doing. But like their loved ones, they can't understand or explain why either.

The "Why?" is almost always a response to the bad things done by good people.

..."remission" from the disease of addiction is a lifelong process.

What makes it uniquely different from other chronic and often fatal diseases, such as diabetes or hypertension, is the flood of emotions—hate, anger, fear, frustration, shame, and grief—that almost always propel us into behaviors and decisions that get in the way of finding help or of accepting the help that's offered.

...from a sense of personal vocation that came from the belief deep within me that giving voice to my story was necessary for my own recovery.

...an incurable illness that leads to
shame, confusion, and isolation.

My challenge now was to step back, to practice knowing the difference between fixing things and fixing people. It isn't easy.

...recovery became more than a solo flight; it became a mutual affair.

This is Moyers's second book. It is his follow up to Broken. In Now What Moyers offers advice on recovery to addicts and their families.