Many Asians are drowning in shame and addictions with no way out. Is this any different from a traditional Westerner? I would say very much so. Shame is embedded in the Asian way of thinking, behaving, and interacting. If you do not understand the cultural history of shame and its underpinnings, then you will have a hard time understanding the mindset of typical Asians, let alone the stranglehold of shame in their midst. This book is written especially for Asian Christians as God's unconditional love is hard for many Asians to understand because of the shame that binds them. This book is to help you get to the heart of Asian Shame and some of the associated behaviors and addictions that result from a culture that inhibits healthy emotional expression. If you want healthy Christianity among Asians, you need to understand how to recognize and break this cultural cycle of shame that has shackled millions of Asians to fall prey to the vices of gambling, infidelity, sex, out-of-control spending, over-eating, and other addictive behaviors.
Many Asians are drowning in shame and addictions with no way out. Is this any different from a traditional Westerner? Very much so. Shame and honor are embedded in the Asian way of thinking, behaving, and interacting. If you do not understand the cultural history of honor and shame and its underpinnings, then you will have a hard time understanding the mindset of Asians, let alone the stranglehold of shame that keeps many from breaking the code of silence.
“This is a story she needed to tell; and the rest of the country needs to listen.” — New York Times Book Review “This vital memoir will change how we look at the opioid crisis and how the media talks about it. A deeply moving and emotional read, STRUNG OUT challenges our preconceived ideas of what addiction looks like.” —Stephanie Land, New York Times bestselling author of Maid In this deeply personal and illuminating memoir about her fifteen-year struggle with heroin, Khar sheds profound light on the opioid crisis and gives a voice to the over two million people in America currently battling with this addiction. Growing up in LA, Erin Khar hid behind a picture-perfect childhood filled with excellent grades, a popular group of friends and horseback riding. After first experimenting with her grandmother’s expired painkillers, Khar started using heroin when she was thirteen. The drug allowed her to escape from pressures to be perfect and suppress all the heavy feelings she couldn’t understand. This fiercely honest memoir explores how heroin shaped every aspect of her life for the next fifteen years and details the various lies she told herself, and others, about her drug use. With enormous heart and wisdom, she shows how the shame and stigma surrounding addiction, which fuels denial and deceit, is so often what keeps addicts from getting help. There is no one path to recovery, and for Khar, it was in motherhood that she found the inner strength and self-forgiveness to quit heroin and fight for her life. Strung Out is a life-affirming story of resilience while also a gripping investigation into the psychology of addiction and why people turn to opioids in the first place.
A psychotherapist's memoir of addiction and recovery while navigating centuries-old customs and American culture provides an understanding of Asian Americans in terms of immigration, assimilation, and behavioral health.
This volume reports on the growing body of knowledge on shame and guilt, integrating findings from the authors' original research program with other data emerging from social, clinical, personality, and developmental psychology. Evidence is presented to demonstrate that these universally experienced affective phenomena have significant implications for many aspects of human functioning, with particular relevance for interpersonal relationships. --From publisher's description.
The authors employ the techniques of oral history to penetrate the nether world of the drug user, giving us an engrossing portrait of life in the drug subculture during the "classic" era of strict narcotic control. Praise for the hardcover edition: "A momentous book which I feel is destined to become a classic in the category of scholarly narcotic books." —Claude Brown, author of the bestseller, Manchild in the Promised Land. "The drug literature is filled with the stereotyped opinions of non-addicted, middle-class pundits who have had little direct contact with addicts. These stories are reality. Narcotic addicts of the inner cities are both tough and gentle, deceptive when necessary and yet often generous--above all, shrewd judges of character. While judging them, the clinician is also being judged." —Vincent P. Dole, M.D., The Rockefeller Institute. "What was it like to be a narcotic addict during the Anslinger era? No book will probably ever appear that gives a better picture than this one. . . . a singularly readable and informative work on a subject ordinarily buried in clichés and stereotypes." —Donald W. Goodwin, Journal of the American Medical Association " . . . an important contribution to the growing body of literature that attempts to more clearly define the nature of drug addiction. . . . [This book] will appeal to a diverse audience. Academicians, politicians, and the general reader will find this approach to drug addiction extremely beneficial, insightful, and instructive. . . . Without qualification anyone wishing to acquire a better understanding of drug addicts and addiction will benefit from reading this book." —John C. McWilliams, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography "This study has much to say to a general audience, as well as those involved in drug control." —Publishers Weekly "The authors' comments are perceptive and the interviews make interesting reading." —John Duffy, Journal of American History "This book adds a vital and often compelling human dimension to the story of drug use and law enforcement. The material will be of great value to other specialists, such as those interested in the history of organized crime and of outsiders in general." —H. Wayne Morgan, Journal of Southern History "This book represents a significant and valuable addition to the contemporary substance abuse literature. . . . this book presents findings from a novel and remarkably imaginative research approach in a cogent and exceptionally informative manner." —William M. Harvey, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs "This is a good and important book filled with new information containing provocative elements usually brought forth through the touching details of personal experience. . . . There isn't a recollection which isn't of intrinsic value and many point to issues hardly ever broached in more conventional studies." —Alan Block, Journal of Social History
Spoken not Broken: Healing through Poetry is a collection of poetry touching on themes related to Asian-American identity, mental health, and addictions drawn from both my professional experience working with clients but also my personal struggle with identity, cultural shame, and addictions.I was once shrouded in shame as I struggled to fit into America as a first-generation immigrant. There was the shame of being different as an Asian, the shame of not living up to certain cultural expectations, and the shame of living in secrecy with various addictive tendencies. Feeling more than defeated, I believed I was broken to the core.My healing came through the written and spoken word. I had to speak my truth regardless of the shame or pain it generated in order to free myself from the crippling internal vise of negativity, inadequacy, and fear. May these poems dip into the richness of your soul so the beauty of the real you can also speak its truth.
"Many Asians are drowning in shame and addictions with no way out. Is this any different from a traditional Westerner? Very much so. Shame and honor are embedded in the Asian way of thinking, behaving, and interacting. If you do not understand the cultural history of honor and shame and its underpinnings, then you will have a hard time understanding the mindset of Asians, let alone the stranglehold of shame that keeps many from breaking the code of silence." -- Back cover
The League of Nations Advisory Committee on the Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs, created in 1920, culminated almost eight decades of political turmoil over opium trafficking, which was by far the largest state-backed drug trade in the age of empire. Opponents of opium had long struggled to rein in the profitable drug. Opium’s Long Shadow shows how diverse local protests crossed imperial, national, and colonial boundaries to gain traction globally and harness public opinion as a moral deterrent in international politics after World War I. Steffen Rimner traces the far-flung itineraries and trenchant arguments of reformers—significantly, feminists and journalists—who viewed opium addiction as a root cause of poverty, famine, “white slavery,” and moral degradation. These activists targeted the international reputation of drug-trading governments, first and foremost Great Britain, British India, and Japan, becoming pioneers of the global political tactic we today call naming and shaming. But rather than taking sole responsibility for their own behavior, states in turn appropriated anti-drug criticism to shame fellow sovereigns around the globe. Consequently, participation in drug control became a prerequisite for membership in the twentieth-century international community. Rimner relates how an aggressive embrace of anti-drug politics earned China and other Asian states new influence on the world stage. The link between drug control and international legitimacy has endured. Amid fierce contemporary debate over the wisdom of narcotics policies, the 100-year-old moral consensus Rimner describes remains a backbone of the international order.
