In 2006, one week shy of his nineteenth birthday, Mitch found himself in rehab for drug addiction. In a short period of time, his substance abuse spiraled out of control until he ran away from home, and his family filed a missing person’s report with the police. A week after he was found, he spent a total of eight months in treatment. After spending nearly four years recovering in rehab, halfway houses, and collegiate recovery programs, he moved to New York and made something special of his life. In My Addiction, My Superpower, Mitch shares his recovery journey in detail, in which he reveals the lessons he learned and breaks them down into twelve easy tips for anyone who has been impacted by addiction, mental health, or substance abuse.
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES and LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER “Brilliant . . . riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued.”—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, as heard on Fresh Air This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting . . . The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we’ve all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption. In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain . . . and what to do about it. Condensing complex neuroscience into easy-to-understand metaphors, Lembke illustrates how finding contentment and connectedness means keeping dopamine in check. The lived experiences of her patients are the gripping fabric of her narrative. Their riveting stories of suffering and redemption give us all hope for managing our consumption and transforming our lives. In essence, Dopamine Nation shows that the secret to finding balance is combining the science of desire with the wisdom of recovery.
International Bestselling Author Ava Miles shares life-changing strategies on how to cultivate a peaceful and fulfilling life. If there’s one thing successful superheroes don’t do, it’s drama. Why? Because drama sucks energy and distracts from victory. It’s as debilitating as kryptonite. And yet, drama has become so common in our world that we expect it. We have it with our families and at work—we watch it on TV. We get caught up in letting it distract us from the things that we want. With drama comes its henchmen dysfunction and co-dependence, infiltrating our relationships until we’re a mass of stress. How do we avoid the toxicity? How do we conquer drama, dysfunction, and co-dependence and live our best lives? What do we need to beat them? Can you imagine living a life where you don’t care what anyone thinks? Where you live a life based on love and acceptance? Forget the old patterns and learn new ones to create harmony in your life. Get to know peace, your new sidekick, and his buddy non-attachment. Life-changing tools in this book include: · Assessing your relationship profile · Clearing the roots of drama begun in childhood · Spotlight Tools to delete our drama language · Super Tools to detox our unhappy patterns · Take Back Tools to rewire us to healthy, peaceful relationships · Cutting-edge exercises to foster non-attachment Peace Is Your Superpower is part of The Lost Guides to Living Your Best Life series, a complete system to help us reclaim the nine superpowers essential to rocking life. * * * Ava Miles is the international bestselling author of powerful books about love, happiness, and transformation. As a former conflict expert, Ava rebuilt warzones in places like Lebanon, Colombia, and the Congo to foster peaceful and prosperous communities. While rewarding, Ava recognized she could affect more positive change in the world by addressing the real roots of conflict and unhappiness through books. In becoming an author, she realized her best life. Her novels have received praise and accolades from USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly, and Women’s World Magazine in addition to being chosen as Best Books of the Year and Top Editor’s picks. However, Ava’s strongest praise comes directly from her readers, who call her books life changing. The Lost Guides to Living Your Best Life series represents the culmination of her work as a conflict expert, life coach, and wellness expert. * * * Reviews “Ava gives us the tools we need to reclaim our everyday joy and honest expression. Rediscover my inner superpowers? Yes, please! The Lost Guides are a world changer. Well done, Ava.” ~ International Bestseller and Kung Fu Master Kathia Zolfaghari “A life-changing journey every woman will want to take.” ~ Crystal Andrus Morissette, Founder of the S.W.A.T. Institute (Simply Woman Accredited Trainer) “Miles’ series is an exquisite exploration of internal discomfort and courage, allowing you to reclaim your divine soul and fully express your womanhood. I highly recommend.” ~ Dr. Shawne Duperon, Project Forgive Founder, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, on The Lost Guides “Miles provides us with essential advice on how we can shed the beliefs that are making us miserable and find our way back to our inner goddesses… She guides us through the sometimes turbulent waters of the issues that matter most to us (relationships, sex, finances, self-expression, self-image, etc.). This is must read…” ~ Angela Polidoro, former Editor for Random House’s Ballantine Bantam Dell “Pushing the envelope is edgy. Change is never comfortable. Ava Miles takes us out of our comfortable chitchat cocoon and shows us how to become those butterflies all women are destined to become no matter what they face in life. The series is a must-read.” ~ Risa Shimoda, Outdoor Leadership Consultant and President of The Shimoda Group, on The Lost Guides “Let your adventure begin and unleash by reading this series.” ~ Anna Levesque, author of Yoga for Paddling, on The Lost Guides “This series delivers empowering advice without pulling any punches.” ~ Liza M. Shaw, MA, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist of PowerToThrive.com, on The Lost Guides “Ava Miles is a courageous fellow writer whose mission is to empower all women.” ~ Aspen Matis, author of the internationally bestselling memoir Girl in the Woods “Ava gets to the heart of why some of us do toxic or hang around drama while helping us all realize we can have happy and loving relationships that don’t clutter up our space or make us sick.” ~ Courtney Cachet, Celebrity Designer & TV Personality If you enjoy books by Brene Brown, Gabrielle Bernstein, Rachel Hollis, Jen Sincero, Mark Manson, Shawn Achor, Michael Singer, Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Shauna Niequist, Gary Chapman, John Leland, and Gretchen Rubin, you will love Ava's self-help books.
The New York Times Bestseller Recently retired WWE superstar AJ Mendez Brooks is a powerhouse—strong, quirky, and totally confident. But that wasn’t always the case. With humor and tremendous heart, she opens up for the first time about her harrowing struggle to understand her demons and the diagnosis that helped her gain control over her life. Everything I was told should be my greatest insecurities and weaknesses, everything that I’ve been labeled—SHORT, NERDY, SKINNY, WEAK, IMPULSIVE, UGLY, TOMBOY, POOR, REBEL, LOUD, FREAK, CRAZY—turned out to be my greatest strengths. I didn’t become successful in spite of them. I became successful because of them. Growing up AJ was a quiet girl trying to act “normal” when she felt anything but. As her family struggled with drug addiction, poverty, and mental illness, she found escape through comic books and video games, and was inspired by the tough and unconventional female characters. It wasn’t until she discovered pro wrestling that she learned superheroes could be real. Determined to become the superhero she’d always admired, AJ trained and sacrificed for years to achieve her dream of wrestling professionally. Yet she quickly faced industry pressure to play the role of the damsel in distress and to dress more provocatively to cater to male fans. But she fought back and created an ass-kicking alter ego that was a genuine representation of herself: nerdy, enthusiastic, and a little bit crazy. With humor and tremendous heart, AJ opens up for the first time about her harrowing struggle to understand her demons and the mental illness diagnosis that helped her gain control over her life. What most people view as a hardship, AJ embraced as inspiration for her superhero persona, shattering the stigma attached to mental illness. Charting her journey from a scrappy girl in an unstable home to an empowered wrestling champion, Crazy Is My Superpower is an unflinchingly honest story and brave confessional about her long road to self-acceptance.
The New York Times Bestseller Recently retired WWE superstar AJ Mendez Brooks is a powerhouse—strong, quirky, and totally confident. But that wasn’t always the case. With humor and tremendous heart, she opens up for the first time about her harrowing struggle to understand her demons and the diagnosis that helped her gain control over her life. Everything I was told should be my greatest insecurities and weaknesses, everything that I’ve been labeled—SHORT, NERDY, SKINNY, WEAK, IMPULSIVE, UGLY, TOMBOY, POOR, REBEL, LOUD, FREAK, CRAZY—turned out to be my greatest strengths. I didn’t become successful in spite of them. I became successful because of them. Growing up AJ was a quiet girl trying to act “normal” when she felt anything but. As her family struggled with drug addiction, poverty, and mental illness, she found escape through comic books and video games, and was inspired by the tough and unconventional female characters. It wasn’t until she discovered pro wrestling that she learned superheroes could be real. Determined to become the superhero she’d always admired, AJ trained and sacrificed for years to achieve her dream of wrestling professionally. Yet she quickly faced industry pressure to play the role of the damsel in distress and to dress more provocatively to cater to male fans. But she fought back and created an ass-kicking alter ego that was a genuine representation of herself: nerdy, enthusiastic, and a little bit crazy. With humor and tremendous heart, AJ opens up for the first time about her harrowing struggle to understand her demons and the mental illness diagnosis that helped her gain control over her life. What most people view as a hardship, AJ embraced as inspiration for her superhero persona, shattering the stigma attached to mental illness. Charting her journey from a scrappy girl in an unstable home to an empowered wrestling champion, Crazy Is My Superpower is an unflinchingly honest story and brave confessional about her long road to self-acceptance.
In Uncovered, author Matt Mathews recounts a lifetime spent breaking the unfortunate cycle of addiction as well as sharing his experiences with growing up as a gay person in Alabama. With insights about the heartbreak of losing loved ones due to tragic events and how to break ties with those who harm us, as well as amusing anecdotes from his life as a professional boudoir photographer. A comedic self-help memoir and all around hilariously tragic story, Uncovered: The Naked Truth of Life, Love, and Addiction doesn't take itself seriously as it faces many taboo topics we rarely discuss. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and in the end, you'll survey your own life so you can better face the challenges this remarkable journey of human survival will relentlessly serve up.
With humor and tremendous heart, AJ opens up for the first time about her harrowing struggle to understand her demons and the mental illness diagnosis that helped her gain control over her life. What most people view as a hardship, AJ embraced as inspiration for her superhero persona, shattering the stigma attached to mental illness.
What if you learned that to lead well, you’d need to live like a drug addict? During treatment for drug addiction, Michael Brody-Waite learned three principles that became the difference between life and death: Practice rigorous authenticity Surrender the outcome Do uncomfortable work Leaving rehab, Michael entered the workplace where he was shocked to see most business leaders doing what he had been taught would kill him. He began to see striking similarities between drug addiction and what he calls “mask addiction.” Leaders everywhere were hiding their authentic selves in order to get what they wanted. They were doing things like: Saying yes when they could say no Hiding their weaknesses Avoiding difficult conversations Holding back their unique perspectives Instead of chasing drugs, leaders were chasing professional, financial, and social success from behind a mask—to the detriment of themselves and the people around them. Thanks to his recovery, Michael’s three principles gave him an unlikely competitive advantage throughout his career, resulting in a level of success unexpected for a “drug addict.” In Great Leaders Live Like Drug Addicts, Michael explains what drug addicts do to recover and provides a step-by-step program you can use to break free from your mask addiction to thrive in both work and life. He equips you with the tools you need to live and lead mask-free—tools to enable you to stop following others, lead yourself, and become one of the dynamic, growing, authentic leaders this world desperately needs.
Addicted to Love is a roadmap to recovery and healthy relationships for female sex and love addicts. It’s hard to imagine love without the pain. Women who live with love addiction are a unique breed having learned to cope in a sex-driven world by finding their worth in sexuality and being wanted. The human need for lasting, meaningful relationships is constantly sabotaged by these women’s own behaviors on top of events outside their control. In Addicted to Love, Lacy A. Bentley—a woman who has been there—introduces her own recovery journey with courageous honesty to guide other women on their paths to recovery. Each chapter focuses on a different trait of emotional health and teaches women to integrate that trait in a workbook-style format. Lacy shows them how to secure their romantic heart, love like they were meant to, and break free from compulsive patterns, while presenting new ways of seeing day-to-day patterns. Every word guides brave women into the relationships they truly want and deserve—without excuses, compulsions, or addiction in the recovery roadmap of the future.
Stories of Addiction Recovery explores first-hand structured accounts of addiction recovery through the G-CHIME model, bringing together shared experiences, lessons learnt, and describing the growth achieved to highlight to others what is possible in their own recovery.
