The Best Books About Addiction

Is addiction a disease? That’s just one of the many swirling questions around this epidemic—if you ask Gabor Maté, one of my very favorite people and physicians, it’s not, if only because the addiction itself provides relief. His question is not, why the addiction, it’s why the pain? You’ll find several of his books on my shelf, along with Dopamine Nation by Dr. Anna Lembke (a guest on Pulling the Thread), which suggests that addiction is a very big tent indeed, i.e., it is big enough to hold all of us. You’ll also find a selection of some of my favorite memoirs about addiction from various viewpoints, including parent (David Sheff’s Beautiful Boy) and participant (the wonderful Bill Clegg and Mary Karr).

Please, as always, drop recommendations in the comments, I am always all ears for more books to read. The link below will take you to a shelf I curated on Bookshop with my picks—I earn an affiliate commission there, but it is ALWAYS MY PREFERENCE that you shop at and support your local bookseller, so no pressure to buy via Bookshop. This is the easiest way for me to organize and keep picks updated. Happy reading!