Recovery Road

Now in its third edition, Brenda Shaeffer's Is It Love or Is It Addiction? has helped countless people find their way from the trials and confusion of addictive love to the fulfillment of whole and healthy relationships. This excerpt celebrates the enduring power of love, and describes some ways that power can get twisted by trauma or misused through misunderstanding and inattention.

In Sane: Mental Illness, Addiction, and the 12 Steps, bestselling author Marya Hornbacher shares her own recovery story to guide readers through the maze of issues that make "working the Steps" uniquely challenging for people with co-occurring disorders. In this excerpt, Hornbacher explores the critical distinction between humility and humiliation as people with mental health disorders undertake Step Five.

In Craving, author and physician Omar Manejwala translates the neurobiology of this human phenomenon into real and accessible terms, explaining why we just can't seem to get enough. In this excerpt, Dr. Manejwala points out that it's often when things are going well - when we think we've got it all figured out - that we are most vulnerable to our cravings, and most at risk for relapse.

We live in a culture that is in denial about the complicated emotions surrounding loss and grief. In his book Help for the Hard Times: Getting Through Loss, Earl Hipp argues that people who understand loss and grief are better able to face life boldly. In this excerpt, Hipp offers a list of self-care skills that helps us survive and even grow through the hard times of our lives.

In this excerpt from his book Step Up: Unpacking Steps One, Two, and Three with Someone Who's Been There, bestselling author and sober alcoholic Michael Graubart explores the word "unmanageability" as it appears in Step One, and how our impulse to control everyone and everything is at the heart of our struggle with alcoholism and other addictions.

While many see the new year as a chance to try new things and make big changes, author and recovery guide Beverly Conyers shows how each day - even each moment - contains the same promise and possibility. In her book Find Your Light: Practicing Mindfulness to Recover from Anything, Conyers shows us how the practice of mindfulness, including the skill of seeing without judging, can be a game-changing part of recovery and a path to a happier life.

Beloved author Earnie Larsen was a true and certain guide to living more abundantly in recovery. In his book Destination Joy: Moving Beyond Fear, Loss, and Trauma in Recovery, Larsen explores ways you can bring greater love, acceptance, and belonging into your life. This includes learning to fully inhabit the present moment - what he calls "getting in the now."

Beverly Conyers has helped hundreds of thousands of readers recognize family roles in addiction, heal shame, and build healthy relationships. In Everything Changes: Help for Families of Newly Recovering Addicts, Conyers underscores the role of trust in family relationships and offers advice for supporting the loved one in your family with the disease of addiction, as well as ways to care for and support yourself as you navigate the early months of recovery.

Whether we're in the early stages of recovery or have a few years in the rearview, having a job or not having one can offer some formidable emotional challenges. In his book First-Year Sobriety: When All That Changes Is Everything, Guy Kettelhack helps us explore ways to deal with our hopes and fears about loneliness, success, and purpose without resorting to old, self-destructive behaviors.

In her book The Next Happy: Let Go of the Life You Planned and Find a New Way Forward, Tracey Cleantis offers practical help for the journey of grief. With wisdom from her own hard experience, Cleantis shows how to face the reality of letting go of dreams that can no longer be; accept sadness, anger, and shame; and ask the questions that will let you find a new way forward.