With is most recent release “Clean” David Sheff again attempts to help those suffering from addiction issues. This is the fourth in a series of blogs on Sheff and his body of work, most notably his most-recent release.
Sheff has first-hand experience dealing with addiction issues as his son Nic almost died from substance abuse. In “Clean” Sheff provides a number of strategies for coping with addiction and most notably calls for the legalization of marijuana (which I am against) and for treating addiction as an illness (which I fully support). As reported in www.nytimes.com.
If you want to read a book that may change a life, read this one. If you are looking for a sure-fire answer to solving addiction issues, though, you may be disappointed
Addiction is a new enough disease that most major scientific strides have been made on the molecular and cellular levels, with relatively little percolating to patient care. Sheff admonished most current addiction treatments: “a haphazard collection of cobbled-together, often useless and sometimes harmful recovery programs based not on medical science but on tradition, wild guesses, wishful thinking and pseudoscience, some of which borders on voodoo.”
Treating addiction is not yet like treating other diseases.
If you or someone you care about suffers from addiction, I urge you to seek help. If you prefer to maintain anonymity there are both online alcohol classes and online drug classes.