«--Previous Post | Blog Index | Next Post--»

Why Former Addicts Dread Addiction Memoirs

Below is a guest blog entry by MoJo author Maia Szalavitz:

I'm starting to dread reading about addiction. One would imagine that coming up on the 20th anniversary of my own decision to stop using cocaine and heroin that I would either be utterly bored by it or alternatively, entranced with a subject that touches on free will, morality, neuroscience, sociology, psychology and endless politics.

Typically, I engage in the latter obsessions—but when I read media portrayals of addiction like Sunday's front-page New York Times magazine excerpt of the its columnist David Carr's addiction memoir, I cringe.

It's not that I don't have sympathy and compassion for people who struggle with this disorder—how could I not? It's not that I don't recognize that other people will have different perspectives from my own. My problem is that virtually every addiction memoir—whilst strenuously arguing otherwise or, as in this case, self-consciously highlighting the clichés—tells the same story.

Meanwhile, other equally true stories of addiction go untold. And worse, these untold stories actually represent the majority of cases, according to the research data. For example, a large proportion of people who recover from opoid addiction do it using methadone—not abstinence. Ever read a methadone memoir? And most people who quit cocaine addiction do it without treatment or even self-help groups. Ever read that one?

Our failure to recognize these alternate stories means that we continuously repeat the same mistakes in policy and treatment. Then we go on congratulating ourselves for our understanding of addiction, believing we already have the answers!

Carr's story of 80's excess with cocaine dealing and using is unusual in the sense that he admits that he neglected his infant twins and beat his wife—your typical addict memoir leaves out or plays down the damage done to kids.

But, and here's where my dander goes up, Carr doesn't seem to realize that cutely admitting he messed up and "doesn't deserve" the good life he has now isn't enough to explain—let alone excuse—what he did.

Perhaps in the book he tells the story of how he came to be so uncaring and far gone as to leave his children in a car for hours the winter while smoking crack or shooting up. Perhaps there, he further examines his privileged position. And perhaps there he recognizes that a model of addiction that sees addiction as simple immoral behavior doesn't capture its essence.

In the article, however, his immorality is described as a simple consequence of addiction. The drugs made me do it, Officer. End of story.

Well, no. There are actually many addicts—and many more people who use drugs, even hard drugs like crack—who don't abuse or neglect their children. Or, who don't have kids because they know they can't care for them when high. In 20 years of studying and writing about addiction, what I've found is that drugs and even addictions don't create bad behavior all by themselves.

Yes, addiction can cause extreme stress on one's moral system, like any other hunger. When that ethical system has been attacked earlier by trauma, abuse, or neglect, that's typically when it fails—not just when someone takes a lot of drugs. Drugs alone aren't enough.

Under such stress, indeed, some people are willing to steal, kill or yes, neglect children to get what they want—but many others aren't. What should interest us is who does and who doesn't—and why, not the archaic story of drugs taking another guy—even a Times writer—down.

These distinctions are important because if addicts are simply immoral scum driven by evil substances that promote bad behavior, we already have appropriate drug policy. If, as Carr writes, what he deserved was "hepatitis C, federal prison time, HIV, a cold park bench and an early, addled death," we're already doing what we should be.

Lock 'em up, stigmatize 'em and sure, go on and refuse to provide enough clean needles and compassionate treatment to avoid such outcomes—that's what those halfwits deserve. They asked for it—they're all people who abuse and neglect children and commit all of the worst crimes.

When someone tells an unanalyzed story like this, which seems to almost justify child neglect because it ultimately got the addict clean, it simply reinforces that limited and misguided perspective.

Carr leaves out the most important things: the motivations, the history, the psychology, the brain chemistry and the racial and socioeconomic factors that meant that he didn't go to prison for 15 years (as he would have done under New York's Rockefeller laws for selling the amounts of cocaine he admitted selling) or contract HIV or hepatitis. He leaves unmentioned the critical factors that meant he could get a good job afterwards, when so many others cycle in and out of prison for doing exactly the same things.

Does anyone think a black man would have avoided a lengthy prison term in his circumstances, selling multiple ounces of cocaine? Do we think young black twins whose mother was drug-positive would even have been allowed to go home with her? Would either mom or dad ever have ever gotten those babies back?

If you are going to investigate your own story of addiction, perhaps you should interview not just people from your past, but academic treatment experts, sociologists, drug policy analysts, neuroscientists, psychiatrists and those who've actually looked at our bizarre way of dealing with this problem beyond anecdotes, community-based treatment and self-help groups. Reporting isn't just talking to people who were there—it's talking to people who have studied the subject and getting outside your own limited perspective.

I haven't read the book yet—perhaps it, unlike the article, contains this broader view. It's really hard to write outside your area of expertise—and the addictions field is filled with people who repeat discredited ideas as truths—so it's especially difficult to get past that if your only knowledge of addiction comes from the method by which you recovered.

I understand Carr wrote the book to pay for his daughters' college education, which is certainly admirable. But without going deeper, this excerpt serves as just another entertainment piece to titillate readers—and it reinforces myths that underlie our failed drug policy.

—Maia Szalavitz

Maia Szalavitz is the author of "Help At Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids," and Senior Fellow at stats.org.

Comments

Maia,
The reason you cringed reading Carr's memoir excerpt is that it's tone is self-serving and narcissistic, like the voice of an active addict.
It may be true that uncomfortable truths are revealed later, but the NY Times portion I just read reads like endless other addiction memoirs: "My life was crazy when I did a lot of drugs."
While his language is beautiful, Carr's stereotypical descriptions of drug use are, stereotypically, overused.
There are endless stories, many of which deserve to be told for the hope they can offer others. The fact that life gets crazy when you throw a heap of crack in the middle of it is hardly worth mentioning, no matter how exciting it seems to the author…

Posted by: Dr Psych on 07/23/08 at 11:57 PM Respond

I had my problems with substances 20 years ago, and ended up doing a 30 day rehab stint, and never did those substances again. I tried at various times to take part in the recovery "machine" of support groups, etc., but found the stifling sense of self-congratulation, and the cataract-impaired mode of self-awareness to be more than I could deal with, regardless of desire to help people escape a major problem. Turns out when a egotistical ass sobers up, they are still an egotistical ass, with the added spice of "moral authority." Add in a touch of entrepreneurial spirit (I say this the nice way) and you have a overladen book market. Think it's bad now, wait another 10 years for the generation of home-schooled right-winger spawn to become the "professional" class.

Posted by: Justin on 07/24/08 at 6:56 AM Respond

Yeah, I found Carr's article a bit disgusting and self-serving. It feels like if Dennis Leary was writing a memoir about drug addiction, only minus the shoddy attempts at humor. Like you, I believe that if this is going to be a valid genre, we need more stories that defy these worn stereotypes, rather than embracing him. Taking drugs are not going to make you physically abuse your spouse, you have to have that in you for the drugs to bring them out, and the fact that Carr does makes me hope that he makes no money off his book. A few years ago, I listened to the audiobook of Cupcake Brown's autobiography about her own addiction, which while not gorgeously written, was a much more interesting story. One of her major points was that she was able to have a normal, functioning life as an addict for a long time without anybody knowing, essentially harming nobody but herself. I found this "undercover addict" bit a much more interesting tale, especially coming from a black woman.

Posted by: dksp on 07/25/08 at 6:38 AM Respond

Maia, thank you for your insightful post. You made me think about the addiction narratives I've read in the past, as well as the complete lack of social understanding or redemption beyond the memoirist him/herself.

You also made me consider WHY I read books like this and, if I'm being honest, it's this: they're titillating. I have never been addicted to drugs or alcohol or sex or rock 'n roll, and yet I love reading books about it. I'd put Carr's book on the same shelf as The Dirt (the Motley Crue bio) or in the same category as tv movies about teenage girls with bulimia. These kinds of experiences are so far removed from my reality, that I get a feeling of catharsis to read about/watch them.

I promise I am not dismissing addicts'pain or hardships, nor the real and far-reaching effects of addiction. Just being honest.

Posted by: JenBloggs on 07/25/08 at 7:14 AM Respond

Folks let's be real here - the druggie war story angle is as old as the hills. Whether whiny and self indulgent or glamorizing the fact, we've heard it all before. I want to hear about someone with different kind of habits - like David Sedaris when he talks about his freakish OCD as a kid. Also drug addicts have this "I had it worse than you" tone that honestly irritates the hell out of me. Everybody has problems and no matter how much 12 step programs try to tell you it's a disease and you are powerless against addiction, at the end of the day the only reason people destructively abuse drugs is because they prefer to endure the world in a state of chemical euphoria rather than do it sober. Sad? Yes. Inevitable? Not by a long shot. Get over yourself is what I say. Your not the only one that had it tough.

Posted by: Spyro Poulos on 07/25/08 at 7:55 AM Respond

Maia -

For the record, I'm a friend of David's and am in the book as a bit player (and certainly not the most extreme one).

Your complaints about what David leaves out would have more force if you'd read the book, not just the excerpt. We all have our issues with David, whom I still consider a friend, but he spends plenty of time on the subjects you lament.

It is fair to criticize what was excerpted, but this seems to tip over into a rather-certain "unanalyzed" indictment of the tome that, at this point, is unanalyzed by you.

You're probably right that the publishing industry should broaden its addiction portrayals, but methadone addiction isn't David's story and he can't be faulted for writing (very well, in my biased view) his own tale.

Posted by: David Brauer on 07/25/08 at 8:55 AM Respond

I was totally let down by the Carr piece, another addict whose "journey" seemed trite and old. If he didn't work for the New York Times, I doubt it would have gotten published at all. The fact that he is white and not the inner-city stereotype actually intriqued me, but he offers no inner-analysis of why he did what he did and no credible reportage about why he no longer does what he did.
I think Ms. Carr's critique is right on. Living in NYC, where upstate jails are filled with people of color thrown in the slammer for similar offenses, I thought her comments on the racial divide here especially true.

Posted by: Jean Grillo on 07/25/08 at 10:08 AM Respond

I quit drugs, including heroin, years ago without any program or system, I just quit. A few years later I went for a job interview at one of these counseling clinics and they were really worried that I might tell their clients how I did it, and that was the end of that interview. I guess it would've hurt their bottom line. I still smoked, however, until one day my three year old wandered into my home office and started coughing. I put my cigar out and never looked back. Even though I had tried to quit dozens of times before, this time it was actually easy: no withdrawals, nervousness, gum chewing or any of that. I think the difference was that I'd always left the door open before, knowing how hard it was going to be, and this time I shut that door for good. It works.

Posted by: smitisan on 07/25/08 at 11:15 AM Respond

Maia,
I read the Carr excerpt and agree with everything you said . . . except your conclusions. Yes, I found it riddled with cliches and self-absorption. But in my opinion, Carr's honesty and writing talent (and self-knowledge) were enough to overcome those deficiencies. In truth, I think drug recovery accounts (like first sex, first time getting drunk, etc.) are going to be numbingly similar. Still, that's why I read them.

Posted by: David on 07/25/08 at 1:34 PM Respond

Maia,

I agree with you completely. I was an "addict" myself, coke, crack, pot, booze, lsd, opioids, you name i did it. i also quit, never went to rehab and am a 36-year-old fully functional, well employed, married professional.
i never hit anybody, never did anything that could be used to sell a book.
there are many faces of addiction and hiding behind an addiction as a means to justify failure as a human being is a big lie.
shame on the media and the government for continuing to perpuate these stereotypes and for not requiring people to take responsibility for their own actions in life.

Posted by: maya on 07/25/08 at 3:06 PM Respond

Maybe this is a commentary Ms.Szalavitz should posse to the publishing community. Or to all the readers that wouldn't purchase a novel that wasn't full of the stuff needed for vicarious walk on the wild side. I have a pile of smoldering embers I call a novel, poorly written do to the damage caused with my romance with dope. It's a story of someone that always just misses the mark. Not really all that interesting. But I did put my child up for adoption,to spare her the agony of my life. Never sold massive amounts of anything or did anything particularly heinous. Oh I had my moments. I can pull a tear or two, a few laughs in the rooms of other addicts much like me. And believe me, I could use the money from a sweet publishing deal as the repercussions of my addition have left me a very ill and alone collecting welfare. Not that long ago I was an active productive member of society and probably still would be accept for ramifications of cirrhosis caused by hep-c. There have been times in the twenty four or so years I haven't picked up, and I didn't attend to 12 step meetings at all for long periods of time. And other times when only the deep understanding of others like myself could keep me afloat psychologically. I really am in agreement with the questions you posse in your article. I probably won't read Carr's book as I have alot of other things I'd rather read. My question is what is the briefly mentioned "failed drug policy" that you elude to and what do you propose as a solution?

Posted by: Ms. Bonomo on 07/27/08 at 9:21 AM Respond

Just a quick comment on David Brauer's comment. Methadone treatment isn't an addiction, it's a *treatment* for an addiction. It's actually the one that is best evidenced when it comes to treating heroin addiction, but you'd never know that from reading the thousandth variant on the archetypal sin and redemption addict memoir.

Posted by: Big Razor Sis on 07/27/08 at 11:04 AM Respond

Carr's article--like all the addiction narratives to appear in the Times Magazine section-- perpetuates a dangerous belief :one must reach "end stage addiction (Carr's term) before you can change. I am a psychologist whose books are designed to call attention to the the subtle signs of addiction so that people can get into treatment before they reach "end-stage." (Addicted? Recognizing Destructive Behavior Before It's Too Late). Just as we recognize early signs of cancer, long before it reaches Stage 4, we need to learn the early warning signs of addiction.
One of the ways I have learned about early warning signs of addiction is by reading countless addiction memoirs. While Carr's article was notable in his reflections about what it means to write such a memoir, I was sorry to see that any exploration of how his addiction developed was absent. Through the careful description of an addiction's development, we all can learn more about how to recognize this problem before it achieves its fully destructive potential.

Posted by: Marilyn Freimuth on 07/27/08 at 11:40 AM Respond

I think anyone who reviews a book should read the book first. You lack credibility when you acknowledge you didn't read the book.

Posted by: Kris on 07/28/08 at 9:25 AM Respond

Smitisan

You're right on. I white-knuckled an advanced coke and booze addiction because (thankfully) I didn't know any better. Addicts broadcast their poor-me weaknesses when they blame a "disease" for their self-indulgence. Just don't do it! And it IS that easy.

Posted by: lee anderson on 07/28/08 at 1:16 PM Respond

Big Razor -

Thanks for the correction, sorry for the error. I think we both know what I meant!

Posted by: David Brauer on 08/05/08 at 11:58 AM Respond

Glad you've overcome your addictions and I totally agree that substances are not to blame for abuse towards others. I know plenty of people who have been abused by non-users. What irks me is your comment about how cliche memoirs about addiction are. The truth is, many who use and don't like the fact that they are using and can't seem to stop write about it at some point. Maybe as an outlet, whatever the case may be. I think it's important that addicts and people in recovery continue to write memoirs about their experiences because it helps people who are using and want to stop not feel so alone.

Posted by: Lara Berk on 08/26/08 at 10:52 AM Respond