Author: Samantha Barrett Publisher: ISBN: 9780988631540 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 270
Book Description
Author Samantha Barrett says that initially, Memoirs of a Sex Addict was written to help heal herself. It is her sincere hope that it will also benefit others who have suffered as she has with Body Dysmorphic Disorder, a disorder which led directly to sex addiction and many of the reckless adventures recorded in this book. For her, BDD was a very rough ride, so some of the language and emotions in these pages are also rough. It had to be that way, she says, in order to tell the true story. The betrayals were many, including of her husbands, and there was never a shortage of men willing to take advantage of her. Even a counselor in an inpatient addiction hospital found her to be easy prey. Of course, the greatest betrayal was of herself. Some of what she did will come across as wild, out of control, even self-indulgent, but the common theme with alcohol and drug addicts is that she could not stop herself. Dr. Irvin Milowe, MD, and professor of psychiatry at the University of Miami, calls Memoirs of a Sex Addict "a very thoughtful trip into an addiction, that also shows the route out." And while Ms. Barrett is indeed eager to help others avoid her plight, she does not hide the details of her excursions. For Samantha Barrett the journey into addiction began during her childhood with being bullied in the home in what might seem a benign way. "The media," she says, "has been telling us about bullies at school and on the internet, but we rarely hear of bullies living under the same roof. We assume that parents will prevent anything hurtful to their children. But what if they are not aware? What may be "harmless teasing" for one child, could be devastating to another. A child may be hiding the pain. I was told that I was ugly, that no man would ever marry me. This led to a disease called Body Dysmorphic Disorder or BDD, a disease that distorted the way I saw myself and led me to obsess over flaws that may not have even be present. We hear tragic stories of drug and alcohol addiction. My addiction was different. Sex was my "drug of choice." Only sex could take away my pain of feeling "ugly." As soon as a man was on top of me or giving me attention, I felt beautiful. Often, alcohol went along with this behavior, but sex was the one I had no control over. Hopefully, the stories in this book will encourage parents, teachers and caregivers to be more aware of what is being told to or heard by their children."
Author: James Salant Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1416955119 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 6
Book Description
Written with heartbreaking insight and wicked humor, "Leaving Dirty Jersey" chronicles Salant's descent from wealth and privilege into a year of crystal meth addiction and crime.
Author: Janice Erlbaum Publisher: Villard ISBN: 0345504593 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 370
Book Description
And every week, there was the unspoken question, the one I didn’t know enough to ask myself : Have you found her yet? The one who reminds you of you? Twenty years after she lived at a homeless shelter for teens, Janice Erlbaum went back to volunteer. Now thirty-four years old and a successful writer, she’d changed her life for the better; now she wanted to help someone else–someone like the girl she’d once been. Then she met Sam. A brilliant nineteen-year-old junkie savant, the product of a horrifically abusive home, Sam had been surviving alone on the streets since she was twelve and was now struggling for sobriety against the adverse health effects of long-term drug abuse. Soon Janice found herself caring deeply for Sam, following her through detoxes and psych wards, halfway houses and hospitals, becoming ever more manically driven to save her from the sickness and sadness leftover from Sam’s terrible past. But just as Janice was on the verge of becoming the girl’s legal guardian, she made a shocking discovery: Sam was sicker than anyone knew, in ways nobody could have imagined. Written with startling candor and immediacy, Have You Found Her is the story of one woman’s quest to save a girl’s life–and the hard truths she learns about herself along the way. “A rich and compelling account . . . Ultimately this is a book about the narrator’s journey and the dangers that attend the urge within us all to believe we can save another soul. A terrific read.” –Cammie McGovern, author of Eye Contact
Author: Dawn Schiller Publisher: Medallion Media Group ISBN: 1605421405 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 498
Book Description
Painstakingly honest, this chilling memoir reveals how a teenager became immersed in the bizarre life of legendary porn star John Holmes. Starting with a childhood that molded her perfectly to fall for the seduction of “the king of porn,” this autobiography recounts the perilous road that Dawn Schiller traveled—from drugs and addiction to beatings, arrests, forced prostitution, and being sold to the drug underworld. After living through the horrific Wonderland murders of 1981, she entered protective custody, ran from the FBI, and turned in John Holmes to the police. This is the true story of a young girl’s harrowing escape from one of the most infamous public figures, her struggle to survive, and her recovery from unthinkable abuse.
Author: Patrick Moore Publisher: Citadel Press ISBN: 0806538368 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 227
Book Description
This candid memoir of addiction and recovery shares an intimate chronicle of life from Midwestern childhood to NYC's drug-fueled underground. Patrick Moore's account of life as a crystal meth addict combines heartbreaking honesty with rare insight and surprising humor. It chronicles a twenty-year trip stretching from Moore's lonely childhood in Iowa to the day he sits, naked, in a Los Angeles rental, hallucinating about psycho-robbers while talking to a possum he's sure is God. Along the way, there are acid trips at the V.F.W., Dexetrim study halls, teeth-grinding nights of dancing and anonymous sex in New York City's hottest eighties clubs. He takes pictures of Andy Warhol, loses friends and lovers, and navigates a Byzantine underworld of cookers, users, club kids, dealers, and colorful characters as intense as the drug itself. Through Patrick's vivid retelling, you'll meet Lee, the glamorous bad boy with a taste for danger; Tony, the tweaker who likes to remove his eyebrows; Ding-Dong, the Depends-wearing, nearly blind housemate; Hisako, the artist and squatter with a fondness for hot plate cooking; "Mother" Judy, the tough, butch rehab counselor who takes no prisoners, and countless others on the road from crystal meth hell to eventual sobriety.
Author: Junot Díaz Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 1594632855 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 239
Book Description
Presents a collection of stories that explores the heartbreak and radiance of love as it is shaped by passion, betrayal, and the echoes of intimacy.
Author: Jennette McCurdy Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1982185821 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 320
Book Description
A memoir by American former actress and singer Jennette McCurdy about her career as a child actress and her difficult relationship with her abusive mother who died in 2013
Author: Brittany Taltos Publisher: ISBN: 9780578722993 Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Brittany Taltos explores her progression into alcoholism, beginning with the familiar and ever-so-common binge drinking in college. She delves into her addiction at every level by highlighting her thirst for fame and attention through two reality TV appearances including The Bachelor Pad and Jersey Shore. After her epic and humiliating failure with television, she escapes to New York, predicting a fresh start. The city poses multiple threats to her happiness and well-being. Her romantic obsession with a married financier becomes the catalyst that initiates an alcoholic tailspin, fueled by heartbreak and anger. Brittany's insatiability becomes apparent at every level. Her eating disorder and alcoholism are in full throttle as she battles the demons inside of her head. Her raw, candid, and unapologetic delivery allows the reader into the mind of an addict. In the first chapter she asks, "How did my life as a beautiful girl with a college degree and an effervescent personality become a train wreck?"Throughout the book she explores this theme of transformation. Her desire for escaping reality became her reality. She analyzes and reflects on every destructive decision of her twisted mind that ultimately led her to sobriety. She renders provoking questions regarding life-fulfillment and happiness. By the end of the book, Brittany salvages her integrity as a woman and redefines her role as a fighter by not living as a product of her past.
Author: Paula Uruburu Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 1440629765 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 400
Book Description
The scandalous story of America’s first supermodel, sex goddess, and modern celebrity—Evelyn Nesbit. By the time of her sixteenth birthday in 1900, Evelyn Nesbit was known to millions as the most photographed woman of her era, an iconic figure who set the standard for female beauty, and whose innocent sexuality was used to sell everything from chocolates to perfume. Women wanted to be her. Men just wanted her. But when Evelyn’s life of fantasy became all too real and her insanely jealous millionaire husband, Harry K. Thaw, murdered her lover, New York City architect Stanford White, the most famous woman in the world became infamous as she found herself at the center of the “Crime of the Century” and a scandal that signaled the beginning of a national obsession with youth, beauty, celebrity, and sex.
Author: Christopher Bram Publisher: Twelve ISBN: 0446575984 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 312
Book Description
This “standard text of the defining era of gay literati” tells the cultural history of the interconnected lives of the 20th century's most influential gay writers (Philadelphia Inquirer). In the years following World War II a group of gay writers established themselves as major cultural figures in American life. Truman Capote, the enfant terrible, whose finely wrought fiction and nonfiction captured the nation's imagination. Gore Vidal, the wry, withering chronicler of politics, sex, and history. Tennessee Williams, whose powerful plays rocketed him to the top of the American theater. James Baldwin, the harrowingly perceptive novelist and social critic. Christopher Isherwood, the English novelist who became a thoroughly American novelist. And the exuberant Allen Ginsberg, whose poetry defied censorship and exploded minds. Together, their writing introduced America to gay experience and sensibility, and changed our literary culture. But the change was only beginning. A new generation of gay writers followed, taking more risks and writing about their sexuality more openly. Edward Albee brought his prickly iconoclasm to the American theater. Edmund White laid bare his own life in stylized, autobiographical works. Armistead Maupin wove a rich tapestry of the counterculture, queer and straight. Mart Crowley brought gay men's lives out of the closet and onto the stage. And Tony Kushner took them beyond the stage, to the center of American ideas. With authority and humor, Christopher Bram weaves these men's ambitions, affairs, feuds, loves, and appetites into a single sweeping narrative. Chronicling over fifty years of momentous change-from civil rights to Stonewall to AIDS and beyond. Eminent Outlaws is an inspiring, illuminating tale: one that reveals how the lives of these men are crucial to understanding the social and cultural history of the American twentieth century.
Author: Samantha Barrett
Author: James Salant
Author: Janice Erlbaum
Author: Dawn Schiller
Author: Patrick Moore
Author: Junot Díaz
Author: Jennette McCurdy
Author: Brittany Taltos
Author: Paula Uruburu
Author: Christopher Bram