Customer Reviews

Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions

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I got the book as a reference from one of Keating's book. It is fantastic!! I recommend that all who face any disturbing addiction to read this book and indeed if you think you don't, read it and you will be surprised what you are addicted to. May shows the neurological aspect of addictions and very important he discusses the travials that occur during recovery. How your body adapts and readapts to habits and substances.

He says the root of the problem is in the psycho-toxins in our sub-conscious and recommends grace and contemplative prayer as a remedy. Where we let go of trying to solve it ourselves and allow God to heal us, to heal from the root. Here is where keating's book is useful for keating then expoundes on Mays recommended contemplative prayer namely, the prayer of silence of letting go.

The healing takes time and if you are looking for a quick fix, then forget this but if you want a root solution then pick this up. May says the beginning of a solution is when you say "I have a problem, I need help", God the healer, awaits to help you. May shows how to make an appointment, keating shows how to have a session and take the anti-bodies.

I bought this book because it was recommended in The Sacred Romance. I have to say that Addiction & Grace is a fantastic book. Addictions (attachments) prevent us from experience the full glory of God in our lives. This book helped me realize how in trying to get victory over my weight and food, I was merely replacing one addiction (food) with another (discipline--food diaries, measuring food, controlling exposure to food). God can only help me when I get to a place where I am still, no longer able or willing to help myself conquer the addiction. I need to be comfortable in the anxiety that arises when God removes the addiction because it is in that void that I will meet God. I need to feel safe in risky situations (parties, potlucks) because that is when I will experience God's grace most.

This book is highly readable (but read it with an underliner). Every chapter is thought provoking, but the last few chapters on spirituality are the most valuable.

Please do yourself a favor and buy this book. It will get you on the path to understanding the truth and gaining freedom from addictions. "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. -- John 8:32"

A relative of mine is addicted to crack. His wife is addicted to him. My father was addicted to cigarettes. My father-in-law is addicted to food. And many, many other people in my life are addicted to a wide variety of things. I was watching all this addiction go on around me, not understanding.

I don't even remember how I found this book. I've now given away about five copies to people who also were struggling to understand the addicted people in their lives.

Gerald May takes you through the process from the beginning to the end. The why's and the wherefores. Every word that is written in the beginning of the book is absolutely necessary to understand the conclusions reached at the end.

Now, I understand.

This book has brought great relief to me personally in that I am not so perplexed and lost in trying to understand why addicted people do the things they do. If you've ever asked yourself questions like 'Why don't they just stop?' and 'Why doesn't she/he just leave them?' then you need to read this book.

It's short and sweet and incredibly well written.

I read this book (skipping the chapter on the biology of addiction and the brain) and was blown away. What simple, profound, essential insights May offers here. With the help of God's grace, using what May teaches, I was gifted with six straight days free of my food addiction for the first time in years - just eating like a normal person, eating what I wanted most when I felt physically hungry and stopping when I was full. It was a beautiful time of freedom and I want more. I know with the help of His grace many more such days are ahead of me. Thanks again and again, Dr. May - and thank you Lord for such a gift.

This book gave me the rare experience of having a large gap in my knowledge completely filled, like a jigsaw puzzle piece fitting perfectly into place. It was as if what were only dim intuitions and questions in my mind were laid out and clearly explained, answered, and connected. It's also rare that such an explanatory book could also be practical, and in parts, moving and inspiring. I esp. appreciate the quote from Brother Lawrence: "People would be surprised what the soul sometimes says to God."

I used to be very dubious about statements such as "everyone has addictions" or "most anything can become addictive." I know better now. Whether its hard drugs or most any repeated behavior--Are the patterns of neurological activity the same? Yes. Are the consequences for emotional and spiritual growth the same? Yes.

From an evangelical Christian perspective, May appears to be not 100% kosher, but it makes no practical difference in this book as far as I can tell.

Simply put, this is the very best book on addiction and it's spiritual resolution that one can read. This author is simply brilliant, yet so readable. If addiction has you by the throat, this book will remind you of the way out.

May, a psychiatrist and spiritual director, relates the current biological understanding of addiction to christian spirituality. May argues that our "attachments," which prevent us from freely responding to God's grace, gain their power over our lives through the same biological mechanism as addictions to alcohol, narcotics, and nicotine. May underscores the importance of good habits or virtues (and the devastating effect of bad habits or vices) on our spiritual lives. Thought provoking and well-argued.

This book explains addiction from a scientific and religous perspective. As a sex addict and 12 step member I found it fascinating.

The AA Big Book states that "self-knowledge availed us nothing". That may be true and the author certainly implores the reader to turn to God for recovery from addiction; but the knowledge contained within this book is extrremely enlightening and introduces a novel and unique perspective to the concept of addiction and attachment. I think he is right on track.

This is an excellent book that gives clear and revealing insights into the nature of addictions, of which we all wrestle with in varying degree's, but also gives, through the wonder, power, and mystical work of Grace, a true sense of hope and joy in the midst of our personal struggles. "Grace is the most powerful force in the Universe. It can transcend repression, addiction, and every other internal or external power that seeks to oppress the freedom of the human heart. GRACE is where our hope lies."-Addiction and Grace, pg. 4-5. The essence of this book can't be stated any clearer that that.....

"Addiction and Grace" is one of the most powerful books I have read and is one of the cornerstones and mainstays of my sobriety.