Don't Let Your Kids Kill You: A Guide for Parents of Drug and Alcohol Addicted Children [Paperback]

Charles Rubin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1996

This is a self-help recovery guide for parents in the devastating situation of realizing that they are powerless to stop their children from self-destruction through drug and/or alcohol abuse. It is dedicated to letting parents know when it is time to start saving themselves from being dragged along to destruction as well, and to providing skills that prevent it. The book relies on spiritual but practical teachings and the message is for parents to attain a healthy balance in their lives through the letting go process. While showing parents how to safely distance themselves from the child's destructive patterns, it also shows how to recognize and support healthy requests for real help, if and when they come. It includes anecdotes and quotes from parents who have had to cope with kids on drugs and/or alcohol.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Offers parents the means to attain a healthy balance in their lives despite their children's choices," -- Publishers Weekly

"A radical and compassionate self-help guide for parents whose children are addicted to drugs or alcohol." -- Good Housekeeping Magazine

"A book of great merit." -- Donna Hanover, ABC/TV, New York --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Charles Rubin has been the subject of many TV interviews on CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, and the BBC, as well as various family channels and hundreds of local TV and radio shows (152 interviews in 2009 alone). He is a Clio Award-winning writer and producer. His novels include Hard Sell and 4-F Blues: A Novel of WWII Hollywood. The concept for DON'T LET YOUR KIDS KILL YOU developed during the process of surviving his two children's substance addictions. Rubin lectures regularly and hold workshops for parents, teachers, social workers and chemical abuse rehab personnel. Additionally, he is the president of the Inner Light Foundation in Petaluma, Ca, founded by his late wife, author Betty Bethards (The Dream Book-Symbols for Self Understanding which is the best selling book on dream analysis in the world). Rubin's latest book I'll Get Right Back to You and Other Annoyances published in October, 2010. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Element Books Ltd; First Thus edition (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 185230863X
• ISBN-13: 978-1852308636
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #792,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #80 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Special Needs > Hyperactivity

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You're the Parent of an Addict, You Need This Book!, August 25, 2000

By 

D. Baron (Las Vegas, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Don't Let Your Kids Kill You: A Guide for Parents of Drug and Alcohol Addicted Children (Paperback)

After reading every self-help and psychology book known to man,desperately searching for answers, trying to find some new *miracle* that might help me *cure* my addicted daughters, I picked up this book. I made it through the first two chapters and had to stop and allow the tears to flow freely. Finally, someone understood what I had been feeling for ten years in dealing with the anguish, the shame, the denial, and the fear. The author is not a doctor, he is not a counselor, he is just a parent who has endured the most heart-breaking ordeal a parent can go through. ... This book offers no mirale to cure your addicted children, but it can help you to begin to help yourself. Thank you, Mr. Rubin, for sharing your story with the rest of us who are in pain and want our lives back.

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bible for parents of drug addicted children, March 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Don't Let Your Kids Kill You: A Guide for Parents of Drug and Alcohol Addicted Children (Paperback)

Let me start by saying I do not like self help books. This book is the one book I have recommended highly through my ordeal with a drug dependent child. This is a man who has been there and learned the hard way (as most of us do) how to take care of himself and the rest of his family while still loving your child. He reminds us that when a child is high on drugs, you are not having a conversation with your child, you are having a conversation with the drug. Please read this book and highlight the passages you need when your child is conning you and making you feel guilty.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take the First Step--Read This Book, December 2, 1999

By 

Kurt Picillo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Let Your Kids Kill You: A Guide for Parents of Drug and Alcohol Addicted Children (Paperback)

"Don't Let Your Kids Kill You" is not written by a psychologist or a therapist. It is written by an ordinary parent who watched in horror as his two children were swept away by the insidious and powerful tide of drug abuse.

As any parent knows who has an alcholic or drug addicted teenager, the overwhelming feeling of helplessness can drive you to despair. This book clearly defines both your parental responsibility and your limits. It teaches you to "let go and let God"--one of the basic tenets of such support groups as Al-anon and Tough Love.

If you are frightened and confused by the self-destructive behavior of one of your children, if you do not know where to turn for help, read this book.

It just may be the first step back to a sane life in which you reassert your right to a happy and fulfilling existence even if your child continues to pursue the road to hell.