Customer Reviews

I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can

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This is the Age of the Quick Fix, the Age of Prozac and other mind potions. Barbara Gordon's story of her addiction to Valium and striving towards recovery is a classic in the literature of addiction. From a successful career as an award-winning documentary film maker, becoming famous and rich, to having a personal relationship with "Eric," who supposably was trying to take her off Valium cold turkey with disastrous results, Barbara Gordon paints an honest and painful a portrait of addiction as you will ever read. Once the most prescribed drugs for anxiety and "Nerves" in the world, it is now potentially one of the most addictive and dangerous to get off of after taking it for a long time. This book changed my life, for I was addicted to Valium, not ever imagining how it would change my life, mostly for the worse. Barbara Gordon's struggle was heroic and her getting off the drug, finding her bearings, and heading on the road to recovery make inspiring reading and a cautionary tale, that pills do not cure everything, that the human spirit can survive deep terrors. Many books on drug addiction have come and gone, written by professionals as well as laymen, but I know of none more powerful, none that face the fear with such total honesty as Barbara Gordon's book. It should never be out of print and anyone contemplating taking the drug path to lower anxiety should read this book and have second thoughts. Barbara Gordon, like many true survivors, takes her readers to hell and back, and show us that there is hope, even after a journey into into the deepest darkness of the psyche. Highly recommended. One of the best books ever written about drug addiction of any kind.

Hidden within the pages of this intense and absorbing first person account, are sincere and serious warnings for everyone living in our therapeutic culture. It warns of the false solutions offered by therapists who rely too heavily on medication. It warns of the dangers of relying on experts to provide healing rather than on self-responsibility. It warns of the dangers of emotional repression instead of expression. But the greatest warning may be that we all need to build and maintain networks of supportive and sensitive family and friends. In the end Gordon credits this resource as contributing the most to her healing.

Honored for 15 weeks on the New York Times bestseller's list, this book is the story of Barbara Gordon's anxiety-induced slide into Valium addiction, her ill-advised and dangerous "cold-turkey" withdrawal, the psychosis and hospitalizations that followed the withdrawal, and her slow, painful, and persistent pathway back to functioning. Readers may find the first half of the book to be a bit repetitive as Gordon chronicles her destructive relationship with Eric, but the pathos and honesty expressed in her fight back to sanity while at Greenwood Hospital is gripping and compelling.

I am aware that there have been changes in state licensing standards for therapists since this book was written. I am aware that there have been many significant advances in the study of brain biology since this book was written. I hope that the therapeutic "industry" may be credited with significant advance since Gordon endured this mistreatment. Nonetheless, I recommend this book. It speaks with a distinctive voice warning that we all - treated and untreated, patient and therapist - must take personal responsibility for our mental health within a supportive social context of family and friends.

No one should ever have to repeat the experience Barbara Gordon had.

In I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can, successful documentary producer Barbara Gordon tells the story of the fallout in her life after breaking free from a valium addiction and her personal stuggles that followed. Barbara had it all, a wonderful relationship, a successful career, a network of friends and a niggling problem with anxiety. After making the decision to put an end to her addiction, Barbara mysteriously spirals into neurosis, hospitalization, dispair and loneliness. Encountering the best and worst that the psychiatric field had to offer, Barbara chooses to triumph over her demons, chooses health over psychosis. Her story offers a gripping glimpse into the depths of a psychological disorder and the battles on the road back to normalacy. This is a must read for anyone working in the mental health field and anyone battling their own psychological demons.

I have read my share of memoirs, especially in the last five years which has seen a real proliferation of this type of writing. However, this book is one of the first memoirs to write about drug abuse (valium addiction), and it holds up well, even after all these years. One of the themes of these book which was excellent, was the author's relating in great detail her treatment. She showed that acknowledgement that one has an addiction is not the way a memoir should end; she wrote compellingly, and with much courage, about how difficult treatment was, and that no one is ever "completely cured". Another issue she raised, which I wholeheartedly agree with, is how few good therapists there are. She knew how lucky she was to find a good one at the last hospital she was in. No one brought up this issue 20 years ago when she wrote this book. Don't pass this book up.

If you're like me, and really *get into* what you're reading, this book will have you questioning your own sanity!

You will fall into the deep blackness with Ms. Gordon, as well celebrate her successes as she begins to see the light!

This book is timeless, powerful, and AWESOME. Not a "feel good" story -- but a tormented journey -- one which will give you hope.

A must-read for women in search of inner-strength!

I was required to read this book for a nursing addiction class which I was taking. I wasn't sure what it was about because I didn't know who Barbara Gordon was until after reading the book. I was impressed by her courage in writing about an addiction problem and her struggles with it. Most people have a stigma against addicts, their impression is that of street bums when in fact addiction is non discrimatory. Doctors play an important part because many times, they don't take the time to listen to what the person has to say and instead just writes out a prescription for complaints. With doctors sometimes not able to get the records, this people can go from doctor to doctor and continue their addiction problem without much hassle. The age of this book still tells of struggles that happened twenty years ago and these same struggles happen even today with people trying to receive treatment. I was glad that I was required to read this book as part of this class. I learned alot from it. Thank you. Terri

The books arrived within a few days. The book was excellent and well worth the purchase price.

This book helped me through the withdrawl from prescription drugs. While reading Miss Gordons story I felt like she was going through this nightmare with me. She had it much worse, but it was like a friend holding my hand during a dark and hellish time. I highly recommend this book for anyone going through this, you won't feel alone. Also for those who want to understand exactly what it's like for your loved one before they get on these drugs, how it numbs us for years and the hell is takes to get off them....in some cases fatal.

A number of books about substance abuse have come out since "I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can," but it still should be on the bookshelves (or Kindle) of everyone directly or indirectly involved with addiction. Gordon's straightforward description of the mental, emotional, and physical symptoms endured by a recovering addict has a powerful universality. It helps all of us understand the complex and excruciating process of recovery. - Ann Seymour, author of "I've Always Loved You"

This is an especially good book if you have suffered from withdrawal from a benzodiazepine. It really brings home the fact that these drugs can suppress your emotions and that considerable therapy and effort may be needed to gain control of your life. I highly recommend it and I couldn't put it down.