Customer Reviews

Staying Clean & Sober

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4 star:		(2)
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Staying Clean & Sober: Complementary and Natural Strategies for Healing the Addicted Brain is a guide written for those who suffer from addiction and their families. Authors and addiction recovery experts Merlene Miller, M.A. and David Miller, Ph.D. understand all too well that addicts are at high risk for relapse from sobriety into addictive behaviors, and debunk the common myth that failing to stay sober is due to a lack of willpower. Staying Clean & Sober recognizes that addiction is a disease of the brain, and the biochemical imbalances of addiction create severe symptoms that make living without the addictive substance painful. Chapters address how certain amino acids and other nutrients combined with alternative therapies can help improve recovery rates, recipes that encourage the proper balance of neurochemicals, a questionnaire to help the reader determine whether he or she has a deficiency in serotonin levels, an extensive resource section, miscellaneous advice for improving one's health and staying sober, and much more. A highly recommended self-help supplement to professional care for recovering addicts.

I would recommend this book for people trying to recover. There is a lot of good advice for nutrition and wholistic complements to AA/NA- Eating well and taking care of yourself in general are so important to staying sober/clean.

The recommended amino acid (protein) strategies do seem to help, especially the glutamine. Again, I would read the book closely to make sure you are taking the proper dosage of the vitamins it recommends- That said, the plan makes sense and should get more coverage, people in the program can be very close-minded about this sort of thing, whereas AA founder Bill W. was a strong supported of vitamins and any help science might lend to recovery.

Good Luck,

JB

Its time to take the lamp shade off the lamp and let the light shine. The Millers knew more about me then I knew about them. AA and NA its time to add some more pages to your basic texts and 12X 12"s If your programs include the full arena of addiction as you state this is a must. $ 12.03 for the book and a $ 6.00 amino acid/ vitamin supplement has dropped my depression from an 8 to a 3 and manageability of stress and anxiety have dropped as much. I am a person that may wait for the rest of my life for the other shoe to fall on this one.

Scott C Honolulu Hawaii

This is a very important topic and this book addresses it extremely well.I have done a lot of research on the topic and this book is one of the best I've read on the subject. The information is understandable to the layperson which I think is very important because it's the person in recovery who needs this understanding. Thank you.

A whole new way to look at the addicted brain. It is truly different, and it is about time that society realized it. They need to treat it as an illness instead of a crime. Rehab programs that don't use this information are also cruel. This is a life changing book.

We found this book to be easy to read, despite the technical content. Merlene and David Miller know how to present this kind of information in a way that keeps you interested. They are definitely showing how much misunderstanding is out there about addiction. We have been using one of the amino acid products for a nephew recovering from drug addiction and so far it is working fine. We would highly recommend this book to anyone who has an addiction or knows someone else who could use this advice. This would make an excellent book for rehabilitation centers to give to patients completing their program.

I haven't read this book yet, but I have read all the reviews, and I have a good idea of its content (I will read it eventually, but my booklist on this subject is currently over 20).

Anyway, what strikes me is how similar this book seems to "Seven Weeks to Sobriety", which is not just a detox program, but also an in-depth explanation about how amino acids and vitamins/minerals, and other natural substances play such a large part in the great equation that leads to addiction, or wellness. The author, Dr Larson, experienced her son committing suicide at a time when his life was picking up and he was full of hope. She went back to school and did her PhD on discovering what causes alcoholism and figuring out how to combat it (without medication). It is not just how to get sober, but how to stay there through chemical balance. (Therapy is also stressed alongside the program as an adjunct, NOT the main approach. In addition, the book includes diet plans (and recipes, I think) tailored to recovering alcoholics, because she also stresses diet (and exercise, of course.)

But yes, it is all a disease of the brain, which is chemically unbalanced, and has to be helped in extreme ways to reverse an extreme level of chemical imbalance.

The book gives a fascinating 50-page history of alcoholism treatment over the last 125 years -- full of stories I never knew about... it's hard to put down (who could ever say that about a book on this subject?), and then launches into testing for different kinds of alcoholics (which require slightly different kinds of treatments), and makes detailed protocols to follow with both amino acids (highly emphasized) and mega supplements. I mean MEGA. There are charts in there to help you keep track of what to take when, and detailed explanations of each supplement, amino acid, vitamin (including several unconventional supplements), what they do, how they work together with the other supps, all of which makes as an invaluable reference guide even if you don't follow the program. Or tailor make it to your individual needs, adding and subtracting as you feel fit based on your own research or insight or external recommendations.

My feeling is that these two books will work together well as companion books, but I can't say for sure without reading the book reviewed here.

In any case, "Seven Weeks" has changed my attitude towards addiction in a revolutionary way, and probably saved my life, both mentally and physically.

I highly recommend this "Seven Weeks" -- and you will want to keep it as a reference for years to come, I think.

I'm looking forward to reading "Staying Clean and Sober" asap. Hope it was ok to insert this "review" without having read the book. Those reading Clean and Sober might want to read them together, or one after the other. Just conjecturing, of course.