The Weight of Air: A Story of the Lies about Addiction and the Truth about Recovery (Hardcover)
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"We urgently need more complex and truthful stories about addiction and more nuanced understandings of how to respond to it. The Weight of Air is a moving, tender, thoughtful account of addiction and also a compelling critique of a lot that's wrong with the dominant model of addiction treatment."--Johann Hari, New York Times best-selling author of Chasing the Scream
"Entertaining, honest, darkly comedic, and smart as hell, David Poses's The Weight of Air is a painfully accurate portrayal of heroin addiction and the sorts of treatments forced upon us. Part memoir and part analysis of the treatment industry, the disregard for science, and our ridiculous drug policies, Poses's book is badly needed during a time when the overdose crisis is at its apex."--Amy Dresner, author of My Fair Junkie: A Memoir of Getting Dirty and Staying Clean
"A fluidly written, disarmingly blunt account of heroin addiction and recovery."--Keith Humphreys, former White House drug policy adviser to Presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama
"For years as I worked as a New York City cop, David Poses and I shared a fence as neighbors, and I never knew he was in treatment for addiction to heroin. When he finally told me his story, it transformed my approach to policing. The Weight of Air is at once an intensely personal memoir and a much-needed blueprint for saving lives during this time of profound crisis. Police need more neighbors like David."--Brandon del Pozo, PhD, retired deputy inspector of the New York City Police Department and retired chief of police, Burlington, Vermont
"Poses's offbeat humor leavens the chilling details of an often heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful story."--Carol Giacomo, journalist and former member of the New York Times Editorial Board
"This honest memoir is a gift to the reader--and it will save lives. David Poses holds up depression, self-doubt, and fear for our scrutiny and offers real, tangible hope. This book will be on my mind now--always."--Charlotte Bismuth, author of Bad Medicine: Catching New York's Deadliest Pill Pusher
"The Weight of Air reveals why so many have been harmed less by drugs or alcohol than by arcane addiction treatment programs, misguided public policies, and pervasive stigma. By sharing his own story with uninhibited candor, David bravely creates a path for others to do the same."--Stephanie Papes Strong, founder and CEO of Boulder Care
"The Weight of Air makes us comes to grips with the fact that opioids are not just used for physical pain--they also ease psychic pain. . . . After the death of my son from overdose, I bonded with David over our mutual belief that medications for recovery are lifesaving and not just for short-term use. It takes a special kind of bravery to share the darkest period of your life. . . . The Weight of Air is a testimony to [David's] strength."--Jennifer Hornak, registered nurse who lost her 32-year-old son to a heroin overdose
"Entertaining, honest, darkly comedic, and smart as hell, David Poses's The Weight of Air is a painfully accurate portrayal of heroin addiction and the sorts of treatments forced upon us. Part memoir and part analysis of the treatment industry, the disregard for science, and our ridiculous drug policies, Poses's book is badly needed during a time when the overdose crisis is at its apex. Depression is the gateway to drugs, and buprenorphine can keep death off the table and a heroin addict clean. Poses is about to turn your whole worldview on addiction upside down in the best way."--Amy Dresner, author of My Fair Junkie: A Memoir of Getting Dirty and Staying Clean
"This honest memoir is a gift to the reader--and it will save lives. David Poses holds up depression, self-doubt, and fear for our scrutiny, and offers real, tangible hope. This book will be on my mind now--always."--Charlotte Bismuth, author of Bad Medicine: Catching New York's Deadliest Pill Pusher
"Poses's offbeat humor leavens the chilling details of an often heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful story."--Carol Giacomo, journalist and former member of the New York Times Editorial Board
"A fluidly written, disarmingly blunt account of heroin addiction and recovery."--Keith Humphreys, Esther Ting Memorial Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University
Description
"Soulful, achingly honest . . . A potent addition to the literature on drug addiction and recovery."--Kirkus Reviews (starred)
While his wife and two-year-old daughter watched TV in the living room, David Poses was in the kitchen, measuring the distance from his index finger to his armpit. He needed to be sure he could pull the trigger with a shotgun barrel in his mouth. Twenty-six inches. Thirty-two years old. More than a decade in a double life fueled by depression and heroin.
In his groundbreaking memoir, The Weight of Air, David chronicles his struggle to overcome mental illness and addiction. By age nineteen, he'd been through medical detox, inpatient rehab, twelve-step programs, and a halfway house. He saw his drug use as a symptom of depression, but the experts insisted that addiction was the problem. Over the next thirteen years, he went from one relapse to the next, drowning in guilt, shame, and secrets, until he finally found an evidence-based treatment that not only saved his life, but helped him thrive.
With grit, humor, and brutal honesty, David's story exposes the danger in traditional recovery models: they actually increase stigma and the risk of overdose, relapse, and death. As depression and addiction rates skyrocket and overdose fatalities surge, The Weight of Air is a scathing indictment of our failed response to the opioid crisis--and proof that success is possible.
"David Poses's unflinching memoir takes you to the dark corners of addiction--and shows there's a way out."--Eric Eyre, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Death in Mud Lick
"A searingly honest addiction memoir with a much-needed perspective."--Maia Szalavitz, New York Times best-selling author of Unbroken Brain