FREEDOM

Eade promotes Eastern philosophy as an alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous in this insightful self-help guide.

The author draws lessons about addiction and recovery from his own struggle with alcoholism, which almost cost him his liver. Much of the book is a critique of AA, which he attended for about five years. While acknowledging that it benefits millions of alcoholics, Eade faults the organization for being too doctrinaire, too hidebound, too rooted in 20th-century WASP patriarchy (which alienates many women, people of color, and non-Christians), and too fixated on a concept of alcoholic powerlessness that encourages a victim mentality. As an alternative, he extols a set of programs informed by Hinduism and Buddhism, including “Yoga and the Twelve Steps™” classes and the recovery groups Refuge Recovery and Recovery Dharma. In these communities, the author learned to let go of the fear and shame at the heart of his addiction, detach from his ego and listen to his inner self, lift the veil of worldly delusions, and pursue an oceanic oneness with all being. On a practical level, he learned to quell the anxiety and mental agitation that had fueled his substance abuse with deep-breathing exercises and a daily prayer cycle in which he thanked the Source and Mother Earth for reminding him to “ease pain and suffering,” “forgive Trump today,” and undertake other spiritually edifying tasks. Following this regimen, the author reports, he overthrew the “merciless tyrant” of addiction. Eade’s narrative combines a plangent memoir of dysfunction with an erudite disquisition on the psychology and philosophy of addiction. He deploys vivid, captivating metaphors, as when he likens addiction to a plunge into a Dantean underworld: “I looked up at the long upward climb back and gave in to despair. There was just no way that I could make my way back to the top of that steep, slimy slope.” At the same time, he offers rapturous encouragement (“You will find peace and serenity. I promise”) that many readers will take to heart.

A searching exploration of recovery and its discontents, mixing sharp criticism with a compelling story of redemption.