Press & Reviews, Book - Addicted Like Me

I plan to use this book in my practice so that families may better understand and connect to the emotional and behavioral dynamics they may be facing when addiction arises. I also plan to use the tools presented to benefit them in learning healthy boundaries and coping strategies to hopefully provide some structure and education during such a chaotic ride.”

Dr. Dana Beville
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HONESTY! FIVE STARS

Inside the pages of this book you will find a heart rendering tale of two women who have overcome obstacles in their lives that have had their roots deep within their souls. Mother and daughter, Karen
and Lauren had addictions to drugs and alcohol that was literally destroying their lives
and those they touched.

Now I know that there are many books out there that have testimonies of overcoming such addictions, and they are very good and needed. However, what I personally liked about this book was the way the authors fully understood and told how the addiction was not just a personal problem, but a family problem. I am a firm believer that many things are passed from parent to child, both good and bad. Many of the trials we encounter are generational and need to be dealt with at the core. This mother and daughter recognized this and understood that this was the root of the problem and it had to stop with them. I was impressed.
Their battle was not an easy one, and they are quite frank and honest with all that they did to continue on with the lifestyle that had become theirs. However, they also share quite blankly what it took and will take to overcome this enemy. They leave out very few details in their battles but that is the beauty of their stories, This book could well be a life savior for anyone battling addictions, or those who are standing by watching,not knowing how to help someone they love. They will have more insight as to why this is happening, and knowledge is always a plus in any situation. I highly recommend this ,' tell it like it is' book and thank our two authors for having the courage to lay their lives before others in hopes of bringing them recovery and healing. Well done.

Shirley Johnson - MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW

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ADDICTIONS: ALCOHOL AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE

Addicted Like Me is a memoir written by mother and daughter team Karen Franklin and Lauren King, who write about their personal entanglements in the battle of substance addictions. The compelling stories interrelate a message that recovery is possible, and can become a stable unchangeable choice for the betterment of life, when it comes to such struggles. They tell the reader of trials, hope, and redemption, proving that a new family legacy can be painted through a will of strong determination hedged with solid commitment.

Karen's story opens to the loss of a mother at an early age, left to be reared solely by her father who abuses alcohol. Isolated by her mother's side of the family, due to the sudden loss, their way of grieving, Karen now has to deal with an alcoholic stepmother who competes with Karen for her father's love. Dealing with the rhetoric feelings of not being loved, Karen begins to withdraw, pulling back her feelings, turning to wrong influences of alcohol, and illegal drugs to fill a void developed in her youth. Finding herself on a self explosive path of destructive behaviors, after the loss of her first born son Karen faces the reality, "that unless she revealed her addictions, then her only consequence at hand could mean her own life or death." Eager for change Karen seeks support, making the decision to stop using illegal drugs, setting the tone for absorbing knowledge of the "beast" that plagued her family through four generations, concluding, "it is a disease that if faced does not discriminate." Her path of change leads to letting old friends go, new environments, and acknowledging the emotional numbness used as a coping mechanism along with substance abuse, needed to be replaced with allowing herself to absorb, experience, and feel her emotions, working through them in order for the former not to become a permanent place in her life anymore. This newness of sobriety becomes a norm in her life until encountering her children struggling in areas they were normally productive in, finding substance abuse played a great part in their actions, lead Karen on another journey of helping her own children in reaching sobriety. Administering tough love, at times letting them reach rock bottom, Karen chose to believe "they would find the strength within themselves to develop change." Embracing a regimen of eliminating self-denial, tied with determination and hope, Karen embarks upon the reality, "early sobriety will lead to recovery."

Lauren's story begins in part two, detailing her experiences in the battle of addiction through the eyes of a teenager. After she and her brother Ryan are abused by her alcoholic father and stepmother, a similar parallel to her mother's history, drug and alcohol use along with wrong influences become the emotional crutch in her life. The difference is she has a loving mother who has walked down similar tracks who decided to fight for her children, "even if that meant relocating for the betterment of her children." Through commitment to a dynamic treatment program called "Tough Love", although Lauren encountered bumps along the road she learned to take steps towards sobriety, self-discovery, accountability, and began to trust. She absorbed the fact, "to work through the pain in order to deal with the bottom line of her feelings, not run from them but to face them." Once returning to the outside world without the support of her sobriety group due to Lauren not wanting to be disciplined for entering an emotional dependent relationship that was abusive, Lauren hits rock bottom on a different note, enduring the loss of her first child as well to a miscarriage from such a decision. Subsequently humbling herself to return back to her sobriety group, Lauren through it all "had reached out before using, she had kept her sobriety." This would continue an eleven year victory of sobriety for Lauren.

Addicted Like Me is a 279 page book, containing three parts of a mother-daughter memoir. Part one and two are their story, while part three is the focus of a mother-daughter guide to recovery, involving strategies, and resources with online websites for the reader. Discussion questions are provided at the end. What pleased me about this book most was that it brought with it what I would call a "Pass It Forward" movement, one of unconditional retribution. A mother who endured, passed her knowledge of strength on to both her son and daughter, a son who led his sister to sobriety by example, and a daughter although not close to her own father, reached back once reaching her sobriety to bring him into his before his death. Addicted Like Me is sure to have a place most definitely in the publishing realm for helping those who struggle with addiction to recovery.

Review by Tijuana L. Canders on Feb 15th 2011