Grief Addiction

One phone call. That's all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs's life forever.... Her younger brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. How do you make sense of such a tragic end to a life of so much hilarious brilliance? In beautiful, unsentimental, and surprisingly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs alternates between her brother's struggle with addiction, which she learned about three days before her wedding, and the first year after his death, in all its emotional devastation.

This second edition of The Mindfulness Workbook for Addiction will help you identify the root of your addictive behaviors while providing healthy coping strategies to deal with the stress, anxiety, and depression that can come from experiencing a loss.

In 2001, Christine Yanke’s life was turned upside down after police raided her family’s home and arrested her Hells Angel husband. Suddenly an unemployed single mother of three boys, she had to fight to keep her home and family together. For the next three years, her husband awaited a trial that would determine their future together as a family. Blinded by an Angel is the true story of one woman’s struggle to survive mental, physical, and financial hardships.

When her brother dies of AIDS and her husband dies of cancer in the same year, Rosemary is left on her own with two young daughters and antsy addiction demons dancing in her head. This is the nucleus of The Art of Losing It: a young mother jerking from emergency to emergency as the men in her life drop dead around her; a high-functioning radio show host waging war with her addictions while trying to raise her two little girls who just lost their daddy.

While five months pregnant, clinical psychologist Dr. Nicole Anders received a phone call from her father that would shatter her heart and bring her to her knees. "He's not in pain anymore", her father said, to the sounds of her sobbing in disbelief. Nicole's younger brother, Cody, had accidentally overdosed, taking his last breath earlier that morning. While no stranger to loss, this devastating trauma marked for her a profound firsthand experience with PTSD and heartbreaking grief. One Hundred Goodbyes is the journey...

On average, over 175 Americans die every day from substance use disorder. They are all someone’s sons and daughters. That’s 175 mothers every day who lose their child to drugs. On October 1, 2016, I became one of them. Blindsided, lost, debilitated, enraged, deep in my grief, I journaled. This is my journal from the first year, unfiltered, unedited - a mother tortured by the loss of her high-functioning son to opioids 

Sacred Grief offers an intriguing exploration of the far-reaching ripple effect of our present-day opinions about surviving grief's emotional roller-coaster and the unnecessary suffering our judgments unconsciously promote. You’ll find comfort in discovering that there's another dimension to this universal experience - a dimension that fosters trust, kindness and compassion, peacefully heals, and steadfastly moves you towards your soul's deepest desires and dreams.  

Jack Maloney was born in Philadelphia, PA, to alcoholic parents. He endured a turbulent childhood, suffering harrowing abuse and one trauma after another. He escaped his dysfunctional family by joining the Marines at age 17. Jack was an active alcoholic and drug addict for many years. He has been in alcohol recovery for the past 37 years. His life is a testament of overcoming life’s most difficult challenges. Jack is a survivor turned thriver! His story, Little by Slowly, takes listeners from real loneliness and fear to an ever-living hope that we all need to thrive!

While it's tough to understand what leads a person into addiction - to witness someone you love kind-of kill herself - the truth is that you can learn from it. By the time Céline died at age 30, she was Kermit The Frog green and she vomited blood more frequently than she was able to eat. In less than a decade, she had gone from summa cum laude Columbia graduate to NYU PhD student to unemployed, rambling, stumbling drunk saddled with a cirrhotic liver beyond repair.

A catalyst for change can take many forms. For author Erin Burrell, that life-altering moment began with a jarring knock at the door. A solemn detective delivered the news that a loved one had died. The grief and heart-splitting loss sent her groping for answers. In her search, she was drawn toward an unexpected path - towards the metaphysical. After reading several books about psychic mediums, Erin wondered if she too might be able to connect with her deceased loved one.

Have you ever felt like life was finally going well, when suddenly life decides to throw you a curve ball? Life will knock you down when you least expect it. The important thing is not how or why we got knocked down, the important thing is how will we respond? In her early 40's, Nadine found herself to be a newly successful entrepreneur...and simultaneously...the mother of a heroin addict. She used this situation to create an out-of- the-box therapeutic travel recovery project which later evolved into establishing a nonprofit serving those choosing to live a lifestyle of recovery.