Addict: A Tale of Drugs and Recovery

by Milton Schorr

‘I wanted to be who I felt I was. Broken. A wreck. Unloveable.’ There’s a moment where life happens. It’s the moment just before making a good decision, or a bad one. For Milton Schorr, just such a moment took place at the age of seventeen, when he found himself squatting on his haunches in a Cape Town flat with a heroin needle in his arm.
A friend sat with him, his thumb on the plunger, and a decision was to be made. Let the heroin slip inside, and take the road the drug offered, or turn away, and find a new life not defined by the endless quest for oblivion. For Milton, the path was already set, as it had been at his first taste of shoplifting, porn, cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, Mandrax, LSD, Ecstasy and crack. In this memoir he details the life that led him to addiction, the wild and dark years of his drug use, his struggles to return to a normal life, and the reckoning with the self that ultimately led to his recovery. Addict is a courageously honest account of Milton’s life in active addiction and recovery. Today, two decades sober, he relates the pivotal points in his journey toward death, and back to life. This book is essential reading for anyone touched by addiction.

266 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 1, 2025

About the author

Actor (Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Redeeming Love) and author, who's first novel Strange Fish is out now via Pilgrim's Press Books at www.pilgrimspressbooks.com.

Schorr has worked extensively with the MMA promotion EFC worldwide, directing and producing their monthly ‘Countdown’ documentary series, as well as directing their recent reality television show ‘The Fighter’ Season 2.

As a writer and actor he has received the Imbewu Scriptwriting award for his play ‘The Heroin Diaries’, and both the ‘iDidTht Best of Reel for Direction Craft’ and ‘Vimeo Staff Pick’ award for his short film ‘Surrender’ (Actor/Writer) along with director Porteus Xandau, and has appeared in various international film and television productions, such as Paul WS Anderson’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Black Sails, various international TV series, and Tomb Raider (March 2018).

He has co-founded two theatre companies, authored six plays, directing and producing them and others in venues all throughout South Africa, and starred in numerous others.

The desire to inspire others is the vein that runs through all of his work, an aim achieved by sharing stories straight from the heart.

Reviews

[Janine Roussouw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Milton Schorr shares his journey of his struggles with self-esteem and acceptance after his parents divorce, their second marriages and his complicated relationship with his father. He felt unloved, unseen and that he was never enough and so he spiralled downwards as a teenager into alcohol and hard-core drugs, shoplifting and getting involved with the wrong crowd. His path with drugs continued into adulthood and eventually he went to rehab, then relapsed, hit rock bottom, then went back into rehab where he was really serious about making a change in his life. Today he is 20 years sober. The book is an unfiltered, harsh reality of Milton's struggles, pain, and recovery from drug addiction. The book provides hope and inspiration to those struggling with any type of addiction, since the author speaks of breaking the pattern of the negative behavior and reaching out for professional help. The choice to leave the addiction isn't always easy, but no-one ever regrets being sober and fully present to deal with life.

[Thato Mapule · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir is imbued with incredible introspection and honesty. I never felt the author held back in detailing his harrowing experience with drug addiction - a journey defined by years of low self-esteem, a sense of abandonment, and the agonizing inability to extricate himself from poor decisions. Now twenty years clean, Milton shares his story with striking clarity and a transformative lack of shame. It is a shocking read, but one that feels deeply cathartic. By sharing this, it’s clear that nothing has a hold over him anymore - neither the drugs nor the shame of his addiction.

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