Addiction Memoirs Quotes

“These days so many claim the title artist. To me, a creative soul is an artist no matter the profession. With me? When it comes to creativity there's no show. I love art, I love literature, poetry, paintings. There's no show there. I passionately, devotedly, wholly and completely LOVE being creative.”
― Nicole D'Settēmi, Addictarium

“I could never understand why people cower from the word storm. Sounds like a good time, to me!”
― Nicole D'Settēmi, Addictarium

“I didn’t want to be sad, but I didn’t know why I was sad or how not to be sad or how to talk about it. I was broken. I felt broken. My body ached. My stomach hurt. I couldn’t sleep. Nothing was pleasurable. Every morning, I woke up knowing I’d failed before my feet hit the ground. At night, I’d lie in bed and wish for a terminal disease.”
― David Poses, The Weight of Air: A Story of the Lies about Addiction and the Truth about Recovery

“To explain the metamorphosis that takes place in the process of recovery from addiction, we have to wait for that physiological change to occur -you can’t rush it, it will happen in its own time. Imagine trying to teach a caterpillar how to fly. The poor thing might listen, take flight lessons, watch butterflies darting around. But no matter how hard it tries, it won’t fly. Maybe we get frustrated because we know this whole day has it in him to become a butterfly. So we give him books to read, try to counsel him, scold him, punish him, threaten him, maybe even toss him up in the air and watch his flap his little legs before crashing back to earth. The miracle takes time, we must be patient. But just as it is natural and normal for caterpillars to become butterflies, So can we expect addicted individuals, given the appropriate care and compassion, to be transformed in the recovery process. The metamorphosis is nothing short of miraculous, as people who are desperately sick are restored to health and a “normal” state of being. So don’t sit around feeling sorry for yourself, be grateful that you have a disease from which you can make a full recovery.”
― Katherine Ketcham, The Only Life I Could Save

“My entire life I watched people allow the world to shape them, to dictate their choices, to mold them into the clay globe that is earth. To be part of, to fit in. I watched their interior and exterior layers be thinned out by society. But me? I'm like an open wound, instead. I'm the thing you can't bandage. I'm that ugly scar that isn't going away. I'm a reminder of pain, of truth, of brutality. Nobody likes brutality. Nobody likes harsh truths. And, you know what? I'm fucking okay with that.”
― Nicole D'Settēmi

“Writing Saving My Sister was by far the most difficult yet meaningful and rewarding experience of my life,” comments
author Nicole Woodruff. “After losing my sister, Amanda, to a fentanyl overdose in June 2019, I was determined to make
her story matter and bring meaning to this horrible tragedy. So many families lose loved ones to this disease but often
suffer in silence or feel ashamed to speak up due to addiction’s stigma. My goal with this book is to reduce this stigma,
bring greater awareness to these stories, and ultimately help people in similar situations to mine know they are not
alone,” continues Woodruff.”
― Nicole Woodruff, Saving My Sister

“The bottom line was, if I could outsmart the judicial/legal system, then I could keep my addiction. But was that really what I wanted? Here I am, talking about my addiction as if it were some small and innocent pet, something that merited my unconditional affection. Wasn’t it tearing my life apart?”
― Michael J Heil, Pursued: God’s relentless pursuit and a drug addict’s journey to finding purpose

“I don't desire a normal life. A proper societal existence never appealed to me. I want to make love to rage, I want to cultivate one's violence. I want to dance in fire, and scream through stormy torrential downpours. I like the term maniac. I think it's fitting. And, fun.”
― Nicole D'Settēmi

“I want to be tied down. I want fury. I want someone's pain. Figuratively, but maybe more than that. My fiance knew that. And, he delivered.”
― Nicole D'Settēmi

“In a parent support group “...This is the miracle. We belong together because we are engaged in the same quest as we search for answers to our most anguished questions. In that journey, we reflect back to each other the meaning of our own experience. In telling the truth about myself, I discover the truth about myself. I have come to know myself in the honest, unashamed, unedited telling of my story. Like the others in the room, I let go of that vision of myself as someone who is holding it all together, who is in control. I let go, though not without some initial concern that I will be found out, that people will hide from me or laugh at me or feel superior to me. But my self-consciousness quickly fades away, because I am no longer lost. I am found. I am found within the circle of others through this community of fellow human beings who are hurting and afraid but fearless when it comes to admitting our need for help and support. This is where we belong, where we “fit” We share our stories, and as we join our stories with others who are on the same journey, we discovered a story that is shared.. We are not alone.”
― Katherine Ketcham, The Only Life I Could Save

“And drugs, drugs weren’t the problem. They were the only thing that made the pain quiet. They were routine. Ritual. Language. They gave rhythm to the day. They kept the ghosts at bay. They made it easier to laugh, to cry, to forget. They were the thing we had in common when nothing else made sense.
I didn’t start using because I wanted to destroy myself. I started because I already felt destroyed. Drugs gave me something to belong to. A pattern. A purpose. A pause button on the chaos in my chest. And once it became a lifestyle, it was hard to imagine anything else.”
― Hazel Briar, Whiskey Chaser