Addictive Thinking: Understanding Self-Deception

Easy to read compared to other psychology books, and has really helped me understand myself and my addictive behaviors better. 10/10! I think this is an amazing book for anyone to read as well, not just codependents and addicts.

This is a really wonderful book. Not overly elaborate, an easy read, but it simply and powerfully illustrates certain patterns of behavior and thinking that seem normal to someone engaging in them, as it is all they have known, but are actually maladaptive and can be shifted to healthier patterns. This book was a huge factor in my success, and I’ve taken a lot from it. Ordering it for the third or fourth time, anytime I lend it to someone I never get it back

I've read a lot of books about addiction, but "Addictive Thinking: Understanding Self-Deception" by Abraham J. Twerski is the only one that describes me to a tee. Addicts are malfunctioning human beings whose thinking and concept of reality are severely distorted. Addictive diseases resemble schizophrenia in many ways. The addict may suffer from delusions, hallucinations, inappropriate moods, and abnormal behavior. I one point in my addiction, I thought that I was schizophrenic. I knew that something was horribly wrong with me, but it couldn't have anything to do with the massive amounts of drugs I was ingesting.According to Twerski, addicts have a distorted self-image and they all have extremely low self-esteem. Even though they may have many life-accomplishments and every reason to think highly of themselves, they still feel inferior. Addicts are also hypersensitive. They are emotionally sensitive to their environment the way a sunburn victim is sensitive to touch. Drugs and alcohol offer immense relief from this hypersensitivity, numbing the emotions that bring such discomfort.Twerski has also given me a better understanding of what is really happening when an addict reaches "rock bottom." Rock bottom is not necessarily an event, but a change of perception where sobriety is finally seen as more rewarding than continued use. This explains why I continued to use after my rock bottom experience. It took a while for my perceptions to change.Another new revelation for me was that many recovering addicts relapse because they mistakenly believe that life will be rosy once they've recovered. But life is a succession of peaks and valleys, a series of hurdles to overcome. I held this false belief until I read this. I'm guilty of thinking that my peace of mind is the most important thing I've got. But recovery is not about gaining peace of mind. It's about learning how to deal with those situations which threaten this peace. It's about living life on life's terms."Addictive Thinking: Understanding Self-Deception" is an in-depth explanation of what transpires in the mind of the addict. There is also a chapter that thoroughly explains co-dependency, so this book is a must-read for the family members of addicts also.David Allan ReevesAuthor of "Running Away From Me"

Please see above.

I liked the perspective of additive thinking, behavior, and recovery. It helped me to understand on a deeper level things that perplexed me about the way my loved one thinks and behaves even thought they have not used in 2 years. I know have a clearer understanding of my own feelings and thoughts in relation to my loved one and others. A great reference book for when I start to feel off balance again to get some clarity back again. I would recommend this book to anyone who has been affected by any kind of use disorder-substance, behavior, or mental health.

As a person who as been in recovery for a while, this was a really interesting read. Abraham genuinely has a grasp on what addictive thinking looks like, and explains it in an easy to understand way. I like the parallel lives that he draws between addictive and codependent thinking. The graphic examples will serve me well both for myself and those that I work with in recovery. If you are I've that is concerned about addictive thinking, this book is definitely with the read.

Twersky’s book are always amazing!

Addict thinking is a great concept but it's a bit like trying to understand insanity, it can't be understood. The lies, the self condemnation, the grandiosity, the completely selfish and self absorbed distorted thinking patterns of addicts are designed to do one thing, convince the addict he or she can find relief in their drug(s) of choice. This book does as good as any in explaining the disease is centered in the mind but I don't like how people at the forefront of treatment still refer to alcoholism and addiction as two separate and distinct diseases. Alcohol is a drug, a very powerful very addictive and very destructive drug for an addict. But a drug is a drug is a drug and alcoholism is simply a term for a drug addict whose drug use involves ethyl alcohol. Why is this important? Because by promoting such distinctions, the effect is that we stigmatize opiate addicts, meth addicts, prescription addicts as being "less than" those who have an alcohol addiction. This stigmatization is contrary to treatment's goal of helping addicts, all addicts. You cannot tell a meth addict or an opiate addict to seek recovery in AA and yet not once in this book is Narcotics Anonymous NA mentioned nor is Naranon, the family group recovery program mentioned and that is a shame for someone at the forefront of drug treatment. Astonishing really.