This book was recommended by my daughter's high school summer reading. First, I think this book is way above these kids heads and parts of it were over mine. But this is a must read for parents and other family members. This is a real roller coaster ride of love, faith and perserverance. We read this book along with our children and it helped to answer their questions about such a horrible topic called METH. This book may be over their heads but as a teenager they need to hear this and if they get anything from this book it will be a blessing. We hope to see David and Nic Scheff at one of their speaking engagements. I feel as David does you can never give up on your children no matter what.Antbis

There is nothing like the pain of having an addicted loved one. I have a meth addicted son. J is absent, only his shell remains. I have been afraid-terrified to lose J, but I have lost him-just as the book so clearly quotes.I relate to all the feelings this father expresses, the insanity of it all. I fight with myself to try and give up the insanity of wanting to control this. If only he would do this, that or the other, then he would get clean and stop destroying himself, his life and his family. I just don’t know any more. How does a parent give up on her child? I don’t know that I can, I try to remember that he has to be allowed to take control of his own life and by “helping”, I am taking that chance away from him.But what a great book. I have learnt so much more about the effects on the brain. Like Nic my son’s primary drug of choice is meth-but anything will do and when the drug screens come back each time he enters detox there are multiple drugs in there. How is he still alive?Anyway, I am much clearer now that there is no point in trying any rational approach to him, as that part of the brain that deals with logic and rational decision making has been fried by the drugs. It has to heal first.Why isn’t there a safe and loving place these addicted people can be placed until their brain has been healed enough to understand what they are doing to themselves and then they can do the intensive treatment programs? It strikes me that these programs would be over just before the brain is even healed slightly.Thank you for writing this book for those of us living this torture. I don’t know what the future will bring, and I’ve hidden my hope away behind a wall.

As a mother who has experienced the sadness, anger and frustration of having an addicted child, this book rang remarkably true. David Sheff has done an masterful job describing the conflicting feelings that addiction of a loved one brings up. As I was reading this book, there were times that I didn't want to know what was going to happen next yet I couldn't stop reading the book - so eager was I to see how the story ends. I will admit that I was hoping, for an ending that would maintain or restore my own sense of hopefulness. And, of course, although the book ends, the story does not. Thank you, David, for sharing your story.

This is an extremely well written book about a very painful experience. It dramatically changed my thinking about addiction and helped me see what drugs do to the brain. I now understand that, at a certain point, addiction has nothing to do with the desire or the will to quit. They are truly a terrible scourge on our society and we need to do all we can to make sure others don't have to go through what this father, and others in the same situation, have endured.

This book is filled with reality and such pain as a parent's review of his situations.. i also have a child that has made my husband and i suffer great times of worry and concerns,,and totally reach out to the writer of this book, To know that is a true story has helped me in many understand the fatal and also futile times of dealing with drug and alcohol abuse,, I am still finishing the story and i await the outcome,, and pray it has a more positive solution to these problems,, i recommend this book to any parent who has had to deal with this significant problem in a family,, it is a family book to know about, but as i parent, it showed me the consequences of this story goes far beyond the victim of drug and alcohol abuse,,