The Mindful Path to Addiction Recovery: A Practical Guide to Regaining Control over Your Life

(Paperback)

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"Mindfulness is a quality of attention that combines full awareness with acceptance of each moment, just as it is." Mindfulness is a quality of attention that combines full awareness with acceptance of each moment, just as it is. Mindfulness is tremendously useful in the addiction recovery process, Dr. Lawrence Peltz explains, because at the heart of addiction is the fear of painful emotional statesaddicts compulsively seek drugs and alcohol to avoid or escape emotional pain. Mindfulness, on the other hand, helps us develop greater acceptance and ease with life's challenges, as well as greater self-compassion. Drawing on his experience as an addiction psychiatrist and on the techniques of mindfulness-based stress reduction, Dr. Peltz, who is the medical director of the Bournewood Caulfield Center, a drug and alcohol treatment facility in Woburn, Massachusetts, has written an informative and inspiring book about how mindfulness can be a critical component in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. This book is for recovering addicts, their families, and the professionals who treat them. It explores the fundamental dynamics of addiction and the stages of the recovery process, including patient stories. Dr. Peltz also explains what mindfulness is and how to use it to support recovery, including practical exercises and techniques. He reviews the recent scientific research on the benefits of mindfulness for mental health in general and for addiction recovery specifically.

Reviews

"A mindful and compassionate attention is the very ground of recovery from addiction. In this book, Lawrence Peltz offers a penetrating understanding of the nature of addiction, and the meditation practices that can help us find freedom from this suffering. Drawing on his rich clinical experience, Dr. Peltz shares the struggles of people who have found great healing on this path of recovery and transformation.Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

Addictions are rooted in distress and suffering. Dr. Peltz shows us how practicing thoughtfulness, awareness, and acceptance can bring solace, relief, and happiness without resorting to addictive solutions.Edward J. Khantzian, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Associate Chief Emeritus of Psychiatry, Tewksbury Hospital

This is a book that deserves its place among the very best of addiction recovery guidesboth for practitioners who want to expand their treatment options and for those seeking change.Howard J. Shaffer, PhD, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, and Director, Division on Addiction, Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate

A very gentle, compassionate, sensible, believable, readable, encouraging, and incredibly helpful book about overcoming a very powerful affliction. It is, in its broad thoroughness, a wise support for facing any major challenge.Sylvia Boorstein, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job

Larry Peltz gives a unique and enlightening view of addiction and provides a very clear way to change ones destructive habits. I highly recommend it.Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness

Author Bio

Lawrence Peltz, MD, has worked as an addiction psychiatrist for more than two decades. He is the medical director of the Bournewood Caulfield Center, a drug and alcohol treatment facility in Woburn, Mass. He is also a trained teacher of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), and he speaks regularly to mental health professionals about mindfulness and recovery.