White Rabbit: A Doctor's Own Story of Addiction, Survival and Recovery

Rating:
Summary: A starkly honest look at a physician addict
Review: Morrision's book should be required reading for all medical students. Here she was - first a straight A student, then voted resident of the year, and finally a well-thought of psychiatrist,when she was in the midst of a horrendous alcohol and drug addiction that had been going on for years. I work with physicians who are addicts, and she paints a dark portrait of them: they, unlike the rest of us, can just write themselves all the prescriptions they want, until they are stopped. And then it is like a runaway mack truck hitting a massive brick wall. She also is great at laying out all the reasons (excuses) for her drinking/drugging: people don't understand individuals like her, she is so far above the rest of us, so creative, so brilliant, so . . . fill in the blank. And, finally, when she is confronted, she does undergo treatment successfully, and describes what that is like, the difficulties and the triumphs. A marvelous book; it is the only one I know written from the perspective of a formerly drug-addicted physician.

Rating:
Summary: Worth a read
Review: This is the autobiography of a physician - a PSYCHIATRIST who was abusing drugs since she was a child. She tells her story from the beginning until the very end when she finally leaves drugs behind. The book is worth a read but there are many religious undertones. If you want to read a good book about addiction without the religious fluff, I reccommend Speed & Kemtucky Ham by William Burroughs Jr. Those books touched my life.