Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again

Rating:
Summary: amazed
Review: Most of us only know Drew from his part on loveline. In this, we believe he only exists for the radio show but he does not. Loveline is probably the smallest part of his life. I knew what not to expect from this book and bought it from what I did expect. Drew told us what it was about and that is what I got. The subtitle of the book says "A Doctor's Story", is it so surprising that the doctor would use his thoughts as well as his words? His thoughts and feelings especially in the book do not lead me to believe that this man has a God complex.
I don't know if his prescriptions were correct, I am not a doctor. I cannot say if his therapy tactics are right, I am not a therapist. The only thing I can say is that I am one of the people that he works for, not on, but for. The stories sound similar because they are. I've heard each one a thousand times, with different particulars and endings. It's so hard to watch so many people walk out that door and wonder if they'll be dead or in jail or even saved.
The book was good enough to read like fiction. It's true and honest. It is nice to know that I am not the only person that hurts for others. How difficult it must be to have such sensitivities and still work where Drew does. It takes more strength to face it than ignore it, as most non-addicts do. C'est incroyable!-to the book and the man.

Rating:
Summary: ignorance is bliss?
Review: The author shows us addiction and recovery from a doctor's perspective. From reading this, I learned that doctors are people too. It was distrubing to read this doctor's thinly veiled description of his own erection while feeling up an attractive, female patient. Even more disturbing was the doctor's account of repeatedly switching a dying patient's life support machine on and off out of morbid curiosity. (I'm not making this up--it's in the book!)

Even after years of professional training, the instinct to pulls wings off a fly is still there. Glad I'm not sick.

Rating:
Summary: Dr. Drew is my hero
Review: Dr. Drew you are truley a great man. I listen to loveline everynight, and I loved cracked. I am going to Oklahoma University to be a Psychiatrist and that is why you and your work are so interesting. I loved how you gave us insight into your everyday life as well. Please write another similiar book, and keep up the good work.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful, very helpful even if you're not an addict
Review: It is unfortunate that a few previous reviewers lambasted others based on their hero-worship of Dr. Drew. I am not a Love-Line or Dr. Drew fan, but found this book to be very insightful. With a family full of alcoholics and drug addicts (we all agree that I am not), it helped me to understand what those close to me are dealing with, and to further recognize my co-dependence. The book is not flawless, but it made a difference in my life. A relative who was in prison asked me for it; because the paperback edition was not available at that time and hard-back books are disallowed, I bought a copy, Xeroxed a few chapters at a time, and mailed them to him. He said there was a waiting list to read the Xeroxed chapters. I gave him the original upon his release, almost a year ago. He is clean and sober, employed, self-supporting for the first time in his life, and amazingly turned around. How a person can "get it" varies by individual, as Dr. Pinsky rightly points out, but this was it for at least one of my relatives. A few more have chosen to read it since then. I found the purchase to be WELL worth it.