- ISBN13: 9780061368134
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Product Description
The Addict opens a window on the very private world of prescription drug addiction, revealing the harrowing and riveting story of a young woman whose life has been taken over by an impulse that she can’t control and a need that she can’t extinguish. Lucy’s first appointment with Dr. Michael Stein was on a sunny day in April, and the minute she sat down she said, “I’m here for your program,” beginning a series of intimate encounters during the course of a year that took her back to the origins of her addiction and unraveled a life driven by compulsion and the constant pursuit of the next pill. The Addict follows Lucy from the start of her treatment, through relapse, to her eventual long-term recovery, including her breakup with a destructive boyfriend whose own addiction to drugs surpassed hers. This is an unforgettable tale of a young woman living on the edge but determined to take control of her life. Here also is the deeply personal account of a doc… More >>
The Addict: One Patient, One Doctor, One Year
Noam Chomsky
January 8, 2010 at 6:49 am
Regarding The Addict: One Patient, One Doctor, One Year:
It seems that there is quite a buzz around this book and I can’t help but wonder what Dr. Stein was thinking when he wrote about his patient (Lucy) without first asking her permission.
Marion Winik put the puzzle together in one respect in her Los Angeles Times article “The pitfalls of one’s recall.” She points out that “The act of writing about another person occurs not just in the world of literature but in real life. It cannot help but change your relationship, and this should be the first thing you think about.”
Janet Maslin completes the puzzle in her New York Times article “Doctor and Drug Abuser in Yearlong Tête-à-Tête.” She suggests that the book is “one of the stranger quasi-romantic pronouncements you may ever find on the printed page.” She refers to “the element of seduction” and warns of the book “becoming clammy with repressed passions.”
Dr. Stein, what is going on here? Maybe your next book should be titled, “The Lawsuit: One Patient, One Doctor, One Great Big Confusing Mess” or perhaps, “The Seduction: One Poorly Written Memoir, One Sexy Patient, One Examining Table.” I think the title, “The Flatulence: One Doctor’s Bombastic Sexual Advances, One Unethical and Incompetent Act, One Big Giant Ego” accurately describes the scrawling on the pages of this book.
Rating: 1 / 5
Monica Wyant
January 8, 2010 at 9:45 am
When I read the little blurb about this book I figured it was about one patient and everything that that patient went through for that whole year. As I read the book I started to realize that the author is talking about one kind of patient and not just one person.
Michael introduces us to Lucy, who is the main patient he talks about in the book. The kind of patient he is also talking about in the book is the patient that is an Opiate addict. The author mentions other addicts who are either addicted to OxyContin, Heroin or Lucy’s drug of choice Vicodin.
It took me awhile to get into the book mainly because of the author being in a session with Lucy and then he would start to write about another addict he was seeing, facts about addiction in general or just some questions he wanted to ask but didn’t.
Overall the book was great and I highly enjoyed it. I was interested in seeing how Lucy would handle the affects of going through withdrawal from Vicodin. This isn’t your typical book about a drug addict going into detox. This is a story about a young lady wanting to have a normal life without drugs. The Doctor has a program for addicts. It is not open to just anyone. He chooses those that he feels will benefit from his program. It is a slow process and not something that can happen over a few days, weeks or even months, especially when the addict has been using for about 15 years.
Rating: 4 / 5
Josh Orum
January 8, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I enjoyed The Addict quite a bit. The prose was interesting and engaging. It had an odd, enticing rhythm, and Michael Stein addresses the subject in a thoughtful and considered manner. The subject isn’t really the addict herself or her treatment, but himself, how he thinks of his addicted patients, and the personal impact of his interactions with them. Interesting reading all around.
Rating: 4 / 5
Sherrell W. Fischer
January 8, 2010 at 1:40 pm
the book is not spellbinding but I learned a lot from it. I kept a highlighter and sticky notes available at all times.
Rating: 4 / 5
Megan Haynes
January 8, 2010 at 4:23 pm
I received this as an early review copy. Needing to gain insight on addiction and addicts. This book went above and beyond anything that I could imagine. It is the journey of Lucy who is addicted to Vicodin. Pain killers are becoming a popular method of recreational drug use. I was very surprised to learn about the attitude and how an addict ticks. I also found most of it to be quite true in the cases of poeple in my life who are and have been addicted. I also found it quite shocking that there are doctors who abuse the pharmaceticul system and write prescriptions on a whim. I also found it highly helpful that he did not just take about one way of dextox but both (burephenrine and methadone). Stein writes with an amazing knowledge of a topic that he deals with in my opinion quite well. This book is a tool that could help anyone going through addiction or knows someone going through it. Stein has/had an amazing relationship that I could never visualize a doctor having that much of a caring relationship with a patient.
Rating: 5 / 5