Recommended Reading: How To Get Over Social Media Addiction Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions Summary By Russell Brand The comedian Russell Brand, in New York this month, has a point to make about addiction.Credit…Bryan Derballa for The New York Times Saskatchewan residents at risk of an opioid overdose or who might witness an opioid overdose are eligible for free training and a free Take Home Naloxone kit A total masterpiece. Wholly relevant to our time of overwhelm, addiction, egoistic pursuits and selfish me, me, me-ness. Russell Brand opens his heart and eloquent soul to walk us through the 12 Step Programme as initiated in Alcoholics Anonymous. He shares his personal life experiences and realisations in a touching, honest expose of deepest darkest revelations with the clear narrative of teaching throughout. Learning robust addiction squashing tools from a loose tongued, erudite English chap serves to make the programme feel all the more accessible . What I loved about this book most effusively is his ability to create prose from functional self-help. At times it felt like poetry. Russels personal life stories illuminate the premise per step in poignant, credible verbosity. He compels the reader to embrace recovery from addiction day by day. Applicable to every toxic habit that consumes us from drink to food to social media, I didnt want the book to end and will read it again and again. There are parts of the book that are very good to great, but there are parts that are a bit out of place a couple of Russell’s antidotes seem out of place and I am not sure the go with the step he was trying to portray.

This manual for self-realization comes not from a mountain but from the mud…. My qualification is not that I am better than you but I am worse.”

Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions Summary By Russell Brand

PS my favourite quote from the book, and a reminder of how much we are changed by everyone we interact with: This is definitely a more accessible guide to the 12 steps than the "Big Blue Book". It is also a lot less patronising and gives better examples. This kind of self help book is needed and I am glad it exists. I am also glad of my own sobriety and although I don't follow all the steps some of them are just part of being a decent human being.

He comes across as genuinely trying really hard to cover all social aspects of recovery and the book is full of his own personal examples of the steps which was a really kind and thoughtful as well as helpful way to explain them. The steps can be confusing to anyone and the way he has outlined them make it so simple and helpful.Those of us who remember Brand’s last attempt to “help” the problem of engagement in politics by telling young people not to vote might well approach this latest attempt at intervention with wariness. But one of his endearing traits is that there is no criticism you can level at him that he has not already aimed at himself; he talks of the failure of his “quest” as a political campaigner because “the egoic and venomous energy that’s in me” got in the way. When he writes with evangelical zeal about turning around his own addictions, it comes across as well intentioned and heartfelt, but at the same time part of a performance. Brand has always been his own shrewdest observer; his 2013 show was titled Messiah Complex and there’s a sense that this aspect of his character persists, though it’s now channelled into a desire to sort out other people’s problems. “Me, with my proclivity for grandiosity, I will always favour sweeping change and grand revolutions, wild and wordy statements of intent, martyrdom and marvels.” The book is interestingly advertised under sociology and not self help. I think he wanted to show that addiction is a social problem and it affects us all, especially in 2017 where porn, sex, alcohol and all the other addictions are affecting most families in one way or another. s? Sure. When an author expresses himself with such sincerity, intimacy, and intelligence -- I am inclined to feel gratitude for the shared experience. (And never has the phrase "F*ed up* sounded so proper.) I also thought Brand's definition of addiction and how that broadened interpretation fit into our current world was significant. I bought this book to expand my understanding of addictions and recovery, and also as a reader that has experience with the subject professionally and within my family that is always looking to better understand. I've read extensively on the subject, lived with it, and worked with addicts. And I think that sadly, that has become the norm.

Summary: “Comedian and movie star Russell Brand mines his own wild story and shares the advice and wisdom he has gained through his fourteen years of recovery. Brand speaks to those suffering along the full spectrum of addiction — from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame. Brand understands that addiction can take many shapes and sizes and how the process of staying clean, sane, and unhooked is a daily activity. He believes that the question is not ‘Why are you addicted?’ but ‘What pain is your addiction masking? Why are you running — into the wrong job, the wrong life, the wrong person’s arms?'”– This manual for self-realization comes not from a mountain but from the mud...My qualification is not that I am better than you but I am worse." -- Russell Brand When is it that you’re going to be who you actually are?” says Russell. “I know people that I feel, that when they are on their deathbed, are going to go, ‘This isn’t who I was!’ This is, in a way, a sort of awakening tool — an awakening system or code…most people don’t engage until crises.” Russell Brand is an extremely intelligent, strangely likeable and often hilarious man. He has made mistakes in life (one rather famous one involving Jonathan Ross will probably never be forgotten) but he has also overcome a lot too. This book goes through how he has managed to maintain sobriety for many years.This book has been written with care and consideration and most of all respect for everyone. I was slightly worried that he would make light of addiction but he is serious yet his usual funny and quirky self and of course throws in the odd "big word" that I had to look up what it meant :-) s? Sure. When an author expresses himself with such sincerity, intimacy, and intelligence -- I am inclined to feel gratitude for the shared experience. (And never has the phrase "F*ed up* sounded so proper.) I also thought Brand's definition of addiction and how that broadened interpretation fit into our current world was significant. I bought this book (and the audio version which is narrated by Brand) to expand my understanding of addictions and recovery, and also as a reader that has experience with the subject professionally and within my family that is always looking to better understand. I've read extensively on the subject, lived with it, and worked with addicts. And I think that sadly, that has become the norm. But what is an addiction? Russell says it’s “something that you do a lot, it’s not good for you, you don’t want to do it, and you can’t stop.” At its core, addiction is really the result of reaching for something external that already exists internally — but exists in a place that’s either unknown or inaccessible.

When you start to eat, drink, wank, spend, obsess, you have lost connection to the great power within you and others. The power around all things. There is something speaking to you and you don’t understand it because you don’t speak its language - so you try to palm it off with porn but it’s your spirit and it craves connection. With a rare mix of honesty, humor, and compassion, comedian and movie star Russell Brand mines his own wild story and shares the advice and wisdom he has gained through his fourteen years of recovery. Brand speaks to those suffering along the full spectrum of addiction—from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame. Brand understands that addiction can take many shapes and sizes and how the process of staying clean, sane, and unhooked is a daily activity. He believes that the question is not “Why are you addicted?” but "What pain is your addiction masking? Why are you running—into the wrong job, the wrong life, the wrong person’s arms?" So it’s disarming to find that, behind all the verbosity and therapy-speak, there are glimmers of good sense in here. While the insights are not original, the experience of them is unique, and it’s Brand’s own story that gives the book its energy. Whether he really will change the world by example only time will tell; in the meantime, for anyone with an abiding interest in Russell Brand, it offers an entertaining glimpse into the latest stage in his transfiguration. If we all feel we are alone then how alone are we? If we all feel worthless then who is the currency of our worth being measured against?” Listen to this episode of The Art of Charm in its entirety to learn more about how Russell handles his addiction to social media, why you have to be willing to confront pain to grow, what addiction wants, why confession is a tradition that works, patterns Russell identifies within himself and how he works to break their hold on him, what’s involved in the amends process, what the secular world can learn from religion, why Russell has been a vegetarian since age fourteen, why Russell has waited until now to write this book, how Russell has acted as a tool of reconciliation for Jordan, and much more.

Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions

I never thought i’d read a book penned by Russell Brand, and yet here I am. My understanding of Brand has mostly come from the tabloids: I’m familiar with his past dependency on narcotics, his ill-fated marriage to Katy Perry, his Hollywood films. But I hadn’t heard about him in some time. He’d dropped off my radar. And then, out of seemingly nowhere, I heard news of the impending release of this book. With a rare mix of honesty, humor, and compassion, comedian and movie star Russell Brand mines his own wild story and shares the advice and wisdom he has gained through his 14 years of recovery. Brand speaks to those suffering along the full spectrum of addiction - from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame. Brand understands that addiction can take many shapes and sizes and how the process of staying clean, sane, and unhooked is a daily activity. He believes that the question is not "why are you addicted?" but "what pain is your addiction masking? Why are you running - into the wrong job, the wrong life, the wrong person's arms?" Brand doesn't give us anything new here other than his own experience and testimony of the 12-Step program, but he does it with more insight, expanding the concept of *Higher Power* with wisdom and his own comedic touch. He applies the 12-steps to a wide variety of the obstacles that might be keeping us from being the person we are meant to be (drugs, alcohol, food, anger, selfishness, depression, etc.). Rather than just educating myself, I came away with a desire to improve myself and be a little more at peace in my environment, and a little enlightenment. Some clinicians argue against the 12 Step program concerned that a participant would only be replacing one addiction with another...I think Brand gives an eloquent argument against that opinion.