The Weight of Air: A Story of the Lies about Addiction and the Truth about Recovery

“Soulful, achingly sincere . . . A potent addition to the literature on drug dependancy and restoration.”—Kirkus Opinions (starred)

Whereas his spouse and two-year-old daughter watched TV in the lounge, David Poses was within the kitchen, measuring the space from his index finger to his armpit. He wanted to make certain he may pull the set off with a shotgun barrel in his mouth. Twenty-six inches. Thirty-two years previous. Greater than a decade in a double life fueled by despair and heroin.

In his groundbreaking memoir, The Weight of Air, David chronicles his battle to beat psychological sickness and dependancy. By age nineteen, he’d been by way of medical detox, inpatient rehab, twelve-step applications, and a midway home. He noticed his drug use as a symptom of despair, however the consultants insisted that dependancy was the issue. Over the following 13 years, he went from one relapse to the following, drowning in guilt, disgrace, and secrets and techniques, till he lastly discovered an evidence-based therapy that not solely saved his life, however helped him thrive.

With grit, humor, and brutal honesty, David’s story exposes the hazard in conventional restoration fashions: they really enhance stigma and the danger of overdose, relapse, and loss of life. As despair and dependancy charges skyrocket and overdose fatalities surge, The Weight of Air is a scathing indictment of our failed response to the opioid disaster—and proof that success is feasible.

“David Poses’s unflinching memoir takes you to the darkish corners of addiction–and reveals there is a means out.”—Eric Eyre, Pulitzer Prize winner and creator of Demise in Mud Lick

“A searingly sincere dependancy memoir with a much-needed perspective.”—Maia Szalavitz, New York Occasions best-selling creator of Unbroken Mind