Kickstart Your Recovery by Taite Adams

Kickstart Your Recovery: The Road Less Traveled to Freedom from Addiction, Taite Adams. self-published via Smashwords, 2014. e-book, 153 pps.


     Taite Adams is a pseudonym. I felt it necessary to say that because in the author section of Kickstart Your Recovery, she self-identifies as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous with a decade plus of sobriety. She has written other books about addiction to specific drugs. One book title gave me pause. It is about how to detox at home safely. I found the notion to be a bit scary. Withdrawal from most substances requires medical treatment in order to do it safely and come out of it alive. 

     As of date, Kickstart Your Recovery is available as a freebie. After reading it, I wondered at the subtitle since what was described in the book was standard twelve step addictions industry treatment protocol. To go to rehab or not. To get a capital H capital P Higher Power regardless of sincerely held non-christian beliefs or no religious beliefs. Sponsorship and clubhouses and (the topic I abhor) a part on meeting etiquette. Nothing really new here.

sapphoq reviews says: I found Kickstart Your Recovery to be disappointing. One of the ideas that Taite Adams presents is that the word alcoholic includes addictions to other drugs. It most definitely does not. The word that does is the word addict. I have no quarrel with recovering addicts who choose to attend Alcoholics Anonymous only and respectfully identify as alcoholics (because all addicts are pretty much addicted to alcohol anyway). The bone that I am picking is with the author's specific notion about the word alcoholic. Folks who identify as atheists or agnostics or nones will recognize the standard apologetics in this book regarding the use of religion in the twelve step rooms. Folks who are committed to a return to a program without the glitz that modern rehabs have attached to the rooms (such as the use of chanting phrases in A.A. or holding hands in A.A. or the notion that "addiction is a disease") will also not be satisfied with this one. Verdict: not recommended. People considering abstinence will do better reading other sources for information about recovery from any addiction.