The Harder They Fall: Celebrities Tell Their Real Life Stories of Addiction and Recovery Paperback – July 12, 2007

"The Harder They Fall", by Gary Stromberg and Jane Merrill, is a collection of real-life stories, by celebrities, about addiction and recovery. These twenty-three anecdotes of experience, strength, and hope are honestly shared and leave no doubt that this debilitating illness cannot only be overcome, but it can also give one purpose and meaning in life when it is overcome. Recovering alcoholics and addicts have to deal with their addiction every single day of their lives, one day at a time. That's why congressman Jim Ramstadt was told, "...the only time you're going to be a recovered alcoholic is when they put you in the casket..." We can recover, but we'll never be recovered. Writer Annie Lamott was told that we addicts have a fifty-five-gallon drum of shame and self-loathing and nastiness that we want to tip over and get rid of as soon as we start to recover. But it doesn't work that way. We can only take out a teaspoon at a time with prayer, meditation, and working the steps. The story I related to the most was by Dick Beardsley who famously battled Alberto Salazar in the 1982 Boston Marathon only to lose by seconds. A series of accidents left him addicted to opiate pain medication. His addiction became so powerful that this otherwise, upstanding, law-abiding, beloved member of the community began forging prescriptions until he was caught by the feds. He was initially very resistant to treatment because he falsely believed he could beat his addiction with willpower, something a runner of his stature would have no shortage of. But if it was about willpower, he never would have become addicted in the first place. My favorite story, and the one I was most surprised to see in this book, was by broadcaster Glenn Beck. He spoke about overcoming one obstacle that I've recently come to realize is key to my recovery and success in life - overcoming fear. He says, "If you just drop your fear of something that you think you can't face, then it isn't real anymore. It may look real but it's not. You'll come through the fear and it's beautiful." He says we're all alike in hiding something. Whatever it is, we think if everyone knew it, then we'd be thought of as inferior and hated. But since everyone is hiding something out of fear, it doesn't make us inferior, just human. If you hide something out of fear, that card can always be played against you. It's best to get it out, and deal with it, so that it no longer has power. These stories, also be Alice Cooper, Steve Earle, Mariette Hartley, Paul Williams, Malachy McCourt, Richard Pryor, Grace Slick and many more, are just plain beautiful. The ability of the human spirit to overcome such a dreadful, often fatal illness is inspiring and fills me with much hope. And according to a recent survey, there are 22.6 million Americans suffering from addiction who would do well to read this book.David Allan ReevesAuthor of "Running Away From Me"

Stromberg provides timely, realistic content, as well as treatment and recovery accuracy in an excellent process of awareness raising. This book is extremely fitting for anyone considering or actively involved in recovery from addiction.

I ordered this book for my son who has nothing to do right now and is reading his time by. He says it was good and would recommend it.

Great book! Recommended to everyone... Oh...by the way.... I wrote it!!

I flicked through this book today in the library. What a load of crapola! A bunch of has-been, washed-up "celebrities" from the seventies and eighties "share" their boring "recovery" stories. Its the same old crap that you can read at the back of AA's so-called big book. "I was a naughty boy, drank too much, took too much drugs, quit drinking and drugging to save my life, and got brainwashed by Bill Wilson's version of Frank Buchman's Oxford Group cult". Frank Buchman used the same tactic of using the celebrities he had brainwashed to promote his Oxford Group religion, that AA World Services Inc./Hazelden uses now. Steve Tyler of Aerosmith is quoted on the back cover as saying "My disease might try to tell me that my "ism's" are now "wasm's"....." Yeah right, whatever, Steve, keep drinking the kool-aid. Habitual over-consumption of drugs ain't a disease, no matter how many brainwashed zombies called it one, and the rest of your cult-speak psychobabble is incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't had an overdose of AA bull. And if you think you can hear voices of a "disease" in your head, you should probably see a psychiatrist about that. Needless to say, I won't be borrowing this load of deceitful, dishonest recruiting propaganda for expensive, worse-than-useless, 12-step "treatment" for addiction. [...]

This book is a compelling read for anyone interested in addiction or who may have addiction issues of their own. the humility and gratitude these people have is nothing more than a blessing!

Great book

Liked it----shows everybody's is affected by the disease---AA is the only answer

Excellent!