' Beautiful Boy' speaks of addiction in authentic voice
There are any number of autobiographical books on the market these days about the wrenching impact drug addiction has not only on the addict, but the addict' s family, friends, co - workers and even addiction professionals who work with them. However, as someone who knows the realities of having a substance - addicted child, I can say with candor that David Sheff' s " Beautiful Boy: A Father' s Journey Through His Son' s Addiction" ( Houghton Mifflin Co., 2008. 326 pp., $24 ) speaks as authoritatively and honestly as anything I have read on the topic.
Sheff deftly - and poignantly - chronicles his son Nic' s slide into addiction - from dabbling with alcohol and marijuana to using them and other drugs on a regular basis, to eventual and total dependence on highly addictive and vindictive meth
(methamphetamine).
Author of other books ( " Game Over, China Down" and " All We Are Saying" ) and a widely published journalist ( New York Times, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Wired, Fortune ) , Sheff uses a fluid style and a reporter' s objectivity in describing Nic' s continual lies ( " I' ll be fine. I' ve stopped using" ) , his thefts ( even from his little brother' s piggy bank ) , his run - ins with the law, his multiple relapses, his vulgarity, his inability and unwillingness to come to grips with profound addiction. At the same time, we come to know a very intelligent, gifted, humorous and sensitive young man whose essence is being choked from him by meth' s steely grip - right before the eyes of his father, step mother, two siblings and mother. No matter what they do.
A central message is that the life of an addict' s family often becomes as unmanageable as the addict' s. " It is debilitating to be dependent on another' s moods and decisions and actions," writes Sheff.
He adds: " I bristle when I hear the word ' codependent,' because it' s such a cliché of self - help books, but I have become codependent with Nic."
Sheff provides a bit of cathartic relief for parents and others who have flailed through the mixing bowl of treatment options - - programs, facilities, half - way houses, ranches, agencies, interventions, centers. Employing journalistic research skills, he also supplies the reader not only a moving narrative of addiction and family, but a lot of solid information and education.
That said, though, a great quote from one of the physicians with whom he worked trying to secure the best treatment for Nic speaks volumes: " This experience of advising you has made me more convinced that making a selection of programs in the mental health/substance abuse service system is like reading tea leaves."
Yep. No magic pill. No sure - fire protocols. Only hard work, tough love, hope upon hope, and prayer.
The role that prayer, faith and God play in Sheff' s story is significant. Apparently a non - practicing Jew, the author openly admits to a basically agnostic, non - believing " spiritual" platform. Yet as his son' s compulsions override every promising development for " cleanness," Sheff repeatedly finds himself exploring the divine option, trying to make sense of 12 - step programs' " higher power."
Eventually, he simply prays, " Please, God, heal Nic. Please, God, heal Nic. Please, God, heal Nic." Many of us know our own version of that prayer.
In contrast to most families' battle with addiction, however, Sheff and Nic will both benefit financially in the long run, it would seem. In April, Paramount Pictures announced it had purchased the screen rights to not only " Beautiful Boy" but to the book Nic himself has written, " Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines." Both books are non - fiction bestsellers.
( Dan Morris - Young is editor of Catholic San Francisco and a Catholic News Service columnist. )
