tiernanhunter's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25


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fjette's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

Maté focuses a little too much on his own addictive tendencies for my taste, also feels as though there may be too much pathologized/compared to addiction. Overall though, super powerful, interesting, and informative. Loved the evidence-based policy recommendations. 

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smallredboy's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

4.0

Very touching book that talks about addiction in an incredibly personal and empathetic light. It has changed my perception of a lot of issues in our society and has made me more aware of the need of harm reduction all over the world. While it sometimes felt lacking in certain topics (LGBT people's propensity to addiction because of discrimination and the role of antiblackness in the War on Drugs, for example), I can blame this mostly on the fact the book was published in 2007, and research about LGBT people and substance abuse really only started in the 2010s. Still, with so many mentions about HIV, I expected at least a passing mention of gay people.

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erenreads12's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

What a breath of fresh air. Gabor Matt approaches addiction with a critical eye and mountains of compassion and empathy. I started reading this to better understand what a friend of mine went through - but this thorough, reflective and detailed exploration of addiction brought me to reflect on the experiences of many others around me, as well as myself. I drew huge amounts of understanding and empathy from this book, written with utmost sensitivity and filled with empirical evidence for a kind and compassionate approach to treating addiction.

This is an essential read for any and every aspiring or developing medical professional (doctor, psychiatrist, therapist, anyone), as well as anyone who has experienced addiction in any of its forms, and their friends and family.

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