The other message Russell preaches/talks of is that he was probably more of a mess than most people do. If it could work for him, I can work for anyone. One thing that does not probably help this book is that Russell is naturally a funny man, but he is talking about a very serious subject where humour works against it. Thought adding a load of F-bombs does not make things funnier or relatable. When you start to eat, drink, wank, spend, obsess, you have lost connection to the great power within you and others. The power around all things. There is something speaking to you and you don’t understand it because you don’t speak its language - so you try to palm it off with porn but it’s your spirit and it craves connection. This manual for self-realization comes not from a mountain but from the mud.... My qualification is not that I am better than you but I am worse." (Russell Brand) PS my favourite quote from the book, and a reminder of how much we are changed by everyone we interact with: With a rare mix of honesty, humor, and compassion, comedian and movie star Russell Brand mines his own wild story and shares the advice and wisdom he has gained through his fourteen years of recovery. Brand speaks to those suffering along the full spectrum of addiction—from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame. Brand understands that addiction can take many shapes and sizes and how the process of staying clean, sane, and unhooked is a daily activity. He believes that the question is not “Why are you addicted?” but "What pain is your addiction masking? Why are you running—into the wrong job, the wrong life, the wrong person’s arms?"

I don’t wake up in the morning and think, ‘Wow, I’m on a planet in the Milky Way, in infinite space, bestowed with the gift of consciousness, which I did not give myself, with the gift of language, with lungs that breathe and a heart that beats, none of which I gave myself, with no concrete understanding of the Great Mysteries, knowing only that I was born and will die and nothing of what’s on either side of this brief material and individualized glitch in the limitless expanse of eternity and, I feel, I feel love and pain and I have senses, what a glorious gift! I can relate, and create and serve others or I can lose myself in sensuality and pleasure. What a phenomenal mystery!’ Most days I just wake up feeling a bit anxious and plod a solemn, narrow path of survival, coping. ‘I’ll have a coffee’, ‘I’ll try not to reach for my phone as soon as I stir, simpering and begging like a bad dog at a table for some digital tidbit, some morsel of approval, a text, that’ll do” One of the things that does come across is the idea that this is not an easy process. It is hard work. Whatever a person is addicted to (in my case, coffee), they (I) could think of a hundred different justifications why it is ok. Even though I know I am addicted I am ok with it. I am allowed one vice, right? The program goes through the process of saying no, it is not ok. It is also no good replacing one addiction with another. Also, once an addiction is beaten, it is a constant battle not to relapse. Even when ayahuasca seems to solve his problems with alienation and depression, he finds reason to worry: “A wound that needed status to avoid intimacy has been healed. I was healthy, I was in a relationship with someone who had a happy childhood – how would I now find the motivation to earn attention from strangers?’ Brand doesn't give us anything new here other than his own experience and testimony of the 12-Step program, but he does it with more insight, expanding the concept of *Higher Power* with wisdom and his own comedic touch. He applies the 12-steps to a wide variety of the obstacles that might be keeping us from being the person we are meant to be (drugs, alcohol, food, anger, selfishness, depression, etc.). Rather than just educating myself, I came away with a desire to improve myself and be a little more at peace in my environment, and a little enlightenment. Some clinicians argue against the 12 Step program concerned that a participant would only be replacing one addiction with another...I think Brand gives an eloquent argument against that opinion. My interest in reading it was two-fold: yes i was curious because he is a well-known figure, but on its own, that isn’t enough to draw me in. Primarily, it was the subject matter that was the key factor. Now I won’t falsely purport to have an alcohol or narcotic addiction. But I have experienced other vices, namely internet addiction and compulsive overeating. And having dealt with anxiety and depression, I do look for new ways in which to frame my mental health, new techniques to help me cope with my intervals of low mood. But also, knowing people who have had varying addictions and patterns of negative thinking, I try to find ways to give support and counsel to people close to me.Listen to this episode of The Art of Charm in its entirety to learn more about how Russell handles his addiction to social media, why you have to be willing to confront pain to grow, what addiction wants, why confession is a tradition that works, patterns Russell identifies within himself and how he works to break their hold on him, what’s involved in the amends process, what the secular world can learn from religion, why Russell has been a vegetarian since age fourteen, why Russell has waited until now to write this book, how Russell has acted as a tool of reconciliation for Jordan, and much more. He goes through the 12 step program created by the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. He gives his interpretation of each one and also how he has tried to follow each step. He mentions other addicts and how they have helped him as well as how he has tried to help others. He does this in an often amusing yet thought provoking way. As a writer, Russell is amongst the best on his field. There are parts of the book that are very good to great, but there are parts that are a bit out of place a couple of Russell’s antidotes seem out of place and I am not sure the go with the step he was trying to portray. I've never been a huge fan of Russell Brand, but even before reading this I thought it was pretty fair to say he's someone who just might have something to offer on the subject of addiction. Actually, I was surprised by just how disarming his honesty was in the book, the level of brutal self-reflection he achieves in his writing here, and clearly in his path to coping with various addictions, was both moving and inspiring. It's not easy taking a long hard look at yourself, at the choices that you've made and the inner workings of your mind; and not just looking but seeing what and why and how and then maybe, just maybe, having the strength and courage to change yourself.

In the book’s technical aspects, it is well written - a surprise to me as I didn’t know Brand was an accomplished writer. If anything, it is at times over written to disguise the fact that it gets repetitive as it goes along. There is one theme - recovery - and while the structure (the 12 step program) ensures that this theme follows a trajectory, the analysis starts to feel shallow, and dare I say it, a bit prescriptive, after a while. You can skip passages and you won’t really lose out on much. This is where I open myself up for criticism. I accept that the 12 step program does help many. I know a few people who are clean and sober exclusively due to it. I also know many more who have tried it and it has not worked. Even Russell talks about it as a cult. A helpful cult to many but one that has its own ingrained problems. It is not the only way to maintain sobriety. Exploring the very core of your mind and understanding how to regulate patterns to help promote positive change into your life. He does this by challenging your current perspective and displays a detailed account of how you can recover and improve your emotions, thoughts and feelings of misery and unhappiness. It is a very particle approach for anyone and not just those with well know serious addictions i.e. alcohol, sex and drugs. It allows anyone to enter the realm of reprogramming their minds to improve their quality of life. Tools to help you understand the areas of concern or difficulties and creating structured and effective solutions to counter them. So it’s disarming to find that, behind all the verbosity and therapy-speak, there are glimmers of good sense in here. While the insights are not original, the experience of them is unique, and it’s Brand’s own story that gives the book its energy. Whether he really will change the world by example only time will tell; in the meantime, for anyone with an abiding interest in Russell Brand, it offers an entertaining glimpse into the latest stage in his transfiguration. When is it that you’re going to be who you actually are?” says Russell. “I know people that I feel, that when they are on their deathbed, are going to go, ‘This isn’t who I was!’ This is, in a way, a sort of awakening tool — an awakening system or code…most people don’t engage until crises.”s? Sure. When an author expresses himself with such sincerity, intimacy, and intelligence -- I am inclined to feel gratitude for the shared experience. (And never has the phrase "F*ed up* sounded so proper.) I also thought Brand's definition of addiction and how that broadened interpretation fit into our current world was significant. I bought this book (and the audio version which is narrated by Brand) to expand my understanding of addictions and recovery, and also as a reader that has experience with the subject professionally and within my family that is always looking to better understand. I've read extensively on the subject, lived with it, and worked with addicts. And I think that sadly, that has become the norm.

With a rare mix of honesty, humor, and compassion, comedian and movie star Russell Brand mines his own wild story and shares the advice and wisdom he has gained through his 14 years of recovery. Brand speaks to those suffering along the full spectrum of addiction - from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame. Brand understands that addiction can take many shapes and sizes and how the process of staying clean, sane, and unhooked is a daily activity. He believes that the question is not "why are you addicted?" but "what pain is your addiction masking? Why are you running - into the wrong job, the wrong life, the wrong person's arms?"I never thought i’d read a book penned by Russell Brand, and yet here I am. My understanding of Brand has mostly come from the tabloids: I’m familiar with his past dependency on narcotics, his ill-fated marriage to Katy Perry, his Hollywood films. But I hadn’t heard about him in some time. He’d dropped off my radar. And then, out of seemingly nowhere, I heard news of the impending release of this book. But what is an addiction? Russell says it’s “something that you do a lot, it’s not good for you, you don’t want to do it, and you can’t stop.” At its core, addiction is really the result of reaching for something external that already exists internally — but exists in a place that’s either unknown or inaccessible. This manual for self-realization comes not from a mountain but from the mud...My qualification is not that I am better than you but I am worse.” — Russell Brand Yes - grain of salt - yes - but that’s with anything…Could probably skip the whole anecdote in step 6…

Russell joins us to talk about everything from his new book Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions to beekeeping to mindfulness to mass media to philosophy. Listen, learn, and enjoy! More About This Show but other than that I was really really impressed with how this managed to communicate that it’s OK and it’s Human to make mistakes, to give in to the monkey mind, to choose the wrong ‘program’ to solve our darkest, deepest woes - it’s human to suffer in this way. I applaud anybody who can use a 12 step program to both get and maintain sobriety (note: I will use sober in this review to mean free from addiction. I will use it to mean not using or doing a destructive behaviour that a person is addicted to.) I will add that my own experience (and those I have been around) have included variable results with them.Because he's who he is, all of this is done is simple, amusing, and straight forward language. He titled it Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions. I would call it Recovery: Lose all the Bullshit. There's a clear plan to follow, 12 well worn steps that have worked the world over. That's not to say it would be easy to go this route, getting to the end of this path would mean dealing with some issues not everyone might be ready to face about themselves, but at least now they might be able to see how it could be approached and where to go for help. It's a starting point. This interview with comedian, actor, author, and activist Russell Brand has been a long time in the making and almost didn’t happen — but we’re so glad it did.