Tens of thousands of Americans die from substance abuse and suicide each year. Millions more suffer from mental health disorders. Rock to Recovery -- an innovative, therapeutic music program serving more than one hundred addiction treatment and mental health facilities in the USA -- steps into the breach to offer participants help and hope. By writing, playing, and recording music as a group, non-musicians are able to build a community of support, find enthusiasm for treatment, and realize that recovery is possible. Veterans, trauma survivors, and those struggling with substance abuse or mental health issues can recover with connection. This book contains eighteen stories of people who have used Rock to Recovery's music program to live a better life. You too can use music to heal. "Music Is the Medicine!"

Music has been used as a cure for disease since as far back as King David's lyre, but the notion that it might be a serious cause of mental and physical illness was rare until the late eighteenth century. At that time, physicians started to argue that excessive music, or the wrong kind of music, could over-stimulate a vulnerable nervous system, leading to illness, immorality and even death. Since then there have been successive waves of moral panics about supposed epidemics of musical nervousness, caused by everything from Wagner to jazz and rock 'n' roll. It was this medical and critical debate that provided the psychiatric rhetoric of "degenerate music" that was the rationale for the persecution of musicians in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. By the 1950s, the focus of medical anxiety about music shifted to the idea that "musical brainwashing" and "subliminal messages" could strain the nerves and lead to mind control, mental illness and suicide. More recently, the prevalence of sonic weapons and the use of music in torture in the so-called War on Terror have both made the subject of music that is bad for the health worryingly topical. This book outlines and explains the development of this idea of pathological music from the Enlightenment until the present day, providing an original contribution to the history of medicine, music and the body.

“This is a story she needed to tell; and the rest of the country needs to listen.” — New York Times Book Review “This vital memoir will change how we look at the opioid crisis and how the media talks about it. A deeply moving and emotional read, STRUNG OUT challenges our preconceived ideas of what addiction looks like.” —Stephanie Land, New York Times bestselling author of Maid In this deeply personal and illuminating memoir about her fifteen-year struggle with heroin, Khar sheds profound light on the opioid crisis and gives a voice to the over two million people in America currently battling with this addiction. Growing up in LA, Erin Khar hid behind a picture-perfect childhood filled with excellent grades, a popular group of friends and horseback riding. After first experimenting with her grandmother’s expired painkillers, Khar started using heroin when she was thirteen. The drug allowed her to escape from pressures to be perfect and suppress all the heavy feelings she couldn’t understand. This fiercely honest memoir explores how heroin shaped every aspect of her life for the next fifteen years and details the various lies she told herself, and others, about her drug use. With enormous heart and wisdom, she shows how the shame and stigma surrounding addiction, which fuels denial and deceit, is so often what keeps addicts from getting help. There is no one path to recovery, and for Khar, it was in motherhood that she found the inner strength and self-forgiveness to quit heroin and fight for her life. Strung Out is a life-affirming story of resilience while also a gripping investigation into the psychology of addiction and why people turn to opioids in the first place.

Opening a book about addiction can be scary, whether you have an addiction yourself or love someone else who does. Certain things are hard to hear. This is not the guilt-filled lecture though. This is more like a letter from a friend, someone you love who wants to lead you to freedom and joy. You will be able to read this book over and over again, like any good letter you cherish. Every year, more than 70 million people of the Christian faith are said to be dealing with addiction in some form or another. You are not alone. You may have faith to move mountains, yet find yourself caught in addiction. You may have lost faith. Or, you may just need encouragement. Overcoming Addiction will introduce you to good reasons to do good things for yourself and others. The biblical path towards freedom leaves addiction in the past as your future unfolds in wonder and in joy. When you put the book down, you will know, “With the Lord's help, I can do this.”

Dana F. Everson lays out the process for a pastor or interested layman to develop their own biblical philosophy of music that pleases the Lord.

When growing up and living in an addictive lifestyle one can easily fall into bad habits. This book allows one to follow the 12 steps and some few extra steps to try and change bad habits into healthier ones.One searching for help and trying to change their life generally may need some tips from an outside source. In this book my readers can practice some exercises through their process and journey. People in recovery don't want to be told what to do so that is why in this book, I offer many different suggestions to one problem so my readers have options. I am hoping this book can help at least one person that is looking to change their lives.