Foreword
Preface
1: Crash and Rescue
Above the city, steeped in misery
Back from the edge
Substance abuse and addiction defined
Addiction is a disease
A hellish journey
2: The Early Days of Using
My not-so-shady past
A forbidden sip
One puff leads to another
My uncertain future
Heroin
A rite of passage versus the slippery slope to addiction
The ride down that slope
Who becomes addicted, who does not, and why?
3: The Noose Tightens
A moment of truth, and then denial
First shot at detoxification
Learning the life of an addict
Desperate moves
Returning to an unfamiliar home
"This is your brain on drugs"
Different types of drugs of abuse
4: Trying to Get Help
Overconfidence and denial: do not mix
A minor arrest
A major arrest
Up, down, up, down-the saga of addiction continues
A crucial turning point
Substance abuse treatment: what to expect
Treatment of co-occurring mental disorders
5: Recovery
What does recovery mean for you?
If a relapse occurs
6: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
"Real" recovery is whatever works for us
FAQ
Glossary
Resources
Bibliography
Index
Kyle Keegan is a professional diver. He lives in New York with his
wife and daughters.
Howard B. Moss, MD, is Associate Director for Clinical and
Translational Research with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health.
"Chasing the High is an excellent resource on substance abuse for
adolescents and their families. Keegan's personal story captures
the experience of addiction and recovery in a compelling manner.
The authors even make the neurobiology of addiction clear and
accessible. It is difficult to find good resources about addictive
drugs for adolescents and this book fills the gap."--Charles
Dackis, M.D., Director, Charles O'Brien Center for Addiction
Treatment, University of Pennsylvania
"Chasing the High is honest and intense, yet also extremely
informative. Kyle Keegan has written a brave cautionary tale that
takes his readers deep inside the belly of addiction. This book
speaks to anyone who has ever felt the deadly grip of drugs and
alcohol take hold, but also to those who have watched someone they
love disappear into a dark cloud of chemicals. Bravo to Kyle for
having the courage to share his painful and inspiring story with
the
world."--Lynn Marie Smith, author of Rolling Away: My Agony with
Ecstasy
"While the perils of addiction are often lost in detailed data,
there remains a lacuna of information on the personal tolls of
substance abuse. In Chasing the High we are given an intriguing and
very personal snapshot of the initiation, maintenance, and
subsequent battling of severe chemical dependency-intermixed with
factual and useful information about additions. Along with the
author, we experience the tribulations of the addition- from the
crashes
to the euphoria to the rehabilitation and optimism of experiencing
life without drugs. Chasing the High provides a unique inside
perspective on addiction that is often lost in academic
texts."--Timothy E.
Wilens, M.D., Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical
School
"Chasing the High by Keegan and Moss is wonderful first-hand
account of a young person's development with addiction. With
powerful descriptions of the events that led to drug use, abuse,
and addiction the authors succeed in weaving a primer on addiction
within the developing saga. Engaging and easy to read, this book
should be an enormous help for those individuals and families
struggling with this disorder to understand addiction.
Particularly
poignant for this researcher is the repeated focus on the "dark
side" of addiction. The author states, 'In fact, you're taking
drugs now not so much to feel good as to keep from feeling bad.'
The authors illustrate so
clearly that seeking drugs to fill emotional holes creates even
bigger emotional holes that in turn need to be filled. This
phenomenon is the core feature of addiction."--George F. Koob,
Ph.D., Professor, Committee on the Neurobiology of Addictive
Disorders, The Scripps Research Institute
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