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. A total masterpiece. Wholly relevant to our time of overwhelm, addiction, egoistic pursuits and selfish me, me, me-ness. Russell Brand opens his heart and eloquent soul to walk us through the 12 Step Programme as initiated in Alcoholics Anonymous. He shares his personal life experiences and realisations in a touching, honest expose of deepest darkest revelations with the clear narrative of teaching throughout. Learning robust addiction squashing tools from a loose tongued, erudite English chap serves to make the programme feel all the more accessible . What I loved about this book most effusively is his ability to create prose from functional self-help. At times it felt like poetry. Russels personal life stories illuminate the premise per step in poignant, credible verbosity. He compels the reader to embrace recovery from addiction day by day. Applicable to every toxic habit that consumes us from drink to food to social media, I didnt want the book to end and will read it again and again. Since Simon Amstell started performing long-form standup 10 years ago, hes made a virtue of holding his angst up to public scrutiny with an honesty that many performers shy away from, so its perhaps inevitable that a book should follow. Yet its hard to escape the sense that this particular book doesnt quite know what it wants to be. He nods to this in the introduction, explaining that the original suggestion was to publish transcripts of his major standup shows. And who for? For people who dont like hearing standup out loud?

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 Unless you stay — moment to moment — vigilant about your patterns, they will reassert,” says Russell. 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 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 BrandI'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. This book has that raw authenticity and truth that I love about the podcast. His openness to new ideas and to self-growth. This book takes Alcoholics Anonymous' twelve-step program (something I'd not heard of before starting this book) and adds Russell Brands honest, comedic twist to it. His writing is sometimes magically whimsical and sometimes dark and gritty. He shares some of his own experiences with the twelve-step program and puts it into new wording. You don't have to be dealing with a specific addiction to get things from this book. There's a lot in here, all fascinating and thoughtful and anyone interested in self-growth or who may be feeling anxious or dissatisfied with life would benefit from giving this a try.

Read Also: How To Stop Your Addiction To Food Provincial And Territorial Health And Support Services Health and support services in British Columbia But it’s also human to believe in something greater within, and this is one of the many ways to find that. I think it’s part of being human. To carry a wound. A flaw. And again, paradoxically, it is only by facing it that we can progress”

You Know Me Right You Know I Hate Systems Especially The System A Bogus Set Of Instructions For Us The People To Follow While The Truly Free Wallow In Privilege So Imagine My Initial Resistance To This System The 12 Steps Dont Tell Me What To Do Im An Individual Im A Maverick Im A Hustler Im A Poet Wandering Through The Wind

I wrestled with the idea of buying this book and eventually decided to buy the kindle version. I have always liked Russell Brand but was at odds about whether him writing a book based on the 12 steps was in conflict with my personal beliefs about remaining anonymous in AA. I took ages to make up my mind about whether him writing this book and being so candid and honest was morally correct but then I decided that if it was going to help people then I should not have a view on it either way and it is his choice at the end of the day. I am not the a "12 step police woman after all :-)))" I can relate to him in so many ways and although our addictions are slightly different and some cross over each others addictions, we have both been sober for roughly 14 years. 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

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.

Recovery Russell Brand Style

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.