These sections can feel repetitive, especially since the standup often sounds flat on the page and distant compared with the livelier, more confiding narrative voice of the book. 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. The program in Recovery has given Russell Brand freedom from all addictions and it will do the same for you. The first step may be to consider self-knowledge, truthfulness, and other building blocks on the road to personal growth. Remarking that “we are all in prisons of varying categories,” Brand believes the fortune of the addict lies in a greater desire to escape that prison.

I also for the first time was given the opportunity to contextualize anew the catalogue of beliefs and prejudices, simply by exposing them to another, for the first time hearing the words ‘Yes, but have you looked at it this way? He has made mistakes in life (one rather famous one involving Jonathan Ross will probably never be forgotten) but he has also overcome a lot too. I will add that my own experience (and those I have been around) have included variable results with them.This is a book that because of this was a difficult read for me and made me feel horrendous for a number of days and that I hadn't really progressed on my mental health journey - but I had. I really like how he is so honest and how he breaks down the steps w/o religion, but with an understanding that there is something at work that is larger than we are. I strongly recommend listening to it on audio book, to experience the brilliant madness of the author in real time narration.

I am also glad of my own sobriety and although I don't follow all the steps some of them are just part of being a decent human being. And while we never truly stop growing as long as we continue our spiritual journey, Step 9 will be the final push we need before we can begin to focus primarily on maintenance. We know what rock bottom feels like, whereas others who feel dissatisfied with their lives may never suffer quite enough misery to spark their desire for change. 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.

I don't think there was anything i didn't know, but it had the things i love from self help books, plus the things i can tolerate from mystical books, and the things i like about new atheism, and some other stuff all in one place, organized and beautifully put. When she stops speaking she looks at him awestruck, and in that little pause, that on a sheet of paper is 2 tiny spaces, your mind reels with the thoughts that could fill pages.

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. Without this reference, all that remains is recognition that our previous way of life has failed us. The result is a sort-of coming-of-age tale that takes the reader through his unhappy childhood and awkward adolescence up to the present, intercut with excerpts from his four previous live shows to illustrate various points. Russell Brand is an English comedian, actor, radio host, activist, and author of several bestselling books, including the New York Times bestsellers My Booky Wook and Revolution. Many struggle with simply revisiting the past in Step 4, and find themselves doubly fearful when stating the past aloud in Step 5.He has two cats, a dog, a wife, two babies, ten chickens and 60 thousand bees in spite of being vegan curious. Addiction is when natural biological imperatives, like the need for food, sex, relaxation or status, become prioritised to the point of destructiveness. 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.