America Anonymous is a story about eight men and women who are struggling with addiction. The writer has changed the names and places to keep the confidentiality of the addicts. The writer states that most of families with an addict consider addiction a disease. The addicts bodybuilder, grandmother, housewife and college student who were struggling with recovery from addiction including overeating, gambling, sex, drugs, shoplifting and steroids ( Denizet-Lewis, 2009).
For about three years, the journalist Benoit Denizet-Lewis deeply involved himself with their lives as they struggled with overeating, drug abuse, obsessive gambling and sex addiction. Denizet-Lewis alternatively gives account of his own sex addiction alongside their addiction. He states that he could not control his addictions which lead to loss of friends and jobs.
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Denizet-Lewis offers a fascinating examination of culture of addiction as a way of compulsively looking for means to escape reality of present moment and making oneself feel better. In unveiling the story, he reveals that addictions can make a person to be physically and emotionally incapacitating. Addiction is country’s largest health crisis and source of most social problems such as poverty, crime, child abuse and neglect and high healthcare costs.
The eight addicts have different conditions. Among them is Marvin, an 80-year old alcoholic who started abusing alcohol after he had a heart attack, Kate, a 32-year old housewife who shoplifts, Sean, a 20-year old college student who is hooked on pornography and sex, Ellen, a 51-year old radio DJ who struggles with overeating, Janice, a 55-year old grandmother addicted to crack, Todd, a 40-year old bodybuilder who abuses steroids and crystal meth, Bobby, a 34-year-old South Boston man who struggles with addiction of heroin and alcohol an Jody, a 32-year old addiction counselor who is addicted to heroin, crack, nicotine and gambling.
Even though each character had a compelling story, two of them were different, the 55-year old, unemployed, crack addicted grandmother by the name Janice who drug dealers and passers-by applaud her for abstaining from drugs when she is returned to her neighborhood home when she had been given 24-hour pass by her recovery center. The writer reveals her recovery as she puts effort towards full recovery and full time job and describes it as miraculous since she was homeless ( Denizet-Lewis, 2009). It portrays how dialogue and awareness from counselors and family provide much information of her past life and the path towards recovery and transformation. The addicts have struggled with addiction and some have relapsed but are still fighting on.
Another one is Todd, the 40-year old male escort and bodybuilder who abuses steroids and ephedra to get perfect body. The writer meets with him as he makes himself ready to meet his clients. Todd underwent emotional struggle during time of drug use. Although Todd wanted to stop the use of those drugs, he was never committed seeing it through and he questions if he will ever manage to quit addiction.
Denizet-Lewis points out history of addictions. For instance, he states that Washington society of Boston offered rooms for meeting of struggling addicts. Besides, he provides social context when he informs that nearly 23 million Americans are hooked on drugs.
The writer, being a reformed drug addict, has justified that he has turned his life around and he is in front line in helping other people recover from addiction. He also points out to other people who have become sober. He feels that helping others is a way to make himself stronger against addiction.
References
Denizet-Lewis, B. (2009). America anonymous: Eight addicts in search of a life . Simon and Schuster.
