Within the mind of many there is a feeling of hopelessness and despair and the only way that can focus on life is to escape using drugs and alcohol. Life hands everyone stressful times and many can deal with it with the support of friends and family, but when you hear the voice of Jess and listen to her story you will understand the true meaning of addiction, excuses, fear, unhappiness and yet she at times exhibits her own type of euphoria as she lives in a world filled with highs, lows, drunken stupors, men that she uses for her own amusement or pleasure and the opposite too, as we take the journey from start to finish learning whether she can fulfill her goal and get straight. The AA meetings we are privileged to attend with her, the bars she visits and the lack of faith she has in herself, as she professes to want to go straight and uses the age old adage: just one won’t hurt until its lots more.
Friendships, alliances, and connections that will set her free are limited. Lies, personal betrayals and the hope that centering herself doing Yoga will help her meditate and get herself in a better place the author includes the 12 steps at the start of the novel that set the stage for what is to come as we get some graphic and vivid descriptions of her many encounter while we read Yoga Cocaine.
Jessica cannot seem to decide whether to become free of her addiction or take the easy road and continue until she cannot find her way anyone. This book takes us inside the mind of a young girl that is so hooked on drugs that she cannot see the sun from the clouds. The road to freedom is long and hard but will she make it as we hear her thoughts, meet the many men that she uses and uses her and the downward spiral that does not seem to be going up.
There are 12 sections each one focusing on one of the 12 steps to recovery. Will she suffer the path of addiction or will mindfulness and yoga set her free? What she decides to do will be revealed in steps 11 and 12 and like all mysteries some things you need to unravel yourself when you read the final chapters and take the last part of her journey along with her . A powerful story with real life situations and an issue that is in the headlines too often as so many escape reality and stress by using drugs, alcohol and prescription meds to take away their pain and escape to another place. Self judgement, Peer and family conflicts and Jessica who must decide at the end Yoga or Cocaine!
Powerful, sad, tragic at times and yet at some points uplifting, Yoga Cocaine is a great resource for drug counselors, sponsors, addicts to understand what addiction can do and young teens to learn the perils that Jessica hoped to overcome. Self-reflection and an awakening and a realization that might change it all for her and an ending filled with twists and surprises. As Jessica takes a step in a direction that might even surprise her.
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