The End of My Addiction

By Olivier Ameisen

Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Health, Fitness & Dieting

Olivier Ameisen, a French-born cardiologist who practiced in New York, describes how lifelong anxiety drew him into severe alcoholism and how Alcoholics Anonymous and repeated stays in rehab failed to stop his drinking. After reading about baclofen, a muscle relaxant, he prescribed it to himself in rising doses and found that his cravings disappeared. His memoir, published in French as Le Dernier Verre, recounts that experiment and calls for clinical trials, warning that it is no guide to self-treatment.

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• Ryan Holiday: “I approached this book with some skepticism. By the end, I felt guilty to have been stuck making the same mistake as the highly-credentialed doctors who refused to consider the merits of Ameisen's research because they'd grown so fixated on traditional treatments.”