Tweak by Nic Sheff: The twisted journey of an addict

Let me start by saying I’m no book worm; reading a pamphlet is a push for me. I went camping this weekend and while running through Target to grab some last minute camping crap this book caught my eye; well uh…mainly because I write for a blog that is solely devoted to methamphetamine. Cruising by the book section of Target the cover with it’s scrambled mess and the word “TWEAK” caught my eye. I thought to myself – could that really be a book about what I think it’s about? And in Target of all places? Nah…I almost passed it up when the tiny phrase on the cover pulled me in: |Growing up on Methamphetamines| – Ok Sold.

I started reading Nic Sheff’s memoir about growing up on meth sometime Sunday and I didn’t want to put it down; In fact I couldn’t. I read all 322 pages in three evenings. Each time I had to put the book down; I found my mind drifting off – wondering what happened to Nic next. The first such time was right about a quarter of the way through the book when he is seeing this girl named Lauren that is just as tweaked out as he is; as I read I felt myself cringing, thinking to myself “Damn, I really hope he ends up leaving this chick, there is some serious co-dependency going on here”. Soon thereafter, I realized that I have read too much about addiction and co-dependency and that I needed sleep. I had some wacky dream last night and I woke up at 5AM not really sure if I had a really bad dream or if I even went to sleep. I glanced over to find the fricken book that I fell asleep reading on my pillow – that answered my question. The book beckoned me and darn it, I wanted to know what happened with Nic and Laren and Gack and Bullet and on and on…. I wished I could pick it up and keep reading, but I had to go on with business as usual. I managed to get through the work day with enough time to finish the book. The ending left me curious and I found myself searching online to find out more about Nic Scheff – specifically wanting to know how he is doing today; he’s a pretty interesting guy.

The book takes you through the wild twists and turns in the life of a recovering addict. Through relapses and hardships you can always see through Nic’s writing that he is a kind soul. He is ever aware of the the pain and destruction he is causing those around him, but his addiction to meth is too strong to “just quit” as the sober people around him would have liked him to. There are several parts of this book I wanted to quote here, but I don’t want to ruin the story for you so I will save it for another day.

If you are at all interested in getting a realistic glimpse into the life of a meth addict then I highly recommend this book. There are some mildly sexually explicit parts and the F bomb is dropped on occasion, but I think that’s what makes it real. The author couldn’t have written about his life as a meth addict realistically without writing in the way he does.

Enough on that – this book rawks, so go get it.

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