Wasted

February 29, 2016
Pond's memoir recounts his painful journey through alcoholism, hospitalization, poverty, homelessness, incarceration, various addiction treatment centers, and the Alcoholics Anonymous program. He also explores reasons why the treatment programs didn't work for him. Pond was a successful psychotherapist living with his wife and their three sons in a beautiful home in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, but he lost everything to alcoholism. Despite his 20 years counseling clients with addictions, it took several more years before he could escape the same vicious cycle. On his road to recovery, Pond met Palmer, a journalist and filmmaker, who not only stood by him personally but encouraged him to write his memoir and chronicled their search for alternative treatments in a documentary. In the last section of the book, Palmer discusses the societal tendency to shame and blame people struggling with addiction, rather than treating it as an illness from which they can recover in a number of ways. She highlights some programs that don't use abstinence as the only marker for success and others that prescribe drugs to treat addiction. Pond's insights coupled with Palmer's section on evidence-based treatments make this an invaluable resource for readers battling their own addictions or concerned about their loved ones.