The big fix : hope after heroin
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-258).

"After nearly a decade of heroin abuse and hard living on the streets of San Francisco, Tracey Helton Mitchell decided to get clean for good. What happens next -- the triumphs, the setbacks, the simplicity of the everyday grind -- composes this astonishing look at resilience and recovery. Tracey is twenty-seven years old, and she owns nothing but the clothes on her back. She's alienated from her family, homeless, without a degree or job experience; she must carefully consider whether any of the friendships of her heroin days are worth salvaging. And she must, absolutely must, stay clean. Piece by careful, hard-won piece, 'The Big Fix' follows Tracey as she reassembles her life and faces down her demons. This is a rare, candid look at recovering from addiction from the inside out. Recovery is about so much more than quitting drugs; each day that Tracey stays clean and allows herself to experience the ups and downs of her life in the sharp focus of sobriety is a step towards healing. As Tracey finds a loving man, starts a family, holds down -- then excels -- at her job, perseveres through her night-school classes, and forges healed relationships with her family, she embodies a powerful portrait of what's possible in the wake of a dangerous addiction. Today, Tracey has been clean for seventeen years, and she lives a life that -- in the depth of her addiction -- she never thought possible. As the United States experiences a heroin epidemic of harrowing scale, 'The Big Fix' is ultimately a story of hope in spite of unlikely odds, and a demonstration of the universal resilience of the human spirit." -- Dust jacket.