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Treatable
  • Published: 7 January 2027
  • ISBN: 9781405992633
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $32.00

Treatable

Rethinking Addiction and How to Get Care Right

  • Dr Sarah Wakeman
Formats & editions
EBook
7 Jan 2027
Audiobook
7 Jan 2027
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From one of the world’s leading experts on addiction, a paradigm shift that shows us why we’ve got addiction wrong - and how to get it right

Addiction has long been considered an illness without a cure. Worse, some have regarded addiction not as a disease at all, but as a moral failing. While progress has been made in our understanding of addiction - its genetic inheritance, its neurobiology, its link to trauma - our perspective on interventions, treatment, and outcomes has barely moved on.

Now, in Treatable, leading addiction expert Dr Sarah Wakeman challenges us to consider: what if we’ve had it all wrong? What if people with substance use disorder are not weak or hopeless or doomed? What if notions like allowing them to hit \"rock bottom\" or issuing hard ultimatums or sending them to \"rehab\" were, in fact, making them sicker instead of helping them get well? And what if much of the addiction treatment system - the very body empowered to help people with addiction - was frequently so rife with bias, fraud, and non evidence-based models of care that, actually, very few people seeking care receive the help they need?

In Treatable, Dr Wakeman helps us see that the stigma associated with addiction has kept us from fully adopting the many evidence-based approaches that have been proven to work. News headlines keep us from seeing the full picture: recovery is not only possible, it is the most likely result. We hear about the overdose deaths, but not about the millions who have recovered from an alcohol or drug problem.

For the first time, Dr Wakeman sets the record straight on a disease that is as prevalent in our society as diabetes, but which receives much less attention, compassion, and care. Through the stories of her own patients, she shows that addiction is neither hopeless nor untreatable. With medication and supportive, holistic care, it can be managed just as well as, or even better than, many other medical conditions.

Treatable is a paradigm shift in the way we conceptualize addiction, poised to revolutionize not only how we approach treatment, but how we understand ourselves, and one another.
  • Published: 7 January 2027
  • ISBN: 9781405992633
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $32.00
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Praise for Treatable

Combining her deep medical expertise with compelling clinical stories of her patients, Dr. Sarah Wakeman shows readers how human connection and the right treatment can help overcome addiction. Treatable is a hopeful, compassionate book.

Jill Abramson, former Executive Editor of the NYT and author of Merchants of Truth

Treatable is the clearest and most accurate book I've read about addiction. To understand and heal the millions that are suffering, we must evolve and update our paradigm with skill, scientific precision, and empathy. This is exactly what Dr. Wakeman accomplishes.

Peter Grinspoon, M.D., Addiction Specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Instructor at Harvard Medical School, and author of Free Refills: A Doctor Confronts His Addiction

The greatest obstacle we face in treating addiction is the myth that it is untreatable. In her beautifully written and deeply compassionate book, Dr. Sarah Wakeman dismantles that myth, showing readers that addiction isn’t a moral failing deserving of punitive interventions but, rather, a medical condition that can be healed through evidenced-based therapies and kindness. Treatable is a gift—and a revelation.

Suzannne Koven, MD, author of Letter to a Young Female Physician

A landmark and deeply powerful book, Treatable shows that substance use disorder can be understood, treated, and overcome. Dr. Sarah Wakeman brings clarity, compassion, and scientific rigor to a medical condition too often obscured by shame and bias.

Dr. David A Kessler, NYT bestselling author of Diet, Drugs, and Dopamine

Through this rigorously researched manifesto, Sarah challenges the myths that have undermined effective addiction treatment for decades and provides a practical roadmap for meaningful change. Unflinchingly honest and free from sugar-coating, it remains deeply empathetic, compassionate and, above all, hopeful.

Millie Gooch, author of Hangxiety and founder of Sober Girl Society