Cracked

Alongside his better-known work as cohost of the long-running radio advice show Loveline, Drew Pinsky is a physician whose daily work takes place at a major clinic in Southern California. There he treats some of the most serious cases of drug dependence and psychiatric breakdown.

Many of his patients are carrying emotional trauma and sexual abuse alongside their substance use. The book follows them through addictions to alcohol, marijuana, Ecstasy, heroin, speed, cocaine, and prescription medications, and it shows how these struggles play out in their lives.

Pinsky is present throughout these accounts, and the book makes clear how completely he gives himself to the work, sometimes to an almost compulsive degree. The people he describes range from a model with sexual compulsions to a suburban mother who drives a BMW and is busy with her children's soccer schedule. Through quick, forceful sketches, the book shows how deep and dangerous addiction is and presents it as a widespread crisis across the country.