Heal Thyself: A Doctor at the Peak of His Medical Career Destroyed by Alcohol--and the Personal Miracle That Brought Him Back

About this book

Heal Thyself is the paperback edition of The End of My Addictiona memoir of Ameisens struggle and a call to action. "This book is the story of the dazzling discovery of a cure that could soon be within reach of all . . . you must read this book." David Servan-Schreiber MD PHD author of Healing Without Freud or Prozac and Anticancer When Olivier Ameisens book was first published Barbara Fisher noted in The Boston Globe that "this is not your usual memoir of addiction degradation and redemption." His story is indeed unusualnot because he was a brilliant cardiologist who developed a profound addiction to alcohol or because he tried numerous treatment options and none helped. His story was the story of millions of alcoholicsuntil he decided to take his treatment into his own hands. Searching for a cure for his deadly disease he happened upon baclofen a safe muscle relaxant that had recently shown promising results in studies with laboratory animals addicted to a wide variety of substances. Ameisen experimented with increasingly higher dosages until he reached a level that left him free of any craving for alcohol. That was more than six years ago. In the past year a growing number of researchers and doctors have been inspired by Ameisen and begun prescribing baclofen and lobbying for wide-scale studies into how the drug works. Last spring no less an authority than the leading medical journal Alcohol and Alcoholism endorsed the book. Hailing Dr. Ameisen as "a remarkable medical researcher " it summed up its assessment strongly and directly: "This book is to be recommended."