⇒ [PDF] The Adderall Diaries A Memoir of Moods Masochism and Murder Stephen Elliott 9781555975388 Books

The Adderall Diaries A Memoir of Moods Masochism and Murder Stephen Elliott 9781555975388 Books

Download As PDF : The Adderall Diaries A Memoir of Moods Masochism and Murder Stephen Elliott 9781555975388 Books

The Adderall Diaries A Memoir of Moods Masochism and Murder Stephen Elliott 9781555975388 Books

For Stephen Elliott, living requires writing. In this enthralling portrait of addiction and depression, writing requires Adderall, prescribed by a psychiatrist who barely knows him. By age 12, Elliott had papered his walls with his poems: soon before he ran from his dad's angry outbursts and lived on the street, in and out of group homes. In The Adderall Diaries, he's a struggling writer, 35 years old, living in San Francisco.

For a memoir written while the author abused an amphetamine, Elliott's voice remains refreshingly even. The emotional urgency of expressing pain, and the financial urgency of documenting a murder trial, keeps The Adderall Diaries friendly to readers of literary fiction and memoir rather than self-indulgent. It's only 208 pages, after all. The memoir's accessibility may speak to careful editing --- Elliott's attention to craft after he eased up on the Adderall --- the success of his coping skills while he wrote the book, or both.

The author's voice speaks to the central drama of the book: not the murder trial or his brief masochistic relationships, but rather his struggle to live. By using the trial and relationships as coping strategies, he avoided sinking into anhedonia. This inability to feel pleasure could have led to abusing harder drugs as Elliott did during his teenage years, and thus another heroin overdose, or following his friends into suicide as he felt drawn to do when off Adderall. Yet he remains alive and writing.

His personal life continues to suffer as he ups his dose and snorts it near the end of the book. But by following the murder trial to the end, he cuts back on the drug and reconciles with his father.

Elliott doesn't set out to shock, including mundane anecdotes like working for a tech startup in addition to the darker, more sensational parts. Hence The Adderall Diaries have humor: the flat irony of a comedy of errors. Through it all, prose that hangs together emerges: even empathy with other writers who struggled with depression and amphetamine addiction. A must-read.


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The Adderall Diaries A Memoir of Moods Masochism and Murder Stephen Elliott 9781555975388 Books Reviews

I like it but it is not a compelling read. Lets face it; adderall is not a particularly dramatic drug.
The Adderall Diaries wasn't quite what I expected. Even after reading the reviews I was a little surprised with the book. Nonetheless, a good read. Taking adderall myself, I thought the book would have a little more focus on the medication. While he does often mention it, it's not as detailed as I had assumed.

I love the way and style in which the book is written. I could've done without all of the S&M parts, but this is his life and I respect how open he was. It takes a lot of courage to share so much of your story. Once I got past my expectations for the book, I was able to appreciate it for what it was. Stephen did a fantastic job on this memoir and it's definitely not one to pass up.
Raw, relentless, revealing, riveting, really flucking good.
An often painful, always intriguing memoir-slash-true crime piece. I was hoping for a happy resolution, but I knew early on that there could be none.
I NEVER review books, but I feel like people should be warned this book is crap. Elliot intended to write a true crime novel and ended up with a barely comprehensible narcissistic rambling, so he slapped "A Memoir" on the cover and called it a day.

If you are looking for an autobiography, a true crime novel, a depiction of life with drug addiction or even just an introduction to S&M, you can find much better. It was hard to finish (and I wouldn't have, except it was for a bookclub).
After all the sexual bragging, I was surprised to see a photo of a fairly unattractive man. But maybe it was just a bad picture.

A few things don't ring true--such as when he writes of getting on "the 101." That's LA speak. In San Francisco, one gets on 101. Makes me wonder how long he lived in the City.

There, that's enough to get my two stars up.
Stephen Elliott certainly was ambitious in writing The Adderall Diaries. I had mixed reactions
I completely related to the writing struggles, still don't have any interest in BDSM, and found the true crime aspects fascinating.
As were some of the Adderall comments. I agree with Elliott that speed is speed; but also that Adderall is or has been in the past extremely helpful for my focus during episodes of ADD or whatever it was/is.

I have to admit to being somewhat bored by forced, hard driving prose--OK we get it, tough childhood. Someone mentions James Frey's A Million Little Pieces mixed with Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I agree with the comparison.
The Adderall Diaries memoir aspects seem at times to be more like semi-novelization, but Elliott is making a good point about memory and how it plays tricks, distorting recollection.
For Stephen Elliott, living requires writing. In this enthralling portrait of addiction and depression, writing requires Adderall, prescribed by a psychiatrist who barely knows him. By age 12, Elliott had papered his walls with his poems soon before he ran from his dad's angry outbursts and lived on the street, in and out of group homes. In The Adderall Diaries, he's a struggling writer, 35 years old, living in San Francisco.

For a memoir written while the author abused an amphetamine, Elliott's voice remains refreshingly even. The emotional urgency of expressing pain, and the financial urgency of documenting a murder trial, keeps The Adderall Diaries friendly to readers of literary fiction and memoir rather than self-indulgent. It's only 208 pages, after all. The memoir's accessibility may speak to careful editing --- Elliott's attention to craft after he eased up on the Adderall --- the success of his coping skills while he wrote the book, or both.

The author's voice speaks to the central drama of the book not the murder trial or his brief masochistic relationships, but rather his struggle to live. By using the trial and relationships as coping strategies, he avoided sinking into anhedonia. This inability to feel pleasure could have led to abusing harder drugs as Elliott did during his teenage years, and thus another heroin overdose, or following his friends into suicide as he felt drawn to do when off Adderall. Yet he remains alive and writing.

His personal life continues to suffer as he ups his dose and snorts it near the end of the book. But by following the murder trial to the end, he cuts back on the drug and reconciles with his father.

Elliott doesn't set out to shock, including mundane anecdotes like working for a tech startup in addition to the darker, more sensational parts. Hence The Adderall Diaries have humor the flat irony of a comedy of errors. Through it all, prose that hangs together emerges even empathy with other writers who struggled with depression and amphetamine addiction. A must-read.