# What are some good biographies of drugged out or emotionally troubled people **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937 "2012-11-23T21:20:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/21 "2012-11-24T23:52:59Z")
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2012, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/22 "2012-11-25T10:57:56Z")
“Divine Invasions”, Lawrence Sutin’s biography of Philip K. Dick. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/23 "2012-11-25T12:41:39Z")
I haven’t read it myself, but [Portrait of an Addict As A Young Man](http://www.amazon.com/Portrait-Addict-Young-Man-Memoir/dp/0316054674/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353847238&sr=8-1&keywords=Portrait+of+the+Writer+Clegg) by Bill Clegg got a lot of press a year or two ago. ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2012, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/24 "2012-11-25T13:15:31Z")
You might enjoy [Nico: Songs They Never Play on the Radio](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nico-Songs-They-Never-Radio/dp/0747544115/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353849168&sr=8-1); I’m not into music, but read it after I heard an excerpt on BBC radio, and found it fascinating, in a car-crash reading way. ---
**Author:** ![cgg419](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cgg419/32/2847_2.png) [@cgg419](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cgg419)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/25 "2012-11-25T21:49:52Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I really enjoyed [the heroin diaries](http://www.amazon.com/Heroin-Diaries-Year-Life-Shattered/dp/1416511946) and have read it multiple times. > > I’ve read Tommy Lee’s biography too, but found the part where he was in jail the most interesting. > > So I think I’m drawn to biographies about addiction, emotional problems, people living life on the edge and things like that. Are there any recommendations along those genres? If you liked the Heroin Diaries, I highly recommend Slash, by, well, Slash. Hell of a lot of crazy drug and drinking stories, but a lot of cool stuff otherwise related to the various bands he’s been in too ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/26 "2012-11-26T01:34:47Z")
> [@cgg419](#): > > If you liked the Heroin Diaries, I highly recommend Slash, by, well, Slash. Hell of a lot of crazy drug and drinking stories, but a lot of cool stuff otherwise related to the various bands he’s been in too I read that one and it didn’t resonate with me the way Nikki Sixx’s biography did. Sixx was a damaged hedonist with a death wish. Slash almost seemed responsible by comparison in my view. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/27 "2012-11-26T03:08:48Z")
James Ellroy’s _My Dark Places_, part autobiography of a paranoid depressed junkie, part murder mystery. His mother was murdered in his childhood and he was attempting to solve it. Ellroy also wrote _LA Confidential_, _The Black Dahlia_, and _American Tabloid_, among others. He’s one of the best, and most disturbing, writers I know of. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2012, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/28 "2012-11-26T09:35:53Z")
> [@kirk1168](#): > > _Long Time Gone_ by David Crosby. He tells a story about wandering off stage in Philadelphia to freebase cocaine, Stills and Nash frantically trying to find him. I was at that show. In Pittsburgh. :rolleyes: > So even his memories are messed up. HA! I have to read that sometime. I was at the Pittsburgh show, too - it was my first concert! I remember The Band opened. Great show, probably BECAUSE he was so fucked up. Stills and Nash took turns doing solo material while the other one tried to talk him back on-stage. Strange occurrences like that, where the artists wing it, are more exciting than any planned production. Watching seasoned veterans making unplanned changes to make the most of a bad situation is a joy to see. Stills kicked much ass. I recently read Ozzy’s autobiography. I’d say he counts as a drugged-up, emotionally-troubled person. GREAT read BTW, and I’m not a huge Ozzy fan. Keith Richards’ autobiography wasn’t horrible, but to be honest, I haven’t finished it yet. It’s probably a must-read for Stones fans, though he talks about other things a great deal more than I expected. I’m about 3/4th’s of the way through, and it’s sat like that for a few months while I read other things. I’ll get back to it eventually. Steven Tyler’s autobiography - well, I don’t know how it is, because I didn’t make it ten pages. He’s someone that doesn’t use one word where a paragraph will do. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2012, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/29 "2012-11-26T15:05:17Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I haven’t read it since high school, so consider this with the due weight you’d give any recommendation by an angsty teen girl, but I really loved [And I Don’t Want to Live This Life](http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Want-Live-This-Life/dp/0449911411), the biography of Nancy Spungen, best known as the bad news girlfriend killed by equally bad news punk rocker Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, written by her mother. > > It’s quite possibly utter tripe, but it has good reviews on Amazon. They can’t \*all \*be from angsty teen girls, right? 😃 > [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > WhyNot, I was going to suggest “Syd and Nancy!” I Don’t Want to Live this Life is an excellent read. I love this book. It shows the absolute frustration of a family dealing with a mental ill member who simply could not or would not be cured. Jill Ireland’s “Life Lines” deals with the mental illness and drug addiction of her and David McCallum’s adopted son Jason. Both these children were perscribed psychotropic drugs at a very young age. I’ve often wondered if the idea that “drugs are okay” can be destructive in the long run. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/30 "2012-11-26T16:17:45Z")
[No One Here Gets Out Alive](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_16?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=no+one+here+gets+out+alive&sprefix=no+one+here+gets%2Cstripbooks%2C365). Biography of Jim Morrison. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/31 "2012-11-26T16:20:48Z")
> [@Missy2U](#): > > [No One Here Gets Out Alive](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_16?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=no+one+here+gets+out+alive&sprefix=no+one+here+gets%2Cstripbooks%2C365). Biography of Jim Morrison. The Doors camp is very against this book, subtitling it “Nothing Hear But Pack of Lies.” ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/32 "2012-11-26T16:26:01Z")
Carrie Fischer’s semi-autobiographical _Postcards from the Edge._ _The Cracker Factory_ by Joyce Rebetta-Burditt. _I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can_ by Barbara Gordon. _Go ask Alice_ Anonymous. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/33 "2012-11-26T17:19:14Z")
I haven’t read it in eons, but _Speed_ by William S. Burroughs Jr. is an autobiography of a very drugged out and emotionally troubled young man. How troubled? Well, he was probably born addicted to amphetamines; his father is one of the world’s most famous junkies; his father also shot his mother when William Jr was 4; later being introduced to drugs by his father in Tangier, he was arrested as a teenager for stealing prescription pads to get amphetamine; and it doesn’t get much more pleasant from there. ---
**Author:** ![hamwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@hamwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hamwater)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/34 "2012-11-28T02:03:48Z")
Have you read “The Dirt” which is the Mötley Crüe biography? I loved it, even more than the Heroin diaries. Also Dave Navarros book is pretty good too. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/35 "2012-11-28T02:25:07Z")
My son reads and re-reads Brandon Novak’s Dreamseller. > **[Dreamseller: An Addiction Memoir: Novak, Brandon, Frantz, Joe: 9780806538280:...](https://www.amazon.com/Dreamseller-Addiction-Memoir-Brandon-Novak/dp/0806538287)** > > Dreamseller: An Addiction Memoir \[Novak, Brandon, Frantz, Joe\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Dreamseller: An Addiction Memoir ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/36 "2012-11-28T02:48:55Z")
Jerry Garcia’s biography Dark Star something or other. Also the biography of John Belushi. ---
**Author:** ![mike\_ahndembroak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mike\_ahndembroak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike_ahndembroak)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/37 "2012-11-28T03:15:20Z")
If you get a chance read “father does know best” by Lauren Chapin. Lauren played Kitty on father knows best, and boy did she have one messed up life. ---
**Author:** ![orderfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orderfire/32/10908_2.png) [@orderfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orderfire)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/38 "2012-11-28T03:22:29Z")
Jim Carroll’s _The Basketball Diaries_ fits the bill. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/39 "2012-11-28T07:40:21Z")
The OP might also appreciate watching _Intervention_ on A&E. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937/40 "2012-11-28T07:55:24Z")
[The Eden Express](http://www.amazon.com/Eden-Express-Mark-Vonnegut-M-D/dp/0440613930/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1354088985&sr=1-1&keywords=the+eden+express) describes Mark Vonnegut’s experiences with schizophrenia (the author is Kurt Vonnegut’s son). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-biographies-of-drugged-out-or-emotionally-troubled-people/641937.md?page=3)