Love Sick: One Woman's Journey through Sexual Addiction: Summary and book reviews of Love Sick: One Woman's Journey through Sexual Addiction by Sue William Silverman, plus links to an excerpt from Love Sick: One Woman's Journey through Sexual Addiction and a biography of Sue William Silverman.
Love Sick: One Woman's Journey through Sexual Addiction
by Sue William Silverman
Hardcover: May 2001,
288 pages.
Paperback: Feb 2008,
288 pages.
A deeply personal story of a woman's addiction to and recovery from the high of dangerous encounters. In this powerful, often lyrical memoir, a woman learns to value herself---as a whole person rather than as a sexual object.
Recounting her past experiences as part of her journey toward recovery, Sue William Silverman explores her skewed belief that sex is love, a belief that began with her father's sexual abuse from early childhood into adolescence. She tells of college years in Boston, an early marriage in Galveston, and a roller-coaster life of sex and self-destructive behavior.
Finally, having become addicted to danger itself, she hits bottom emotionally and spiritually. At this point, with the help of a trusted therapist, Silverman begins to discover the difference between the high of dangerous encounters and the more reliable promise of love.
This utterly candid account may be the first book by a woman to examine sexual addiction. But the misguided search that became Silverman's life has resonance for other addictions, whether to food, drugs, alcohol, or work---anyone whose only satisfaction is now.
BOOK REVIEWS
Media Reviews
Booklist - Bonnie Johnston
This compelling story of recovery takes us through 28 days in an inpatient clinic for female sex addicts. Silverman explores the psychology of addiction on a deeply personal level, sharing her struggles with self-destructive tendencies and her desperate desire to be loved, no matter what the cost. Molested repeatedly by her father during her childhood, she realizes the connection between her sexual abuse and her desire to be loved by dangerous, inaccessible men. She finds she must come to terms with anger at her mother, who refused to recognize the sexual abuse of her daughters and intervene on their behalf. Candid, emotionally raw, often frightening, Silverman's account is never sugarcoated, and there are no happy platitudes or breezy success stories in it. It is deeply moving, however, and should inspire anyone going through a 12-step program, whether for sexual addiction or other conditions, and help addicts' friends and family members understand the journey their loved ones must travel in order to heal.
Book News
Silverman, associate editor of the literary journal Fourth Genre, recounts her journey of recovery from sex addiction. Her memories of her childhood, her college years, and her self-destructive behavior are interspersed with her day-to-day discoveries in therapy. This is one of the few candid accounts by a woman to examine sexual addiction. Silverman is a professional speaker on topics of child abuse and addiction. An earlier memoir won the Associated Writing Programs Award in Creative Nonfiction.
Elle Magazine - Francine Prose
An honest, deeply chilling account of what it's like to suffer from a compulsion...look for love in...all the wrong places.
O. Magazine
A self-proclaimed addict looks unflinchingly at the source of her sickness and her road to recovery.
Lifetime-TV
Silverman's stark story of struggle and recovery, told without jargon or psychobabble, creates a wrenching portrait many women will relate to--a portrait of someone who is looking for love, but finds sex instead.
Deborah Tannen
Silverman shows how real [sexual addiction] is, how it really works, and how she was able to overcome it.
Molly Peacock
Sue William Silverman shines a bold light on sexual addiction in her riveting memoir.
Recoveryworld.com
An important literary accomplishment, one that will move anyone who reads it.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by jtoour
Most homosexuals are addicted to sex also. But true homosexuals are rare anyway.
Review (not rated)
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Deborah Tannen
of 5
by jtoour
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