To anyone unfamiliar with the mind games, manipulations and deceptions of a drug addict, 'tough love' seems more tough than loving, says Clea Myers

To actually follow through on the 'tough love' approach, requires a steeliness most parents are incapable of.

Writer, activist and recovering addict, Cupcake Brown cuts an imposing figure as a black woman who was born and spent many years in the Californian ghetto, and part of a street gang. She now spends her time inspiring others to turn their lives around, in both legal and life terms.

Her memoir, A Piece of Cake is one of the most revealing and interesting I have come across- says Clea Myers- mainly due to her first-hand account of life as a female gang member in the US

What with growing numbers of knife and gun crime, alongside the 'postal code' wars on our city streets in the UK, I felt her contribution to recovery literature particularly timely and relevant

I have a photograph of myself, aged 7, posing suggestively against the wall in my Grannie's hotel room in the Chelsea Cloisters, wearing her high heels, with a drink in one hand and a long cigarette holder in the other.

I wish I'd known then how prophetic this photograph would be in my own future battle to overcome my addictions; but then, as a child following the role-models in my young life, how could I tell which personality aspects were admirable, trustworthy and life-affirming - and which not?

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Having heard of Naltrexone as a way of beating heroin addiction, I was interested - says Clea Myers - to read about its progress with alcoholism, an illness that affects significantly more of our population and one that will steadily grow in these credit-crunching times, if past statistics are to be believed.

Personally, I doubt my own ability to willingly drink cocktails alongside a pill that inhibits their euphoric effects. Not so, however, for Mrs M,  who has successfully controlled her problem drinking with this pill

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As a recovering addict and depressive, I often over-complicate and over-analyse the root cause of my problems. I now believe the root of all my problems is this elusive thing called self-esteem, says Clea Myers

Certainly I have more now than I ever did, although I question what 'it' is. My literary agent actually felt my soon-to-be published Memoir, Tweaking the Dream: A Crystal Meth True Story was more about the battle for self-esteem, than a battle to quit drugs.

So for anyone who finds the Christmas holidays difficult and has first-hand experiences of a toxic family environment - presently or echoes from the past - there's always the potential for change and hope, even when you feel alone and isolated.

Recently in my local library I came across a refreshing memoir, Loose Girl, by an American called Kerry Cohen. I read it in one sitting, writes Clea Myers.

The true story about her promiscuity was unsettling yet strangely empowering, as the narrator finally recognises that her desperate attempts at intimacy, via boys and sex, are driving her further into isolation and self-hatred.

No quick fix solutions or trips to rehab, but a burgeoning awareness that a healthy self-identity can emerge through the most unlikely of channels.

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