The Book I Didn't Know I Was Writing (Until I Did)

This one is personal. 

Earlier this year, I decided it was time to update a book I wrote back in 2014. I'd been feeling for a while that parts of it were becoming outdated, both in terms of changes in the addiction field and the evolution of my own work over the past decade. 

I honestly thought the revision would involve little more than updating some terminology and expanding the audience from parents of adolescents in treatment to families impacted by addiction, regardless of their loved one's age or their relationship to them. 

It turned out to be A LOT more. 

What I hadn't been thinking about was the fact that I've spent the past twelve years working with the material from that original book—teaching it, expanding on it, developing programs around it, and applying it in my work with families and treatment providers. 

And in the process, I've learned an awful lot. 

What started as a relatively simple revision gradually turned into something much bigger: an opportunity to bring together everything I've learned over the past twelve years and present a much more substantial piece of work than I had initially intended. 

Then I had a lightbulb moment. I got the idea to include what turned out to be the "2026 Hindsight" sections: reflections woven throughout the original text that offer commentary on what I'd written twelve years earlier, share what I've learned since, and offer new perspectives on ideas I'd spent the intervening years putting into practice.

A glimpse inside the new book

Before I realized it, I was doing what I had been hoping to avoid—I essentially wrote a whole new book. 

And perhaps it was a case of not seeing the forest for the trees, but as this whole "new book" unfolded, I began to recognize something I hadn't fully appreciated: what I was presenting was actually a comprehensive framework for improving treatment outcomes through effective family support. 

That realization led to what may have been the most fundamental change to the original 2014 edition of Rehab Works! 

I changed the subtitle. 

What was originally A Parent's Guide to Drug Treatment is now: 

A Modern Framework for Family Recovery. 

And that small change would prove to be more significant than I realized at the time.

Maybe We Have Something Here...

As the manuscript started coming together, I began reaching out to respected friends and colleagues for reviews and hopeful endorsements. The response was incredibly humbling and gratifying. Especially meaningful was the breadth of knowledge and experience they represented—different perspectives on addiction, treatment, and family recovery, all recognizing the importance of what I was trying to communicate. 

It started to seem like this might actually be a valid contribution to the addiction field. (As opposed to what my imposter-syndrome-brain tells me.) 

That was six months ago. 

This project has been in the "coming soon" phase for a while. 

Turns out, self-publishing is code for "labor of love." 

In the past six months I've become an editor, interior layout designer, art director, and more. Yesterday marked a big day in this process: 

I approved the final draft of the full book cover. 

And I've got to say, seeing it all together was sort of a "moment" for me. 

From the challenges (that's putting it mildly) of coming up with the front cover design, to figuring out how to capture the most important messages of the book in the limited space on the back cover, to deciding which endorsements to place where. 

Initial mock-ups went through substantial revisions. Text was cut—even though I thought everything I'd written was absolutely perfect and had to be on there!

It wasn't until I finally looked at it altogether yesterday—after I approved it—that it all sank in. 

And especially the endorsements. 

This turned out to be such a special collection of friends and colleagues—along with some goose-bump serendipitous connections across the entire group of endorsers—that seeing those names on the front and back covers, and knowing the rest are on the inside cover page, was extremely heartwarming. 

From Jerry Moe's endorsement on the front cover (and I credit Jerry with encouraging me to write this new book in the first place), to Dr. Michael McCormick and Bobby Ferguson on the back cover, I couldn't be more honored. 

So, while I've been saying "Coming Soon!" for quite a while now, there's just one task left. The next hat I put on is becoming an indexer—or at least a consultant to a real indexer. 

And when that's done, it's ALL done, and I'll finally be ready to announce "AVAILABLE NOW!" 

Want to know when the new Rehab Works! is available? Sign up for my mailing list below, and I'll let you know when it's released!