25 Powerful Quotes About Addiction & Recovery

A list of 25 powerful and compelling quotes about addiction and recovery that are relatable, darkly funny, and inspiring.

This is a list of quotes about addiction, suffering, and hope that spoke to me – as an addictions professional – as well as on a human level.

These quotes about addiction are raw and relatable, with perhaps my favorites being from the memoir Drinking: A Love Story, in which the author, Caroline Knapp, bares her soul so compellingly that she becomes a kindred spirit in her vulnerability. Carrie Fisher also has a way with words, frank and darkly witty on the topic of addiction.

Read on for quotes about addiction from famous actors, singers, writers, sex workers, and more.


Quotes about addiction: on why people become addicted…

“And then I realized I was high. I loved the sensation. It felt like medicine to soothe the soul and awaken the senses. There was nothing awkward or scary – I didn’t feel like I had lost control – in fact, I felt like I was in control.”

Anthony Kiedis (Founder & Lead Vocalist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers)

“Drugs don’t really fix anything, except for everything.”

Ashly Lorenzana (American Sex Worker, Freelance Writer, & Writer of the Memoir Sex, Drugs & Being an Escort)

“The priority of any addict is to anaesthetize the pain of living to ease the passage of day with some purchased relief.”

Russell Brand (English Comedian, Actor, & Author of My Booky Wook)

“To a drinker the sensation is real and pure and akin to something spiritual: you seek; in the bottle, you find.”

Caroline Knapp (American Writer & Author of Drinking: A Love Story)

On what it’s like having an addiction…

“It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.”

Edgar Allan Poe (American Writer, Poet, & Literary Critic)

“The attempt to escape from pain, is what creates more pain.”

Gabor Maté (Canadian Physician & Author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction)

“Imagine trying to live without air.
Now imagine something worse.”

Amy Reed (American Author)

“Drugs are a sort of dusk that grant us the illusion that we’re the ones who decide when the light goes out, but that power never belongs to us. The darkness takes us whenever it likes.”

Fredrik Backman (Swedish Author, Blogger, & Columnist)

“If you have a need to be comfortable all the time—well, among other things, you have the makings of a classic drug addict or alcoholic.”

— Carrie Fisher (American Actress & Writer)

“If you’re one of us, the bottle takes your shit, that’s all. First a little, then a lot, then everything.”

Stephen King (Best-selling American Author, the “King of Horror”)

“I drank when I was happy and I drank when I was anxious and I drank when I was bored and I drank when I was depressed, which was often.”

Caroline Knapp

“I’ve been asleep and I don’t know if it’s the same day or week or year, but who the hell cares anyway?”

Beatrice Sparks (American Author, Mormon Youth Counselor, & Hoaxer)

Dark humor…

“Reality is just a crutch for people who can’t handle drugs.”

Robin Williams (American Actor & Comedian)

“I used to have a drug problem, now I make enough money.”

David Lee Roth (American Singer, Songwriter, & Original Lead Vocalist of Van Halen)

“An alcoholic will steal your wallet and lie to you. A drug addict will steal your wallet and then help you look for it.”

David Sheff (American Author)

Karl Marx:

“Religion is the opiate of the masses.”

Carrie Fisher:

“I did masses of opiates religiously.”

— Postcards from the Edge

“Selling my soul would be a lot easier if I could just find it.”

Nikki Sixx (Co-founder, Bassist, & Primary Songwriter for Mötley Crüe)

“People are a lot easier to be around when they’re not tweaking out on meth.”

Joe Exotic (“The Tiger King”)

“And in my mind, this settles the issue. I would never drink cologne, and am therefore not an alcoholic.”

Augusten Burroughs (American Author & Screenwriter)

Quotes about addiction: on quitting and recovery…

“[Crystal methamphetamine] was the hardest boyfriend I ever had to break up with.”

Fergie (American Singer/Rapper, Songwriter, & Actress)

“Your addiction is not your identity, but you won’t know that until you’re in recovery; that’s when the two separate.”

Toni Sorenson (American Author)

“The opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety. It’s connection.”

— Johann Hari (Journalist, Writer, & Admitted Plagiarist)

“Getting sober was one of the three pivotal events in my life, along with becoming an actor and having a child. Of the three, finding my sobriety was the hardest.”

Gary Oldman (English Actor & Filmmaker)

“When you quit drinking, you stop waiting.”

— Caroline Knapp

“Recovery is an acceptance that your life is in shambles and you have to change it.”

Jamie Lee Curtis (American Actress, Producer, & Author)

Share your favorite quotes about addiction and recovery in a comment!