Rolling Away
My Agony with Ecstasy
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4.5 • 10 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Lynn Smith never wanted to be an addict. It just happened. One day, she was living a so-called normal life, and the next she woke up to reality. In the mirror she saw the face of a grinning skull and, in her head, the world was turned upside down. After a five-month binge on Ecstasy, Smith would never be the same. Rolling Away is the searingly honest confession of one young woman's frenzied flight into addiction and her long struggle to come back to earth.
After growing up in small-town Pennsylvania, where she was a popular straight-A student, Lynn Smith moved to New York City to pursue her dream of acting. In the city, she came in contact with new people, new ideas, and a completely new way of life -- a way that exposed her to drugs. She tried pot, acid, and cocaine, but it was Ecstasy that changed her forever.
She stopped auditioning and dedicated herself full-time to her newfound romance with the "love drug," spending her weekends popping pills and dancing all night long. Ignoring her symptoms of piercing headaches and paranoia, in only a short while Lynn went from living responsibly to barely living at all -- until the night she began to hallucinate uncontrollably, yet somehow managed to pick up the phone and call her mother.
At once harrowing and inspiring, Rolling Away is the timely story of a too-fashionable new addiction and, ultimately, a triumphant narrative of survival and how a second chance can save your life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Aspiring actress Smith dabbled in recreational drug use after moving to New York City from smalltown Pennsylvania. Sadly, the recent high school graduate quickly went from being a casual user to an addict. Smith's descriptions of "rolling" on ecstasy are appropriately disjointed and haunting. She deftly conveys an ecstasy user's sense of euphoria, especially the bubbling happiness that spreads like a wave through an "E"-fueled dance floor. But in tackling recovery, she falters. Although Smith's experience in treatment was difficult, and her description of it lends some insight into her subsequent triumph, she lingers too long in very well-trod territory. Once Smith is out of the hospital, though, the book regains its footing as Smith details her appearance in an MTV special about ecstasy use, and the difficulty of dealing with her somewhat emotionally unhealthy family. Smith has written a fervent cautionary tale; even when revealing the drug's joyful moments, her tone is one of warning and regret. As a member of the advisory board of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, Smith tours and lectures about ecstasy, and it's likely that this work will find wide readership. The book's greatest strength is its alarming passages about coming down from a high and about the emptiness of living for the next pill-popping moment.
