Relapse is not the end of recovery. But it does need to be understood.
Relapse: Healing a Fractured Mind examines one of the most difficult and often misunderstood parts of addiction: the return to use after a period of sobriety.
Rather than framing relapse as failure, this book looks deeper-at the internal fractures that develop long before the first drink or drug. It explores the patterns of thought, emotional buildup, disconnection, and quiet erosion that make relapse possible.
With honesty and precision, this book moves beyond shame and blame. It offers a clear-eyed perspective on how relapse unfolds, why it happens, and what it reveals about the recovery process itself.
Part of The Politics of Addiction series, this book is for those who have relapsed, those who fear it, and those who want to understand it-not as an event, but as a process that can be recognized, interrupted, and learned from.
Warfield, Steven: -
With more than fifty years of lived experience in chemical dependency and over fifteen years of sustained abstinence, he brings a rare blend of insight, honesty, and compassion to The Politics of Addiction series.
Steven Warfield is a graduate of Penn State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree with highest distinction from the Honors Program. Recognized as the Outstanding Social Science Student in 2005 and recipient of the Presidential Scholarship, he served as president of several academic honor societies, including Pi Gamma Mu and Alpha Sigma Lambda.
His professional life has taken him across disciplines and continents. In China, he designed and taught university-level courses in English conversation and composition, authoring two instructional guides for Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University. In the United States, he built a respected career in journalism and technical writing, with feature articles and cover stories published throughout the optical industry. He was also a finalist in the 2014 Central PA Magazine Writing Contest.
Beyond his academic and professional work, Steven is a storyteller whose fiction explores technology, identity, and the edges of consciousness. But his writing on recovery is deeply personal. With more than fifty years of lived experience in chemical dependency, professional and academic training, with over fifteen years of sustained abstinence, he brings a rare blend of insight, honesty, and compassion to The Politics of Addiction.
He now writes full-time in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
