My purpose

Support for Both Sides of Addiction

Bookends of Recovery & Healing was created for people navigating addiction recovery and those healing from the impact of someone else’s addiction.

Here, you'll find personal experiences, tools, resources, and support for recovery, betrayal trauma, emotional healing, boundaries, healthy detachment, and everything that can come with moving through this journey.

“Recovery and healing look different for each of us. My purpose is to create a space where both are understood, supported, and given room to grow, thrive, and be heard.”

– Laura Esh

About Laura Esh

It led me deeper into therapy, emotional sobriety, boundaries, self-awareness, and eventually to creating Bookends of Recovery & Healing.

Today, I have the unusual perspective of having lived on both sides of addiction: as the person struggling with addiction and as the person deeply affected by someone else’s.

I know what it’s like to need recovery.

I know what it’s like to need healing.

I know neither is easy and the road can be filled with a lot of potholes, twists, turns, and uphill battles.

I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way, and I talk about them often. Because if sharing something I learned the hard way saves someone else a little pain, confusion, or time, then maybe something good can come from it.

More than thirty years later, I’m still incredibly grateful to be clean from my drug of choice.

Bookends is one way I give that gratitude somewhere to go.

Hi, I’m Laura. I’m really glad you’re here.

We might not have the same story, but I’m guessing we’ve felt some of the same pain.

Before I got clean from cocaine more than thirty years ago, my life included drive-bys, police raids, living in a trap house, and being held at gunpoint. Twice. Apparently, once wasn’t enough for me to realize it was time to pack up and get the F out.

My journey also includes loss, abuse, relationships affected by addiction, and more than twenty years navigating a marriage affected by addiction, recovery, healing, and letting go.

When my husband’s pornography addiction came to light, I suddenly found myself on the other side of addiction.

I experienced betrayal trauma. And it leveled me.

That disclosure opened the door to a whole new level of healing from my own past. Hello, terrifying.

But doing that work changed my life.

Try Before You Buy

Not sure about the workbook? You can download the ACTION chapter for free and check it out first.

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Recovery and healing are possible, even when the path forward looks different from what we expected.

I'm not a therapist. I'm writing from my own experiences and perspectives.