Joseph Sharp

Hi, I'm Joseph Sharp, author of QUITTING CRYSTAL METH: WHAT TO EXPECT & WHAT TO DO (Time2Leap Media, 2013; updated 2018). My other two books are LIVING OUR DYING (Hyperion 1996) and SPIRITUAL MATURITY (Penguin, 2001). My writings on spirituality and recovery have been translated into German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Farsi, and Afrikaans.

I wrote QUITTING CRYSTAL METH because I wanted a simple "how-to" book when I was quitting myself and found, to my surprise, there was nothing on the market. Most of the books were memoirs. I wanted a direct handbook that explained to me what I was going to experience in the journey of quitting, what to expect, and what to do to maximize the possibility of success. Once I sobered up, had over a year's clean time, I began interviewing lots of other recovering tweakers and researching the process thoroughly. I'd never heard of the 5 stages of meth recovery when I went through them, but through them I went nonetheless. Most of us do. I believe it would have helped me a lot to have had this book. I hope you feel the same way. All I can say is that many recovering crystal meth addicts have told me how much comfort these writings have given them.

What else can I say? Other than the three books, among my many jobs I've worked are: a dishwasher, a short-order cook, a legal wordprocessor, and a chaplain for terminally-diagnosed cancer and AIDS patients at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas. I was born in Tyler, Texas (because Mineola, Texas didn't have a hospital) in the early 1960s, so I'm in my fifties. I currently hang my hat in Palm Springs, CA.

Regardless, drop me an email at josephinrecovery [at] gmail.com or, better yet, comment on one of the blogs and I'll be sure to get back to you if you have a question. My Facebook page is www/facebook.com/QuittingCrystalMeth and Twitter @QuittingMeth. I'm all about keeping the conversation of recovery from meth going. We need each other. We need to remember, when the disease calls us toward relapse, that we're not alone and can reach out for help. We've had visitors from more than a dozen countries reading www.quittingcrystalmeth.com. It's estimated that there are 2.5 million people addicted to meth worldwide. We're a large and diverse community. But we've one thing in common that makes us brothers and sisters, we loved speed. Doesn't matter if you snorted, smoked, booty bumped, or slammed. It took control of your life and you lost yourself. It's time to come back to life, to a world that's post-meth and active addiction. You can do it if I did it. We can do it together. Peace, Joseph