The Adderall Diaries: A Memoir

For Stephen Elliott, living requires writing. In this enthralling portrait of addiction and depression, writing requires Adderall, prescribed by a psychiatrist who barely knows him. By age 12, Elliott had papered his walls with his poems: soon before he ran from his dad's angry outbursts and lived on the street, in and out of group homes. In The Adderall Diaries, he's a struggling writer, 35 years old, living in San Francisco.For a memoir written while the author abused an amphetamine, Elliott's voice remains refreshingly even. The emotional urgency of expressing pain, and the financial urgency of documenting a murder trial, keeps The Adderall Diaries friendly to readers of literary fiction and memoir rather than self-indulgent. It's only 208 pages, after all. The memoir's accessibility may speak to careful editing --- Elliott's attention to craft after he eased up on the Adderall --- the success of his coping skills while he wrote the book, or both.The author's voice speaks to the central drama of the book: not the murder trial or his brief masochistic relationships, but rather his struggle to live. By using the trial and relationships as coping strategies, he avoided sinking into anhedonia. This inability to feel pleasure could have led to abusing harder drugs as Elliott did during his teenage years, and thus another heroin overdose, or following his friends into suicide as he felt drawn to do when off Adderall. Yet he remains alive and writing.His personal life continues to suffer as he ups his dose and snorts it near the end of the book. But by following the murder trial to the end, he cuts back on the drug and reconciles with his father.Elliott doesn't set out to shock, including mundane anecdotes like working for a tech startup in addition to the darker, more sensational parts. Hence The Adderall Diaries have humor: the flat irony of a comedy of errors. Through it all, prose that hangs together emerges: even empathy with other writers who struggled with depression and amphetamine addiction. A must-read.

I liked this book and look forward to reading other works by the author. I saw the movie years ago, and although the movie was disappointing, I had always wanted to read the book.

Stephen Elliott certainly was ambitious in writing The Adderall Diaries. I had mixed reactions:I completely related to the writing struggles, still don't have any interest in BDSM, and found the true crime aspects fascinating.As were some of the Adderall comments. I agree with Elliott that speed is speed; but also that Adderall is or has been in the past extremely helpful for my focus during episodes of ADD or whatever it was/is.I have to admit to being somewhat bored by forced, hard driving prose--OK we get it, tough childhood. Someone mentions James Frey's A Million Little Pieces mixed with Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I agree with the comparison.The Adderall Diaries memoir aspects seem at times to be more like semi-novelization, but Elliott is making a good point about memory and how it plays tricks, distorting recollection.

The Adderall Diaries wasn't quite what I expected. Even after reading the reviews I was a little surprised with the book. Nonetheless, a good read. Taking adderall myself, I thought the book would have a little more focus on the medication. While he does often mention it, it's not as detailed as I had assumed.I love the way and style in which the book is written. I could've done without all of the S&M parts, but this is his life and I respect how open he was. It takes a lot of courage to share so much of your story. Once I got past my expectations for the book, I was able to appreciate it for what it was. Stephen did a fantastic job on this memoir and it's definitely not one to pass up.

It was a fun read, especially if you live in San Francisco and are familiar with Adderall. His Adderall habit is about as serious as that of a 17 year old high school girl, so he fails in making his drug abuse very compelling. His S&M stuff is also pretty boring. You'd have more fun reading Craigslist or going to the Power Exchange. But it's fun to read a book that references familiar SF landmarks, and despite the Adderall usage being quite tame, it's fun to read about that too.The critical acclaim is bizarre, and must result from some kind of group think. It's not a great novel, but it's a fun read. I read it on vacation, and that was the right way to read it. An enjoyable little book.And no, I'm not his mean and terrible father (read the book if you don't get the reference).

Publishers Weekly calls him "the most underrated writer in America". So I guess that makes me the most underrated dad, and my dog Lucky the most underrated dog.Steve Elliott grew up spoiled in an upper middle class Jewish home.At 13 he was caught abusing his dying and disabled adoptive mother, causing her death, and was put in Read Mental Hospital by the State of Illinois. He has never been homeless or lived in group homes.Since then he has published 12 books, all of which claim vaguely that he was abused as a child--without providing specifics-- and that he "grew up in group homes". He portrays himself as a sadly oppressed street kid who became successful through his own pluck with no help from a difficult world. He has promoted an elaborate con job into a career as a sad figure.Recently his adoptive father donated $3,000 to help him start Rumpus, a popular blog, where he pontificates for those with literary pretensions, and rants about what a mean guy his adoptive dad is.In THE ADDERALL DIARIES, he talks about how his thuggish, larger-than-life father might have killed a man, linking this to a famous murder case that he was pursuing for a television documentary. But since his father is a veteran of two wars, Elliott's guess that "he might have killed a man" can only provoke "Gosh, d'ya think?" as a response. Ed Harris is playing his father, Neil Elliott, in the film, co-starring James Franco.

A really good book

Great read