High: From Cannabis to Clarity (Chapters 1-21)
Dedicated to Robert Downey Sr. (A prince)
Chapter 1: Grief Like a Torn Dress Should Be Left at Home
Chapter 4: Fortune Will Always Come to a House with Laughter
Chapter 5: Do Everything You Can and Don’t Get Caught
Chapter 6: Picture This FBI Close Call
Chapter 7: He Who Strongly Desires to Move Up Will Think of a Way to Build a Ladder
Chapter 8: Always Make Way for Fools and Mad Men, Kids and Moms
Chapter 10: Oh Mama, Can This Really Be the END?
Chapter 12: Blackmailed, Paris, The Doors, Miles Ahead
Chapter 13: No Massage for You! Just a Message!!
Chapter 14: Jung and the Restless
Chapter 15: Temptations: My Girl, Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
Chapter 16: A Lot Happens Quickly
Chapter 18: Two Eyes to See, One Ear to Hear
Chapter 19: Addiction is Not a Disease, It’s an Addiction
Chapter 20: Keeping it Reel, Ready for My Close-Up
Chapter 21: Betty Ford Died Sober, I Should Be So Lucky
HOW NOT TO DIE
Around people
if I feel I’m gonna die
I excuse myself
telling them “I gotta go!”
“Go where?” they wanna know
I don’t answer
I just get outa there
away from them
because somehow
they sense something wrong
and never know what to do
it scares them such suddenness
How awful
to just sit there
and they asking:
“Are you okay?”
“Can we get you something?”
“Want to lie down?”
Ye gods! people!
who wants to die among people?!
Especially when they can’t do shit
To the movies—to the movies
that’s where I hurry to
when I feel I’m going to die
So far it’s worked
— Gregory Corso, Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit
Chapter 19 "Addiction is Not a Disease, It's an Addiction" — that title alone is worth the price of the book. The courage to name things directly, without hiding behind clinical language. On my reading list.