Breaking Awake

From the “talented and impassioned writer” (San Francisco Chronicle) of How to Kill a City, a riveting journey that combines Drug Use for Grown-Ups with How to Do Nothing, as it explores our national mental health and drug use crises while also searching for answers as to how we can find a path to collective healing. Why are so many of us unhappy, anxious, and without purpose? And how can we get better? Several years ago, P.E. Moskowitz had a near-death experience, followed by a nervous breakdown. As they willed themselves back to life using a variety of drugs, both prescription and illicit, they started to wonder: Why are so many of us seeking out these types of interventions to deal with our daily reality? In Breaking Awake, Moskowitz takes us on a kaleidoscopic voyage through our country’s collective mental health collapse, and the drugs we take—from fentanyl to SSRIs, to ketamine to LSD and beyond—to cope with the gnawing bleakness of our present moment. In a cross-country tour of drug use—including the free heroin handed out on the streets of Vancouver, a mom in Chicago who has been on SSRIs since childhood and now can’t live without them, and ravers in Brooklyn taking drugs most people have never heard of to push the limits of human consciousness—Moskowitz questions whether drugs can spark liberation or simply quell the pain of modern life. Is it time to view drugs differently? And can drugs help us envision a better future?
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Why do so many of us need drugs to make it through the day? What is wrong with us? In August 2017 a car ploughed into a crowd of peaceful marchers. For P.E. Moskowitz it was a shattering near-death experience, followed by a nervous breakdown. As they willed themselves back to life using a variety of drugs, both prescription and illegal, they started to wonder: why do we need drugs to quell the pain of modern life? In Breaking Awake, Moskowitz takes us on a kaleidoscopic voyage through the twenty-first century's mental health crisis and the drugs we take - from fentanyl to SSRIs, from ketamine to LSD and beyond - to cope with the gnawing bleakness of our present moment. We meet a team handing out free heroin on the streets of Vancouver and a young mother in Chicago who has been on SSRIs since childhood, ravers in Brooklyn taking drugs to push the limits of human consciousness and ordinary people leading ordinary lives on a constant cocktail of medication. Moskowitz asks: do drugs spark liberation or simply numb our modern malaise? Breaking Awake explores the global mental health and drug use crises whilst searching for answers to find a path to healing.