Beautiful Boy

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

 

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff is memoir about a father’s journey through his son’s addiction. When he was young, his parents had gotten a divorce which impacted him. Because of this, Nic went to therapy and every break he had to go visit his mom in Los Angeles. As a boy, school was a main priority for Nic. He loved learning and the many hobbies he had like surfing and water polo. David described his son as a leader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As Nic grew older to be a teenager, he started to slip. Nic hung out with bad influences which was how he started getting into marijuana which was a gateway into other drugs. He started not to care about his schoolwork and hobbies as much. The usage of marijuana for him lead to getting caught over and over again by a variety of adults. This highly impacted his reputation in a negative way.

 

When Nic went off to UC Berkeley, he was interested at first. Although, he started to get introduced to more drugs including meth. Eventually he dropped out and thought school wasn’t right for him. He became a full time drug addict. His father pushed him to go to rehab, but he constantly told him that he’ll get better. Later on, he started to attend Hampshire college which he made good progress at. Although this college didn’t prevent Nic from relapsing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Los Angeles was the place that Nic started to get better. He went to a rehab that helped him a lot and he met a lot of supportive people there. Even though Nic had a couple of relapses while he was there, he was always able to get sober again and stay sober. A main contributor to Nic’s sobriety was a man named Randy. Randy helped him realize that drugs will not help him and he taught him ways to deal with getting over his addiction. Overall Los Angeles was the best move that Nic made.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the end, David’s dedication to his son paid off. Nic finally got better and is now on his road to recovery. David still worries about his son everyday thinking that he would relapse, but overall he’s relieved. He’s relieved that his son is doing better and trying to move past his addiction. Nic Sheff is now sober with a good job and a great influencing girlfriend. He wrote a book, Tweak, which is about his life when he was on drugs from his point of view. Finally, Nic learned how to recover after 7+  years and that would have been seen as a miracle in the very beginning.