In his new book What Addicts Know: 10 Lessons from Recovery to Benefit Everyone, Christopher Kennedy Lawford writes, "I've dealt with a wide variety of individuals afflicted with the disease of addiction, and in my estimation they are the most interesting, fascinating, and gifted people I've come across." Yet, they are also the most challenging. "Addicts are deviously manipulative and self-absorbed. Their illness causes suffering and pain for themselves, their loved ones, and the rest of society. Yet from their struggle comes an opportunity for all." Here is an excerpt:

Recovery is about exposing and healing the darker sides of being human. And honing the skills necessary for sustained recovery from addiction reveals a life-enhancing recipe that can benefit everyone. From the darkness come exquisite, profound gifts.

People who get punched in the face by the 800-pound gorilla of addiction for decades and who live to tell about it are remarkable human beings on many levels. They are not just survivors, they are teachers. And it's time we all pay closer attention to what they have to teach us about human well-being.

Whether or not you are or have ever been an addict, whether or not you know addicts—in fact, even if you consider yourself hopelessly normal and not prone to any kind of addiction or seriously bad habits—you are still at risk and will benefit from the advice in these pages. Before you snicker with skepticism or indignation, let me tell you why I think this is true.

What we are left with is the throbbing emptiness that sets in when the fixation on more brings us nothing but more of the same old feeling of want. As a consequence, most of us will do or try just about anything to escape the recurrent stress, frustration, discomfort, and boredom. Those are the warning signs on the road leading to the cliff of addiction and social dysfunction.

Has addiction become the new normal? I don't know, but having this disease doesn't necessarily mean the end of one's quality of life. As the history of drug and alcohol treatment and recovery demonstrates, people can and do recover— and do so magnificently—emerging from the ordeal far stronger and better prepared for life's many and varied challenges. How they did it offers a recovery plan for humanity itself, a plan laid out with the ten lessons in my book.

Consider this an opportunity to investigate how your life is going. Am I generally content with the way things are? Are my emotions mostly on an even keel? Are my personal relationships strong and supportive? Is there enough joy in my life? Your answers may lead to a realization that what you need is recovery—a recovery that is unique, personal, and crucial for you. Because recovery is about finding something we've lost, and what we have lost is our true self. Alienation from self is a byproduct of this culture of ours and its fixations, and we are all trying to find ourselves—whether we realize it or not. Addicts in recovery have discovered a process for achieving that.

What Addicts Know contains the practical tools mastered and lived every day by those countless people who have successfully stayed in recovery. It may take some time to get off the Ferris wheel of repeating your mistakes over and over, but if you're going to be compulsive about something, you can't do much better than relentlessly pursuing a healthy lifestyle.

So consider this book a gift from the recovery community to all of humanity. Most of society continues to accept us addicts only reluctantly, not yet knowing what we have to give back. But what you now hold in your hands could, hopefully, change all that.

Reprinted from What Addicts Know: 10 Lessons from Recovery to Benefit Everyone by Christopher Kennedy Lawford by arrangement with BenBella Books. Copyright © 2014 by Christopher Kennedy Lawford