Reddit reviews Mindful Recovery: A Spiritual Path to Healing from Addiction

http://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Recovery-Spiritual-Healing-Addiction/dp/0471442615

http://www.amazon.com/Realm-Hungry-Ghosts-Encounters-Addiction/dp/155643880X

http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Addiction-Understanding-Alcoholism-Addictive/dp/0060958030/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373397028&sr=1-2&keywords=lance+dodes

http://www.amazon.com/Drinking-Love-Story-Caroline-Knapp/dp/0385315546 Her recovery is 12-step based, but this is really a memoir, not a guidebook

Alot of the ideas come from the large amount of research in the past decade in mindfulness (i.e. the secular, westernized, science oriented practice of buddhist-derived meditation), particular the benefits of mindfulness practice on addiction recovery. You can get a decent overview on the topics specific applications to addiction treatment in the psychologist couple Thomas and Beverly Bien's book "Mindful Recovery".

The stuff about the early humans I picked up from a lecture course put out by the Teaching Company called The Science of Mindfulness: A Research-Based Path to Well-Being by Harvard University pschology professor Ronald Siegel.

I know where you're coming from.

The first step is to realize that all of your negative emotions and destructive habits are a part of you, and as such should be treated with compassion. Don't fight it, because then you're just hurting yourself. By developing a strong mindfulness practice that you can learn to heal parts of yourself that are suffering.

Honestly, this is a complicated topic and I couldn't do it just in this format, so instead would recommend that you read the book Healing the Inner Child by Thich Nhat Hanh. It's an amazing book and he shows how you can apply mindfulness and the teachings of the Buddha to deal with difficult emotions.

Another good book to take a look is Mindful Recovery: A Spiritual Path to Healing from Addiction.