We Are All ADDICTS

The Soul’s Guide to Kicking Your Compulsions

Spirituality is a powerful thing, but can connecting with one’s soul help kick addictive behaviors? Find out in Dr. Carder Stout’s latest self-help must read. 

In We Are All Addicts: The Soul’s Guide to Kicking Your Compulsions (January 10, 2023, Viva Editions, Simon & Schuster),

Dr. Stout offers spiritual solutions to the complex problems created by addiction. He focuses primarily on the idea of the soul and how this authentic voice has the ability to heal addictive cycles. The soul is pure consciousness untethered from human experience, and Dr. Stout will demonstrate how to connect deeply to it through exercises, meditations, visualizations and writing. These solutions to the obsessive thinking and compulsive actions caused by addiction are unconventional and most have only been shared with his patients in therapy. Dr. Stout believes the soul has the capacity to completely remove addiction from the psyche, and has used these exercises himself through his own sobriety.
 
 With this expertise, he breaks down his theory of “We Are All Addicts” in a compellingly readable guide so you can understand the addiction getting in the way of your life and how to overcome it by connecting to the ultimate truth of your core being and learning to love yourself to the fullest.

We’re All Addicts is an excellent handbook for self-repair and soul upkeep. Written by a kind, empathetic guide who has been to the peaks and valleys himself.

Thomas Lennon, New York Times bestselling author of Ronan Boyle, creator and star of Reno 911

Dr. Carder Stout challenges our perceptions of addiction in this vivid, powerful and timely book. I highly recommend it.

Carole Radziwill, New York Times bestselling author of What Remains, journalist and TV personality

Dr. Carder Stout artfully deconstructs the meaning of addiction with the use of his own personal story, academic background in psychology, experiences with his patients, and thought provoking questions and exercises for the reader who may have never considered themselves an addict.

Sarah Brokaw, New York Times bestselling author of Fortytude: Making the Next Decades the Best Years of Your Life – through your 40 50s and Beyond, psychotherapist 

Dr. Carder Stout’s latest writing adventure is a wonderful journey of recovery. This amazing book opens the reader’s mind and offers a pathway to the healing soul. A book that will help any professional in the behavioral health field as well as anyone struggling with obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions.

Dr. Ted Wiard Ed.D, LPCC, CGC – Founder of Golden Willow Retreat (an emotional healing center focused on grief and loss), Clinical Director Rio Grande Alcohol and Treatment Program

We Are All Addicts is both stunning and practical. Stout makes a compelling, inspired, clear and anthemic plea for the power of the soul. All that we have ever needed, is inside of us. This book will awaken your soul, and give you the power to overcome your compulsions and addictions. But even more, it will liberate you from ego, and grant you the courage to live your life from the eternal, potent and omnipresent place of soul.

Will McCormack, Academy Award winning writer and director of If Anything Happens I Love You

The toxic guilt, crippling embarrassment, and vicious cycle of shame surrounding food addiction? Carder Stout gets it. It’s like he can see me at three in the morning when I’m standing in front of the fridge (ravenous for what – to feel better about myself?). Thank you for writing We Are All Addicts. The advice about healing from within is spot on.

Stephanie Laska, USA TODAY bestselling author, MEd, creator of DIRTY, LAZY, KETO

Lost in Ghost Town

A Memoir of Addiction, Redemption and Hope in Unlikely Places

At the age of thirty-four, I would have gladly pawned the silver spoon I was born choking on for a rock of crack. My downfall was as swift as my privilege was vast…or had I been falling all along?

Raised in a Georgetown mansion and educated at exclusive institutions, I ran with a crowd of movers, shakers, and future Oscar-winners in New York City. But words like “promise” and “potential” are meaningless in the face of serious addiction. Lost years and a stint in rehab later, when I was a dirty, broke, soon-to-be-homeless crackhead wandering the streets of Venice, California. My lucky break came thanks to my old Ford Taurus: I landed a job of driving for a philosophical drug czar with whom I found friendship and self-worth as I helped deliver quality product to LA’s drug enthusiasts, from trust-fund kids, gang affiliates, trophy wives, hip-hop producers, and Russian pimps. But even his loyalty and protection couldn’t save me from the peril of the streets–or the eventual contract out of my life.

Lost in Ghost Town is a riveting, raw, and heartfelt look at the power of addiction, the beauty of redemption, and finding truth somewhere in between.

This is a great read. I was deeply moved and inspired by the story. The writing is rich and poignant. I highly recommend it.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Academy-Award winning actress, founder of goop

With his storytelling Carder brings clarity, humor and compassion to a harrowing personal chapter. It’s a book that many will relate to and all will find difficult to read and remain unmoved. This book is outstanding.

Billy Crudup, Tony-Award winning actor (Almost Famous, Alien: Covenant)

This is a compelling story that provides a unique lens into the dark world of addiction. It is well-written, captivating, and full of surprises. I believe it will have broad appeal.

Jason Blum, Academy-Award nominated producer (Whiplash, Get Out, BlacKkKlansmen)

I couldn’t put it down. I loved the juxtaposition between Carder’s desolate but privileged childhood and the dark despair of his life in the hood. The writing is powerful, direct and filled with color. This is a book that will touch so many.

Craig Borten, Academy-Award nominated screenwriter (Dallas Buyer’s Club)

A blistering read and a powerful cautionary tale, Carder Stout has written an unforgettable memoir.  It is intensely emotional and brilliantly written.

Jeffrey Clifford, Academy-Award nominated producer (Up in the Air)

Lost in Ghost Town is a gripping, haunting portrait of addiction that’s impossible to put down. Carder Stout lays bare his soul as he recounts the privilege he was born into, and the pain that led him into the bowels of hell once crack and heroin had him in its vice grip. The triumph of the book is Carder’s ever-present humanity.  It’s an addictive, heart-rending read. This is an astonishing story.

Jessica Queller, executive producer and writer of Supergirl, bestselling author of Pretty Is What Changes

This book is a must-read for anyone doubting the possibility of personal redemption. Full of psychological insight and expertly told with an entertainer’s instinct for a riveting crazier-than-fiction story.

Alessandro Nivola, Tony-Award nominated actor (Laurel Canyon, The Many Saints of Newark)

Carder Stout’s Lost in Ghost Town is a stark reminder that addiction knows no socio-economic bounds. His easy writing style, that seamlessly slips the reader between his childhood and his raging addiction to crack cocaine, reads like a cautionary tale with an emotional index of how to build an addict. It had me at the first hit.

Will Arnett, five-time Emmy-Award nominated actor (Arrested Development)

Lost in Ghost Town is equal parts memoir and thrilling true crime story. Beautifully written, I could not put it down. The interactions with the Seaside Crips and LAPD set my heart racing. For a descent into hell, it gives Dante’s Inferno a run for its money. The most shocking part of Lost in Ghost Town is that Carder lived to write it all down. What a truly amazing story. I give it 5 stars.

Thomas Lennon, actor and creator of Reno 911!, New York Times Bestselling Author of Ronan Boyle

I was blown away by this memoir. Carder breathlessly navigates his journey from a posh DC childhood to the Crips and crack subculture of a pre-gentrified Venice. This is a beautiful story about a young man trying to heal the wounds of a childhood born largely without guidance. I was particularly moved by his newfound family in California, tragically linked to a violent gang as well as the prostitute he falls in love with. Unpredictable, exciting, a true peek at a hardscrabble life lived on the streets day to day. I could not put this book down.

Sam Trammel, Tony-Award nominated actor (True Blood, Homeland)

This incredible memoir is a powerful and heartbreaking look into addiction and everything that comes with it. Dr. Carder Stout crafts a harrowing yet beautiful story and deserves all of the praise it’s received.

Jennifer Todd, producer of The Academy Awards, executive producer of City on a Hill (Showtime)

Lost in Ghost Town is a terrifying, hilarious, and ultimately moving cautionary tale. Like a modern-day Icarus, Carder Stout was born privileged, had to escape from a labyrinth, and flew too close to the sun. However, unlike Icarus, the labyrinth Stout escaped from was one of his own creation, and he miraculously survived to share his tale with the rest of us. He covers the distance from the top to the bottom unsparingly in this gripping, upsetting, beautifully written memoir.

Jonathan Marc Sherman, award-winning playwright (Women and Wallace, Sophistry)