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Blake E. Cohen, CEO Of Next Level Recovery Associates, Shares The Behind The Scenes Of Writing His Bestselling Book

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / April 9, 2021 / With a subject as difficult to digest as addiction, it's tricky to navigate a way to learn in an accessible way. This challenge only motivated Blake E. Cohen, the co-founder of Next Level Recovery Associates, to come up with a fictional book that would allow readers to understand the widespread difficulties of addiction. In his day job, he leads Next Level Recovery Associates with his partner, Amanda Marino, to fill the gaps for families and guide them in their unique treatment of substance use disorders and other mental health issues. In his book, I Love You More: Short Stories of Addiction, Recovery, and Loss from the Family's Perspective, he takes the same stance in making the road to recovery as painless and accessible as possible.

"The book is a compilation of three, short and easy-to-read fictional stories that are meant to offer perspective to those families affected by substance use disorders. The point of the book is to provide insight into what it means to be a family member of someone that is struggling with addiction and what it's like for those that struggle themselves," Blake outlines.

The book follows three different families that are affected by substance use disordered in varying degrees of severity. The first family's loved one is just returning home from treatment, the second one's loved one cannot resist the urge to use despite dire consequences, and the final story follows a mother who has recently lost her daughter to a fatal overdose. The book finishes with notes to the family, person afflicted, and even a special message from Blake's own father offering his perspective as someone who's been affected by substance use disorders as a family member multiple times.

"The goal I had in mind while writing this book was to help provide a level of understanding in families about what it's like living in the shoes of every member of the family. I wanted the book to be simple, easy-to-read, and provide education through emotion. The ultimate goal of the book is to challenge people's current beliefs about this family disease and start conversations that may lead to a further developed outlook on how addiction affects the entire family system," Blake says.

In writing the book, Blake enjoyed the most developing the stories of the families themselves. To do so, he interviewed multiple people with first hard experience being affected by the disease in some way. He also worked to look back on the professional experiences he's had with his own clients, and even recalled his own experiences of addiction within his own family. Obviously, stories this close to home are always a challenge to bring to public attention. But with great hardship came great lessons.

"The hardest lesson I learned while writing my book was when I had to do interviews for the last story. In this part of the narrative, a mother loses her daughter to a fatal overdose. Through the interview, I learned how devastatingly powerful grief can be when you lose a loved one this way. I can only describe these parent's experiences as teetering on the edge of insanity and reality. This part of doing research for the book was extremely emotional for me," Blake recounts.

Despite the difficulty that went into the creation of the book, Blake is honored to have seen a great deal of success with its reception. In conjunction with the narratives themselves, Blake partnered with a clinical psychologist to create discussion questions that relate to each of the three stories. This move to back his fictional narratives with clinal fact have led to the book to be implemented in treatment programs, drug courts, and even universities.

"Since releasing the book, I have received many emails and letters from different places using the book as part of their curriculums. It's honestly so meaningful. I never knew if the book would be successful so to have university students write me emails saying that they were touched by one of the stories in the book and how it helped them process through their own issues at home. I can't tell you how happy their stories make me," Blake says.

When asked if he's planning to write a second book to follow-up his successful debut, Blake says he does have plans to release a sequel in the near future.

"So far, I haven't started writing it just yet. All I have is the title," Blake reveals.

Blake's best selling book is available on Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and Audible versions. Blake is also on Instagram, and his company is online.

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SOURCE: Next Level Recovery Associates Inc



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