A firsthand look at what it means—and what it takes—for young addicts to get clean and stay clean

"To suddenly think, ‘Hey, wait a minute, I’m 21. I just got sober. I can’t drink like all my friends ever again?’ I remember thinking my whole life had crumbled." Welcome to recovery from a young addict’s perspective. Written by MTV’s Chris Beckman with contributions from dozens of teens and twentysomethings in recovery, Clean is part autobiography, part addiction and recovery primer, and part wake-up call about what’s really going on in schools, cars, malls, and wherever else kids come in contact with drugs and alcohol. Beckman, whose out-of-control drinking and drugging lasted more than a decade before he got sober at age 24, uses his story to illustrate the book’s fundamental message that recovery at a young age is very different from recovery in adulthood. "We get clean at 20 and feel like we’re still 13 emotionally," he writes. Clean is the real thing: an honest, nonjudgmental, peer-to-peer lifeline for young people thinking about experimenting with drugs, for those who are already experimenting or those who are already addicted, and for families and friends who want to understand and help.