ADDICTarium
The
War Stories Chronicles 1
by
Nicole D'Settemi
Genre:
Memoir
Drugs.
Sex. Detox. Art. Recovery. Prostitution. Music. Street life. Poetry.
Toxic love. And, those are just on the surface. The layers and
complexities of Addictarium will shock and enthrall you...
When
wild-child, and south Florida escapee, Danielle Martino finds herself
curled in a ball on the cold tile floors of her filthy rank bathroom
in the tiny studio she rents with her fiancé and partner-in-crime,
she knows it's time to quit abusing heroin. Severely impaired from
shooting a bad batch of black tar heroin, and already partially blind
from the infection that the muddy poison has caused, she is forced to
hitch a greyhound bus to New York City, and to abandon her care-free,
American-bohemian, drug infested life-style.
Hailed
everywhere as a beautiful, unique, honest, raw and poetic account of
recovery, Addictarium takes readers on a compelling journey through
the life and eyes of the narrator; a creative, nomadic, deep--but,
incidentally broken--young woman, and underlines the contributing
factors to what it's really like to suffer from addiction. With
magnificent candor--and sometimes emotionally crippling
descriptions--we witness Danielle's fight towards recovery from more
than just heroin, as Addictarium brings the readers on a fascinating
and harrowing, brutal tale of a young women's recovery from total and
mass self-destruction.
--Addictarium
highlights in the starkest of lights, why it is so difficult for
addicts to receive the recovery they seek, when they finally do
decide to put the drug down.
Author
Nicole D'Settēmi is
a 33 year old writer, currently living in upstate New York. She has
lived in five regions nationally, including South Florida and New
York City. She has always been a self-described "poetic,
nomadic, creative soul," and is an enthusiast of a variety of
artistic mediums, but considers writing her number one form of art,
and feels everything else is just an extension of that passion and
creative outlet.
Nicole
was raised in Niagara Falls, a tiny town bordering Canada, and can
remember being as young as six, when writing her first lyrical, and
philosophical poems. She specifically pin-points two pieces during
those years, titled "If I Ruled the World," and "If
the World Ended.” She also points out being selected at 6, for the
"Young Authors Club," which was a city-wide project.
Nicole
won two city-wide essay contests between the ages 9-11, which was
when she received her first typewriter and then she started a
fan-club and newsletter for her childhood hero, as well as penning
letters to over 30 pen-pals internationally. She also had a poem
named "And So It Begins" published which was written at 12.
Though
Nicole (who was an honor student) rebelled by 15, and was
incidentally expelled from school, she still wrote habitually. She
once showed her “alternative-school” teacher a poem titled:
"That's Life," which she penned at 14. He was so impressed
with the piece; he had it faxed to every school in the city.
At
16 Nicole was uprooted from her small town and moved to Boca Raton,
where she felt displaced and started to deal with depression.
Hereditarily, mental illness and substance abuse ran rapid in her
family tree, and by 20 she experimented with a plethora of chemical
substances. By 23, she became addicted to shooting heroin, and was
engaged to her co-conspirator and partner-in-crime. She attended an
art school for photo journalism, but withdrew half-way through the
year, due to a devastating addiction to injecting various drugs.
Addictarium
was written while she spent two years in a therapeutic community for
seriously addicted, and mentally ill, patrons. The author outlines
her experiences, including the tale of losing her eyesight due to
shooting a poisoned bag of heroin, which is when she was forced to
hitch a greyhound bus from South Florida to Manhattan, and after
several weeks of surgeries, was admitted to Daytop Village for
long-term treatment, and drug addiction recovery. The book outlines
many of the experiences she went through in the second phase of
treatment, which she dubbed "the village," because of its
extreme and eccentric melting pot of personalities.
During
her tenure at Daytop, Nicole separated with her fiancé, and while in
her stay at the recovery program in Queens New York, met her current
fiancé, who was initially her substance abuse counselor. The book is
also highly reflective of their relationship and its roots.
Nicole credits the Latin, Brooklyn-bred counselor, 18 years her
senior, with "saving her from herself.”
Nicole can now be found
residing in the Poughkeepsie area with her fiancé, Miguel. They are
both artists, and run a modest side business creatively assisting
those in need of artistic direction digitally. Nicole is currently
planning to eventually pen a prequel to Addictarium. She is also
outlining a third individual novel, Narssitopia, which she
claims will be a "psycho-dramatic thriller."
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