As a schoolboy already caught up in addiction, I stood outside of a McDonald’s waiting for a man I thought was my friend. A friend I met online. It would change my life forever. I was a streetwise kid growing up in a tough housing scheme. But the Internet was a new phenomenon. Euphoric Recall details my recovery from extreme trauma and addiction. As a Scottish working-class lad who grew up in a new town—Livingston—I also survived brutal experiences with suicide, violence, and severe mental health issues. One day, I decided to write a memoir about it. I hold nothing back.
"A truly essential read for those interested in lived experiences - and not just statistics." — Darren 'Loki' McGarvey, author of Poverty Safari (Orwell Prize 2018).
"Aidan Martin delivers a gritty gut-punch memoir about the realities and complexities of addiction. Raw, honest and insightful, Aidan shows the reader how compulsion and addiction are just the tip of a much deeper iceberg that has sunk many a Titanic. And in his story, we see that addiction in the 21st century can have many varieties and flavors to escape the shame, emptiness and suffering that so many are struggling with in the Digital Age." — Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, author of Glow Kids, Addiction Expert, Professor Stony Brook Medicine.
Scottish Parliament Motion S5M-22809, by Neil Findlay MSP: "That the Parliament congratulates Aidan Martin from Livingston on the publication of his first book, Euphoric Recall; understands that the book details Aidan's recovery from extreme trauma and addiction and recalls his survival and experiences of drugs, suicide, violence and mental ill health; notes that Aidan now works with, and provides support and counselling to, drug users seeking help for their addiction; wishes Aidan well with the book, and looks forward to it being a positive contribution to the debate around drugs and drug deaths in Scotland." (23 Sept 2020)
