By the time Jack was fifteen, he was addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs, was hanging out with rock stars in LA and living a life that any teenager would aspire to. And then, The Osbournes turned him into a global celebrity. But as much as Jack enjoyed his fame, underneath it all, he was still an awkward teenager, using his sense of humour as a shield. And, with fame and money came a greater access to drugs - his addictions took a firmer hold on him and his behaviour was soon out of control. In 21 Years Gone, Jack writes with brutal frankness about his descent into addiction and the low point he reached when Sharon was diagnosed with cancer. Scared that his mum might die, Jack retreated further into his alcoholic shell, hating who he was, hating what he did. Every night he would get into bed and pray for God to take his life. When Sharon realised what was happening, she told Jack he had to go to rehab - and slowly he turned his life around.Discovering a passion for extreme sports, he went from overweight and unfit to the lean young man he is today - courtesy of such adventures as running with the bulls in Pamplona, fighting a Thai martial arts expert known only as 'The Man' and scaling El Capitan, one of the world's toughest climbs. By turns funny, disarmingly honest and moving, 21 Years Gone is the amazing story of young man who has confronted his demons and defeated them.

"After years of battling uncontrollable addiction, I have achieved the supposedly impossible: complete freedom from craving." Dr. Olivier Ameisen was a brilliant cardiologist on the staff at one of America’s top teaching hospitals and running his own successful practice when he developed a profound addiction to alcohol. He broke bones with no memory of falling; he nearly lost his kidneys; he almost died from massive seizures during acute withdrawal. He gave up his flourishing practice and, fearing for his life, immersed himself in Alcoholics Anonymous, rehab, therapy, and a variety of medications. Nothing worked. So he did the only thing he could: he took his treatment into his own hands. Searching for a cure for his deadly disease, he happened upon baclofen, a muscle relaxant that had been used safely for years as a treatment for various types of muscle spasticity, but had more recently shown promising results in studies with laboratory animals addicted to a wide variety of substances. Dr. Ameisen prescribed himself the drug and experimented with increasingly higher dosages until he finally reached a level high enough to leave him free of any craving for alcohol. That was more than five years ago. Alcoholism claims three hundred lives per day in the United States alone; one in four U.S. deaths is attributable to alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs. Baclofen, as prescribed under a doctor’s care, could possibly free many addicts from tragic and debilitating illness. But as long as the medical and research establishments continue to ignore a cure for one of the most deadly diseases in the world, we won’t be able to understand baclofen’s full addiction-treatment potential. The End of My Addiction is both a memoir of Dr. Ameisen’s own struggle and a groundbreaking call to action—an urgent plea for research that can rescue millions from the scourge of addiction and spare their loved ones the collateral damage of the disease.