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David Sheff is the author of the New York times bestselling book Beautiful Boy: A fathers journey Through His Sons Addiction, and many others. Beautiful boy was based off an article he wrote for the New York times called "My Addicted Son". He was born in Boston in 1955. He wrote this book because his son Nic, who had been a consistant addict most of his life. Nic began to struggle with addiction at 11 years old, by 18, he had spiraled into crystal meth. Throughout the years of his addiction, David tried to get him as much help as possible but Nic denied it and proceeded to get worse. As a result of this, David writes this book, Beautiful Boy as an outlet to the personal struggles he was dealing with at home. Nic Sheff actually worked with his father to write an informational book on drugs and alcohol which was published in 2019. Nic has also published two of his own books-- both New York Times best seller called Tweak: Growing Up On Methamphetamines and We All Fall Down: Living With Addiction. David also founded the Beautiful Boy fund-- which gathers research on substance-use disorders and ways to aid the addicted. He has received tons of awards now for the sheer research and aid that hes provided for the addict community. He has written for newspaper after newspaper and has even interviewed John Lennon. Yoko Ono, and many more prominent faces. Overall he deserves all the credit in the world for the help he has provided by speaking out about his own struggles and he help he has provided to everyone in need. Written by Sanjay Gupta, "David Sheff knows addiction as no parent would ever want. Through it all, he’s tapped into a unique ability to convey the pain, wisdom and love that he’s experienced through many turbulent years with his son Nic. As a journalist, father and clear-eyed chronicler of addiction, David is without peer."

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What does a father do when a son is devoured by drugs? When potential is waylaid and his very life is at stake? If you're David Sheff, you write a memoir, a searingly painful, beautiful book.

And if you're Nic Sheff, the prodigal son, you answer - once sober - with a book of your own.

Taken together, "Beautiful Boy" (2008) and "Tweak" (2007), written, respectively, by David and Nic Sheff, are a lucent but difficult portrait of a family imploded, struggling through a modern-day worst-case scenario. Their harrowing journey through addiction and recovery was portrayed in the 2018 film adaptation of "Beautiful Boy," with Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet cast as father and son.

The Sheffs are the upcoming featured guests of the Sonoma Speaker Series, and will tell their story at Hanna Boys Center on Feb. 3.

For David - an accomplished Marin County-based writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone and other national publications - writing "Beautiful Boy" was somewhat accidental, as he initially began writing to manage his pain. "It was like a diary at first, a journal I wrote to cope with the situation," he told the Index-Tribune. "Beautiful Boy," was in fact the outgrowth from an article, "My Addicted Son," that originally ran in New York Times Magazine.

For Nic, "Tweak" was catharsis, an astonished backward look at the dark valleys he'd traveled. "We were both just telling our stories," Nic said.

Those stories, as it turns out, are American stories. The Sheffs are just one of countless families upended by addiction.

"Communities around the country are being devastated by the opioid epidemic," David said.

"Addiction is a disease that kills 200 people a day in this country," Nic added. "But it is really possible to recover and live a meaningful, great life. We talk about the hope that is out there, too."

Nic Sheff began smoking marijuana in the sixth grade, when the older brother of a classmate hooked him up. "The first time I tried it, I had a strong reaction. It gave me a feeling of relief. I felt more confident. The anxiety was taken away. Marijuana sort of felt like the answer," Nic said.

But the marijuana became psilocybin, then cocaine, then methamphetamines. By high school, Nic was ingesting a pharmacopeia of street drugs every day.

David, who by then had two young children from a second marriage, had no idea how bad things had gotten. In fact, he didn't really get it until he read his son's book. "When we finally read each other's books... it was just devastating," David said. "I knew things were bad, but in reading his book I realized they were worse than my worst nightmares. He wasn't out there having fun. He was in pain."

The Sheffs have an easy, natural rapport. They riff off each other, finish one another's sentences. But there is an undercurrent of sadness between father and son, too, as one might expect from people who have navigated a canyon of shadows. David and Nic Sheff both remember the climb.

Nic has been clean and sober since 2011, following a few years of intermittent sobriety. The monkey on his back had proved tenacious, but Nic managed to best it in the end. "I really don't have cravings anymore. I'm coming up on 10 years, which is crazy," Nic said. "But addiction is a chronic disease. There are things that I have to do on a daily basis to treat it. It's something I will have for the rest of my life."

In his decade of sobriety Nic has gotten married, written four more books, and found work in Los Angeles writing for television. For an individual who might have "died many times" while in the thick of his addiction, his transformation has been both complete and profound. "I really do have a beautiful life now," he said. "Just the fact that I could wake up in the morning and feel real joy and happiness. I mean, that's the most miraculous thing of all."

The Sheffs will speak to the Sonoma Valley High School student body on Feb. 3 before meeting their adult audience on the Hanna stage that evening. And though dwelling in the dark place that nearly destroyed them is a challenge, they see their mission as a gift, not a burden. "It's definitely emotional and can be really hard sometimes, but it also feels like a privilege," David said. "To meet people who are going through this... not one single conversation that we have is trivial. Families that feel broken forever can be healed. To be part of that is really kind of wonderful."

Nic agreed. "The thing I value the most and get the most out of is being of service to the best of my ability," he said. "The goal of my drug use was to feel OK. I chased that for so long in exactly the wrong way. I'm so grateful to finally be comfortable in my own skin."

Contact Kate at kate.williams@sonomanews.com.

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Life is 'Beautiful' for David and Nic Sheff

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When a 'Beautiful Boy' becomes addicted to drugs, an entire family is nearly destroyed.

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The qauint town of Marin, where Beautiful Boy was filmed.

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Beautiful Boy was published in 2008. Since it is practically David and Nic's autobiography it was written in present tense based in the early 2000's throughout the years of Nic growing up and throughout his older years as his addiction worsened. The setting of this book takes place in California for the most part. When Nic was born, David and his first wife Vic lived in Berkeley. Once they seperated Vicki moved to Los Angeles, and David moved him and Nic to Inverness, where he remarried to a woman named Karen. Nic attended high school in California which he graduated. When writing the book, David kept it close to home by basing it completely on where he lived in California and his town.

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If you watched the award-nominated film Beautiful Boy and recognized the idyllic beachside setting, that's because it was filmed in picturesque Marin, just beyond the Golden Gate Bridge in Northern California. And Sausalito specifically was home to the actual father and son the film honestly portrays. Marin magazine recently featured an interview with the two men as they reflect on the film and the highly personal setting.

"Based on the paired memoirs of journalist David Sheff ( Beautiful Boy) and his son Nic Sheff ( Tweak), the film is a portrayal of a father coping with his teen son's addiction to methamphetamine and the addicted teen's struggle not just to get sober, but to stay alive. David Sheff and his wife, Karen Barbour, moved to Marin almost three decades ago and raised Nic and their two younger children in West Marin. The film's stars, Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet, give powerful performances, all the more heart-wrenching for viewers who will recognize the roads, mountains, cliffs and coves of our beloved home county. The cinematic artistry of Beautiful Boy only elucidates the family's experience of a living hell set in a magnificent natural world."

You can read the full interview and why the Marin setting was important to the story here.

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The Real Marin Family Behind the Emotional Film Beautiful Boy - Golden State

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Both father and son wrote memoirs that inspired the touching screenplay

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The production and distribution of methamphetamine has greatly emerged over the past 25 years. It has been considered "America's most dangerous drug". Since meth is such a volatile drug, its ability to use varies from smoked, snorted, injected, and taken orally. The "rush" Meth provides users lasts for 8-12 hours. Once a user is addicted to meth, they face the consequences that come with having a twisted reality. To be the parent witnessing their child spiral into a hard addiction is the hardest thing someone can experience. They have a front row seat to their child falling victim to this dangerous drug. Obviously, being the parent you want to do everything you can to help your child recover from this addiction, but by trying to provide help it may provide a bigger spiral. When you the people around you are addicted, its frustrating to deal with their outbursts and having the ability to stay calm and not lash out at them. Not only do the addicts destroy themselves in the procress of using, they destroy everyone around them as well. Once family members and loved ones realize the damage they've done trying to get help for the addict, it causes detachment as a sign of giving up.

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How Meth Affects Families | Ranch Creek Recovery

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Families of meth addicts endure the negative consequences of addiction. Learn how meth affects families & the support that’s available.

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This art by Stephen Sawyer perfectly portrays the lengths that loved ones will go for the addicts that surround them. By trying to save them from their emimate doom you tear yourself apart. The more time you spend worrying about their well-being the more your ruining yourself. All that loved ones want to do is provide help for the addicted, but by putting yourself in the position of being that close to them, how does that affect you? Would you rather destroy yourself in the process of trying to fix them, not knowing if it would even work, or let them fall into that hole. In this poster, the male in white is attempting to prevent the injection of the man in the black. We can also see a plethora of cigarettes in the tray, heroine lined up to snort/inject, a glass filled with alcohol and lastly, a revolver. The evolution of worse to worser that we see layed on the table is a good metaphor for the path that addicts head down as they get continue to fall deeper and deeper into their addiction.

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Broken hearts, broken homes, broken lives, and broken connections with God.

It is our lust to satisfy ourselves that slowly seduces us to destroy that same 'self' which we held in such high esteem. And it is only the tragedy of 'self' never transcending into unselfishness that so deceives us with the false freedoms we cherish above all else.

In one moment the threshold is crossed and we are lost.

Lost in the belief of our own power. Lost in the belief of our own strength and lost in our ability to recognize it.

We serve ourselves at the cost of others until there is only one unselfish person left who will intercede and sacrifice himself to endure our private hell.

Only God can go where all the doors are held shut by the enemy. Only God will stay even when the devil himself finally walks out on you. Only God will share in the fullness of your sufferings and never forsake you.

And ultimately it is only the lost 'self' that can lose everything and eventually tell, what they believed was a helpless God, to go to hell.
All double matted prints will fit into frames of their listed size. More Detailed Information and Descriptions of our Prints All other giclee prints, canvas or paper, are always signed.
Stephen will sign and personalize any of prints which are offered in the double matted sizes for an additional $15.
has a black border and has the words Calvary at the top and at the bottom "When you've done it unto the least of these you've unto me" And Art for God

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Broken hearts, broken homes, broken lives, and broken connections with God. It is our lust to satisfy ourselves that slowly seduces us to destroy that same 'self' which we held in such high esteem.

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This poem by Charles Bukowski outlines the addiction that drugs and alcohol have on people. In multiple interviews, Nic Sheff stated that if he were to kill himself he would allow the drugs to do it and he accepted that was how he was going to die. In this poem, it states, "Death doesn't always come running when you call it-- not even if you call it from a shining castle..." This line highlights that even when Nic claimed he wanted to die from the drugs he consumed, that wouldn't always work out in his favor. The epidemic that is drugs and alcohol has stemmed for years and has evolved into what it is today. The more you drink and the more you use the more addicted you get. The more addicted you get, the more you seperate yourself from the life you had to be able to adapt to your new life based around addiction. Adapting a new life to fit an addiction creates such a wormhole for the people who you see everyday. The people that you have close relationships with are going to want to provide you help meanwhile your pushing them all away for your addiction because you believe you don't need help.

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This ted talk highlights the "ripple" effect that addiction has on you and the people around you. His analogy is that when a rock hits still water, it ripples causing a domino effect from one event to another. His story is that his uncle was a heroin addict, which caused him to be arrested and his cousins moved in with him. This was the ripple effect in motion. His uncle being an addict caused an eruption of pain in his family that affected everyone. The stories he heard about the treatment his cousins endured from their father caused Brennan deep anger inside because he couldn't believe that a member of his own family possessed the ability to be such a monster. The pain and anger that Brennan had built up against his uncle caused him to not feel hurt once he finally passed away. He felt a final ripple of relief knowing that his cousins would never have to endure that pain again. That addiction that his uncle had caused a tear in all the relationships he had up until the day he died. His addiction made him angry and he took that anger out on his children which strained their relationship to the point they were forced to move out. The damage he did to his family caused them to feel more relief than sorrow once he had passed. This is the consequence of his action.

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The Ripple Effect of Addiction | Brennan Harlow | TEDxDayton

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The movie Beautiful Boy was depicted from the book as an adaptation to put the beautiful writing by David Sheff into picture. The movie displays the methamphetamine addiction that Nic Sheff develops throughout his teenage years and into his early 20s. His addiction progressively gets worse as his father, David Sheff tries to get him as much help as possible. As he continues to deny the help and dig a deeper hole for his life. The hold that drugs has on him causes such a gap between him and the people who care for him. His dad tried to do everything in his power to help him by offering him rehab and Nic managed to get clean for short amounts of time but it never lasted. He ruined relationships with significant others, his father, his fathers wife, and even his younger siblings. By continuing to relapse, his closest relationship, the one he has with his father is ruined. By having an addiction so severe, he ripped apart his relationships till the last straw.

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It’s a film about the quiet decay — of the mind, the body and of the soul. It’s a film about the passage of time as well as of its…

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Tweak: Growing up On Methamphetamines-- By Nic Sheff

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Nic Sheff, the son of David Sheff wrote this book about his own experiences regarding his addiction with methamphetamines. When Nic was 11, he drank for the first time and instantly regretted it. At age 12 he began to smoke weed, and never stopped. Throughout highschool he still smoked regularly but still was able to be accepted to many prestigious schools. He goes on to give a play by play of his life with addiction and the path that he travelled down while using. He explains the way he felt after his first high and the reason he continued to use for years after that was because he was chasing that original high. He wanted that feeling again. The grasp that crystal meth had on him was irreplaceable. He dropped out of college for it, got kicked out, and began to break into his fathers home to steal money just to supply his cravings. The damage he put his family through because of this disease wasn't fixable. His little siblings watched him get arrested all because of this. The imprint he left in their heads will stick with them because of their age.