Chronic drug user shows how to get your life back in book Cooked in LA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- St. Louis TV and radio personality Paul Cook knows the terror of being out of control. For Paul Cook personally, a lifetime of anxiety brought him to a single moment of stark terror: he could die, leaving his eight-months-pregnant wife alone, never seeing the baby daughter she was carrying. His subsequent journey to recover convinced him that some rehab programs are scams.

Hooked on Drugs
Since becoming hooked at a young age on painkillers because of kidney stones, he plunged from respectable, middle-class life into a nightmare of perpetual drunkenness and a relentless quest for drugs. Lying to his wife, stealing from friends and family, flying into uncontrollable rage over the smallest perceived slight, throwing up on himself in public and even doing cocaine while on the air became "normal" behavior.

Rehab a Waste of Time?
Half-hearted attempts to get help by going into rehab went nowhere when he was informed that he would have to leave his job for a month. Now Cook has little regard for the rehab route. "It’s not the most effective way to recover," he claims. Yet almost daily the media are filled with stories of yet another celebrity acting irresponsibly and then heading for rehab.

Celebrity Rehab
Britney Spears endangers her children: rehab. Lindsay Lohan carjacks an Escalade and goes on a drunken car chase. Does she go to jail? No, rehab. Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic rant lands him in rehab. Even Dr Phil "tries to bus people off to rehab" says Cook. And now we have Dennis Rodman getting fired from Celebrity Apprentice for his "drinking problem." Will he jump on the rehab bandwagon?

"Cooked in LA proves there's a better way," says Cook, one of the region's most active spokespersons on recovery from drug and alcohol abuse. He is uniquely positioned to speak to the prevalence of abuse among celebrities. He notes that Dennis Rodman's case only highlights the seriousness and pervasiveness of alcoholism.

Launch Signing at Book Soup in LA
In an ironic twist, Paul Cook will be signing Cooked in LA at LA's famous Book Soup just days after James Frey appears there. It was Frey's falsified memoir of drug abuse that prompted Cook to write his own, true memoir in the first place, so that readers would get the real story.

From Cooked in LA by Paul Cook
When the bar closes at about two am, Sean (Penn) gathers his cigarettes and glass to leave. Greg is in the bathroom; it’s just us two now.
"Hey, Sean, do you have a bump (cocaine)?" I ask.
In that one instant, his face changes completely. That huge expressivesmile quickly turns to disappointment. Watchinghis expressionturn is one of the saddest things I've ever seen.
"No, man, I have to get up early tomorrow," he says looking past me.
He walks over to the area where the middleweight champ of Prussia is and then he disappears. At first, I thought that maybe he thoughtI was a cop trying to trap him with drugs, but after a while, I realized he wasn't into drugs anymore, if he ever was, and it was sad for him to see that a guy he had bonded with was. Somehow, the movies Hurlyburly and Fast Times took over and I could see Sean Penn no other way. Or maybe it had nothing to do with those excuses and I just needed drugs.



CONTACT INFORMATION: Author Paul Cook available for interviews.
Author Paul Cook
Paul Cook
News 4 This Morning,
"Afternoons on Y98"
www.COOKEDinLA.com

Book Information:
http://www.kunati.com/cooked/Autobiography, Health
304 pages, Cloth, 5.5 x 8.5
16 B/W Photos
Distribution Rights: WOR
$24.95 (CAN $27.95)
9781601641939 (1601641931)
Pub Date: April 2009

Reviewed or Featured in--

* Films and Books Magazine

* Deadly Prose Magazine

* Advance Magazine

* Publishers Marketplace

* Link Magazine

* Blogertize

* EDI Weekly

* Secure Network News

* Canadian Money Magazine

* Crime Report USA

* Wise Tarot Magazine

Release Picked Up In These Blogs

* Myspace

* Persona Corp Blog