Unshaming: A Memoir of Recovery, Relapse, and What Comes After

By: Jowita Bydlowska

Published by Steerforth, 2026-03-31

The author of Drunk Mom continues her “bravely and beautifully told” story of alcohol addiction in this raw, unsparing memoir about shame and relapse (Lena Dunham)

Honest and grimly funny—with actionable advice for readers of addiction memoirs like Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly and Sarah Hepola’s Blackout

It’s been over a decade since Jowita Bydlowska published her lightning rod of a memoir on overcoming alcohol addiction as a young mother. Both hailed and criticized for its no-holds-barred transparency, Drunk Mom was—and continues to be—refreshing and revelatory in its gritty exploration of addiction recovery and relapse in the context of new motherhood.

But what happens after the last page is turned, after the “happy ending” of an addiction the world assumes is safely in the rearview? When Bydlowska relapses after the success of her book, her overwhelming sense is one of shame. She struggles to reconcile the knowledge that she’s helped bring comfort and hope to countless readers with her own frustration and mounting fear that the truth will only let others down.

In prose that's by turns harsh and beautiful, tender and devastating, she writes about her ensuing spiral into alcoholism—and the climb back up and out. With the same generosity and grim humor that made Drunk Mom a standout, Bydlowska uses her own story as a vehicle to interrogate and challenge the narrative surrounding addiction, exploring the ways in which the conversation has both evolved and stayed the same over the last decade.