Dealing with people with problems, or the problems people might percieve that they themselves have - whether addiction related or just "juvenile misbehavior" - is a very broad subject and it can be hard to find an appropriate way to get started and/or how to proceed.

Consensus opinion is that at least for addiction problems, a first step that's most likely to be of help is probably contact with a local help group. AA and/or Al-Anon of probably the best known, although there are quite a few others that have had reasonable success. Some are specialized for dealing with less common problems. The group chosen may depend on how each individual sees the problem.

Self-study, without some familiarity with what materials are available and which ones are appropriate to a particular problem, is pretty hopeless, at least initially. There are just too many sources to choose from, some of which are excellent but for the wrong problem, and quite a number of which are by authors (often claiming impressive credentials) touting a cure that worked once (they think) as the only method everybody should use for everything.

IF a person can identify a resource they think they should look at, so far as I know the principal source for books and other materials relating to the AA method for alcohol addiction is now Hazelden Books. While some of the "standards" may be available at local bookshops, they're often not visibly present in the majority of places.

Hazelden Books is an affiliate of the Hazelden Rehab Center, and they've "assembled" the publishing rights on much of the AA literature previously scattered among numerous small (and sometimes short-lived) publishers. They are about the only place one might be able to get copies of "the ones everybody wants that have been out of print for decades."

Browsing the book shop, before getting some knowledge of what's actually used by the people who need it, isn't too likely to be very productive; but anyone who "might want" material of the sort - sooner or later - might want to make a note of the name, if only in order to recognize it when it becomes appropriate to try to actually get something.

John