An inspirational story of addiction and recovery.
"Crack and alcohol weren't a crutch - they were my feet. For more than a decade they had carried me thorugh my life and now, after seven weeks of separation, i felt like an amputee. How was I going to hobble around in the real world? This damn disease was never going to go away, and I was doomed to fight a lonely battle against it. Lonely. That was my destiny." Pg 185 - 186
"In early recovery there is no greater truth than this: This too shall pass. . . I learned that when I was feeling good, difficult days were sure to follow, and when I was feeling bad, something was sure to happen to make me feel better. " Pg. 199
"When my doctor told me I had cancer, he didn't raise his eyebrows or wag his fingers at me. I felt no shame or humiliation. When I told my family and friends that I had cancer, no one ever suggested that I gave myself the illness or that it was in any way my fault, though I suppose people could have pointed a finger at my parents for allowing their blue eyed, blond haired, fair skinned child to swim every summer without sunscreen, go to the beach without wearing a hat and play outside in the hottest and brightest part of the day. . . . I just happened to get it, and when I did, everyone stepped in to help.
During the diagnosis, treatment and recovery stages of my cancer, I was overwhelmed by offers of sympathy and support from family, friends and even strangers. "Get Well" cards and "How ya' doing?" phone calls affirmed that I was surrounded by people who cared about me and were pulling for me to get well. . . .
With cancer, I never doubted that the medical advice and continuing care I received were the best possible treatments available. From the moment my dermatologists examined the growth in his office to the checkups I continue to get all these years later at the Mayo Clinic, not once did anyone or anything get in the way of my treatment. My health insurance was my ally. . . .
It was a completely different story with my addiction. From the beginning, we all thought the disease was partly if not wholly my fault. . . .
Addiction is a disease so cunning and baffling, they say, that when it tells you that you don't have it, you believe it. Then, when it tells you that you can beat it on your own with no help from the experts, you believe that too. In its ability to take over your mind and destroy your very will to survive, addiction is unlike cancer or any other chronic, progressive disease in the world." Pgs 337 - 342
Book 2
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