by William C. Moyers

In the past few months, I’ve had an opportunity to speak to students at a high school for adults in Minnesota and criminal defendants in the judicial system in Texas. The students know almost nothing about addiction. The felons know everything. They’re at opposite ends of the spectrum that separates fiction from fact. And both are crucial to changing the debate about alcoholism and drug addiction in America.

At the Lehmann Center School, in a gritty Minneapolis neighborhood of emigrants from all over the world, older students striving to get their high-school diplomas never had heard about alcoholism…

by William C. Moyers

What is success?

And at what price?

Finding answers to these questions is a challenge for people trying to decide where to seek treatment for addiction to alcohol and other drugs. Complicating the effort is the emotion of the crisis that usually precedes a decision. And misperceptions and expectations about treatment often exacerbate the process.

“We are such a ‘fix’ and ‘cure’ culture that we often get confused about the goal of addiction treatment,” said Ron Hunsicker, the president and CEO of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers. “It is important to remember that addiction is a chronic disease…

Broken lives and fractured families, dashed dreams and financial ruin, and physical, emotional or mental distress; such are the harsh consequences for people addicted to alcohol or other drugs.

Even for those who do stop drinking and drugging and find recovery, it’s not unusual to experience these misfortunes, sometimes months or even years later. It can takes years to clean up the messes from the past.

Dear Mr. Moyers: Last fall, my son was kicked out of high school for drug possession. He went to treatment in another state. The good news is that today he is clean and sober; that’s not…

In a recent column about marijuana, I made these three key points: It is a mood- and mind-altering drug; it is illegal; and for some people, it causes serious consequences, including addiction.

Some readers responded with support for my perspective. “Pot made me infectiously goofy, wonderfully giddy and incredibly introspective before it caused me to not care anymore, and then I lost my job, my bank account, my girlfriend,” wrote Paul D. from Des Moines, Iowa.

A few others pushed beyond my position that marijuana should remain illegal. “Anything that affects how we feel or how we think is dangerous and should…

by William Cope Moyers

I usually preface my advice with a short editorial comment about a current event related to addiction. Not today. Here are pleas for help that remind us all of the private tragedies that never make news, even though they happen to families across the country all the time.

Dear Mr. Moyers: My 53-year-old wife, a successful executive, relapsed after seven years of sobriety, and unfortunately, this time we will not get back together. I need to know “why.” I need to get inside the head of a drug addict. Do you know of any books or DVDs made…

by William Cope Moyers
The end of the school year is here for millions of college students. It’s a time for final exams and report cards, commencement ceremonies and parties. And while many will celebrate what they’ve learned over the years, their eduction won’t include lessons on the dangers of alcohol and other drugs. Some are likely to pay for their ignorance with serious consequences.

Dear Mr. Moyers: I’ve worked as a substance abuse counselor for over 20 years. The last three, I have been employed at the university level as their prevention person and counselor. I also teach a substance-abuse class…

by William Cope Moyers

My soon-to-be-16-year-old son, Henry, took the written exam for his driver’s permit this week. He didn’t pass. I shared his disappointment. And I admired his commitment to study harder for too much and got behind the wheel — it’s that simple. — Melissa W. in Atlanta

Dear Melissa: Your family’s tragedy will never disappear. Neither will the woman’s responsibility for causing it. What she did was wrong. But perhaps there is some good that can come from this. On a personal level, only you can decide if meeting with her is the right thing to do

.

I’m sure it…

Each week, I get scores of letters and emails pleading for help. Usually they are framed by circumstances and conditions intended to explain or otherwise mitigate reality’s harsh truth. While there are a lot of reasons why people get in trouble when they get high, there is only one reason they keep getting high despite those consequences. They’re addicted to alcohol or other drugs.

Only infrequently do I receive a short and to-the-point inquiry from a person in trouble who already knows they need help and isn’t looking for an easier, softer way to find it. Here’s one:

Dear Mr. Moyers: I…

What better way to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the end of Prohibition in America than with a cold beer. That’s exactly what some of the nation’s brewers did last week to mark the end in 1933 of our 14-year failed experiment in enforced sobriety. They had a party.

“April 7th is a day to recognize the past 75 years of beer and the beer community’s contribution to Americans’ quality of life. The explosion of creativity and innovation by those who make beer is an American success story,” said Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association.

Perhaps. But the end of Prohibition…

If you’re like most people who learn that a family member has cancer or another life-threatening illness, you instinctively react with compassion, a desire to help and support. But more often than not, family members don’t know what to do when their loved one is struggling with alcoholism or drug dependence. Some of them even go so far as to feel guilty or shameful about trying to help that person.

Dear Mr. Moyers: I am throwing everything else on the line right now because I don’t know what else to do. My father, 50, is a successful attorney in Indiana. He…

On vacation with my family this week in Florida, I am reminded of the never-ending debate about drinking and young people.

It’s spring break, and this annual migration of teenagers and college students to warmer climes, mostly without a parent or teacher escort anywhere in sight, highlights the role alcohol plays in defining good times and bad on these trips.

At 2 a.m. in the hallways of a hotel near the Fort Myers airport, roving knots of young men and women with half-empty 12-packs of beer seem intent on making sure they aren’t the only ones who stay awake all night. If…

By William C. Moyers

Two events occurred recently that remind me of the stakes in getting the public to accept addiction as a disease that affects the entire family — but one that is treatable with benefits for everyone.

On March 5, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to expand private insurance coverage for people seeking treatment for drug dependence or alcoholism. It’s the first time the House has ever voted to require insurance companies to treat addiction like other chronic illnesses. It follows by a few months similar action in the Senate.

“We’ve waited 12 long years for this historic day,”…

By William C. Moyers

I spoke at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., the other night. It was a remarkable moment for me. There I was, in a national monument of spirituality — “America’s house of prayer for all people” — telling my story of addiction, redemption and recovery. From the floor of a crack house in Atlanta in 1994 to the sanctuary of the cathedral 14 years later … go figure.

Of the several hundred people in the audience were a group of women from N Street Village. It’s an organization dedicated to preventing and eliminating homeless, and it starts by…

By William C. Moyers

Each week, I get scores of letters and emails from parents who, more often than not, share their heartbreaking stories of addicted children unable to break free from the grip of alcohol or other drugs.

At times, it seems like nobody under the age of 21 has a tale with a happy ending. Dropping out of school, teenage pregnancy, gang violence, jail and even death are the final chapter that too many parents share about their kids.

But young people can and do recover. Perhaps more than any generation before them, today’s teenagers are finding and holding onto sobriety…

By William C. Moyers
There’s been plenty of media buzz lately about President Bush’s recollections of being buzzed in days long ago. The president, whose drunk driving arrest and other run-ins with alcohol growing up is well known, has not talked much over the years about how or why he stopped drinking in 1986.

But last week, he offered perhaps his most pointed and candid assessment of his struggles, referring to an “addiction” and even citing the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and the power of faith to overcome the problem. Bush made his remarks during a visit with newly sober clients…

It’s still too early to know yet what killed actor Heath Ledger.

But the typical media frenzy surrounding the sudden death of a young celebrity already suggests a drug overdose may be the cause.

No matter the final official determination, Ledger’s legacy now seems doomed to become part of the “Hall of Shame” that includes Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan and so many other notable people who crash and burn, and then crash again for all of us to see.

I am still waiting for the tabloids to do a story about somebody other than Eric Clapton who hit bottom and then held on…

By William C. Moyers

It’s been 54 years since the American Medical Association (AMA) formally declared that alcoholism is a disease.

Since then, science has made important strides in explaining why one in 10 Americans who starts using alcohol eventually becomes addicted. For them, one beer or one glass of wine ends up being one too many. Their lives are disrupted by drunk driving, liver cirrhosis or other health problems, financial instability, shattered families and broken dreams.

Such consequences are a big reason why the public and policymakers still don’t accept the AMA’s view of this chronic illness. Unlike people with other diseases,…

By William C. Moyers

In the words of people wiser than me, “Denial is not just a river in Egypt.” But like a river, it does roar, twist and turn through the lives of many people and families who struggle with addiction. I was reminded of this truth twice this week in queries from a Catholic seminary student and the wife of a rabbi.

Dear Mr. Moyers: You are coming to speak to our community later this spring. My husband is a leading member here in this community, a rabbi whose grandparents perished in the Holocaust. It’s a trauma that I am…

By William C. Moyers

When it comes to stories of the struggles with addiction, it’s important not to kill the message — or the messenger, either.

Dear Mr. Moyers: It’s hard to know if you or my daughter is more responsible for my anger. We heard you speak in Pittsburgh last month. She’s 22 years old, a good girl with a college education who seemed committed to the road of recovery back from the hell of her alcoholism.

She’d just been discharged from rehab (her first), but what you said about relapse in your speech set her off again. On New Year’s Day,…

By William C. Moyers

Each week in this space I field questions from readers who want to know more about addiction and what to do about it.

But in the spirit of the end of the year, I’m using this column to look back at the hurts and hopes of 2007 and make a prediction for what’s ahead in 2008.

Hurt: to Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and all those Hollywood celebs who kept doing the same thing over and over again, expecting something different but getting the same result. That’s insanity, and their repeated dashes to and from high-end treatment centers only exacerbated…

A response to the article on the Delray beach recovery community that appeared in The New York Times November 16th, 2007…

The New York Times
November 26, 2007
Addiction and Community
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To the Editor:

Addiction is an…

“Broken”
By William Cope Moyers
Reviewed by Ginger B.

When I first saw William Cope Moyers he was sitting in the back seat of a car outside a theater where he was going to be speaking later that evening. He was wearing a starched blue oxford cloth long sleeve shirt and the appropriate red power tie and was speaking on his cell phone. “Great”, I thought, “Here’s a rich kid grown up, having every break money could buy, and he’s going to speak to a bunch of addicts tonight about his journey from addiction to recovery. How could his story possibly relate to…