On behalf of the Guideposts organization, thank you for your strong response to our editorial series Overcoming Addiction. From the outset, we knew that addiction reached deep into the heart of America. Your stories and comments confirm how profoundly individuals, families, congregations and communities are affected by this seemingly intractable plague.
Your stories also confirm that there is hope in recovery. As one reader put it, “I know there is hope for the addicted. I know because I once considered myself hopeless. If I can recover, anyone can.”
I know that suffering all too well. There was a time in my life when I had given up on myself, when I had let go of any hope that I would ever overcome my obsession with alcohol and drugs. Once, I came to in a dark stairway somewhere in South America as a little girl stood over me, screaming, “¡Muerto! ¡Muerto!” Her father lifted me by the belt and the collar and tossed me in the gutter. I might as well have been dead.
Only through a miracle did I recover. Only by the grace of God. And that is what the stories in our series set out to show. That no one is beyond hope.
In this issue, we introduce something new to Overcoming Addiction—commentary from our friends at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, the preeminent addiction treatment and advocacy organization. This month we’ll hear from William C. Moyers, vice president of public affairs, on the myths of addiction. By the way, William has an interesting Guideposts pedigree: His father, the journalist and Baptist minister Bill Moyers, appeared on our cover in 1965.
Before I let you go, a debt of gratitude is owed to Marcia Gay Harden for sharing the story of her mother’s Alzheimer’s. It takes courage to open up about this heartbreaking disease, especially when it afflicts a close family member. And though there is no recovery, there is still a kind of healing, as Marcia’s journey with her remarkable mom shows. So thank you, Marcia.
And thanks to all of you for being part of the Guideposts family.
Look for Edward’s inspiring recovery memoir The Promise of Hope at shopguideposts.org or wherever books are sold.
