I used to be an over-the-road truck driver. Have you ever found yourself driving at night on a long unfamiliar stretch of highway in a place you’ve never been? After miles and miles, the reality that you’re lost sets in; by then, you’ve been lost for so long you can’t recall how many miles and how much time has passed. You start to wonder where you made your mistake, where you made your wrong turn. You ask yourself, “How can I turn around and find my way home? This is my story of a lost … [Read more...]
Texas Tech’s Recovery Program
An escape from Animal House, Texas Tech's innovative recovery program tackles collegiate alcohol and drug abuse. There are 50,000 college-eligible kids in America today who are too strung out on alcohol or other drugs to get in let alone make the grade. Unfortunately, the way things are now, it may be just as well. If some of these kids want to sober up, college is the last place they should go. Colleges and universities actually breed substance abuse. Think animal … [Read more...]
Moments of Clarity
By Christopher Kennedy Lawford William Morrow $25.99 “The morning of February 17, 1986, I woke up, as usual, with that weight in the pit of my stomach, knowing that all I had in front of me was another day of dancing with the 800-pound gorilla of addiction.” And so begins Chris Lawford’s “moment of clarity” as he reports it in his introduction to this great book about how people recover from addictions—in this case 42 well-known people, many of them celebrities. Lawford, whose father was … [Read more...]
Max the magician wows audiences with his strong message of recovery
For over a decade, illusionist Maxwell Blade has delighted visitors at Hot Springs' Historic District with his long-running magic show at the Historic Malco Theatre. His new location next door to the Gangster Museum of America showcases up-close "parlor magic" and classic sleight–of-hand. Although blessed with talent, Maxwell has for many years struggled with addictions. After spending several months at the Milestone Ranch treatment facility in Malibu ("the best decision I ever made," he says) … [Read more...]
My Name is Funky
My Name is Funky, and I’m and alcoholic By Tom Batiuk Published by Hazelden Thirty-five years ago, Tom Batiuk (rhymes with “attic”), a high school art teacher, launched his Funky Winkerbean comic strip about an amiable character with a goofy first name and an assortment of quirky friends at Westview High. There was Crazy Harry who lived in his locker, Holly Budd, the always-in-costume drum majorette and Cindy Summers, the most popular girl in school whom he eventually married, and Les Moore, … [Read more...]
