Publisher's Synopsis
A SPIRITUAL PATHWAY TO RECOVERY FROM ADDICTION is the memoir of a group of physicians going through an intensive rehab program for addiction to drugs and alcohol. It is presented as a collection of their stories and the lessons they encountered during their time together. It is a step by step guide to understanding the disease of addiction and how to treat it.
Here you will discover how to overcome alcoholism and drug addiction through the use of spiritual tools-a simple and successful treatment that works for impaired physicians and can be used by anyone.
You will find answers to these questions.
Am I an alcoholic? Am I an addict?
How did I get this disease? Can it be cured?
Will I ever be able to drink socially again?
How can I get over this insane craving?
How can spiritual principles help me?
What is a Higher Power, and why do I need one?
Topics covered include
The disease concept of addiction
Overcoming the uncontrollable craving
Finding the openness, honesty, and willingness to change
Dealing with past mistakes and removing character defects
Exchanging my old addictive ways of thinking for healthier ones
Finding spiritual principles I can live by
Living without fear or worry
Finding happiness within myself
Addiction occurs among physicians at the same rate as in the general population, about 10%. Unlike the general population, however, an intensive rehabilitation program, geared specifically for their profession, vastly improves their chances of finding long-term sobriety. Over 70% of these physicians will be clean and sober-and practicing medicine-five years later.
How is this achieved, and can these principles be applied to anyone? And, who were these doctors, what did they learn, and how did it change them?
As they proceed on a course of personal self-discovery, they share their past experiences, fears, and hopes. As the lessons of recovery begin to sink in, their thinking and behavior change from that of a self-absorbed ego-driven wreck to someone capable of changing their life for the better, without drugs or alcohol. The stakes are high, for they are threatened with the loss of their medical licenses if they fail.
The players: Big Robert, the family doctor hooked on crack, who never met a donut he didn't like; Mike, the OB-GYN from New Jersey, who smoked too many cigarettes and hid his vodka in the clothes hamper; John the athlete, who always traveled with whiskey miniatures in his socks; Reggie, the preacher from Memphis who loved Jack Daniels and the ladies in the front pew, and Timmy, the pharmacist from Des Moines who like to shoot Ritalin after work and play doctor with his pretty sales clerk. I was the bat-shit crazy oncologist who thought it was normal to shoot up cocaine, and who wouldn't stop for lunch at a restaurant unless they had a wine list.
Their experiences are real and terrible. The surgeon who came out of a blackout standing over a patient in the operating room. The neurologist from Hawaii who overdosed on heroin rather than admit his own faults. The podiatrist from Dublin who was caught drunk and having sex with a patient in his office. The plastic surgeon who put blue food dye in his vodka and hid it in a mouthwash bottle under the sink. The nurse who left her infant in the car seat while she was in the hood scoring crack and came back to check on her-three hours later.
Who will benefit from reading this book?
The reader who wants to know if his drinking is out of control. The reader who knows he is in trouble, and wants to change. The old-timer who wants to learn more about his disease. And the practitioner who treats these people.
