Broken - William Cope Moyers

William Cope Moyers is the son of journalist Bill Moyers. He grew up believing that he was constantly in his father's shadow, and hoping for the day when he would be more famous, win more awards, and prove himself more worthy than his untouchable dad. But, instead of allowing the pressure to drive him to success, Moyers's unattainable goals resulted in perceived failure and lack of self-esteem. By college, he was binge drinking and using marijuana and cocaine on a daily basis. The first time he is arrested, it is plastered all over the national news (because of his father's fame), and so begins a life of addiction spiraling out of control. By day, Moyers holds down a job as a relatively successful journalist, married to his childhood sweetheart. But by night, he is scoring drugs in the seediest NY neighborhoods, unable to prevent the destruction and relishing the escape the drugs and alcohol allow. As an addiction story, Moyers's is not that different from many others that I've read. Given the success and wealth of his family, his inability to appreciate his opportunities in life and to waste away talent that only others can dream of, initially made me really angry. Throughout the book I was tired of his "poor me" attitude, particularly when I think of his life in comparison to my clients who struggle with the same addiction yet come from families of extreme poverty and horrendous abuse. Moyers finds himself in and out of treatment centers. He is deeply religious and promises that he will stay clean, yet repeatedly he finds himself back in crack dens, putting his life at risk as the drugs slowly eat away at him. Ultimately, Moyers is able to find a way to get sober and make it stick. He now speaks across the country about the face of addiction and the power of rehabilitiation. I thought one of his most powerful points was that addiction does not discriminate, and neither should recovery. Yet, because of the shame and stigma attached to addiction, there are so few treatment centers in the country, and very few people have insurance that will cover the expense. Moyers has some interesting ideas about recovery - his faith plays a large role, and his dependence on his AA sponsors. He likens addiction to cancer and other diseases and questions why people cannot accept addiction as a disease - and imagines how much we can help people in need if we could open our hearts and minds to better understand the problem. I still find myself getting angry at people who write these addiction/recovery memoirs - drugs cause people to become so selfish. In addition to destroying themselves, they destroy their parents, their children, and their partners. Yet, they wonder why people cannot have more compasion and stick with them on their time tables. In this reaction, I recognize that I have a lot of prejudice and judgments against addicts - and I am not quite sure how to go about gaining the necessary understanding to overcome this. But, this book, while annoying in the repetition of Moyers' cycle of addiction, did provide some useful steps for those dealing with addiction personally, those dealing with addiction in a loved one, and those who are not touched directly but who see the enormous problem that addiction is for our country and recognize that we all need to do something to help make a change.