Fame

I have known movie stars, television stars and professional athletes. I usually met them after the roar of the crowd was only and echo in their minds. All of them had been at the top of their game good at their profession. They still had talent and skills, however their disease of addiction didn't care who they thought they were. The disease kept telling them it would take away the pain of the loss and in their addiction they kept co-signing the contract with their disease.

One individual, like many, could not stop did not want to stop. No matter how many rehabs he had been through he would always go back to his lover alcohol. The sad part, the part that teaches us is that his disease killed him. It does not matter how, that will not bring him back. It has been 12 years since my friend died. I still think of him daily. I still learn from him.

What we don't see are the ripples our disease causes the people who love us. When we are using we do not care. We had an individual overdose and die in our sober living house. His death was a painful experience. What was more painful were is parents, brother and grandmother coming the next day to pickup his stuff. Their pain was overwhelming.

We don't think about that.