birds eye view

Follow ontheten on Twitter

Thursday, January 8, 2009

a force against darkness


tonya wheeler- advocates for recovery colorado

Are you gone and onto someone new?
I needed somewhere to hang my head
Without your noose
You gave me something that I didn't have
But had no use
I was too weak to give in
Too strong to lose
My heart is under arrest again
But I break loose
My head is giving me life or death
But I can't choose
I swear I'll never give in
I refuse


there has been a gentleman who has been going from state to state and developing a made for tv special geared toward that particular state's crystal meth problem. he pitches the idea, gets the state and big city governments and politicians to endorse it, along with law enforcement and treatment provider communities. it is aired. he collects a hefty sum of money for the endeavor and hopefully the consciousness of that state is raised sufficiently to justify the expenditure.

this has happened within colorado and the show titled "crystal darkness" aired last night on most of the major channels in colorado. radio and tv spots have been running for over 2 weeks promoting the televising, and i am anxious to hear how the ratings were.

my understanding is that typically, the focus is on the horrors of meth, i.e. meth mouth, huge increase in violent crime and identity theft, sexual abuse of minors, and environmental pollution of meth labs. but the twist for the colorado piece was the ending involved a very strong and positive messaging around recovery. statements like meth addicts in recovery make fantastic employees, parents, and citizens, if we are given the opportunity. recovery works. and the other message that i thoroughly enjoyed was an invitation to colorado to become part of the solution- said in just those words.

the woman responsible for the pro-recovery statements is a colleague of mine and i sit on the board of advocates for recovery with her. i so admire her hammering an idea home like that. it reads as responsible leadership to me. now some of her friends joke and call her a "media whore" which may or may not apply, but i prefer to think of her as a force.

frankly, i don't know if one tv piece is going to change much, although i cannot say it won't either. i do know that i am happy that the "recovery happens' message is one that makes my heart skip a beat. i'm beaming inside.

recovery happens is a credo i try to live by. just take a look at my blogroll. look in your own neighborhood. you'll find it. recovery works. make room for it in your life.


today's sound choice is stereophonic doing foo fighter's "best of you"

Documents

2 comments:

Dr.Rutledge said...

Hi,

I'm an academic physician (formerly at Harvard and Stanford) who found your blog while looking for the best health writers. I think your writing is great! I would like to feature you in the Alcoholism Community on Wellsphere, a top 10 health website that has well over 2 million visitors monthly.

If you would like to learn more, just drop me an email to Dr.Rutledge@wellsphere.com

Unknown said...

Congrats on the intvitation from Dr. Rutledge. I concur that your writing is great!

Great message also in the television program re: meth recovery. We are all recovering from something and we have to believe that recovery is a real possibility.

Related Posts with Thumbnails