Broken Open: What Painkillers Taught Me About Life and Recovery
Sep 2024 · Simon and Schuster
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260
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About this ebook
William Cope Moyers was a model of sober success. As his inspiring story of overcoming addiction was on its way to becoming a New York Times bestseller, everyone thought he had finally achieved the redemption promised by recovery—including him. But the perfect story that helped Moyers become a famous face of the recovery movement was already unraveling, revealing a yet-to-be healed chasm between his public persona and conflicted inner life. A follow-up to his 2006 memoir Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption, this is Moyers’s story of the ups and downs of life beyond the bright moments of early sobriety and what happened when a new crisis invaded what once seemed like a steady and secure recovery.
William didn’t know something was missing until it happened. He’d been in recovery for alcohol and drugs for years. He was a recovery activist and a spokesperson for the gold standard of treatment and recovery organizations. He was a model leader and follower of Twelve Step programs. But, still, he slipped. And his slip lasted a few years. Privately, he was addicted to painkillers while publicly saying he was in recovery from alcohol and drug use. So, was he still in recovery? How could this happen to someone who did everything “right”? How did it go so wrong?
With brutal honesty and introspection, William shares what happened after sobriety—after he’d published his candid and shocking memoir, Broken, in 2006. While he no longer frequented or passed out on the floor of crack houses, his life of sobriety wasn’t perfect. But his recovery was strong, or so he thought. Unfortunately, the opioid epidemic was stronger. It broke him.
Broken Open could be one long story of self-justification. Instead, William takes a courageous look at the years he struggled and suffered to reclaim his recovery. He concludes by sharing the new perspectives these experiences provided. Recovery isn’t black and white. Our recovery stories aren’t things we have to live up to; they’re journeys we get to live into. All-or-nothing approaches don’t address the complications that make us human. As we continue our life journeys we learn and change and grow—and the things and people that help us sometimes change too.
William didn’t know something was missing until it happened. He’d been in recovery for alcohol and drugs for years. He was a recovery activist and a spokesperson for the gold standard of treatment and recovery organizations. He was a model leader and follower of Twelve Step programs. But, still, he slipped. And his slip lasted a few years. Privately, he was addicted to painkillers while publicly saying he was in recovery from alcohol and drug use. So, was he still in recovery? How could this happen to someone who did everything “right”? How did it go so wrong?
With brutal honesty and introspection, William shares what happened after sobriety—after he’d published his candid and shocking memoir, Broken, in 2006. While he no longer frequented or passed out on the floor of crack houses, his life of sobriety wasn’t perfect. But his recovery was strong, or so he thought. Unfortunately, the opioid epidemic was stronger. It broke him.
Broken Open could be one long story of self-justification. Instead, William takes a courageous look at the years he struggled and suffered to reclaim his recovery. He concludes by sharing the new perspectives these experiences provided. Recovery isn’t black and white. Our recovery stories aren’t things we have to live up to; they’re journeys we get to live into. All-or-nothing approaches don’t address the complications that make us human. As we continue our life journeys we learn and change and grow—and the things and people that help us sometimes change too.
About the author
William C. Moyers is the vice president of public affairs and community relations at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. As the organization’s public advocate, Moyers carries the message about addiction, treatment, and recovery to audiences everywhere. Using his own story, Moyers highlights the power of addiction and the promise and possibility of recovery from it. He has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, and National Public Radio. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Newsweek. William has written four books, including Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption, a New York Times bestseller that remains in print. Moyers was born in 1959 in Fort Worth, Texas, and was a print reporter in the 1980s and a journalist for CNN until 1995. A year later he joined the staff at (then) Hazelden and has been there ever since. Moyers and his wife, Nell Hurley, live in St. Paul, Minnesota. Between them they share four adult children.
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