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Rally for Recovery! 2008
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Event: Rally for Recovery 2006
Putting a Face on Addiction
Jennifer Becknell
The Herald Online
September 12, 2006
Michael Laughlin had all the superficial trappings of success: His own medical practice, a home in an affluent Rock Hill subdivision, two kids in private schools.
But beneath the surface, Laughlin was deeply troubled. His addiction to alcohol had taken control of his life, resulting in blackouts, hangovers and days when he was unable to work. His family implored him to get professional help, and he had tried and failed to quit drinking on his own.
"I was rotten inside and very ashamed of it," the retired ophthalmologist says now, nearly 16 years after he began his recovery on Sept. 29, 1989.
People who have lived with secrets like Laughlin's usually choose not to talk about it. Addiction is not pretty, and many fear the stigma and social shame of being seen as weak willed, unproductive, a dredge on society.
But Laughlin, 67, wants to tell his story. After years of alcoholism that left him teetering on the edge of suicide, he stopped drinking and resumed a productive life.
He and about 40 other recovering addicts and their families have joined forces in a community-based advocacy group, Tri-County Faces and Voices of Recovery. It's part of a national organization, founded in 2001 to show that recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs is a reality and to find ways for more people to get the help they need.
"There's a grassroots effort all around the country, of people speaking out, telling their stories of long-term recovery, and their family members are speaking out as well," said Patricia Taylor, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based group, known as FAVOR.
On Saturday, the York, Chester and Lancaster county group will be among about 40 nationwide to hold a Rally for Recovery to generate awareness and build involvement in their cause.
The local rally, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Rock Hill's Cherry Park pavilion, will feature a family picnic with bluegrass music, hamburgers and hot dogs and an optional recovery walk.
Taylor and local members say the group's aim is to put a face and a voice on recovery, to let people know that friends and neighbors do recover from addiction, to end discrimination and get addiction treated as a public health problem.
Among the local faces is Russ Knight, 58, regional vice president of First Sun EAP, a counseling service. The Rock Hill man, who battled an addiction to drugs and alcohol, has been in recovery for 26 years, since 1979.
"I think something in me definitely said, 'You can't keep this up'," Knight said of his addiction, which began in the late 1960s as a U.S. Marines Corps air traffic controller in Beaufort.
"We would have a near miss sometimes," Knight said, referring to airplane traffic, and it would usually spark a routine federal inquiry. "I'd pour the booze out of my thermos and rinse it out real good and chew some gum."
He spent the 1970s trying to quit, and substituted drugs, including Valium and Demerol, before he began recovery with the help of other addicts. "It just kind of clicked one day."
But Taylor said one problem many addicts face is that addiction recovery services often are not covered by health insurance at the same level as are other health problems. That coverage varies among
states and insurance plans. "In some instances, there's no coverage at all," she said.
But FAVOR cites the Institute for Research, Education and Training in Addictions in Pittsburgh, Pa., which reports that for every dollar invested in addictions treatment, taxpayers can save at least $7.46 in costs spent for incarceration, drug-related crimes, hospitalization and other problems.
Fighting misconceptions
Laughlin said another issue is the perception that people who have addictions don't usually get better. Despite medical research to the contrary, the group reports that 50 percent of the public - including physicians - don't believe that treatment works.
But he and others in long-term recovery challenge that belief. "In recovery," Laughlin said, "I don't know that I've ever been happier in my life than I am now."
His addiction began at age 12 when he took his first drink, a German beer. His father was concerned that Laughlin wasn't growing as fast as other children, and friends suggested that drinking a few
beers might help. "By the end of the week, I was seeking the effect it gave me," he said.
But Laughlin said he refrained from drinking, except on rare occasions, until he was in medical school; during his senior year, he began drinking almost daily. "It numbed the anxiety and controlled the shame I had been experiencing all my life," he said.
He felt shame because his parents didn't show their love, he said, and "no matter how well I did, I didn't measure up . . . My self worth was based on achievement."
His drinking accelerated at the U.S. Naval Hospital on Guam in 1969 and 1970, when he and other doctors relieved the stress of their jobs with alcohol. And it continued after 1971, when he moved to Rock Hill and opened a private practice.
At one point, he said, his first wife and two children implored him to seek help, but he thought he could do it on his own. And he did stop for four months. But that ended in a weekend binge.
"By the time Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989, I had pretty much been unable to stop when I wanted to," he said. Three days after the hurricane, he got a high-powered rifle from his gun cabinet and practiced clicking the trigger.
But Laughlin stopped short of suicide. "I thought, 'Who's going to fix the hole in the roof, and who's going to clean my brains off the ceiling?' " he said.
Instead, he called a counselor whom he had seen for depression. She arranged a 28-day stay for him at the Betty Ford Center, where he began his recovery. His wife, Linda Laughlin, whom he married in 1999, has joined him in the advocacy effort.
Linda Laughlin said South Carolina has only four nonprofit county-funded detox centers, including Keystone in Rock Hill, and these centers have huge waiting lists. Many addicts can't afford private treatment. "Something needs to be done for treatment, to make it easier for people to get," she said.
Taylor said the group's advocacy has had some success. She said they were successful this year in lobbying to change a law that barred federal financial aid to students with drug convictions. She said that's an example of the barriers to long-term recovery.
And she said the group has been working to get funding for recovery support services, so people in recovery can find housing, job opportunities and recovery coaching.
She said the group also wants to obtain more information about the numbers of people in long-term recovery and how they've achieved it, which could help others recover.
"The first step," Taylor said, "is people who are in long-term recovery and their families speaking out about the fact that they have recovered - and the fact that it means a new life."
Want to go?
What: Rally for Recovery, a family picnic with food, bluegrass music by Hickory Grove and an optional recovery walk.
When: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Cherry Park pavilion, Rock Hill.
Admission: Free.
Sponsor: Tri County Faces and Voices of Recovery.
Copyright © 2006 The Herald, Rock Hill, South Carolina