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Recovery in the News
Walker Puts Focus on Path to Sobriety
Dustin Blitchok
Journal Register News Service
September 1, 2008
ORTONVILLE -- The "Welcome to Oakland County" sign on M-15 was a "very welcome" sight for 55-yearold Alex Maysura of Troy, who passed through Ortonville on the final leg of his 350-plus mile walk from Mackinaw City to West Bloomfield.
He began his journey on Aug. 1. Maysura is a recovered alcoholic with nearly three years of sobriety under his belt, and he says that the walk's purpose is primarily to spread awareness of the possibility of recovery from a debilitating addiction.
Maysura grew up in Hamtramck with its many bars, where he said he was surrounded by drinking and thus became more accepting of it in his formative years.
Being in an environment where alcohol use is part of the culture can be deceiving and "within a short time, you're addicted and don't even know it," he said.
At the peak of his habit, prior to his detox and recovery at Henry Ford Maplegrove Center, Maysura was drinking half a fifth to a fifth and a half of hard liquor a day. At that point, Maysura had lost his printing business and his marriage, and was unable to properly take care of his ailing parents due to his alcohol dependency.
Describing alcoholism as a progressive disease, Maysura says that he had started drinking when he was much younger and in much smaller amounts, and that alcoholism is also a "cultural and family disease."
While desperately searching for help with his drinking problem, Maysura found that the stigma of rehab being available only for the rich or elite was false. He learned about the Maplegrove Center and later checked into a program there.
He underwent a 10-day detox process and then received 16 weeks of intensive outpatient care. Maplegrove offers a "common-sense," physician-supervised approach, he said, adding that 'cold-turkey' detox was not realistic or safe for someone such as himself with a high alcohol tolerance and withdrawals that were "extremely bad."
Maysura has lost several friends in recent years to alcoholism, and says that "the sad truth is that too few of those suffering from alcoholism and chemical dependency find their way to treatment and the care they so desperately need."
In the case of people who detox and then start drinking again, Maysura says that the tendency is to "pick up the habit where you left off," which can fatally impact the body's organs within a very short period of time.
He now volunteers at Maplegrove's intake department, family welcome center and children's camps. Maysura is working towards his master's degree in social work at Wayne State University, where his son Michael is currently studying for a bachelor's degree in social work.
After achieving sobriety, he was dealing with guilt about the strains on his personal relationships prior to his recovery, and asked Michael if he could ever forgive him for being "such a poor parent." His son's reply was that "if you weren't who you were then, I wouldn't be who I am now."
Maysura would like to "make a profession out of helping people in the throes of addiction."
The 350-mile walk developed out of his relatively recent development of healthy habits. He started walking two to four hours daily, covering six to 14 miles, and eventually approached Maplegrove about walking to raise money for indigent care and to make his story public in order to help others -- "planting the seeds of sobriety."
On Sept. 2, Maysura will turn 56, and on Sept. 3, Maplegrove will celebrate Maysura's walk for recovery and honor National Drug & Alcohol Addiction Recovery Month by holding an open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
When asked for his message in a nutshell, Alex puts it this way: "If I can do it, anybody can."
FYI
Alex Maysura's recovery blog is at www.henryford.com/blogmodule:wheresalex. Henry Ford's Maplegrove Center is at 6773 W. Maple Road in West Bloomfield. For more information, call (248) 661-6100 or visit www.henryford.com/maplegrove.