Friday, September 19, 2003
'Miracle of Recovery' was the program's theme.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR HEALTH WRITER
LIBERTY -- "Let go and let God" is a key step in recovering from any addiction, Dr. Abraham J. Twerski said at Neil Kennedy Recovery Clinic's program recognizing September as National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.
Dr. Twerski, also an ordained rabbi, is founder of Gateway Rehabilitation Center, rated by Forbes magazine as one of the top 100 rehabilitation centers in the nation. Jerry Carter, Neil Kennedy executive director, introduced Dr. Twerski as the "single most articulate voice for recovery I've ever heard."
Dr. Twerski, speaking Tuesday to drug and alcohol addiction prevention and treatment professionals from around the state, said the best road to recovery requires that individuals admit they are not God and that they are powerless to help themselves. The theme of the program was "Miracle of Recovery."
At the center
"Self-centeredness is at the center of so much addiction," said Dr. Twerski, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
He related a story about a man who went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, and when told he had to pray, said he couldn't do the program because he didn't believe in God.
However, the man became desperate and began to pray every day. He said he still didn't believe in God, but praying every day reminded him he was not God, Dr. Twerski said with a laugh.
Dr. Twerski said he went to his first AA meeting in 1961 when he was a psychiatric resident and wanted to "find out what AA knew that psychiatrists didn't" about addiction recovery.
The 12-step program is for character building, he discovered, and at first wondered what that had to do with alcoholism. Then he said he realized that character building would be useful for recovering from any addiction. It would be good for every man, woman and child, he said.
"I've been going to AA meetings for more than 40 years. If it's a 12-step meeting, I go," he said.
Benefits from meetings
Dr. Twerski said he has never been to an AA meeting from which he didn't take something. In fact, he said about half the material of his 45th book, which he is writing, is material taken from AA meetings.
He said it is necessary to be vigilant so that substance addiction continues to be viewed as a disease and not fall back into the category of self-inflicted condition.
Northeast Ohio is the birthplace of addiction-recovery programs in the United States, and Neil Kennedy Center helped lead the way, Gary Q. Tester, director of the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, said at Tuesday's meeting at the Holiday Inn MetroPlex.
The nation's first private, free-standing alcoholism treatment facility was opened on Lincoln Avenue in Youngstown by Jack Deibel with the encouragement of Neil Kennedy, a recovering alcoholic who started Youngstown's first AA group in 1939. The facility evolved and was named the Neil Kennedy Recovery Clinic in 1991, and was affiliated with Gateway in 1999.