HOPE NOT DISGRACE

         With the sentencing of former Washington County judge Paul Pozonsky, many citizens will give a collective sigh of relief.  It is finally over. Of course there will be debate over the length and type of incarceration and whether the judge was impaired while on the bench, but now the courthouse can return to a semblance of normalcy.

         For me and many others in the recovery community the Pozonsky story is just beginning. Those of us who have suffered through the embarrassment, the loss of the work we loved, the loss of our family’s trust and support, divorce, the loss of income and yes even incarceration, know all too well what Mr. Pozonsky is going through.  We have experienced the horror of alcohol and drug addiction sending us to the bottom of the longest chute in life’s never ending game of chutes and ladders.  The next ladder often looked impossible to climb.

         For those of us in recovery, the use of alcohol and drugs often  began as a social attitude adjustment, moved on to a coping mechanism and ended in a train wreck as an uncontrollable urge to obtain and consume our drug of choice.  Our bodies physically mutated as the addiction progressed.  There is no changing a pickle back into a cucumber.  The only cure is to not use the very substance that our physical and subconscious minds cried out for as the answer to all our problems.

         Those of us who have been on the journey of recovery see Mr. Pozonsky as an example of hope, not of disgrace.  Twelve step programs will welcome him with open arms.  Not only has he earned his way into the recovery fellowships, his story will reinforce the message that addiction affects all professions and segments of society.  His struggle for sobriety will help many others in their struggle.  Eventually, Mr Pozonsky will come to know what many of us have witnessed.  Our greatest failures and consequences, were actually our greatest blessings because these crash and burn events lead us to a life of sobriety. 

         The recovery journey is not without setbacks and disappointments.  For those who endure, there is a life on the other side of the wreckage, a good life.  I hope that Mr. Pozonsky endures and finds it.