Ahmad Al-Khatat

Addiction / Recovery Ahmad Al-Khatat

Addiction is a phenomena that touches people from all walks of life. People encounter it on a personal level; they become addicts. People encounter it on a level no less personal, but at a slight remove; their family members and friends become addicts. Here we will not argue whether addiction is a disease or the culmination of bad choices, or both. In the end, classifications matter less than the human collateral. Suffering and death are in its wake. It has touched so many lives, as the entries here reveal. Recovery is the other side of this heavy coin. You may notice as you read, the stories listed as recovery sound remarkably similar to those labeled addiction. They are represented as such because, as anyone who's struggled with this path understands, they are separated by a thin membrane called "will." Within you will hear the voices of addicts, you will hear the voices of mothers, sisters, friends of addicts. I like to think a sliver of hope lines the clouds that cloak these tales with weighty travail. May you discover it as you read. -Chani Zwibel, July 25, 2018