"A Glad Awakening"

Today I am grateful for Wii Sports fun with my son, and for exercise that keeps endorphins flowing.

I am also grateful for my sobriety and the support I get from many in my efforts to continue in recovery.

Now that my A-Z days are done, for the time being anyway, I am going to switch focus to what I have been reading lately. I just finished "Betty: A Glad Awakening." It is from 1987 and is Betty Ford's story of her own recovery from alcoholism and prescription drug abuse, then the story of the creation and opening of the Betty Ford Center for addiction treatment.

I am a big fan of Betty Ford for several reasons. She redefined First Lady during her time in the White House. Just months after becoming First Lady, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy. In 1975, breast cancer was still discussed in hushed tones. Betty Ford went public with her own personal challenges and in so doing, helped raise awareness about BC and helped bring it out of the closet. I applaud her courage and how that courage helped open doors of discussion and brought visibility to a terrifying disease.

When she went to drug rehab in 1978, following a family intervention, Betty was again open and public enough about her own struggle with addictions that she helped bring a stigmatized issue out in to the daylight.

I was 10 years old when Mrs. Ford was diagnosed with cancer and 13 when she went to treatment. Little did I know that I would share both of her diseases.

I read up a little on her biography. She was outspoken enough that some demanded her resignation as First Lady, but most found her openness appealing and her approval rating reached 75%. She was a vocal supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. During the 1976 election some supporters wore buttons reading "Vote for Betty's husband." She gave Gerald Ford's concession speech that November because he had a bad case of laryngitis.

When she went to treatment herself, and then continued in recovery, she saw a need for more treatment facilities, particularly those that could focus on the unique problems of women alcoholics and addicts. That became the impetus to getting the Betty Ford Center going. It is now a very reputable treatment facility.

Thanks for the inspiration and courage Betty. Thanks for making a difference in two causes very near and dear to me.

The name of the book, "A Glad Awakening," is so fitting for those of us fortunate enough to survive our active addictions and proceed with a life of recovery and hope.

Betty Ford died in 2011, at age 93.

Comments