In which I explain myself …

I gotta say, and I hope you agree, I love the name of my new site and blog. In addition to me, “The Sister Is In (Recovery)”, and that is my sister Liz who I’m crediting with that catchy title. By the way, she isn’t my only family member in recovery and I’m so grateful for that. 

So, a little more about the name. I won’t take this moment to tell my entire story, but as the name suggests, I am indeed a doctor, and I am in recovery. 

Of course, like many of us, I can see the roots of my addiction in earlier life, but my addiction took firm hold of me in my early 50s and in 2017 I made my first attempt at getting clean and sober. It has been several years of impaired physician programs, inpatient and outpatient rehab programs, mutual aid programs such as 12-step programs and dharma recovery from Albany to Dallas to NYC to Palm Springs to Tampa. It has taken all of that and it will continue to take that and more to maintain my sobriety.

I worked for many years as a family physician in community health centers, corporate practices and finally in my own solo practice in Albany New York. From the outside I was very successful according to the usual yardsticks of success. I’d managed to maintain a marriage of 15 years, to build a unique and popular medical practice, with a comfortable life rich in the usual pleasures, such as travel and entertainment. I was even doing triathlons and in nearly the best physical shape of my life.  

No one is immune to the disease of addiction. I was to learn that all of my privilege and success, all of my learning and creativity was no match for this disease. I came to the disease naturally I believe, a product of nature and nurture. I had to surrender my medical license for mental health purposes. The consequences of my addiction blew through my life like a hurricane. With the help of many sorts of goodness in the universe I am still alive and slowly recovering, building back smarter, safer, healthier, happier.

I’ll post the blog and podcast at least twice a month, sometimes more, and hopefully not less. I’m finding recovery a fantastically stimulating and creative process as well as a confusing, emotional, and rocky road. I’d like to share my own stories and the stories I hear that speak to me in my recovery, and that I hope will speak to you in yours. My offerings may include comments on daily readings, experiences (anonymous of course) in the rooms, shining a light on the multiple pathways to recovery, as well as sharing examples of visual art, music, or other creativity that relate in some way to our evolution in recovery. I may bring ideas to you that relate to the science of addiction, or other topics related to medicine and addiction. I must emphasize that I currently hold no active license to practice medicine, and will not offer any specific medical advice either in my writing, podcast or in personal interactions. 

I invite you to comment or suggest. Recovery is about connecting. May my efforts here, with your engagement, lead to more healing and less suffering for those with the disease of addiction, and to all people everywhere.