Hell

 

"The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crises, maintain their neutrality." Dante Alighieri

Often, we create a personal hell not by what we perpetrate but by what we allow to happen. Much of the loneliness and isolation addicts and their families experience results from remaining hidden and silent. The pretense that everything is okay is not only untrue but deadly. Today I choose not to be neutral. I speak about my alcoholism to wage war against the disease that nearly killed me. I speak out about addiction so society cannot say it did not know what was happening. I speak up for treatment and recovery because I know they work in the vast majority of cases. I am not neutral when it comes to addiction because I am fighting for my life.

Give me the courage to speak up in a crowd. Let me live the message I was privileged to receive.