LET'S TREAT ADDICTION LIKE THE DISEASE IT IS

One night last week I read an article in a well-respected news
magazine describing a "whacking" at HBO that had left the network in
crisis. It ended with a sentence suggesting that Chris Albrecht must
now view his life as "tragic" because he had to resign his job as the
network's CEO and chief creative thinker and seek treatment for a
substance abuse relapse.

Admittedly, I read this at the end of a long day that had already had
its share of aggravations. I was peacefully chilling out in the tub,
submerged in bubbles except for my head and my hands, yet I rose up
out of that water as a woman on a mission and said to my cat, "This
nonsense has got to stop, and I have to find a way to say as much to
as many people as possible!"

Here's the deal: When it comes to substance abuse, we Americans do a
very poor job of being realistic about what's going on.

Addiction to drugs or alcohol is not an inconvenience, a lapse of
willpower, a character flaw, anything to be ashamed of or any form of
divine judgment. Addiction is not something that needs to be
whispered about or shrouded in euphemisms when you are among polite
company. Addiction is a progressive, incurable disease -- in the same
way that diabetes and asthma are progressive and incurable diseases.
If you have the illness of addiction or alcoholism and you stop
treating that illness, you are guaranteed to have a relapse. If you
relapse and you still don't treat your illness, you are guaranteed to die.

I can say this with such certainty because I am an addict and an
alcoholic. Just like Albrecht, with his well-documented violent
outbursts, my own life got pretty squalid and desperate for a while.
At the end of my using, a high percentage of my days were being spent
in bad behavior that was directly tied to my substance abuse. Then I
went to jail for the night and had the same epiphany that every
alcoholic and addict in recovery -- including Albrecht -- has had: If
I don't quit using, I shall die a long, slow, horrible death, and I
will hurt every person I come into contact with until that death.

I've happily been in recovery for years. Life, love and work are all
good right now, but that goodness is entirely provisional on my
continuing to treat my chronic disease of addiction. As part of this
treatment, I insist on being myself in all situations. And what I am
is a drunk and a pill popper, gratefully living a sober life today.

I'm lucky, because I am so not shy about my illness. I don't feel any
need to hide in either my personal or professional life the fact that
I am an addict and alcoholic . I make it a personal mission to help
the people I work with understand that I'm perfectly "normal" as long
as I don't drink or use. But I also make it clear that I don't have a
choice about treating my disease: Doing what I need to do to stay
sober has got to be the driving wheel of my daily life. For me, it's
a matter of life and death. And it seems to me that Albrecht is only
trying to do the same thing I do: Treat the disease that will wreck
what's left of his life before that disease kills him.

This is what burns me about Americans and the illness of addiction:
When Tony Snow announced he'd had a cancer relapse and took some time
off from being our president's spokesman, the consensus seemed to be
that he was a brave fighter who should be welcomed back to the Blue
Room podium as soon as he felt up to standing behind it. Not that
there's anything wrong with this. I, too, find Snow a very brave and
appealing figure as he wages his perforce solitary war against his
killer disease. But I find Albrecht to be an equally brave and
appealing figure as he wages his own solitary war against his own
killer disease of alcoholism.

When is this country going to relax its judgmental grip on the
throats of addicts and alcoholics? A disease is a disease is a
disease. How dare anyone term Albrecht "tragic" for naming his
life-threatening illness and seeking treatment, for daring to put his
life before his network? What's wrong with simply calling him brave?

Martha Woodroof is a reporter for public radio station WMRA in
Harrisonburg, Va., and the author of "How to Stop Screwing Up: Twelve
Steps to a Real Life and a Pretty Good Time."