SOBER FEST CELEBRATES RECOVERY, PROMOTES ADDICTION AWARENESS

ASHEVILLE - Darlene Phoebus's husband will never be the same.

The 79-year-old has been in a nursing home for three years and now suffers
from dementia as a result of years of drinking alcohol.

"He'll never be better," Phoebus said. "It's like having Alzheimer's
disease - there's nothing you can do about it."

Phoebus was one of many who attended the second annual Sober Fest Saturday
at the Mama T pavilion at the Western North Carolina Nature Center.

Doug Michaels, president of Voices for Addiction Recovery North Carolina,
said the purpose of the Sober Fest was to celebrate those recovering from
addiction diseases and to raise awareness.

"We need to raise awareness not only of the diseases of addiction, but that
recovery is an important component of it," said Michaels, who has been a
recovering alcoholic for 17 years.

"This is an opportunity for people to learn that being an addict is an
illness, a health problem, not a moral problem."

He said addiction diseases include everything from alcoholism to various
drug addictions.

Bruce Grooms was 16 when he first took heroin.

He said he never saw his addiction as a disease until 23 years later.

"Drug rehabs were unheard of in the mid-1970s ... in Western North
Carolina, so I was put in an expensive private mental hospital for five
months. It seemed the staff was clueless as to how to help the majority of
the patients, who were mostly drug-addicted teens like myself, whose
parents didn't know what to do with them," he said.

Grooms said he is grateful he was finally able to seek appropriate
treatment and get on the road to recovery from his addiction.

"I was given a chance to live by the help I received in treatment. By using
the tools I was given there, and by taking care of my disease one day at a
time, I never have to relapse again. (There is) hope that life doesn't have
to be about the next fix or drink," he said.

Sober Fest included recovering people telling their stories, entertainment
and food.

Phoebus said celebrating recovery is a great idea.

"I think the Sober Fest is a wonderful idea for people to celebrate
recovery and to be proud of it. It's a celebration of being whole again,"
she said.

Contact O'Brien at 232-2938 or JOBrien@CITIZEN-TIMES.com

Voices for Addiction Recovery North Carolina is a statewide grass- roots
organization made up of people in recovery who have suffered the
consequences of addiction and alcoholism. This also includes families and
friends of the addict/alcoholic. Voices is not a professional trade
association and does not endorse any one specific treatment approach.

To contact Voices call 252-9022 or (888) 396-9022 or e-mail
voicesNC@aol.com or write to P.O. Box 2925, Asheville NC 28802.

To contact Al Anon in your area, call the national number at (888) 4AL-ANON

To contact Alcoholics Anonymous in Asheville, call (800) 524-0465