Broken Open.

What Painkillers Taught Me About and Recovery is a new memoir from Hazelden Publishing and William Cope Moye His first memoir, Broken, explored Moyers addictio followed by attempts at treatmen He'd go on to recovery, maintain for two decades, and become a national advocate and public s for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foun But later faced a new kind of ad to opioids.

Here with us right now is author and vice president of public affairs and community at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundatio Cope Moyers, it's good to see yo Thanks for having me, Cathy.

Always a pleasure.

You know, you write about sobriety is just a piece of reco Talk about that.

Well, of course, sobriety is an import of being for a lot of us, particularly for me.

But there are going to be times, with this chronic disease when s is not necessarily attainable or you can't hold on to.

That happened to me.

And why I was able to stay the c if you will, was that I held on to the fact that I had hope and hope for me was my recovery.

The fact that even when I was st with these pain pills and with my sobriety, I still liked being a man in rec I liked being a good citizen.

I liked being an engaged father.

I liked being all those things that I had to find a success.

So for me, sobriety is an import But recovery is a journey.

You know, because you have been for a number of years now, do you still consider yourself in recovery?

Is that is that a lifelong proce It is a lifelong process.

And again, part of it is sobriet but also other parts of it are just being a good person and striving to be that decent c So absolutely, I count my recove from the day I began it back in Did you ever think when going public, here's the guy from Haze with this problem, I mean, was it is that stigma or or anything like that?

Well, you know, Eric, that's a good question.

I knew that if we wanted to smash the stigma which has always been sort of th of this organization, Hazelden B the best way to do that is with people who have rec And so I used my own story, starting at a Saint Paul Rotary meeting in 1997, where I shared the fact that not I a Rotarian, but I was a man in from addiction.

From that day on, I realized the power of telling Not all the gritty details neces but revealing who I am, what I am, and why that's important to me.

So being a public advocate for Hazelden Betty Ford is the best thing that ever happened to me.

It comes with risks, but I wouldn't change anything a Now, we should say to folks that you became addicted to opio You were taking legitimate paink right?

Was it some kind of a dental?

Yes.

- Situation?

I had a dental surgery that beca complicated with chronic pain.

I was prescribed opiates by well-meaning dentists and I took them because I didn't want to suffer.

But I liked them.

And I never used opiates in all the old days of my using, I was a crack cocaine addict and an alcoholic.

And there I am all of a sudden, I like those pain meds and I cou get off of them of my own free w I couldn't get off of them by my program of that I've been using for decades I couldn't get off of them even with my faith.

I needed an anti craving medicat in 2016 for me to quiet this craving bra and get back on track.

And it worked?

And it worked.

Here I am.

You have all these advantages.

You're a white guy.

You come from a famous family.

- Yes.

For a low income person, a minority person in your your s tell a bit of difference how that would work out.

Yeah.

Eric, thanks for asking that question.

My advocacy, a cornerstone of my advocacy at Hazelden Betty Ford, is all about the fac that addiction does not discrimi and neither should recovery.

But recovery does, because we kn people of other colors, people t from different socioeconomic bac people who don't have insurance, they don't have the same opportu that I have.

You know, 95% of the patients at Betty Ford use their insurance to access our treatment.

That's a good thing.

But there's too many who can't u insurance, or they don't have in So I am always advocating for expanding access to care and for the recovery support that people of all colors from all neighborhoods of the Tw in Minnesota need so that we can productive members of society, engaged citizens, good parents, Thanks for bringing up parents.

Yes.

- Your son came home from colleg and thought he had a problem too What went through your mind?

I was ready to help him and I th oh my goodness, thank goodness I gave my children that extra tool in their toolbox You know theyre the product of parents, recovering parents.

But my children are much more vu So I always said to my kids, kid if you choose to use, you may not be able to choose th in which case it's okay to come to me or to your mo and ask for help.

And Cathy and Eric, over the dec or over the years, and I chronicle this in the book, all three of my children have co and asked for help with substanc and all three of them are recovering in their own righ And they're doing all right?

They're doing great.

They're doing great.

One lives in New York, one lives in Seattle, one lives And I'm proud of them.

Broken Open, William Cope Moyers thanks very much for coming over Thanks for having me.

- Thanks for sharing your story.

We appreciate it.