The Weight of Air: A Story of the Lies about Addiction and the Truth about Recovery

by David Poses

“I’ve always thought of God as Santa Claus for grown-ups.”

God didn’t do anything to help my mom when she had cancer, but he helps junkies, drunks, and crackheads?”

“Your higher power could be a sneaker for all anybody cares. You just need something to believe in.” “I have something—myself.”

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”: A group of prisoners see the shadows of passing objects on a wall in the cave only where they’re chained together. These images form the basis of their reality. When a prisoner escapes and sees the sun and the objects in their true form, he doesn’t know how to process the information. Reality upended, he returns to the cave.

Sobriety focuses on abstinence, whereas recovery heals the wounds that led to drugs in the first place. It’s a process. And it doesn’t automatically start when you get sober. Why would it? Pain doesn’t end when you stop using painkillers. It gets worse.