2019 Sunwise Media & Lucy Hall
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with expressed written consent of publisher.
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eBook ISBN 978-1-09830-850-6
A Foreword
Ri-Karlo Handy
CEO of Sunwise Media, Hope Dealer, publisher
My father is a veteran. For years he worked as a teacher and a juvenile probation officer. But his time in the military took a huge toll on him, his life, and his ability to be well-adjusted in this world. That deeply affected what kind of father he could be to my brother and I.
As many veterans have, he turned to alcohol (and more) to remedy his problems. At first, it was only the drinking at night. Each morning he would then drink what seemed like gallons of black coffee the next day, to appear straight and sober for his students and colleagues. Eventually, that routine broke down. Thats when things got worse. Much worse.
When trying to find answers about how to help someone struggling with recovery, I never could find a definitive answer that really helped. On the internet, there were mostly links to rehab centers popping up with a bunch of generic information that was articulate and empty, as far as I was concerned. When trying to help my father, I just didnt know what to do. But thankfully, I knew Lucy Hall. I always saw her as an inspirational figure, but didnt know how inspirational, until I really needed her.
I met Lucy through my work in the entertainment industry. Entertainment was all Id done since I was 14. I had collaborated with music artists on videos, created scripted and unscripted content TV shows, and even ran an original program for a network. That list can go on. But I had no idea that it was only a matter of time before my meeting Lucy, my needs and painful dramas around my father, and my career in media would intersect. All of these things were about to come together, in a very meaningful way, and directly determine my next project.
Lucy had become such an inspirational and informational resource to me, around helping my dad, I felt like she needed to be that same resource to a bigger slice of the world. She needed to be a resource for people who were just like mepeople who were coming up with empty internet searches just like I was when I needed desperate help to understand what was going on with my dad, and how to help.
At that point, I decided to develop a documentary film and book that would help all of those allies of addicts who did not have someone like Lucy in their life.
The documentary film, HOPE VILLAGE, sheds light on the harrowing experiences of women who suffered from addiction, and their day-to-day journey to recover at Mary Hall Freedom House. Its an introduction for the general public, to understand addiction and the process of recovery. However, this companion book is a tool that holds specific answers to all the question we have when the disease of addiction shoves its way into our lives. The book was developed to answer questions like: A) How long does recovery take? B) What can I do as a family member? C) What can clinicians do to better serve the recovery community?
With this book, Hope Dealer A Complete Guide: From Rehab to Recovery, we hoped to provide desperately needed answers that people couldnt find otherwise, plus educate people on the proper understanding of what recovery really is. We wanted to produce a guide for recovering addicts, loved ones, and people who work in the field of recovery every day. And we did. As you read, I hope Lucys wisdom will deeply enlighten you, and inspire you to look at the issue of addiction, and recovery, through a completely new lens.
Thank each of you for joining us on this journey. Spread this helpful book near and far. I look forward to bringing you more guides and stories like Lucyswith inspirational blueprints to eradicate the social ills of life, and make the world a better place.
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Tommie M. Richardson M.D.
Georgia Behavioral Health Professional, Addiction Specialist
Greetings! My name is Tommie Mack Richardson, M.D. I am certified by the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the American Board of Addiction Medicine as well as a fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. I have worked exclusively in the addiction medicine specialty for over 30 years and I am a member of the American Medical Association. In Hope Dealer, Lucy Hall has. written an extraordinarily honest, practical and compelling guide to educate the potential actual addicted individual, their significant others (including family) and the clinicians providing treatment to the addict and family unit. She illustrates how substance use disorders have their origins and the sometimes overlooked fact how they are intimately connected to the so-called process addictions, i.e., gambling, shopping, sex and food (either overeating or food restriction), the eating disorders. In recent years, neuroscience has revealed that addiction in any domain is a neurophysiological disorder caused by chemicals in the circuitry of the numerous nuclei that make up the human brain. I have worked closely with Lucy as the medical director for Mary Hall Freedom House for over 23 years. As Lucy has demonstrated in Hope Dealer, addiction has many facets to its manifestation. Genetics or family history accounts for over 50% of the likelihood, then there are the adverse childhood events, i.e., sexual, physical, psychological, spiritual and emotional trauma, and then there is the environment, the overall sociocultural environment of the country, state, community, and family. The treatment program at Mary Hall Freedom House that Lucy has established is truly a nurturing environment that educates, nurtures and supports the patients as well as their families while they are recovering from the chronic, progressive, and fatal disease of addiction. Treating the addicted patient alone without involving allies is rarely successful. During treatment, the patients must learn to identify all of their triggers for using, and with help from clinicians, develop and internalize adaptive coping skills to combat every trigger. Functional MRI studies have demonstrated that it takes approximately 24 months for the chemical imbalance caused by addiction to normalize. It is vitally important to understand that there are cooccurring psychiatric disorders in many
patients who suffer from substance use disorders, and they have to be treated with expertise and medical providers that are specialists in medications and techniques to treat these cooccurring diagnoses. Mary Hall Freedom House has these specialists available through Lucys affiliations with many generous and compassionate organizations in the metropolitan Atlanta community. Over my career in addiction medicine, it is clear to me that addiction is a very treatable disease and many patients recover and go on to live productive lives and help others achieve the same. As a society, we need to remove the stigma of addiction being a moral badness or weakness and follow successful models demonstrated by other societies. Make it financially feasible for addicts to get the needed help and medications that could save many lives and lift the burden from our criminal justice system. Lucy Hall has given us an intelligent roadmap to make this feasible. I believe that Hope Dealer will become a useful instrument to addicts, their families, treatment providers and our society. Lucys pearls that she provides at the end of each chapter in Hope Dealer are invaluable.
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Dr. Craig L. Oliver, Sr.
Pastor, Elizabeth Baptist Church
