Then we discovered just how naive we had been. My wife Judith and I thought we knew about addiction, until it came close to home.

Hardly a family in this country has been spared direct or indirect experience with addiction, including my own. RAY DIAZ: In fact, of a group of about 40 of us lively, robust, healthy, intelligent, beautiful youngsters, I think I’m probably the last one alive.īILL MOYERS: I’m Bill Moyers. ALLEN JAMES: It got to the point where I was using two, three times a week, and then every evening, and then all weekend long.

KIM WOZENCRAFT: You know, I couldn’t possibly be addicted to drugs.

You know, “his eyes are bigger than his stomach” sort of thing. DAVID PATRICK COLUMBIA: I am the kind of person who wants to just do it and do it and do it and do it. LOUIS JONES: You know, the scenario is that you start smoking pot, drinking beer, then you go to the hard drugs. MAIA SZALAVITZ: It was just like being lifted out of my mind in a very nice way because my mind wasn’t a very good neighborhood for me to be in. And I remember the feeling of floating off under the ether and I loved that feeling. PEGGY HASSETT: …I was 10 and I remember that they gave you ether then. And for any who have wrestled with addiction, it is a discovery that they are not alone and that recovery is possible. For any who have not encountered addiction before, the hour is a frank and absorbing introduction. Through the candid testimony of people who have been there, Portrait of Addiction leaves little doubt that addiction can happen to anyone. Each person has had a unique experience with a range of addictive substances - from cocaine and heroin to alcohol and tobacco.ĭespite their differences, however, all have gone through a similar cycle of experience - from the first, ecstatic rush of a drink or drug, to “falling in love” with the sensation, to the realization that the pleasure has turned to pain and the frequent use into a compulsive, obsessive hunger for a chemical fix. Through a montage of intense interviews with nine people from various walks of life, Portrait of Addiction brings viewers face-to-face with the pain of addiction and the possibility of recovery.

In the first episode of Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home, the series begins with testimony from the real experts - recovering addicts.

Wanted by Kim Wozencraft