Every September for 19 years, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has teamed with thousands of treatment programs nationwide to celebrate people in recovery from addiction and honor those who support them. Recovery Month also serves to educate the public about substance abuse and reinforce the fact that addiction is a treatable disease and recovery is possible.

Addiction affects millions of people, with 69 percent of people in the U.S. reporting they know someone who struggles with alcohol or other drugs. In 2006, for example, 22.6 million people aged 12 or older (9.2 percent of the population) reported a substance use disorder in the past year, making it more common than coronary heart disease.

Substance use disorders are treatable. When an individual recovers, families and communities can grow stronger. Treatment can improve health, help address emotional or mental health problems, and improve relationships. However, largely because of the stigma, discrimination and misunderstanding about the disease, less than 20 percent of the 22.6 million people with substance use disorders received treatment in 2006.

A substance use disorder (which means a person is dependent on or abuses alcohol or other drugs, including prescription drugs) can affect anyone, regardless of age, race, gender, ethnicity, class, employment status or community. By inviting people to listen to and join the "Voices of Recovery," as Recovery Month does each year, we put faces on recovery and discover that ministers, mechanics, neighbors, coworkers, politicians, grandmothers, soldiers, millionaires or the impoverished--virtually anyone--can become addicted and can recover from the disease of addiction. All these people have stories, and in accordance with this year's "Real People, Real Recovery" theme, SAMHSA encourages people to speak up and share their recovery experiences. To start the conversation, they highlight individual stories in depth in their Recovery Month Kit at www.recoverymonth.org.

"I'm proof that addiction doesn't discriminate," writes William Cope Moyers, a strong voice of recovery and executive director of Hazelden's Center for Public Advocacy. The son of well-known broadcast journalist Bill Moyers, William Moyers admits that he is not what people might expect when they picture addicts or addiction.

"I had an idyllic childhood," he says. "I'm the product of two parents who loved me unconditionally. I lacked for nothing morally, financially, emotionally and spiritually. I had no idea that my casual use of legal and illegal substances could hijack my brain and steal my soul. Addiction doesn't care if you are from the quiet suburbs of Long Island or the inner city of Chicago. Whether you are white or black, Jewish or Christian, it doesn't matter. Between 1989 and 1994, I was in and out of treatment four times, even though I was sober for nearly four of those years. In 1994, I got one more chance, and I've been clean and sober ever since. Then the rest of my miracle happened and now I continue to live in recovery. Treatment is not a cure; it's a solution. I finally took personal responsibility for my disease and accepted the fact that I have a chronic illness and, to survive it, I have to be part of the solution, not part of the problem."

Moyers is a firm believer in the importance of telling one's story, and he does so in his book, Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption (Viking Penguin, 2006). He said he wrote the book to help smash the stigma of addiction and to carry the message of hope that recovery brings. "Not talking about my program of recovery would be like a marathon runner not talking about training."

Moyers likens addiction to cancer, explaining, "both diseases are chronic, progressive, and life-threatening. Nobody deserves to get either one, yet public attitudes toward the victims of these diseases are as different as night and day. Why is addiction the only disease without a ribbon of hope to wear out in public?"

Perhaps Recovery Month and voices of recovery like Moyers can serve as the "ribbon of hope" for the millions of people touched by addiction each day. For more information on addiction, treatment, recovery and Recovery Month events, visit www.recoverymonth.org.

Published September 1, 2008