To Hell and Back (A Surgeon's Story of Addiction: 12 Prescriptions for Awareness)

Here, in this raw account of one doctor's journey to Hell and back ... is the "prescription" that could save the life of someone you love. Addiction can affect anyone - of any occupation, education, or social class. The most common denominator among all addicts though ... is that they once thought it could never happen to them. As Head of the Department of Vascular Surgery at a large community hospital, Dr. Steve Heird was well aware of all this. Yet even as he wrote one illegal prescription after another - all for himself - he refused to believe he had a problem. He was in control. It could never happen to him. But the day came when - tired of playing a game of cat-and-mouse with the DEA, and finally ready to accept help with his problem - Steve had to face his family and go into rehab. Everything that mattered to him - his family, his career, his lifestyle - was on the line, and he risked losing it all, to serve a ten-year prison sentence. "That was one of the worst days of my life" he now says. "I had hurt the people I loved most. I felt overwhelmed with shame and self-loathing. How could I have screwed up so badly?" But there's a silver lining to the cloud that followed Dr. Heird all those years. His personal healing has led to the creation of a system of strategies for recognizing the warning signs - whether in yourself or others - and overcoming any addictions, along with the fear and self-doubt that feed them. In this entertaining and inspiring true-life account, and through his Prescriptions For Awareness healing program, Dr. Heird proves beyond a doubt that NOBODY is entirely "above the reach" of addiction, and no addict need ever feel doomed to remain forever within its grasp.