The most powerful learning experience in my past was intensive outpatient recovery for my alcoholism.  At the age of 43, I was in the late, chronic stages of alcoholism, slipping quickly into a time when my only option would have been institutionalization.  There are many excuses I can make for why I ended up on [...]

Recently, one of my mentors ended up in the hospital.  After a traumatic injury and surgery, he began to display strange, out-of-character behavior.  Normally an extremely friendly and congenial person, he acted very mean and angry, calling his caregivers derogatory names.  He was convinced that he was not in the hospital, but somewhere else. He was convinced [...]