Click to listen to author Mark Edick on Your Life Matters
That is the question that has plagued author Mark Edick, who is in long-term recovery, all his life. It’s also the topic of his forthcoming memoir, Becoming Normal: An Ever-Changing Perspective.
Becoming Normal is the poignant and moving account of one man’s journey through recovery and his discovery of the evolving meaning of normal. It includes wisdom gleaned from his relationship with his twelve-step fellowship sponsor and other lessons learned along the way.
“To be normal means to fit in, that is what I thought,” says Mr. Edick. “To fit in means I will be more loved, cared for, and needed. I longed for these things. I yearned for these things. I had spent my whole life seeking real love, true caring, a sense of being needed. And I had – so far – come up short.”
Once it was normal for Mark Edick to drink alcohol and take other drugs. Now it is normal for him not to drink alcohol or take other drugs. His down-to-earth approach and his examination of self-defeating thought processes offers an alternative to others who struggle with the stigma of addiction.
In Becoming Normal, the concept of “normal” is not simply a comparison between extremes. Mr. Edick takes this topic very personally, and he shows how he evolved in recovery to understand and accept “normal” as it applied to his changing relationship with alcohol and other drugs. As readers follow Mr. Edick’s “journey to normal,” they begin to appreciate their own understanding of the topic. Soon it becomes clear that whether or not a person struggles with the problems living in active addiction brings, the quest to determine “what is normal” is common to everyone.
Becoming Normal: An Ever-Changing Perspective is a marvelous study of self. But more importantly, it casts light on the reality in which we view ourselves and in which society sees us. While this is one man’s illuminating story, it is also the story of millions of us.
