Dear Hossein,
Thank you for the update on the Congress 60 retention research. I am looking forward to reading the results when they are published.
I have sent Dr. Hamed an email and look forward to communicating with him in the very near future. I look forward to hearing about his research interests. I also very pleased to have some Congress 60 connections here in the U.S.
Congratulations to the Congress 60 Rugby team in their recent first place finish and to the Congress 60 archers on their recent achievements. These team members stand as living proof of the transformative power of recovery within Congress 60.
Rita’s eye surgery went well last Wednesday and the surgery on her other eye is scheduled for this coming week. She is already experiencing dramatically improved vision in the eye that was operated on and it will continue to get better in the coming weeks. My health remains good other than stiffness in my fingers, which I attribute to several hours of writing on a computer keyboard every day for the past 35 years or so. Other writers my age experience similar difficulties and have had it diagnosed as arthritis or tendonitis. I am going to see a physician soon to see if anything can be done about this. I am pleased to hear you are doing well.
I am working on some blogs this week about how to raise public expectations and optimism about the prospects of recovery from addiction. I think the visibility of your sports teams is one powerful way you are achieving that. Research on this suggests that the most powerful tool in lowering addictions stigma is personal encounters with people in long-term recovery. Are members of Congress 60 encouraged to openly share their recovery stories with other citizens? There is a growing movement of people in recovery in the U.S. to disclose their recovery status in public forums to try to increase optimism to those personally affected and to the public as well. I would be interested in your thoughts on this and what strategies you think are most effective in lowering stigma attached to addiction among professionals and the public.
I have already heard back from one of my Chestnut colleagues in response to my email about potential research collaborations with Congress 60. Dr. Godley expressed concerns about the increased difficulty with international collaborations within the current political climate but that he would share our interest with other colleagues that might have such an interest. I have mentioned to you that I was working with Dr. Marc Galanter at New York University on a comparison of NA members in Iran and in the U.S. Dr. Galanter gets to Iran occasionally for international science conferences and I am hoping the next time he is in Iran that he will have a chance to meet you and be introduced personally to the work of Congress 60. I think that would do a lot to spark his interest in future research collaborations.
I have not asked about your family in my recent communications to you. Please extend my best wishes to them and to all members of Congress 60.
Friends and Brothers Forever,
Bill
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