WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS –
Dec. 13, 2023 – At the 13th Annual Experience, Strength & Hope Award gathering at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, the entertainment industry and the recovery community came together to celebrate the creative gifts of sobriety. Every year, the ESH Award honors a noted figure who has written a memoir that includes the person’s journey into recovery from substance use disorders and mental health challenges. In 2023, the honor went to noted character actor Ed Begley, Jr. for his engaging memoir, To The Temple of Tranquility… And Step On It!.
Funny and informative, Ed Begley, Jr.’s memoir represents the heart and soul of the Experience, Strength, and Hope Award. Put on by Leonard Buschel and Writers in Treatment, “The Experience, Strength and Hope Award is given in recognition of an individual’s memoir that includes their honest journey from addiction to recovery, and their dedication and enthusiasm for creating awareness and reducing the stigma of addiction.”
Indeed, there is a good chance that Leonard Buschel might bestow the award upon himself in the future after publishing his own memoir, HIGH: Confessions of a Cannabis Addict, at the end of the pandemic in 2021. As described on the Amazon website, “If National Lampoon published a hysterically funny and mildly offensive parody of recovery memoirs, it couldn’t be as funny and mildly offensive as this autobiography of Leonard Lee Buschel, co-founder of Writers in Treatment, producers of the internationally acclaimed Reel Recovery Film Festivals, the Experience Strength and Hope Awards, and publishers of the Addiction/Recovery e-Bulletin.”
