An Open Letter to Charlie Sheen

Dear Charlie,

I caught your recent interview on NBC’s Today Show. I don’t watch your television show so I haven’t seen you in a long time. I remember you as a young actor full of passion in the mid-80’s movies: Platoon and Wall Street. However, when I saw you on the Today Show I thought you looked tired. Your face seemed drawn. Your boyish looks have faded and given way to the drawn frame associated with hard living and addiction. Your vocabulary seems to be full of cynicism, sarcasm, anger and bitterness betraying the confident package you are trying to project.

Last week you appeared on a national, syndicated talk radio show and blasted Alcoholics Anonymous: It's the work of sissies. The only thing I'm addicted to is winning. This bootleg cult, arrogantly referred to as Alcoholics Anonymous, reports a 5 percent success rate. My success rate is 100 percent.

I believe you also called AA a “cult” and “a bunch of losers,” who are “brainwashing” your family. During the Today Show interview I was interested in how you said you have cured yourself from alcohol and drug addiction. Having worked for years with the recovery movement and many addicts I was fascinated. I wanted to know your secret that seems to have eluded famous people (I believe you called them sissies) who practice/practiced and embrace the recovery and 12-step movement like:

Jamie Lee Curtis; Robin Williams; Betty Ford; Elton John; Stephen King; Michael J. Fox; Eric Clapton; Anne Lamott; Robert Downey, Jr.; Larry Hagman; Kitty Dukakis; Patty Duke; Mary Tyler Moore; Ali McGraw; Dick Van Dyke; Dylan Thomas; Glenn Beck; George W. Bush; Christopher Lawford Kennedy; Johnny Cash; Joe Walsh; Sir Anthony Hopkins (who by the way, has raised funds for AA because it changed his life); Governor Anne Richards; Stevie Ray Vaughan; Astronaut Buzz Aldrin; and, Al Unser, Jr. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

I was intrigued because you seem to have been able to do what these people were unable to do by themselves. I believe you said, "I closed my eyes and made it so with the power of my mind. I had to unload 22 years of fiction and just decided I don't believe that anymore." Then holding the handbook of AA you called it a, “silly book written by a broken-down fool who is a plagiarist."

Charlie, Dr. Harris Stratyner, Ph.D., an addiction psychologist with Caron Treatment Centers commenting on your own recovery process and take on AA has said, "It's unfortunate that Charlie Sheen is offering a misleading opinion about curing addiction," He added, "Addiction is a progressive and chronic disease that can be fatal if it's not treated. There is no known cure. But individuals and families can recover if they are willing to do the work. Twelve-step based residential treatment and programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon are vital to addicts and their families for long term recovery."

Charlie, I don’t live in Hollywood and I don’t make enough money in a year to even maintain the lawn of your home there, so I’m obviously not on your level of influence. To be honest, I am very unimportant and I am broken. I breathe, function, walk, talk and live at the mercy of God. I really am “powerless” without Jesus Christ in my life. And it’s only by grace that I am able to know Him, so that probably qualifies me to be among the “sissies”. In light of your incredible mental strength, successful career and wealth, I probably am a sissy. However, because of that grace, and only because of it, I have God’s ear in prayer. And Charlie, I’m whispering to Him on your behalf:

“Holy Father, grant Charlie Sheen long and lasting sobriety through whatever means necessary. Give him a sober mind and clarity of thought. Bring him great joy. Strengthen his relationship with his family and children. Protect them. Bind them together in chords of love that cannot be broken. Shower him with so much grace in his life that he craves humility, justice and mercy. Comfort him in the dark when it’s just You and him. May he be overwhelmed by your power and love, so much so that he cannot help but share it with others. And Lord, remind every one of us of our obligation to pray for the Charlie Sheen’s of this world, and that we are all in recovery from sin. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”