Bud Werner Memorial Library

Dr. Dawn Obrecht talks about her new book, From the Edge of the Cliff: Understanding the Two Phases of Recovery and Becoming the Person You’re Meant To Be.

About the book
Dr. Obrecht provides those recovering from drug and/or alcohol abuse with practical lessons on how to understand and successfully navigate the two-phases of recovery from drug and/or alcohol addiction. It is also a remarkably touching, real-life story of someone who has used these same lessons to maintain 28 years of successful recovery.
 
In From the Edge of the Cliff, Dr. Obrecht, candidly, yet thoughtfully, shares how she was able to escape the destructive and hurtful world of drug and alcohol addiction by facing the reality of the disease, understanding the recovery process and finding a deep, personal relationship with God. She provides a rare combination of an instructive, addiction recovery resource and an unfettered look into the world of the “addict next door.”
 
Just as Dr. Obrecht found the courage and support needed to surface from 20 years of addiction with her professional skills and caring spirit intact — she has found a way, in this book, to not only help the addict but to also entertainingly enlighten family members, non-addicts and other physicians on the importance of their role in also understanding the recovery process.

About the speaker
Dawn V. Obrecht, M.D. graduated from the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine and did an internship in general surgery and residency in emergency medicine. She has been the medical director of a chemical dependency unit and is a professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. For many years she had a busy family medicine practice. Licensed in several states, she now travels to small, rural communities, filling in for physicians who need time off.

Having been in recovery from drug addiction for over a quarter century, Dr. Obrecht uses her experience with life-threatening illness to identify with and help others to heal and to hear God. Doc Dawn lives in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, with her husband, Erik Landvik, where she writes and consults in addiction medicine between her travels.

Dr. Obrecht was a finalist for the Montaigne Medal for her first book, Mission Possible, A Missionary Doctor’s Journey of Healing. Each year, the Eric Hoffer Award presents The Montaigne Medal honoring books that illuminate, progress or redirect thought.

About the library's Health Perspecitves Series
This is an ongoing, once-in-an-occasional series of talks, workshops and films that brings together professional expertise in nutrition, exercise and general health for free community programs at the Bud Werner Memorial Library