I'd like to state for the record

I was talking to my friend Lynn last night, and today is her two-year anniversary of being clean from heroin. Though I'll never be able to fully understand how immense that is, I do know that it really is an amazing accomplishment: somewhere around 95% or more of heroin addicts relapse within 2 years (read this lengthy but sobering article on the intensity of addiction caused by heroin and other opiates and the general lack of success in treatment).

Is 2 years clean a lifetime? no--of course Lynn will always be in danger of a relapse. Is 2 years clean long enough to dramatically improve your life? I've seen that for a fact. I've only 2 months and change left of my year-long non-drinking pledge to her, and it seems like eons ago that I quit. Yet even with this experience it's hard for me to imagine what she's gone through and continues to go through.

congratulations, Lynn. Though you'll never read this, my prayers and what little support I can give are with you.