Elizabeth Graybill- The Journey To Recovery (May 2021)

Issue Six- May 2021:

By Mercedes Barreto

Elizabeth Graybill’s Book gives you her experience growing up Bi-Racial in an all-white family with members whose racism had a profound impact on her as a child. she opens up about her being molested as a child on many occasions. and surviving sexual assault and how drugs and alcohol became a way out of the mental, physical and emotional pain she suffered as a child.

What was that moment where you realized and said your story must be written and shared? If so, why share it?

“After I started the recovery process. is when I understood that drugs and alcohol were only the substance of my sickness. And discovered in my process that many other things were the nature of what my problem truly was, and it did not begin with the drug or the drink. I realized on my journey of recovery that my situation was not just an isolated incident many people like myself had been through what I myself had been through. And wondered at that point how many were out there that were still suffering in silence as I had done for 40 years of my life.

 The Reasons for me sharing my story was that all people needed to understand, the addict as well as the non-addict that substance abuse is not only about a choice that we make it’s about numbing the pain, it’s about helping us Not feel or deal with our realities of being victimized traumatized ostracized it’s about a moment in time of devastation and degradation that we are reminded of every day of our existence. It is a coping mechanism for many who have experienced something that others are not aware of.”

If you could get three amazing icons of our society whom you admire to read your book today, who would they be, and why?

“1: Tyler perry Because he is a picture of hope that all things are possible and has a personal relationship with trauma and has lived in the struggle and knows what it likes to fight your way out.

2: Oprah Winfrey Because she represents a woman who has found her power and voice to be heard.

3: Viola Davis Because she is Greatness and everything, I inspire to be.”

Tell me a bit about your struggle, both with the creative and internal elaboration phases of the book’s making, and externally with your mission to help others through the way others perceive your story?

“The biggest struggle I had was internal because for me to tell things the way they were back then and current and to be honest about it I had to revisit their places and situations in my life and things that happened to me as a child that was extremely devastating and traumatizing for me so it was like living it all over again and again just as devastating was looking at the damage and wreckage I caused and left behind as an adult with my children and family.

My mission only mission was to tell my story how it was and never put emphasis on how it would be perceived. At the end of the day, the Truth is the Truth and that is all I can tell is the truth.”