Noon Notebook: Addiction Recovery at Texas Tech University with Prof. Carl Anderson

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Texas Tech Professor Dr. Carl Anderson has written a book, Addiction Recovery at Texas Tech University, Where It All Began with a forward by TTU President Lawrence Schovanek.

Professor Anderson talks about his own struggle with alcoholism in the book, calling himself “a chronic relapser.”

Anderson says he recognized a need when a state official said there were 11,000 jobs related to addiction and recovery in Texas, but no place where a person could go to college and prepare for one of those careers. Then he discovered there was no licensing for addiction counselors.

Anderson led the effort to get state licensing for counselors, and to develop an addiction and recovery education program at Texas Tech. After Texas required licensing, all the other states followed within five years.

The program also provides scholarships for people in recovery. Over the years these recovering addicts and alcoholics have maintained a GPA one point higher than the university average.

Watch our full interview in the video above.

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