Michael Douglas Gray
Upon beginning his career as a chemical dependency counselor Michael Douglas Gray was identified as gifted and passionate. Michael accumlated a wealth of experience while working with adolescents and adults. Specializing in family reunification and crisis intervention he touched hundreds of lives for the better.
It was the horrific tragedy involving a client followed by a sudden personal loss that led him on a downward spiral of addiction and depression. His fall landed him on skid row in Los Angeles, California. A very difficult and dangerous place. From 2001 until 2008 Michael battled the cruel realities homelessness.
In 2006, he entered a mission. There his relationship with God and hope of restoration were renewed. Eventually Michael enrolled in a writer's workshop given by Urban Possibilities a non-profit agency. His dream of writing was resurrected when poetry and other work he had created was selected for publication.
With a fresh confidence in God's faithfulness in spite of self-inflicted circumstances Michael continued to write with deep enthusiasm. Initially, he used public library computers to research and write his novel. On a limited fixed income he saved what money he could, purchased a laptop, a self-publishing package, and got a small apartment. If you've seen anything of skid row anywhere you know that none of this would of been possible without God.
Michael realized that the same loss and trauma that had created a vulnerability to substance abuse in his own life was a very common theme among those struggling with addiction everywhere. Revelations of the activity in the spirit realm, his gifted counseling skills, and the lessons taught by the harsh realities of addiction culminated in the compelling pages of Pharmakeia: The True Power of Addiction Lies in the Unseen.
The messages of this book are deeply insightful and healing. Historical facts and contemporary trends are powerfully intertwined as the characters move from bondage to deliverance and service. Pharmakeia is truly meant for anyone who is experiencing addiction in their own life or has experienced it through a friend or loved one.
