Shortly after returning from the moon, Buzz Aldrin began to suffer from alcoholism and depression.
"I wanted to resume my duties, but there were no duties to resume. There was no goal, no sense of calling, no project worth pouring myself into"
Rock bottom came when Aldrin, in a drunken rage, was arrested for smashing in the door of his girlfriend’s apartment. Disgusted with himself for being back at square one, he gave up the bottle for good in October 1978.
There would be more difficulties and heartbreak to come, but from that point, Aldrin was able to rediscover purpose in his life, as an aide to recovering alcoholics, an author, a continued contributor to the American space program and, finally, as a symbol of the great era of space exploration that had once placed on him a burden almost too great to bear.
