“The constant happiness is curiosity.” – Alice Munro, July 10, 1931 – May 13, 2024
Author: Leonard Buschel
HAVEN’T WE ALL? – May 7, 2024 -She is in a “hotel-motel” in Ypsilanti, Michigan, halfway through a cross-country book tour, flaunting sparkly pink nails. The manicure was part of a coping strategy initiated in response to a bad review – “seriously the worst review” of her life, said Lamott. No matter that Somehow: Thoughts on Love, her 20th book, is cresting the New York Times’ bestseller list – a dig by a prominent critic can still capsize her day. But this is Anne Lamott, known for her preternatural ability to uncover grace in all her trials, from the…
STILL THE GREATEST – May 5, 2024 – 15 years after she was discovered by Hollywood, Garland was spat out by the star factory. As a child, she was put on extreme diets to please studio executives who would heavily scrutinize her weight. She worked excruciatingly long hours on set, using stimulants, or “pep pills,” to keep her performing when needed. Mayer, whom she considered a father figure, eventually severed ties with Garland. The actress, who was a drug addict and alcoholic before turning 30, suffered a nervous breakdown, was admitted to a private sanitorium, attempted suicide and underwent…
VIDEO – BEAUTY AND COURAGE – May 8, 2024 – Noelia Voigt shockingly resigned as Miss USA. “Never compromise your physical and mental well-being,” wrote Voigt. “Our health is our wealth.” The 24-year-old is stepping down from her title amid allegations of a toxic culture behind the scenes at the Miss USA organization, which the organization denies. She quit her job days ago. CONTINUE@YouTube
SELF IMPROVEMENT MATTERS – May 9, 2024 – Shannon Marie’s life has been profoundly shaped by personal tragedy, including the loss of close family members and friends to addiction. These painful experiences have not only fueled her commitment to helping others but also inspired her to develop a unique recovery program. Breaking the Mold with Innovative Therapy At the core of Shannon’s program is a blend of proven therapeutic techniques including Neuro Linguistic Programming, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Rapid Transformational Therapy, and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, among others. This modern synthesis is designed to cater to the individual’s specific needs, rather…
VIDEO – 100 MILES BEGINS WITH THE 1st STEP – May 6, 2024 – “I love the natural setting,” Stan Fleming said before taking off on a run. “Out in the woods and up in the mountains, there’s just no better place for me.” Stan said getting to this level of fitness started from a day four years ago while he was at the Nashville International Airport. “Alcoholism, I struggled with that my whole life,” he said. “I couldn’t accomplish anything in life. I couldn’t stay sober for more than six to nine months at a time.” Stan said…
SUCH A SAD MAN – May 7, 2024 – Over many years, I have resuscitated countless numbers of patients dying from a drug overdose while working as an emergency physician. I knew I had to stop everything else I was doing and treat the overdose patient immediately because they could die within minutes. We had to clear a resuscitation room and start ventilation on arrival, get an IV into their scarred veins, and quickly inject naloxone (Narcan). They usually started breathing again and woke up confused and angry, suddenly in acute withdrawal, writhing in pain, vomiting, and moaning in…
BIG PHARMA FOREVER – May 8, 2024 – Starting people with opioid use disorder on injectable, extended-release naltrexone (XR-naltrexone) within five to seven days of seeking treatment is more effective than the standard treatment method of starting within 10-15 days but requires closer medical supervision. “Time has been an important barrier that we’ve seen hinder the use of extended-release naltrexone for opioid use disorder in the past, both among individuals and treatment providers,” said lead study author Matisyahu Shulman, MD, a clinician-scientist at New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “We hope that these findings…
TIME WILL TELL – May 6, 2024 – Nestled inside a giant MRI machine, the woman wears a helmet with special probes. Peering through high-tech goggles, she sees images designed to trigger the awful, familiar cravings that have wrecked her life. Heroin residue on tin foil. Lines of powder cocaine. At the same time, scientists buzz around a small observation room, scrutinizing brain scans on computer monitors, calibrating measurements, tweaking data points. Beams of ultrasound waves fireinto a tiny sector of the woman’s brain by the hundreds — an experimental treatment that researchers hope will essentially reset her mind…
VIDEO ONLY – MUSIC IS MAGIC – May 7, 2024 – We talk with Chris Vincent about his new album and how he is sharing a story of resilience. CONTINUE@WWLTV
LITERATURE MATTERS – May 8, 2024 – These are some of the questions explored in Michael Deagler’s debut novel, Early Sobrieties, and questions that I, who also got sober in Philly, like Deagler’s narrator, and Deagler himself, acutely remember wondering. I think he definitely struggles. There’s a certain amount of self-loathing, either as an underlying cause of addiction or as a result of it, since you keep doing things you wish you weren’t doing, and that doesn’t really go away immediately. It’s sort of cliché, but so much of the recovery process is learning to forgive yourself. For a…
CHANGING MEANS SAVING – May 4, 2024 – Robbie Mason started using heroin when he was a child. His hands are dotted with pinprick scars. He used for so long he stopped being able to inject into the veins in his arms, so he turned to his fingers. He was 12 when he had his first hit. His friend’s older brothers had asked him to sell the drug for them, while he was crashing at their place in western Sydney. They offered him some. “The first one sealed the deal for me. It helped me forget about everything,” he…
MR. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE – May 7, 2024 – He will make his his Broadway debut in the lead role of McNeal, the new play by Ayad Akhtar, author of the Tony-nominated Junk and the Pulitzer-winner Disgraced. Downey will play the title character Jacob McNeal in the production staged by Lincoln Center Theater and directed by Bartlett Sher (To Kill A Mockingbird). McNeal will begin previews Thursday, September 5, and open on Monday, September 30, at LCT’s Vivian Beaumont Theater. The production will play a strictly limited engagement through Sunday, November 24. CONTINUE@DEADLINE
AUDIO – A STAR IS REBORN – May 7, 2024 – “You’re not alone,” she told me at the Met Gala on Monday night. “If I can do it, anyone can. But you need to communicate and be honest about it as much as you can — especially with yourself.” She said she went to rehab and became a member of a 12-step program in the summer of 2022. “I think that’s what I’ve always done with anything in this business,” the model-actress said at the Met of going public with her struggles. “Whether it’s been being vocal about…
WILL IT HELP? – May 10, 2024 – Police in Philadelphia have moved to dismantle a homeless encampment in Kensington, an area of the city that is described as the largest open-air drugs market in America. Fentanyl and xylazine, an animal tranquilliser known as ‘tranq’ that causes vivid flesh wounds when injected in the area, are very popular. Mayor Parker earlier acknowledged that the rollout of a strategy to dismantle the entrenched open-air drug market was like “building the plane while I’m flying it” and said she was trying “to do what this city of Philadelphia has never done…
MUSICAL INTERLUDE – You’ll grin for five minutes. From a time when music was really great … when people with actual talent ruled the music world! Old School Rules!! This Proves it big time… BE AMAZED@YouTube
VIDEO – HITTING BOTTOM HARD – May 10, 2024 – Mr. Carney is clean and sober after years of booze-fueled scandals that prematurely ended his NRL career – but he has revealed he had to take the hard road to get there. He has now been clean and sober for 14 months and is a proud dad, but he had to hit rock bottom before he could reach this point. His NRL career was chequered with controversy, including being charged with drink driving and reckless driving, allegedly urinating on a man at a nightclub, vandalism, being sacked by the…
VIDEO – FAMILIES MOURN – May 5, 2024 – Raising awareness about the dangers of illicit fentanyl and other deadly drugs, the event “A Call to All” on Friday, May 3, was created to combat the synthetic drug epidemic in the United States. At least 275 people die from synthetic opioids every day in the U.S. The founders of DJ’s Wish, Dean and Lori Ashenfelder, lost their 31-year-old son, DJ, to fentanyl overdose in 2021. From that, they founded the nonprofit to raise awareness and educate the public on the dangers of drug use, addiction and the ease of…
BEING OF SERVICE SOBER – May 9, 2024 – The documentary, Caregiving, is in production and is set to air in 2025 on PBS stations. The film will examine both systemic issues within the care system – where more than 50 million Americans provide unpaid care to family members – as well as tell personal stories of people who care for loved ones. Cooper’s involvement also stems from personal experience: “When my father was diagnosed with cancer, that was a wake-up call for me, one that really opened my eyes to the world of caregiving,” the Oscar nominee…
TIME OUT FOR FEEDINGS – May 7, 2024 – During a candid interview on the “Club Shay Shay” podcast, the former Sixers and Phoenix Suns power forward recalled the profound impact of his brother’s cocaine addiction, which ultimately led to his untimely death at the age of 42. The former NBA MVP expressed deep regret and sorrow over his brother’s struggle with addiction, revealing that he had even contemplated trying cocaine himself to understand his brother’s plight. “I almost did cocaine one time. I had put my brother in a bunch of rehabs … I ain’t never had something…
NO WONDER THERE WAS NO PROFIT – May 8, 2024 – Dawn Holland, who opened the nonprofit’s doorsin 2015, was charged with nine counts of aggravated theft and one count of theft, according to court documents. Aggravated theft is used when allegations involve property worth more than $10,000. Holland allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the program on at least 10 occasions over the course of roughly three years by improperly using a company credit card, said Steve Gunnels, Deschutes Judge Bethany Flint issued a bench warrant for Holland’s arrest Tuesday. Dawns House, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has dedicated…
SOUND FAMILIAR? – May 8, 2024 – A strong sense of egocentricity and a grandiose sense of self-worth are also common, making them overconfident and disdainful of others. Individuals with pronounced psychopathic traits tend to be impulsive, showing poor behavior controls and a disregard for social norms and the law. Scientists have also studied behavioral specificities of individuals with pronounced psychopathic traits. One study found that psychopathic murderers tend to use subordinating conjunctions when they talk (e.g., because, since, etc.) more often than non-psychopathic murderers. Other studies found that incarcerated psychopathic men tend to use higher number of hand…
UBERSMACK – May 7, 2024 – Michael Meiser, 39, was arrested April 30. Jail records show he was booked on suspicion of an unspecified felony on May 1. L.A. County Sheriff’s Department records show Meiser worked at North County Correctional Facility as an investigator. He worked with the jail’s anti-gang unit, known as Operation Safe Jails, according to two law enforcement sources who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation. One of those sources and another law enforcement official, who also was not cleared to speak publicly about the case and requested anonymity, told…
AND LESS FOOD – May 4, 2024 – First is the movement your body is owed or requires every day, such as walking, stretching and bending. Second is athletic movement, which you can do a few times a week to improve your fitness or to train for a sport. Third is social movement you do for fun or to connect with others, such as dancing or volleyball. CONTINUE@Yahoo
FOOD-LIKE SUBSTANCES – May 8, 2024 – The study of 115,000 people found that those who ate large amounts of ultra-processed foods, especially processed meats, sugary breakfast foods and sugar and artificially sweetened beverages, were more likely to die prematurely. The research, published Wednesday in the journal BMJ, adds to a growing body of evidence that has linked ultra-processed foods to a higher rate of health problems. Ultra-processed foods encompass a broad category ranging from cookies, doughnuts and potato chips to hot dogs, white bread and frozen meals. Scientists say what these foods have in common is that they…
TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS – May 6, 2024 – Supplementing standard opioid addiction treatment with Mindfulness Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) – an intervention that incorporates mindfulness training, savoring skills, and cognitive reappraisal – cuts program dropout rates by 59 percent and relapses by 42 percent, according to Rutgers-led research. These trial results come from Rutgers Health amid unprecedented opioid abuse. An estimated 10 million Americans misuse opioids or have opioid use disorder, while annual overdose deaths have exceeded 80,000. Treatment with methadone or buprenorphine – alone or in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy – is imperfect. Half of all…
AUDIO – IS ACCEPTANCE THE KEY? – May 7, 2024 – A number of major cities are changing the way they address addiction and homelessness. In Philadelphia, the city’s new mayor, Cherelle Parker, is employing an aggressive strategy in Kensington, a neighborhood that is home to one of the largest open-air drug markets in the country. Along Kensington Avenue, people are camped out together in large clusters on the sidewalk or dodging cars as they dart across the street to encampments on the other side. You can see people using drugs out in the open. Needles and pieces of…
STILL NOT ENOUGH – May 8, 2024 – Despite methadone’s effectiveness, a labyrinth of state and federal rules keeps it inaccessible to many people who desperately need it. “What kind of normal person with a job, a life and a family can line up for medication every morning, sometimes far from where they live?” “It’s almost comical how difficult it is to get this medication and stay on it,” he said. Yet addiction treatment in the United States is poised for change. This year, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, known as SAMHSA, made permanent a…
BOOMER BUMMER – May 8, 2024 – There is a big discussion brewing these days about the number of people who would rather be alone than in a relationship – and how that is going to affect people who do want to be a relationship but can’t find a partner. Regenstrief Institute, a data informatics firm, put out a press release about the new research. In it, they said studies suggest that a majority of people 65 or older consider themselves lonely, and that fact could affect their health more than 15 cigarettes a day. Researchers state in their…
VIDEO – ONE FROM THE HEART – May 9, 2024 – The Whittington family launched Med Kwik, vending machines filled with over-the-counter pharmacy items. Their daughter, 15-year-old Avery Whittington, who is serving as Miss Western Arkansas’ Teen, said she was inspired to make opioid overdose awareness her community service after seeing the effects of opioid addiction firsthand. “We thought it would be a good idea to put machines that were available 24/7 [in] hospitality locations like hotels, airports, hospitals, universities,” Gary Whittington said. There are now around 20 Med Kwik machines in Arkansas, with the machine at Arkansas Colleges…