VIDEO – FAMILY DESPAIR – May 1, 2024 – “It started with weed in high school and, by the time I was 16, 17, I had kinda tried everything,” Navarone tells ET’s Kevin Frazier about his journey into addiction. “I don’t know if you can say [I became a] casual user of heroin, but I didn’t have a problem with it until 2015. All of a sudden I just noticed a difference.” Navarone Garcia is opening up about his struggles with drug addiction and how he’s sharing his story to help the younger generation with the aid of Michael…
Author: Leonard Buschel
“Politically, the weakness of the argument has always been that those who choose the lesser evil forget very quickly that they chose evil.” – Hannah Arendt, b.1906 – d.1975
GIVING BACK IN STYLE – April 17, 2024 – “It’s still one day at a time for me, and I understand, empathize, and know exactly what the attack an alcoholic goes through daily,” Baker said. “To wake up every morning and not want to use it or have to use it is a total blessing. And so I want to give that blessing back. I want to give that feeling back, that gift back.” The way he is giving back is through the Vin Baker Recovery Center. Baker cut the ribbon on the addiction treatment facility in the Columbus…
RIDING THE WAVE…CALMLY – April 18, 2024 – “I was 13 years old and I started washing boats, and then I had to get in trouble a lot, kind of got into the addiction thing. And after I got sober in 1989, my very first job in 1990 was on a boat,” Captain Sandy explained. “And then from there, a guy gave me an opportunity, he saw that I really wanted to work in the industry, and I was a hard worker. And then he gave me the start, sent me to sea school.” The Below Deck Mediterranean star…
VIDEO – NEW YORK STORIES – April 23, 2024 – Sara Gettelfinger had steadily worked on the Broadway boards since her debut in 2000’s Seussical, appearing alongside stars including John Stamos, John Lithgow and Jeffrey Wright in hits like Nine, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and A Free Man of Color, respectively. “I was not in a good place,” she recalled. “That year of that Addams Family tour was sort of the ‘after’ of going from being a partier to very regularly using drugs and alcohol. I hit the end of the road … not only [was] it not giving me…
TRY IT, YOU’LL LIKE IT – April 18, 2024 – The rise in “sober curiosity” is directly correlated to an interest in wellness, an industry that exploded in the early 2010s at the same time smartphones and social media became a part of everyday life. Perhaps people were searching for ways to really feel the experience of being in one’s body when everything else felt increasingly abstract. The wellness industry cycled through an endless carousel of products meant to cure the most prevalent ailments of the modern age, from fatigue to anxiety to obesity to wrinkles. Alcohol can exacerbate…
AUDIO – SOBER MEN CAN DO THAT – April 4, 2024 – Acting icon Anthony Hopkins is one lamb who refuses to be silenced! After going to hell and back battling addiction issues and depression, insiders dished the Hannibal the Cannibal legend is forging ahead with plans to keep living way beyond 100. The Welsh-born star, 86 — who has four upcoming movies this year alone — regularly posts videos of himself dancing the mambo and cooking at the elegant home he shares with third wife Stella Arroyave, 68, in Los Angeles. “He had this horrible experience but now…
I’LL BET HE GOES TO GA (not Georgia) – April 13, 2024 -The initial federal court appearance by Ippei Mizuhara marked the first time the interpreter has been seen in public since the scandal exploded last month. Shohei Ohtani said he was “very grateful” for the investigation and would focus on baseball going forward. Mizuhara exploited his personal and professional relationship with Ohtani to plunder millions from the two-way player’s account for years, at times impersonating Ohtani to bankers, prosecutors said. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of one count of bank fraud. U.S. Magistrate…
SUGER FREE POOP – April 24, 2024 – Common artificial sweeteners may be causing serious damage to your gut, scientists have warned. Not only that, but according to new research these additives could be transforming otherwise healthy gut bacteria into dangerous agents of disease. Newtame was approved in 2002 and is approximately 7,000 to 13,000 times sweeter than table sugar April 24, 2024 – Common artificial sweeteners may be causing serious damage to your gut, scientists have warned. Not only that, but according to new research these additives could be transforming otherwise healthy gut bacteria into dangerous agents of…
DOUBLE, DOUBLE TOIL AND TROUBLE – April 18, 2024 – A combo of an allergy drug and a blood pressure med appears to lower daily drinking in folks battling severe alcoholism, French researchers report. The two generic drugs are the antihistamine cyproheptadine and prazosin, which treats high blood pressure and urinary urgency, noted a team led by Henri-Jean Aubin, of the Université Paris-Saclay in Villejuif. Aubin’s group thought the drug duo might work against alcohol use disorder because cyproheptadine works on brain cell receptors linked to impulsive behaviors, while prazosin targets receptors associated with cravings. Speaking in an American…
VIDEO – SECOND CHANCES – April 21, 2024 – 13News has learned state regulators have reached a settlement agreement with Landmark Recovery that could allow those troubled recovery centers to get recertified. Landmark closed its treatment centers in Mishawaka, Bluffton and Carmel last summer … The move came after three patients died in a single week at Landmark’s Praxis treatment center in Mishawaka. Following interviews and inspections, FSSA identified serious concerns related to resident safety and 37 items that required a corrective action plan. Landmark has been trying to reopen the addiction treatment centers ever since and has now…
FOR THE LOVE OF CHILD – April 23, 2024 – “My story starts on September 21, 2022 – the day I decided I had to get sober. My main thought I had, which was obviously painful but it moved me enough, was, ‘I don’t want her to get sick in the middle of the night and I can’t help because I am out of my socks. I don’t want her to grow up and feel she can’t come to me’. There were incidents that had happened where I hadn’t been equipped to deal with situations and yet that didn’t…
VIDEO – BOOKS MATTER – April 25, 2024 – From a teenage alcoholic and drug addict to a shining success and celebrating 28 years of sobriety. A Main Line wife and mother details her road to recovery and the lessons she’s learned along the way in a fascinating new book. Aunyea Lachelle sits down with author Tracy Viola on Philly Live. CONTINUE@PhillyLive
AUDIO – MADE IN CHELSEA – April 13, 2024 – “It was four Big Macs, a six-pack of Stella…” Vogue Williams’ husband Spencer Mathews has described how he became an alcoholic whilst working as a banker in London. The former Made In Chelsea star (35), who has now been sober for six years… The TV personality and entrepreneur was a broker for a number of years in his early career and was initiated in a beer drinking competition. Spencer quit booze in 2018 and founded a non-alcoholic spirits company called CleanCo. “We were forced, well not forced, to have…
FIRST PERSON BRAVERY – April 16, 2024 – When I was 14 years old, I became aware that I wanted to feel the effects of alcohol. I had a few drinks at a friend’s house when his parents weren’t home and quickly felt relaxed, uninhibited, and fearless. I was convinced that alcohol was the cure for what bothered me at that time … Twenty years later, I was aware that I was dying of alcoholism. I’ll spare you the details from two decades of active alcoholism, but I will share that my dependency issues got progressively worse. They stole…
AUDIO – LIFE IS NOT FAIR – April 25, 2024 – “I feel like I’ve spent my life wanting, like wanting to be able to tell the story.” Melanie Caturia is a mom of two in her late 40’s who lives in Minocqua. She recalls being a sickly child, but the real trouble didn’t start until she was a teenager. At 19, she started experiencing heat intolerance, a common symptom of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome or POTS. “I loved sun, so that was very weird for me. I loved heat,” she explained. She wouldn’t be diagnosed with POTS until…
NOT JUST WILLIE’S WEED – April 23, 2024 – DRUGS NEVER SEEMED like a problem to Elvie Shane. Dabbling in cocaine, meth, and heroin were all part of the future country singer’s college days in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Even when he got hooked on speed, the dangers didn’t seem real. He could take it or leave it, he figured, a good time for whenever he had the money. With fentanyl and pills flooding communities at the heart of the genre, artists such as Brad Paisley, Elvie Shane, Jaime Wyatt, and others are meeting the crisis in song and in…
AUDIO – SERVICE WITH HIS SMILE – April 7, 2024 – Service workers, including wait staff and bartenders are surrounded by alcohol during their work shifts. The combination of the high-pressure of the profession combined with odd hours and the proximity of alcohol can have potentially dangerous ramifications.According to a 2015 study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the food service and hospitality industry has the highest rates of substance use disorders and third-highest rates of heavy-alcohol use of all employment sectors. Some in the industry are looking to buck that trend and offer help to…
VIDEO – MUSICAL INTERLUDE – 2023 – St Vincent had one of the best gigs at Primavera Sound 2023, here’s why… CONTINUE@YouTube
FAMILY AFFAIR – April 13, 2024 – Drew Barrymore takes the most pride in her sobriety. “I think, for me, stopping drinking is one of the most honoring things I can do to the Barrymore name because we have all been such hedonists,” the 49-year-old star told People in an interview. “Don’t look to me as the pillar of health and wellness and having it all together,” she warned. “It’s just like, you know what? This didn’t work for our family, and I’m going to stop it,” the “Charlie’s Angels” actress explained. “I’m going to be the one to…
VIDEO – TOO MUCH, TOO SOON? – April 23, 2024 – Eva was known on TikTok for posting day-in-the-life type content about 20-somethings in New York … and she also famously created a web series called ‘Club Rat’ about the dating scene. The update comes a few days after Eva’s sister announced her passing on social media. In her tribute, Lila expressed her grief over Eva’s passing. While she wasn’t known for posting about mental health, Eva did share a personal story with an org called Don’t Mind Me … which advocates for folks who are struggling. She revealed…
MISTAKES WERE MADE – April 25, 2024 – Kevin M. Dickau, 35, was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 months in federal prison. He and Dr. Akikur Mohammad of West Hills. CA pleaded guilty to the scheme in 2020, and at that point, Dickau faced a sentence of up to 10 years. Mohammad was previously featured on KTLA as an expert on addiction and alcoholism. Dickau, Mohammad and five others worked together in California and multiple other states to “identify and recruit potential patients … who were addicted to heroin or other drugs and who had robust private health insurance,”…
MORE IS NOT BETTER – April 23, 2024 – The Millennium Health report is based on 4.1 million urine samples collected from people receiving drug addiction care between 2013 and 2023. A key finding: Of the fentanyl-positive urine samples collected, 93 percentcontained other illicit substances as well. A massive survey recently released by a national drug-testing company strongly suggests we are well into the “fourth wave” of the opioid crisis. The three previous waves were driven by 1. prescription opioids, 2. heroin, then 3. fentanyl. The fourth and current wave involves using opioids such as fentanyl combined with other…
IS THAT LONG ENOUGH? – April 12, 2024 – A Florida man is headed to federal prison. He ran a drug-rehab center in our area and after it went out of business, the feds say he was carrying on like business was booming. It’s a massive fraud case involving millions of taxpayer dollars. It’s shocking and it’s surprising that this person lived down the street from me,” said Christina Deems, a Sonoma Isles resident. Deems says it’s hard to believe that Joseph Toro, one of her former neighbors in the exclusive gated Sonoma Isles neighborhood in Jupiter, was at…
HIGHEST FUNCTIONING EVER – April 25, 2024 – Taylor Swift’s song “Fortnight” is getting a lot of attention for lyrics that include the line “I was a functioning alcoholic.” Swift hasn’t said whether she’s singing about herself in the first single from her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” But she’s talked about giving up alcohol in recent months. The singer once toured “like a frat guy,” but stopped drinking as she got in shape for her blockbuster Eras Tour to be able to keep up with its physical demands, she told Time in December 2023. Each concert on…
VIDEO – WRITTEN FROM THE HEART – April 23, 2024 – After her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, the Marblehead mom spent a year working on her sobriety before she was finally able to stop drinking for good. Her first book ‘We Are The Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life’ hit store shelves in early 2020. She gained a significant following on social media and soon launched her own online sobriety support community The Luckiest Club. In 2023, McKowen released her second book Push Off from Here: 9 Essential Truths to Get You Through Life. She’s now working…
A GATHERING OF ANGELS – April 23, 2024 – For the third year, the prestigious UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center hosted the annual Emerging Themes in Behavioral Health Conference. Overflowing with clinicians, counselors, and behavioral healthcare executives. As a dual catalyst for professional evolution and individual well-being, a nourishing blend of expert-led sessions and experiential learning was balanced with powerful networking opportunities and catered meals. As the Platinum Sponsor of Emerging Themes, Montare Behavioral Health is led by JD Kalmenson, the CEO/Founder of this comprehensive brand of mental health treatment facilities across Southern California. Kalmenson believes that…
BEAUTY AND BEASTLY – April 26, 2024 – A cosmetic process known as a “vampire facial” is considered to be a more affordable and less invasive option than getting a facelift, but the process can be a serious health hazard if done in unsanitary conditions, according to a new report. That proved to be the case for three women who likely contracted HIV from receiving vampire facials at an unlicensed spa in New Mexico, making the first known cases of the virus being transmitted during a cosmetic injection procedure, according to the findings published Thursday by the Centers for…
AND HELPS OTHERS – April 19, 2024 – “My dad is a doctor, I grew up in the suburbs and kind of had every advantage. That mattered; it mattered in terms of my addiction and my recovery.” Today, Elswick is an assistant extension professor in the University of Kentucky‘s School of Human Environmental Sciences. He has master’s and doctoral degrees from the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, which includes the school. His work focuses on substance-use prevention and recovery across the state. He is a founding member of Lexington’s Voices of Hope, a substance-use disorder community center…
AUDIO – HEAR THE MUSIC – April 13, 2024 – Scott Simon talks with musician and indie producer Sam Evian about his fourth LP, “Plunge.” Evian says the record is his most personal yet and it touches on themes of family, depression and sobriety. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Indie producer Sam Evian, who has worked with really big acts, like Big Thief, says he is always so intent on making things perfect for other artists. When it’s time to do something for himself, well, he’d like something different. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “JACKET”) SAM EVIAN: (Singing) No matter where you’ve gone,…