Author: Leonard Buschel

VIDEO – Musical Interlude – Love Song for Charlie Cat & Z.Dog WATCH

STICK WITH THE WINNERS! – April 21, 2026 – Stephen Dansiger is an entrepreneur, therapist, writer and musician. His company Haptech Holdings produces audio-haptic footwear that provides the in concert experience when paired with bluetooth headphones, and has health and wellness applications. His first career was punk rock drummer, then high school teacher, therapist, and now tech co-founder. Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date?A. Alcohol was my best friend. I used everything else on top of it. My sobriety date is 3/9/1989.Q. Is there anything special in your sobriety…

VIDEO – SOBER and Proud of It – April 10, 2026 – At SXSW, Jamie Lee Curtis speaks with Studio 512’s Blake Haynes about her new film Sender, working with Russell Goldman, sobriety advocacy, and her love for Austin. WATCH

TIMES ARE A CHANGING – April 10, 2026 – The term conjures outdated stereotypes about an illness that afflicts 28 million Americans. The term “alcoholic” harkens back to an old model of substance use that sees it as a permanent feature of your personality or even a moral weakness. The term was used in the 1950s and ‘60s, in very early diagnostic systems for psychiatric disorders when we didn’t even have a way of measuring it. Decades of research later, we now have a much better understanding of alcohol problems, how to measure them, and how to treat them effectively.…

ONE MORE TIME – April 13, 2026 – Kevin Federline is supportive of Britney Spears’ decision to receive some professional help. “He is aware of the reports that she has checked into rehab and that if she needs help, he is happy that she is getting help and that the decision appears to be one that she made and not one imposed upon her by others if it was.” Federline’s attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, shared with TMZ on Monday, April 13. “The key is that whatever the recommended treatment plan is that she follows it and completes it.” Over the…

1-2-3 – April 16, 2026 – Venture capitalist Sahil Bloom broke his phone addiction with three relatively simple, if disciplined, and at times painful steps: Using grayscale mode to make the screen less colourful. Creating no-phone zones. Adopting a few strategic rules that made it less easy to just reach for the mobile. April 16, 2026 – Venture capitalist Sahil Bloom broke his phone addiction with three relatively simple, if disciplined, and at times painful steps: Using grayscale mode to make the screen less colourful Creating no-phone zones Adopting a few strategic rules that made it less easy to just…

CAMPUS HIGH LIFE – April 15, 2026 – Sobriety and recovery, though, are not about stepping away from campus life. They’re about finding new ways to connect, build friendships and create meaning. They’re about developing a sense of belonging that supports long-term well-being. When sobriety is recognized and supported as a strength and even a salient identity, more students have the freedom to make choices that work for them. Cornell is taking some new and meaningful steps in this direction. The Recovery in Community film and book series has created opportunities for students, faculty and staff to engage in thoughtful…

INDIFFERENCE, BOREDOM, APATHY – April 16, 2026 – Korrie Stevenson had been feeling off for months. She would look at a gorgeous birthday cake or walk outside to a pink-and-purple streaked sunset, but not really enjoy them. The 51-year-old mother of two had similar feelings about sports, something she had loved since she was a child. But it wasn’t depression, she said. Everything was just “meh.” “Like you’re trying to be excited about a moment but can’t fully connect to it,” she said. Then one day, she was driving near her home in Winter Park, Florida, when the thought came…

ON THE ROCKS – April 16, 2026 – When it comes to American physicians, a study found that 13% of male physicians and 21 % of female physicians would meet the criteria for alcohol misuse. Alcohol misuse by health care providers is associated with poorer work performance and worse patient outcomes, raising the stakes not only for the ones with alcohol dependency but the people they’re caring for. And for health care workers, the pandemic could still be having a lingering effect on the high rates of alcohol use. The deep trauma of those years persists, medical work remains very…

COOL THINGS? – April 2026 – Cindy Kaye Jewelry Gold Engraved Annum Medallion My friend Blake told me his mother’s friend had started a sobriety jewelry line and wanted to send me something, and I was very touched. She asked for my sobriety date, and it arrived engraved on the edges. I used to carry my five-year AA chip around, but it ends up living at the bottom of your bag with loose Tic Tacs and pills. This one has a home. If you’re like us, you’ve probably wondered what everyday stuff famous people add to their carts, like hair…

KEPT COMING BACK – April 12, 2026 – “I remember my mom popped on the screen, and she was like, ‘Peter, it’s really hard to be your mom. It’s not a fun job,” the Saturday Night Live alum recalled of the virtual visit. “I was still, like, newly sober, [thinking], ‘Well, you’re not f**king that special. What do you do?’” Pete is the son of Amy Davidson and Scott Davidson, the latter who died in the line of duty while responding to the September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City. During his rehab call with Amy, the comedian finally…

“Why did I come into this world?” – April 14, 2026 – Marijuana use seems to be more popular (or at least more openly talked about) than ever. Regardless of whether you’re on the gummy bandwagon, you might wonder how it really affects your brain after the buzz wears off. Long-term cannabis use has also been associated with changes in brain volume. This is most pronounced in people who started using cannabis in adolescence, when the brain was still developing. “Cannabinoid exposure during that developmental window probably interferes with some of those normal brain development functions,” Schacht said. Read More

BUT IT’S SO POPULAR – April 16, 2026 – A widely used artificial sweetener may not be as biologically “inert” as once believed. Research has raised concerns that a little-known chemical linked to sucralose, the main ingredient in Splenda, can damage DNA and interfere with key processes in the body. Splenda is one of the most common sugar substitutes worldwide. It is found in diet sodas, sugar-free desserts, protein products, and many low-calorie or “no sugar added” foods. It is also sold in small packets for sweetening coffee and tea. Sucralose itself is hundreds of times sweeter than table sugar,…

“Never argue with someone whose TV is bigger than their bookshelf.”  – Emilia Clarke, b. October 1986

AUDIO – REALLY? – April 9, 2026 – Addiction Recovery Care is under investigation by the FBI for alleged Medicaid fraud. Prosecutors say they bilked taxpayers out of millions of dollars using questionable billing practices, even allegedly falsifying medical records. Here & Now’s Scott Tong speaks with Alex Acquisto, who reported on the investigation for the Lexington Herald-Leader and ProPublica. LISTEN

YOU SNOOZE YOU LOSE – April 5, 2026 – I’m a born snoozer. I snooze at levels most people couldn’t dream of (because they’re awake, unlike me). After 20 or so years of use, some back-of-the-envelope math tells me that I’ve probably hit my alarm clock’s snooze button somewhere on the order of 10,000 times. More often than I’d like to admit … Though I’ve always known my sleep habits could stand to be healthier, I never considered it a real problem until recently, because of the confluence of a few factors: For a lot of people like me with…

DRUNK ON GREED – April 7, 2026 – In medicine, we like to believe that progress is linear. That once a patient stabilizes, regains lost skills, and returns to work, the hardest part is behind them. But in addiction care, stability is fragile because the systems supporting patients are weak. Recently, I sat with a patient who has done everything we ask of people in recovery. She has been abstinent for years. She attends visits. Her urine drug screens are consistently appropriate. She works. She parents. She plans for the future. And yet, halfway through our appointment, her voice changed,…

VIDEO – GO NATURAL! – April 6, 2026 – Dr. John Downs, director of the Virginia Poison Center at VCU, said 7-OH is related to kratom, but it is not the same thing. Kratom comes from a plant native to Southeast Asia. Downs said 7-OH is developed in a lab as a concentrated form of an active compound found in kratom and that concentration is where the danger lies. Products are sold in packages labeled 250, 320, or even 500 milligrams. One package we saw contained five pills, each listed as 100 milligrams. Fisher said that’s a recipe for disaster…

EUPHORIA TRAGEDY – April 9, 2026 – Cloud passed away in 2023 at the age of 25 from a drug overdose after playing sensitive drug dealer Fezco in the hit HBO show. The industry and beyond mourned the young actor, whose father died of cancer shortly before his death. As a result, the Euphoria star turned to drugs while in a “grief-stricken” state, according to his mother, Lisa. Around the time of his passing, the director recalled attempts to keep the young star clean, sharing, “I could always feel that he didn’t want [sobriety] as much as we all wanted…

AUDIO – NPR FRESH AIR – April 6, 2026 – They found dispensary openings in states with legal marijuana were tied to significant reductions in all opioid outcomes. And they found that patients who were given opioid prescriptions received less when medical marijuana was available.University of Georgia researchers say in the American Journal of Health Economics that marijuana has a role to play in reducing the impact of the opioid epidemic. LISTEN

VIDEO – WHY NOT 60? – April 9, 2026 – A woman who gave up alcohol for 30 days has unveiled the major changes being teetotal had on her face in before and after photographs. YouTuber Yoga with Paige set herself the challenge of staying off the sauce for a whole month back in 2024 and seeing what effect it would have on her mind and body. She said: “My drinking hasn’t been super, super bad over the past few years. I’ve been kind of increasing my dosage. I definitely had a dependency on it.” In a series of videos,…

NEVER GIVE UP – April 2026 – I’d been taken in by all the public talk of mushrooms and their “sacred” and “transcendental” use; of their remedial power, which seemed to arouse an idiosyncratic “mystical consciousness” in the suffering and addicted. There were the familiar tales of sin and redemption, of shipwrecked lives made brand spanking new, of Beckettian agonists discovering bliss in life’s end zone. Still, I’d come reluctantly, with a trailing sense of dread, having flown in the night before — from Boston, where I lived with my wife and children — at the urging of Mary, who’d…

AUDIO – GOD SHOT ANYONE? – April 7, 2026 – Kennedy said. “Many addicts are just biologically hardwired to drink or drug themselves to death. The only thing that has been shown to overcome that is a spiritual fire.” Kennedy drew a line between faith and formal religion. “That doesn’t mean religion,” he said, “but it means they have to have some kind of profound spiritual realignment in order to have longterm sobriety.” The faith-based push is one piece of a broader initiative Kennedy announced Feb. 2 to overhaul federal addiction and homelessness policy. Kennedy said the current system is…

BULLSHIT OR REAL? – April 6, 2026 – “Opioid pain medications are essential for medical purposes, but can lead to addiction and overdose,” said Nora D. Volkow, M.D., director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). “Developing a highly effective pain medication without these drawbacks would have enormous public health benefits.” The researchers turned their attention to nitazenes, a little-studied group of synthetic opioids. These compounds target mu opioid receptors, which play a central role in how opioids affect the brain and nervous system. Nitazenes were largely abandoned in the 1950s because of their extreme potency. In this study,…

31 WITH AA – April 17, 2026 – I am a very lucky man. Lucky that I’ve been able to attend AA meetings for 31 years, without being an alcoholic. I smoked marijuana every day for 26 years, and I did do cocaine for 13 years and I loved Vodka, Heineken, and Chinaco Tequila. But I never qualified for Alcoholics Anonymous’ “only requirement is a desire to stop drinking.” In my life, I never got drunk accidentally, or got drunk alone … I did get drunk but only after I planned to and I was never alone. In fact I…

NO MORE BOMBAY GIN – April 11, 2026 – Frequently used in social settings, alcohol affects the body in ways that vary by individual. Not every metabolism is equally equipped to manage the physiological strain of regular consumption. In a conversation with Dr.Saxena, Rubina Dilaik explained why she decided to quit alcohol for good. “I used to enjoy the high, but my mood, my health and my mental awareness were so much affected. I completely gave up drinking. Teen din tak I used to have a bad headache, raat ko neend nahi aati thi (For 3 days, I used to…

VIDEO – DANGER ‘ROUND THE DOOR – April 7, 2026 – When you’re mixing other drugs like xylazine or medetomidine with fentanyl, that has a compounding effect,” Dickey explained. “It can lead to low blood pressure, shortness of breath, and decreased heart rate.” These effects significantly increase the chances of overdose—particularly among people who may not know what substances they are consuming. “We’ve submitted samples with medetomidine, with xylazine, and with both,” Dickey said. “That’s a very scary trend when you’re seeing both of those substances—dangerous enough on their own—being mixed in with other drugs.” St. Louis County Public Health…

VIDEO – MUSICAL INTERLUDE – 2,119,839 views – Jul 5, 2016 – ‘What The World Needs Now Is Love’ is the charity single sung by Broadway for Orlando, an all-star group of artists from the theatre and pop world: Sara Bareilles, Idina Menzel, Audra McDonald, Gloria Estefan, Carole King, Sarah Jessica Parker, and many more. WATCH

STICK WITH THE WINNERS! – April 14, 2026 – Eric Lapp is the Founder and CEO of The Raleigh House, a Colorado based behavioral health organization he established more than 17 years ago. Eric combines lived experience with entrepreneurial leadership to build scalable, whole person behavioral health programs serving clients from Colorado and across the United States. Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date?A. I started drinking when I was 13, and that quickly led to stimulants at 16. I became heavily addicted. When I was not using stimulants…

SHE CHOSE HERSELF – April 8, 2026 – After turning 50, Garth says, “The ‘I choose me’ phrase just came back to me and it started to really resonate.” Garth, who has since found sobriety, confidence and a new sense of purpose is leaning into the “I Choose Me” movement with a podcast and her new memoir. “Even though it took a while, I’m finally at a place comfortable choosing myself,” she says. If it seems unlikely that someone like Garth would spend most of her life struggling with self-worth and imposter syndrome, she explains that — unlike Kelly Taylor…