THORNY FEEDBACK – May 12, 2022 – To the Editor: Maia Szalavitz claims that forced treatment for addiction doesn’t work. In our family’s tragic experience, neither does the friendly persuasion that she advocates. We tried several times to get the courts to mandate treatment for our drug-abusing and mentally ill son. When psychiatrists were finally given enough time to diagnosis him, bureaucracy prevented mandating treatment. Instead, he swung month to month between being a model patient and behaving dangerously out of control. We believe that if the courts hadn’t failed him, he’d be alive today. Drug addiction and mental illness…
Author: Leonard Buschel
WALKING HAND IN HAND – May 14, 2022 – By this point — at the recommendation of her counsellor — she had given the voice a name and started to speak to it. She called the voice “the bitch.” saying it tried to control all aspects of her life. Kyla says the voice told her she was “worthless, stupid, unworthy of love, unworthy of living a full or happy life, unworthy of food, ugly, unwanted and so much more.” She kept a journal and shared some of her entries: “[The bitch] convinced me that I did not deserve to be…
A HORRIBLE LOSS – May 15, 2022 – Just weeks before her death, Lauren asked her father, Michael Cole, if he thought that someday, when he retired, he might help her in her quest to make sure people fighting substance use disorder have access to resources and support systems. In his own words, “And I said ‘Yeah, yes I will.’ “ Cole has fulfilled his promise, naming his nonprofit “Lauren’s Wish.” Located in Hazel’s House of Hope, Lauren’s Wish provides an often overlooked service: Giving people a place to stay after they’ve been discharged from the hospital following an overdose,…
AUDIO – IT’S WHAT’S ON THE OUTSIDE THAT COUNTS – May 11, 2022 – …guzzling chips, chocolate, chocolate chips, peanut butter, peanut butter chocolate chips, chocolate peanut butter ice cream sprinkled with peanut butter chocolate chips. There were a few bad moments, over the course of a few bad months, that led me to download the weight-loss app. These will probably sound trivial to anyone who is not me, and of course theyare trivial — but we are talking about bodies here, and about my body in particular, and one of the defining features of having a body is…
SELLING, BUYING AND DYING – May 10, 2022 – These doctors were among 239 medical professionals ranked by Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals as its top prescribers of opioids during the height of the pain pill epidemic, in 2013. That year, more than 14,000 Americans died of prescription opioid overdoses. More than a quarter of those prescribers — 65 — were later convicted of crimes related to their medical practices, had their medical licenses suspended or revoked, or paid state or federal fines after being accused of wrongdoing, according to a Washington Post analysis of previously confidential Mallinckrodt documents and emails, along with…
VIDEO – HER FUTURE IS OVER – May 12, 2022 – A small-town South Carolina family found their daughter dead in her bedroom after she took a $3 pill that turned out to be fentanyl. Lana Hooker-Hashem was an honor student, a singer and could speak multiple languages. more@WRAL
SAVE AN ADDICT – May 5, 2022 – Godvin sprang into action. With the help of a network of volunteers, she gave away naloxone (often referred to by its brand name, Narcan) at Atmosphere’s shows across the country. It wasn’t an easy task, as naloxone is often difficult and expensive to source, and each state has its own rules regarding its distribution. But the efforts were quickly and obviously fruitful. “At the show in Albuquerque, we literally saved people’s lives,” Godvin says. “The harm reductionists there reversed two overdoses: one during the show, one in the parking lot after.”…
THE CONSULTANT – A LOOK BACK @AUGUST 5, 2018 – Two months after the news conference announcing the terms of the settlement, the Purdue executives flew to Abingdon for their sentencing hearing. The RAPP parents congregated there, too, marching outside the federal courthouse in the rain and clutching posters of their dead children. They took turns on the witness stand, trying to convey to the judge the depth of their losses and their ongoing grief, as well as their concern for an epidemic unleashed. Lee Nuss, who’d even brought along a mini-urn containing some of her son’s ashes, shook it…
COMIC? – May 9, 2022 – Ever since he could, Tony struggled with substance abuse as he has tackled alcoholism in the past. But in the most recent Iron Man run, Tony’s life had gotten more complicated with his vices and proved that they are symptoms of a worse issue. In Iron Man #19 (by Christopher Cantwell, CAFU, Frank D’Armata and VC’s Joe Caramagna), Tony is shown left with nothing but the consequences of his actions. To stop Michael Korvac from destroying the universe, Tony had to fight with a broken neck, with only morphine left to kill the pain,…
GO WATCH A GOOD FILM – May 10, 2022 – One of the unfortunate side effects of how The Lost Weekend grapples with alcoholism comes in the more heightened aspects of Ray Milland’s Oscar-winning lead performance. He’s not terrible as Don Birnam, but he’s one of the key parts of The Lost Weekend let down by being made in this era of American cinema. While some leading men in the 1940s opted to take a cue from the groundbreaking work of Humphery Bogart by adhering to more restrained performances, Milland’s portrayal of Birnam is much more traditional. More often…
VIDEO – THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS – May 11, 2022 – But recent studies showing great promise in psychedelics are prompting startups to develop new health drugs in the space. Venture capitalists are also taking note. Dr. Carolyn Rodriguez from the Stanford University School of Medicine explained that traditional treatment methods from Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac and cognitive behavioral therapy don’t always work for some patients. Psychedelics are showing immense potential as an antidote for those who are suffering. Rodriguez shared the story of a young patient called John who suffered from OCD and intrusive thoughts that…
SINGING WITH THE ANGELS NOW – May 12, 2022 – “We’re aware that although grieving the loss of a wife and a mother, we are, in an uncanny way, a public family,” Ms. Judd said. “So that’s really the impetus for this timing. Otherwise, it’s obviously way too soon. So that’s important for us to say up front.” Naomi Judd and her other daughter, Wynonna Judd, dominated the country music charts in the 1980s as the mother-daughter duo the Judds. Naomi Judd, 76, died on April 30, a day before the duo was inducted into the Country Music Hall…
VIDEO – SISTER MORPHINE GO HOME – May 13, 2022 – DeCurtis told the outlet that there was also a significance behind the album’s title as the “Exile” part means they were tax exiles. The band fled England to avoid taxes in 1971 while making the album in the basement of Villa Nellcôte with Jimmy Miller. The mansion was located off the Mediterranean Sea, where Richards lived with then-partner Anita Pallenberg and their son Marlon. The band went on to have another problem, which was going to “whorehouses” after recording early in the morning. “The whole environment had a kind…
GO WATCH A GOOD FILM – May 9, 2022 – Sofia Black-D’Elia’s performance as Sam is remarkable for capturing the all-over-the-map mood swings of her character’s early sobriety. As Sam’s sponsor keeps telling her, she’s regaining access to emotions and sensations that she’s been numbing for more than a decade. Ally Sheedy, as the woman Sam calls her “smother,” is a bit of a cartoon character at first but over the season emerges as her own woman with her own story. We should hope that Single Drunk Female finds an audience among the young people cited in all those medical…
VIDEO – ADDICTS’ LIVES MATTER – 2022 – Leonard Buschel is the author of the new book, HIGH: Confessions of a Cannabis Addict. He is a Certified Substance Abuse Counselor, and he is the founder of Writers In Treatment whose primary purpose is to promote treatment as the best first step solution for addiction, alcoholism and other self-destructive behaviors. Leonard is also the director of the 13 year old REEL Recovery Film Festival & Symposium, and for six years has been the editor/publisher of the weekly Addiction/Recovery eBulletin. He also directs and produces the annual Experience, Strength and Hope Awards…
VIDEO – BECAUSE ADDICTION IS LAME – May 15, 2022 – Doherty explained more about how he had “managed to somehow keep on the straight and narrow”, and said that his experience of lockdown in Normandy “completely separated [him] from England and from addiction”. “I was getting clean. I suppose there was just so much recklessness for such a long period of time and not really caring what anyone else thought that it reverses, and all of a sudden you go from having no pressure to being hyper-sensitively aware of this new expectation,” he said. “I think the creative process…
“When the unfertilized egg is expelled each month, has someone died? Should we mourn all those spontaneous miscarriages?” ―Carl Sagan, Billions & Billions: (Nov. 9, 1934 – Dec. 20, 1996)
THE AMERICAN WAY? – May 3, 2022 – The data showed deaths in which opioids were involved increased from 5.2 to 33.9 per 100,000 Indigenous Americans in total. “These findings highlight existing inequities in drug related deaths and may point to broader systemic factors that disproportionately affect members of [American Indian and Alaska Native] communities,” researchers said in a statement. “While the type of opioid driving these trends has changed over the years, many underlying social factors that drive these patterns have not,” researchers said. The study found that death rates due to synthetic opioids like fentanyl have rapidly increased…
NOTHING? – April 30, 2022 – Dr Hohwy says there’s value in studying the underlying cognitive processes at play, so we can work with our consciousness to shift our thinking. “Whenever we have a change in our conscious states, or some kind of transformative experience, whether grief, or through meditation, or taking psychedelics … something must be happening in the brain. “You can’t have a change in your consciousness without at the same time something changing in the brain, in the cognitive processing of information and beliefs that you have.” It’s those changes that Dr Hohwy is hopeful can be…
VIDEO – TAKING A STAND – May 6, 2022 – Despite her success and show of range on Saturday Night Live, Aidy Bryant was only offered mediocre and offensive roles. She told AdWeek, “There was one where — and I don’t think it has ever seen the light of day — a man was in prison and the other guys in prison were like, ‘You’ve got to get an ugly girl to be your prison wife and she’ll come and bring you food and have sex with you!’ And then they were like, ‘And that would be you.’” She…
FROM ONE COMES THE MANY – March 21, 2022 – Jeremy: In your new book, Probable Impossibilities, you talk about a remarkable moment you had as a boy, when you had this experience of “nothingness,” as you put it. Could you share that anecdote with us? Alan: I grew up in a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. One day when I was around nine years old, I had just heard a train go by, and suddenly I had this feeling of being transported into outer space, and being connected with the cosmos. I felt like the infinite time before I was…
IS IT COVERED BY INSURANCE? – May 6, 2022 – Yet despite its promise, the use of injectable buprenorphine remains fairly limited, especially compared with other forms of addiction medication. Researchers have yet to publish studies comparing different ways to administer buprenorphine. Buprenorphine, one of three medications approved in the U.S. to treat opioid use disorder, works by binding to opioid receptors in the brain and reducing cravings and withdrawal symptoms. And because it occupies those receptor sites, buprenorphine keeps other opioids from binding and ensures that if a patient takes a high dose of a drug like heroin or…
ANTI-ANTIDEPRESSANTS – April 29, 2022 – Acceptance of the idea that a chemical imbalance causes depression transformed the public’s comfort level about taking antidepressants. With a belief that a chemical imbalance caused their depression, accompanied by repeatedly hearing that Prozac, Zoloft, and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants “work to correct this imbalance,” it seemed irresponsible not to take these antidepressants. So between 1988 (when the first of the SSRIs, Prozac, hit the market) and 2008, the rate of antidepressant use in the United States increased nearly 400 percent. By 2013, 16.7 percent of American adults reported filling…
ONE DAY AT A TIME – Feb. 10, 2022 – When it comes to restoring energy, it’s all about balance. “Practically every nutrient plays a role in energy production,” says nutrition therapist Ian Marber. “Asking which nutrient to look for or which food to eat to get more energy is like asking which part of an aircraft makes it fly.” The process of making energy is complex – but a good place to start when talking about it is the mitochondria. These are found in nearly every cell in the body and play a pivotal role in energy production.…
YOU ARE READING THIS ARTICLE – May 6, 2022 – Sometimes the TikTok algorithm shows us things we like, sometimes it doesn’t. Every time we see something we like, our brain produces a little hit of dopamine. This makes it easier to fall into a loop of endless scrolling, searching for the next little dopamine hit. Dr. Julie Albright, a professor at the University of South Carolina, told Forbes that this is a psychological term called “random reinforcement.” Many social media platforms use a similar formula to keep users engaged. The TikTok algorithm is set up to track viewing…
LIFE GOES ON – May 5, 2022 – Taking to his social media grid, he joyously posted: ‘I DONE IT!!! [sic] He also went on to add an screenshot from his sobriety counter app which tracked his days into his recovery. Kirk’s proud achievement comes after he paid tribute to his late father with a touching tattoo last week. He shared a rare Instagram post with his 427k Instagram followers, showing his fresh ink of an anchor with ‘Dad 21-1-21’ written on it. Kirk admitted he still feels the impact of his beloved father’s death, while revealing the new tattoo…
THE TEST YOU WANT TO TAKE – May 6, 2022 – “We hope all the states would come to realize the dangers of contamination are so high and that fentanyl test strips empower a person taking drugs to know whether they have fentanyl,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. Street versions of fentanyl, an approved painkiller that’s being produced illegally, largely come into the U.S. from Mexico. Fentanyl is up to 100 times as powerful as morphine. It is commonly found in what is sold as heroin…
ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK – May 6, 2022 – Once COVID hit, I knew quarantining and the way I drink would not work well together…to say the least,” Leah said at the time in an interview with Us Weekly. “Not drinking during the pandemic has been a complete gift to me, and the nine years of living booze-free has made the transition much easier to deal with. I am so incredibly touched by the outpouring of love and support on social media. I want to remove the stigma and shame surrounding addiction and mental health issues as…
MEDIA: BOOK REVIEW – April 26, 2022 – Weinstein’s incarceration followed a decades-long career of abuse, and is inextricably linked to the launch of the #MeToo movement, when women publicly named their powerful predators and asked us all to think about what kind of society we wanted to live in. This type of social pressure is one that O’Neil classifies as productive, one that “punches up” in the service of justice. Larry Kramer and Rosa Parks punched up; Gandhi too. A brief reminder that none of them did their work on the internet. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter…
REHAB RESPONSIBILITY – May 6, 2022 – So, specifically, this “bill of rights” will alert folks that they must be informed of all aspects of recommended treatment, including the option of no treatment at all, treatment risks and expected results; are to be treated by licensed and certified providers with qualified staff; receive an individualized, outcome-driven treatment plan; receive support, education and treatment for their families and loved ones; are free from mental and physical abuse, exploitation, coercion and physical restraint; and get information on how to file official complaints with state regulators. Marketing materials must be accurate and…