STAR FACTOR – Jan. 18, 2022 – Back in 2011, then-16-year-old Janet Devlin peered out at the judges from underneath a mass of hair, looking utterly terrified. Her voice trembling, she explained she was from a small town in Northern Ireland where she spends a lot of time alone, writing songs, and that she felt like she must be dreaming. But as soon as she broke into her beautiful, soft rendition of Elton John ‘s Your Song, she had the audience on her side and the judges captivated. Janet received a standing ovation, and an impressed Gary Barlow told…
Author: Leonard Buschel
VIDEO – TOO MUCH CRITICISM HURTS – Jan. 17, 2022 – In early 2021, Sia previewed her new movie, Music, centered around a non-verbal autistic girl named Music. Former Dance Moms star Maddie Ziegler played the title character. Ziegler has collaborated with Sia several times over the past decade. Sia faced immediate backlash for several reasons. Many people took issue with the fact that Ziegler, a neurotypical person, played an autistic person on screen. A scene from the movie even had to be cut after it featured Ziegler pinned down as a form of restraint, a measure criticized as a…
AUTHORITIES CORRUPT, OR JUST ON THE TAKE? – Jan. 14, 2022 – If the state wouldn’t crack down, local leaders said, Orange County would. County supervisors — save one — embraced the idea. Hopes were high. But today, more than three years later, the envisioned registry does not exist. The idea was that the registry would offer consumer-focused information, not medical advice. “This is really designed just as a start, to have the addiction treatment places provide information on affiliated businesses, so if any conflicts of interest exist, that’s out there,” said Tracy Hughes, then the deputy district attorney…
AND OLD FASHIONED? – Jan. 15, 2022 – I found little help from my own field, which is divided into sometimes clashing schools of thought about how addiction works. As a result, I looked beyond medicine and science to history, philosophy and sociology; addiction is an idea with a long, messy and controversial history, dating back more than half a millennium. That history deepened my understanding of addiction and helped me make sense of my own experiences. Around 500 years ago, when the word “addict” entered the English language, it meant something very different: more akin to a “strong…
VIDEO – GOOD CONVERSATION – Jan. 17, 2022 – If your not a drug addict or kicked the stuff or tried it then you shouldn’t have a say on how it is, they say mental health but you had to get to that space somehow either people brought you there or parents but you just aren’t born and grow up and say i want drugs, something or someone gets you to that point where you go to drugs for a sense of freedom for your mind… more@YouTube
ON A NATURAL HIGH – Jan. 19, 2022 -Up until I turned 26, I spent all my time investing in my career,” the 57-year-old shared. “From 26 on, I’ve invested in me; my spirituality, my recovery, my marriage, my family. A lot of it has been, excuse me, f—ing hard. And no one has a perfect life… but I’m grateful for all of it.” Lowe made his film debut in 1983’s “The Outsiders.” The coming-of-age drama, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, also starred Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise and Matt Dillon. His further skyrocketed to fame with 1985’s “St. Elmo’s…
THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT – Jan. 19, 2022 – I don’t remember how or why I settled on I Am Sober in particular when I decided to stop drinking. I think it was because I liked the design sensibility. And I was panicking. At its core, I Am Sober is really just a fancy stopwatch. You pop in your start date, and it starts counting up. You can pick your particular poison (options range from “alcohol” to “pills” to “self-harm” as well as a “custom” option) and write a pledge, which the app will prompt you to reaffirm…
VIDEO – FROM STIGMA TO STIGMATA – Jan. 17, 2022 – Seivwright said Vermont Department of Health surveys have found 1 in 6 people who recognized they needed help didn’t get it — because they worried stigma would have impacts such as costing them their jobs. The campaign also comes at a critical time, state health officials have said. Fatal overdose numbers from 2021 are still being finalized, but it’s expected to be Vermont’s worst year ever on that front, exceeding the 2020 total, which saw 157 fatal ODs from opioids. Fentanyl was involved in most of those deaths,…
AND SMILES TOO – Jan. 21, 2022 – ERIN FLAVIN Age 43, owner of Honeycomb Salon My dad owned a bar. I remember loving the taste of sips of beer and the smell of the basement there. We would get home from church, and I would make a screwdriver for my parents. It was the way everybody gathered. They played cards and drank. As a 40-something, I got very into nice, natural wines. I made my alcoholism sophisticated. During COVID, I realized that drinking was my only hobby — besides compulsively working and trying to take care of my…
VIDEO – DOPAMINE ANYONE? – Jan. 20, 2022 – There are 100 billion neurons to map, that’s 10-times the amount of stars in the sky. But Kasthuri and his team started their mission in a smaller model: A mouse. “We then compared mice never exposed to cocaine to mice that had one maybe two exposures,” he said. Three days later, thousands of nano-sized slices of mouse brain were magnified under a high-powered electron microscope. The high-resolution images, 100 terabytes, worth of data were then fed to a supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory that translated the information for human consumption. “We…
VIDEO – SIX MONTHS GETS A CHIP – Jan. 20, 2022 – I prob won’t be excited til a larger milestone like at leasssst 5 years, and sometimes I don’t even know if I necessarily won’t ever drink again? I have no idea what I’m doing honestly, but I do know a few things: I now have endless energy, way less anxiety (no more benzos!) and I am *happier* and more present than ever. It’s pretty cool.” And Teigen is excited for what lies ahead. “I look forward to having my full body reset after 1 year, then reevaluating…
“Since beginningless time I have always been free. Birth and death are only a door through which we go in and out. Birth and death are only a game of hide-and-seek. So smile to me and take my hand and wave good-bye.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
THE BLUES – Jan. 12, 2022 – Ripple effects of institutionalized racism, such as disparate access to substance use disorder treatment, racist drug policies, and bias in pain treatment, may also offer answers to why older Black men are disproportionately dying from opioid use, Mason’s group suggested. Ageism in general, they said, is also likely a contributing factor to the annual increases in opioid-related deaths among this age group. Doctors may forego screening for substance use disorder among their older patients because it doesn’t fit into their idea of what it means to be “old.” “Many are Baby Boomers…
PRESCRIBING DISASTER – Jan. 12, 2022 – Drug addiction is a serious and dangerous condition that can lead to many negative consequences if left untreated. When it comes to prescription drug addiction, one of the most common misconceptions is that only people who take illegal drugs become addicted. The truth is that any individual can develop an addiction regardless of whether they use legal or illegal substances. More than three million Americans abuse their prescription painkillers each year. 1. Prescription Drug Abuse is Not Drug Abuse This is one of the most common misconceptions about prescription drug addiction. Many…
NOT IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD – Jan. 11, 2020 – Elsewhere, including in Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Michigan, communities have also thwarted the opening of such facilities. Treatment advocates say the resistance highlights how everyone seems to recognize the need for the facilities amid the ongoing opioid crisis — but bristle at putting them in their neighborhoods. In November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said drug overdoses spiked during the pandemic, registering over 100,000 overdose deaths from April 2020 to April 2021 — a U.S. record for a 12-month stretch. It was an increase of nearly 30%…
PUTTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE TOGETHER – Jan. 12, 2022 – Until now, there has been no directory for experts and authors to locate Addiction/Recovery Treatment Centers that are open to having guest presenters, but SpeakerTunity®, The Speaker & Leader Resource Company is changing that.Jackie Lapin, founder of SpeakerTunity®, is asking Addiction/Recovery Centers that welcome speakers to get listed in the company’s speaker directories at no charge. SpeakerTunity® serves as an information source to introduce centers to potential speakers on any aspect of sober strategies, personal empowerment and health and wellness. Fees, if any, are entirely up to the two…
DRIVING TOWARDS RECOVERY – Jan. 9, 2022 – He, however, stressed that the best way to beat a drug addiction is never to start. According to the 2018 National Drug Use Survey reported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, there are 14.3 million drug users in Nigeria. Out of that figure, 3 million suffer from drug disorders. Drug addiction is a form of drug disorder, according to experts. Sharing his experience with PUNCH HealthWise, Salvage recalled that he started experimenting on cigarettes after watching his father who then was a smoker. “I grew up in a…
COMMUNITY – Jan. 9, 2022 – In its early days Synanon ran on a dime and depended on a ‘pay-it-forward’ model, where recovering addicts helped others through withdrawal pains and shepherded them into the flow of life. Soon it acquired adjacent residential properties to house the increasing numbers of addicts landing on its doorstep. Members created social worlds to sustain recovery, including literacy and art classes, reading groups on Freudian psychoanalysis and Buddhist philosophy, and a nursery where residents cared for each other’s children. Weekly Saturday night parties attracted curious crowds, drawing Hollywood actors, noted intellectuals, politicians and average…
BABIES NEED LOVE – Jan. 10, 2022 – Speaking as a mother and employee in human services, the adverse effects of substance use during pregnancy should be addressed. Developmental impact on the child is almost certain with alcohol-use during pregnancy. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism states, “Prenatal alcohol exposure is a leading preventable cause of birth defects and neurodevelopmental deficits in the United States.” Many individuals with FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders) often go undiagnosed. Those with FASD often experience trouble because they do not have proper accommodations. Later in adulthood, they may struggle to…
VIDEO – NO CORRUPTION HERE – Jan. 10, 2022 – State filings showed the organization was founded in July 2020 and the address was the same as a church in a strip mall off of Interstate 95 in Lumberton, called Greater Hope International Church — a nondenominational institution run by senior pastor Ronald Barnes. “We’re at a time now when it’s time to stop talking and to step up and do something about it,” said Barnes during a town hall the church hosted about the county’s opioid crisis. “It doesn’t seem like there’s been a lot of transparency and…
THE LIGHT SWITCH TOO? – Jan. 12, 2022 – My life was starting to shift completely online, like one of those dystopian tech movies where the protagonist starts identifying more with their on-screen avatar than the real world. I justified it by saying “everything is online, so I have to be too,” but a part of me knew my routine was growing unhealthy. It wasn’t just the hours spent on my phone that bothered me; it was how I spent my time and what it took away from me. I frequently caught myself engaged in doomscrolling at the cost…
VIDEO – HE DID IT THE AA WAY – Jan. 13, 2022 – “I put something like that on there hoping I could encourage someone else to take the leap,” said Gary Schild of Lolo who didn’t go quietly when he decided to take a year off from drinking. “It was a New Year’s resolution, It was about October I just decided it was time to stop. And I made it public on Facebook, like the post because I figured if I had that accountability and all my friends knew that for one year I wasn’t going to drink,”…
STAY OFF THE 13th STEP – Jan. 12, 2022 – “Single Drunk Female” enlisted the help of a sobriety consultant in order to accurately portray what life is like for newly recovering alcoholics. That included one very important rule. “One of the things that came up was treating dating and romance, and dating other people in the program responsibly,” executive producer Daisy Gardner said Wednesday during the upcoming Freeform series’ TCA panel. “A lot of times people recommend that you’re sober for a year in a day before you launch into things. And so that became a thing that…
IT’S FLORIDA JAKE – Jan. 23, 2022 – In 2015, Gov. Rick Scott created a voluntary certification system for sober homes through the Florida Association of Recovery Residences. Concern lies in the word “voluntary.” Sober homes are not inclined to document themselves because the vulnerable nature of their clients is what drives their profits, and being certified cuts down on such opportunities for exploitation. The good news is that state law grants individual counties the right to create a mandatory certification entity for a specified community residence type, such as sober homes, if one does not already exist at…
ONE ON WON – Jan. 13, 2022 – “I had tried so hard to get to that spot and finally be there,” Pola, 45, said. “Every day before that’s just been this vicious cycle of just trying to get my basic needs met while I’m trying to get to my kids, and it’s just a nightmare.” Now a drug and alcohol counselor at Her Place, she’s spent the past three years helping other women in Salem recover from their addictions. Her Place is a transitional living program that provides onsite treatment, transportation, childcare and food for women who have…
I GOT INTO ALCOHOL FOR THE DRINKING – Jan. 12, 2022 – “By asshole. It must be said: I got into alcohol for an asshole, “said the famous singer when asked about how he started his addiction to alcohol. Later, Raphael explained that he started drinking alcohol on airplanes because his sleeping pills were no longer working. In addition, he claimed that he never did it for pleasure.“And then I started doing it with the blissful minibars in the suites, too. I took my pill first and at one point it didn’t work. I was in the middle of…
AUDIO – WE DO RECOVER – Jan. 15, 2022 – Americans often see the more destructive side of addiction, drug crime, people slumped in doorways and family members who are spiraling downward. Less visible are the people who survive the illness and rebuild their lives. “We are literally surrounded by people who are in recovery from a substance-use disorder, but we don’t know it,” Kelly said. Anna Mable-Jones of Laurel, Md., is one of those success stories. In college, she began experimenting with crack cocaine. “That just took me for a total downward spiral,” the now-56-year-old said. Mable-Jones lost…
DANCING THE NIGHT AWAY HEALTHY – Jan. 14, 2022 – A quarter of people surveyed by charity Action on Addiction said their drinking increased in lockdown, and nearly a quarter of people experiencing problems with their intake said they would need support or treatment to resolve them. And now, increasing numbers of DJs are becoming a source of support. Sobriety is no longer uncommon in clubland, and many figureheads in the nightlife industry are speaking about their experiences. One example is Fat Tony, star of a Mixmag documentary in which he revealed “I’ve spent a million pounds on drugs”…
WATCH – IT’S A FAMILY DISEASE – Jan. 12, 2022 – Jamie’s struggles with alcohol began after he became a father in 1977, according to his ex-wife Lynne Spears. “Jamie always enjoyed a beer here and there, but he didn’t start drinking heavily until after Bryan was born,” Lynne, 66, wrote in her 2008 memoir, “Through the Storm,” referencing the former couple’s eldest child. Eventually, Jamie hitting the bottle became too much to bear for Lynne, who filed for divorce in 1979. She ultimately gave her husband a second chance, only to divorce him for good in 2002. Describing…
COMEBACK – Jan. 14, 2022 – In 2020, I thought I knew what needed to be fixed, but I didn’t,” she tells Drum. ”I needed to experience a few hardships for me to know who I truly am and my full potential.” When the lockdown started in 2020, Fiesta found herself in trouble and could not afford to maintain her lifestyle and pursue her music. “So I decided to go back home, where there is no judgment,” she says. At first, she was afraid to go back home and face the problems and she feared being judged by neighbours…