VULPINE VALIDATION – Sept. 1, 2021 – “I knew this was a moment that was outside the mundane…this fox just appears and pulls me off the edge, away from that precipice.” The powerful encounter with her friend fox had broken the “spell” and pulled her back into the world. “It could have been a mental health worker that popped out of the bushes. It was the same sort of rescue. The moment is the inspiration behind Everett’s memoir where she details her experiences in the mental health system. The book began as a collection of songs, poems, essays and…
Author: Leonard Buschel
WATCH IT – THE POWER OF BOOZE – Sept. 2, 2021 – “This demonstrates that whenever we consume alcohol, it is presumably having a nearly immediate effect on the electrical workings of our hearts,” Gregory Marcus, an author of the study and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told The New York Times. While the study links alcohol consumption to a higher chance of atrial fibrillation, it adds that this study is evidence that preventative behavior can enforce positive health outcomes. “Individual [atrial fibrillation] episodes were associated with higher odds of recent alcohol consumption,…
WE DON’T NEED NO BITTERS – Sept. 3, 2021 – ‘AA started from a meeting between two seemingly hopeless alcoholics in 1935. Today AA has approximately three million members worldwide and the success of AA in Great Britain has helped many thousands of people to recover from alcoholism. ‘We hope that this exhibition will give an understanding of our history and how AA continues to offer support to anyone who suffers from alcoholism.’ AA’s public information liaison officer for the south east said: ‘AA has helped thousands of people within Portsmouth and the surrounding area. There are daily meetings…
PARTY ’TIL YOUR SOBER – Sept. 3, 2021 – “I just grew up around drinking,” Howes said. “Most of my aunts and uncles are all alcoholics … That’s something I took up with them. They were allowing me to drink as a young teenager, and I drank heavily with them on the weekends and stuff. I guess at the time I thought it was normal. “And since I work in the trades, every day after work you get home, you go out with the boys and you start to drink with them. That’s what you’re supposed to do.”It started…
RECOVERY IS ETERNAL – Sept. 3, 2021 – When I walked out of that jail on Dec. 31, 2006, the seeds had been planted that would ultimately grow into my desire to help those fighting similar battles and to show them there is hope, there is redemption, and there is healing. Without asking for help and finding my own recovery, none of my running success, let alone my personal or professional wellbeing, would be possible. Today, I’ve completed more than 100 marathons and ultra-marathons, including 10 Boston Marathons, and serve as the director of active engagement for Herren Project.…
ADDICTED TO WRITING ABOUT DRUGS – Sept. 3, 2021 – “I’m attracted to topics that cross boundaries and genres,” he says, and stories about drugs—who takes them, and how they experience them—offered avenues into diverse disciplines, “from neuroscience to anthropology, psychiatry to art, pharmacology to social history.” Jay has since explored these linkages in several books, including High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture (2010) and Emperors of Dreams: Drugs in the Nineteenth Century (2012), and in exhibitions he has curated of art and visual culture. Jay has been drawn especially to histories of drugs and mental illness,…
THE DOCTOR IS ALWAYS IN – Sept. 4, 2021 – As mental health awareness improves, there comes a troubling trend of young people diagnosing themselves with a mental illness, which can be a mood, personality, or anxiety disorder, but can also range to disabilities like autism or Tourette’s. And while some may relish finally being able to relate to feelings that they’re having, others might be creating new problems in their own minds. This is mental illness and disability appropriation: the perfect marriage between the rise in mental health awareness in the midst of an 18-month–long pandemic and the…
THE RICH GET RICHER – Sept. 5, 2021 – On Wednesday, the court approved a deal for the dissolution of the opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma, which kicked off the opioid epidemic two decades ago with its illegal drive to sell a high-strength painkiller, OxyContin. Purdue’s owners, members of two branches of the now-notorious Sackler family, are estimated to have made more than $10bn from the drug – even as the opioid crisis claimed more than 600,000 lives, with the toll climbing higher by the year. Astonishingly, the Sacklers seem to have been able to work the bankruptcy process to…
JUST LIKE CLARK – Sept. 3, 2021 – The blonde beauty – who now has six-month – old daughter Ocean with TV producer Randall – admits she couldn’t have put down the bottle without the unwavering love and support of her man. In an interview with In Touch Weekly magazine, she said: “When we first started dating, it was all fun and games, Things progressed with my alcoholism very quickly. I put him through a lot, but I’ve found a partner whose shown me unconditional love.” The reality TV star recently released her book ‘Give Them Lala’ in which…
WATCH – REGULATE IT! IT’S NOT COCAINE ANYMORE Sept. 6, 2010 – Laurie Perez reports from Hollywood where the comedy community is struggling with the loss of well-known comic Fuquan “Fu” Johnson who, along with two others overdosed on what was reportedly fentanyl laced cocaine. Comedian and model Kate Quigley, who was also there, is expected to recover. more@CBSLA
WATCH – CROOKS OFF THE HOOK – Sept. 1, 2021 – Drain said it was clear the wrongful marketing of the company’s opioid products contributed to the country’s addiction crisis, which touched every corner of the country. “That makes the bankruptcy case before me highly unusual and complex,” said Drain, who spent more than six hours reading his ruling from the bench. The plan, which Purdue values at more than $10 billion, dissolves the drugmaker and shifts assets to a new company not controlled by Sackler family members. The new company will be owned by a trust run to…
FOR CLINICIANS ONLY – August 31, 2021 – The study found that manualized EAT-PTSD shows promise as a potential new intervention for veterans with PTSD. It appears safe, feasible, and clinically viable. These preliminary results encourage examination of EAT-PTSD in larger, randomized controlled trials. The study was conducted from July 2016 to July 2019. Sixty-three treatment-seeking veterans with PTSD enrolled. PTSD diagnosis was ascertained using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5, Research Version (SCID-5-RV) and confirmed using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-5). Mean age was 50 years, and 23 patients (37%) were women. Clinician and self-report measures of PTSD…
THEY’RE BIKERS NOT PIKERS – August 31, 2021 – However, the unnamed informant later alerted the FBI, who then had an undercover agent pose as an assassin to meet up with Braylovsky to clarify his intentions on the matter, the New York Post said. Braylovsky’s meeting with the undercover agent was tense, with him constantly asking about how he knew the informant, and bemoaning about his situation. “So, I’m just, you know, in a f****d-up place… it’s hard for me to trust anybody,” he said to the undercover agent. The covert agent pressed on and asked Braylovsky what he…
HAPPY DAY – Sept. 2, 2021 – Under a bill signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker last month, students who decide to take a mental health day will not be required to provide their school with a doctor’s note and will be able to make up any work that was missed on their day off. “Having this now for all students across the state will be really beneficial, especially with what’s going on with COVID,” State Rep. Barbara Hernandez, who co-sponsored the bill, told the Journal-Courier. “Many students feel stressed, and have developed anxiety and depression because they’re…
NO COMING BACK – August 31, 2021 – On the North Fork, the dead were not hardened addicts but mostly recreational users, police said, seeking a fleeting high. Behind the brief descriptions in the police reports were rich and varied lives: a sometime jewelry maker from Tehran who loved heavy metal music, and a restaurant worker and fashion plate rarely seen without his gold lamé boots. A Jamaican chef with a special knack for sourdough, and a landscaper who always answered the phone with a joke. A woman who loved goth makeup, whose mother called her “noodle.” A new…
WHEN ONE MONTH IS NEVER ENOUGH – Sept. 1, 2021 – Now in its 32nd year, Recovery Month celebrates the gains made by those in recovery, just as we celebrate improvements made by those who are managing other health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. Each September, Recovery Month works to promote and support new evidence-based treatment and recovery practices, the emergence of a strong and proud recovery community, and the dedication of service providers and community members across the nation who make recovery in all its forms possible. more@RecoveryMonth
LISTEN – FROM SELLING DRUGS TO SELLING MEDICINE – Sept. 2, 2010 – All cigarette companies know the industry that established their fortunes is fading, as smoking rates decline worldwide. Most are invested in vaping and e-cigarettes. But no Big Tobacco firm has been as aggressive as Philip Morris International in seeking out entirely new ways of making money. The tobacco giant’s new goal has led to a buying spree of drug-delivery firms in recent weeks — stirring up sharp criticism and skepticism from doctors, scientists and health officials who distrust the tobacco industry, which for decades denied smoking…
WATCH – “A SAINT AND A SINNER,” BY STEPHEN DONNELLY – Sept. 1, 2021 – “What is a man’s life worth if he’s judged solely by his worst days?” National Recovery Month answers the question Donnelly posed in “A Saint and a Sinner” by reminding us those who are seeking treatment or have sought treatment have better days ahead. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Stephen Donnelly spent two decades as a Roman Catholic priest. He battled drug addiction and alcohol addiction during that time, although he has been sober for 19 years. He continues to be active in Alcoholics Anonymous, assisting…
NO MORE CHASING – Sept. 2, 2021 – “I’m finding it hard to love myself,” he sings on ”My Life.” On “Lonely,” he offers: “These days, I’m becoming everything I hate.” The song ”Dull Knives” has Reynolds’ almost screaming in anguish: “Won’t someone please save my life?” and one song has the sing-along chorus: “It’s OK to be not OK.” The album was written over a three-year period and much happened in Reynolds’ life. He separated from wife Aja Volkman, but the couple reunited in late 2018 after a seven-month break and welcomed a fourth child, son Valentine, the…
“I celebrate everyone’s religious holidays. if it’s good enough for the righteous, it’s good enough for the self-righteous, I always say.” —Bette Midler
MEDIA: NEW BOOK TO BUY – Sept. 3, 2021 – A page-turning and poignant memoir that draws back the curtains in the fight to bring the fraudulent peddlers of OxyContin to justice. Beth Macy, bestselling author of Dopesick A dramatic and unprecedented view of what really happened inside the multibillion-dollar bankruptcy of OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma . . . Unsettled will stay with you long after the last page. Gerald Posner, New York Times bestselling author of Pharma and God’s Bankers A propulsive tale that calls out corporate greed, money-hungry lawyers, and complicit government bureaucrats. Eric Eyre, Pulitzer Prize winner…
BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS – August 26, 2021 – It is a plant-based, gluten and allergen-free meal that has his three favorite breakfast go-tos — oats, protein and vitamins, plus minerals and Omega-3 fatty acids. Chernow spent over a year testing the formula, which comes in three flavors, including chocolate, blueberry-banana and vanilla. To help Chernow tap into the industry, he brought on former RX Bar chief marketing officer Victor Lee to lead the brand’s go-to-market strategy. The PrOATagonist comes in a box of seven for $34, and can be obtained via a monthly subscription of $33. He is also…
WATCH – NATURE HEALS – August 26, 2021 – Mills describes the project as “Blackfoot helping Blackfoot.” The camps will be led by Blackfoot people and include traditional healing and ceremony. He hopes to have activities such as horseback riding and hiking, to have elders come in for ceremonies, and to have sweat lodges once a week. Recruited to help are Melissa Many Fingers and Cody Fox. Both are former addicts who spend their days in Galt Gardens handing out food, water and Naloxone to those struggling. “I’m seeing a lot of people struggling with addiction and alcohol,” said…
DOUBLE WINNERS – August 26, 2021 – Meanwhile, a similar proposal is moving through California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature. It’s already passed the Senate with no opposition and is pending in the Assembly, where it has a Republican co-author. “I think there is a lot in this strategy for everyone to like,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco and author of the bill. “Most important of all, it works.” How much it would cost depends on how many people participate. A program covering 1,000 people could cost as much as $286,000, a pittance in California’s total operating…
TAKING THE RIGHT ‘STEPS’ – August 25, 2021 – After a few small parts in movies, Downey got what seemed like his big break in 1985. That year, “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels assembled an entirely new cast for the show’s 11th season. Downey was one of several non-comedians selected for the cast, including Randy Quaid, Joan Cusack, and Anthony Michael Hall. It was a cast full of future stars, but the season did none of them any favors. Downey has called his “Less Than Zero” character his “ghost of Christmas future,” predicting the worst of his drug…
PROHIBITION ENDING – August 25, 2021 – A wholesale tax will be charged based on potency — a cent per milligram on edibles, eight-tenths of one cent on concentrated cannabis and a half-cent per milligram on flowers or buds. New York officials estimate that marijuana sales could generate $350 million a year in tax revenue for government coffers and create jobs for residents in disadvantaged communities. Massachusetts has been selling cannabis at local pot shops since the fall of 2018 — with many customers crossing the border from upstate New York. New Jersey and Connecticut also recently passed laws…
PLEASE WATCH – REAL HEROES – August 25, 2021 – “I had tried to commit suicide numerous times. I had been in and out of programs. I had lost my nursing license. There was nowhere for me to go,” she said. “Found out about Mission Teens, never knew about it, and when I walked through these doors, people gave me hope that I could live.” Daisey completed the 8-10 month program, which features bible study and other personal development training. Shortly after, she became a teacher with the program and continues to be involved. She credits the presence of…
AWARENESS IS THE FIRST STEP – August 25, 2021 – Delivered virtually, Hazelden Betty Ford’s RecoveryGo® online solutions bring our world-class outpatient addiction and mental health care, recovery support resources, family services and community solutions directly to you. New online education courses offered by the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation aim to help people who are questioning or confused about their substance use, or beginning to experience negative consequences such as understand how marijuana, alcohol and other substance use can contribute to a myriad of life problems and how to make changes to prevent future consequences and reduce ongoing risks. …
ONE MILE AT A TIME – August 26, 2021 – The 54-year-old is walking from Okeechobee County to Snow Camp North Carolina. After 40 years of addiction, he’s been sober for nearly five years. He’s walking to raise money for others fighting addiction in Volusia County. “This is a program that’s going to bring you out of your addiction, bring you back into society, teach you life skills, construction, farming, just life skills, instead of robbing and stealing and doing the things that us addicts do. (It’ll) provide a new life and set you up for success. That’s my…
STOPS THE BECOMING DEAD – August 27, 2021 – In the wake of Joshua’s death, Hernandez has worked with the Texas chapter of the Association of People Against Lethal Drugs to raise awareness of Narcan and promote its distribution to people that both use drugs and first responders. Fentanyl-related overdose deaths in Texas, and the nation, have skyrocketed in the past few years. That’s why Hernandez said she was angry to learn few departments are tapping into state-level programs that would pay to equip first responders with Narcan. “I am very pissed,” said Hernandez. “This is not good ……