GOOD QUESTION – 2025 – Recently a friend celebrating a milestone birthday (one signaling that the second half of life was upon her) announced that her new goal was to stop feeling so anxious about everything, and instead to have fun—to make her life “an adventure.” She asked for my advice on how to do that I told her about something that the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard identified back in the 19th century as “an adventure which every man has to affront if he would not go to perdition.” He regarded this as “the most important thing” in life. Was he…
Author: Leonard Buschel
SAD PASSING – Feb. 3, 2025 – The singer, renowned for his powerful vocals and hits like ‘Joy to the World’, passed away on Monday at his home in Studio City, California, surrounded by family. His publicist confirmed Negron had been battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for 30 years and was suffering from heart failure in his final months. Behind their success, however, Negron battled a quiet war with addiction. His struggle with heroin was well-known, with reports indicating daily expenses of between $2,000 and $3,000 . As his addiction deepened, his earnings dwindled, and he gradually lost everything.…
MUSICAL INTERLUDE – FOREVER – Three Dog Night’s biggest hit is widely considered to be “Joy to the World,” which spent six weeks at #1 in 1971, became the year’s top pop single, and remains their signature song, famous for its “Jeremiah was a bullfrog” lyric. See More
STICK WITH THE WINNERS! – Feb. 10, 2026 – Honesty Liller, CPRS is a Transformational and Executive Leadership Coach, CEO of The McShin Foundation, and best-selling author. With 18+ years in recovery, she helps women and leaders unlock their power, build lasting habits, and achieve meaningful goals. Her roles include executive leadership, advocacy, fundraising, donor relations, and event management as a CEO of a nonprofit. Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date?A. Heroin – 5/27/2007.Q. Is there anything special in your sobriety toolkit that helps keep you sober?A. The life…
NO HANGOVERS – Jan. 27, 2026 – Chrissy Teigen revealed she is re-entering her sobriety journey because she “felt like s—t” once she started drinking alcohol again. The model took to Instagram Tuesday to thank Carl Radke for appearing on her “Self-Conscious” podcast to discuss his own sobriety journey and credited him for “changing [her] life” and perspective on drinking.“After being sober for a little over a year, I went back to drinking. I promised myself it would be in a ‘mindful’ way,” she began in the caption. Teigen, 40, admitted that she decided to end her sobriety because she…
SOBRIETY MIRACLE – Feb. 4, 2026 – Jamie Lee Curtis marked 27 years of being sober from drugs and alcohol, thanking her late friend Richard Lewis for lending a helping hand during her journey. “27 years ago, I had pain and sorrow. I reached out my hand and my old colleague and friend, Richard Lewis, reached out and took my hand,” Jamie wrote in alongside a picture of her and Richard shared on Instagram Feb. 3. Feb. 4, 2026 – Jamie Lee Curtis marked 27 years of being sober from drugs and alcohol, thanking her late friend Richard Lewis for…
VIDEO – FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT – Jan. 25, 2026 – What started as a prescription for painkillers after an accident became a mother’s worst nightmare. Her son, addicted to heroin. In and out of rehab. Trapped in a cycle of crime and survival. Flora Posteraro of Chick2Chick chats with Kelly Brent, who shares her agonizing reality of watching her child slip away, hoping her story might save another family in this podcast, “I’m Watching My Son Die from a Heroin Addiction.” Read More
CHECKED OUT – January 26, 2026 – Andy Dick has left rehab just shy of 50 days after checking in. Andy entered a rehab facility in the Palm Springs area around the beginning of December with the help of his “Celebrity Rehab” costar and longtime friend Jennifer Gimenez, along with her husband, Tim Ryan. Andy said he was grateful to be getting help and motivated to turn things around. Jennifer and Tim were also able to secure Andy a “full ride scholarship offer” through their connections to the treatment center — meaning his stay in rehab wasn’t coming out of…
DON’T GET EMOTIONAL? – Jan. 27, 2026 – If you’ve ever wondered how to avoid emotional eating, you might think the answer is more willpower or stricter rules. But emotional eating isn’t about weakness or brokenness. It’s a signal that something inside you needs attention. I help people see that the real question isn’t “Why can’t I stop eating?” but “What’s eating at me? Emotional eating means turning to food to manage feelings rather than physical hunger. Physical hunger builds slowly, is felt in your stomach, and is satisfied with a variety of foods. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly, feels…
HAVE A SEAT – Jan. 19, 2026 – Gastroenterologist, Andrew Black, explains it can happen after drinking because alcohol irritates the lining of the intestines, making muscle contractions more frequent and stronger. With them in overdrive, poop may be pushed out faster, cutting the chance to absorb extra water and nutrients. And Black explains it can happen after drinking because alcohol irritates the lining of the intestines, making muscle contractions more frequent and stronger. With them in overdrive, poop may be pushed out faster, cutting the chance to absorb extra water and nutrients. The intestines may also have a harder…
JEWS AREN’T ALCOHOLICS? – Jan. 22, 2026 – Ten years ago, Ms. Sheinbaum participated in Dry January for the first time. She had no idea it would change her life! “I made a very spontaneous, silly bet with one of my guy friends on New Year’s Eve,” Hilary was working as a red carpet entertainment journalist at the time – and also wrote articles on beer, wine and spirits. The first one to take a sip of alcohol in January lost. Her friend lasted around three weeks, Sheinbaum made it through the entire month. “That was New Year’s Eve 2016,…
SMOKIN’ – Jan. 21, 2026 – Ban flavored vapes and expect an increase in cigarette sales: It’s a familiar concept to experts who recognize the two as economic substitutes. Amid battles over access in the United States, tobacco harm reduction advocates can point to various research to make the case that far from being a trivial inconvenience, vape flavor bans seriously impede efforts to reduce smoking-related deaths. Advocates in Canada—who successfully fought to push back a prospective federal flavor ban in 2025—have a compelling new resource of their own, after the November publication of a study concerning Canadian jurisdictions that…
VIDEO – “IT HURTS” – Jan. 22, 2026 – Among the speakers was American Idol contestant Tristan Harper who placed fifth on the show in 2024. Harper shared his personal journey and spoke about his own loved ones who have battled addiction. “It hurts to see people you love not here with you—or in rehab or jail because of it,” Harper said. “You want the best for them. You want them to know there’s a way out.” Jacy Warner, who lost her brother to a fentanyl overdose in 2022, also addressed the students, sharing her family’s story in hopes of…
WITHOUT GRATITUDE – Jan. 24, 2026 – Friends say Reiner bounced constantly between rehab centers and his family’s Los Angeles mansion, where he killed his parents, Rob and Michele. Unemployed at 25, Nick had spent a decade bouncing between this gated enclave and at least 18 rehab facilities paid for by his parents. He has told stories on an addiction podcast about going to downtown Los Angeles’s Skid Row to procure heroin and shooting crack cocaine in a McDonald’s restroom in Maine. But after each bout of degeneracy or failed treatment, he always seemed to end up back here, with…
STAY STOUT – Jan. 25, 2026 – Since the number of non-alcoholic beers has increased so dramatically, Chowhound wanted to see which of these beers were worth trying. I, the sober individual on staff, was charged with sampling a whopping 37 NA beers and deciding which … I’ll be honest with you here: I wasn’t a beer fan before I went sober, so I went into this tasting process wearily. I didn’t expect that these brews were going to taste exactly like their alcoholic counterparts, which is why I instead considered how well each beer matched its style and tasting…
PAYDAY – Feb. 3, 2025 – Craig Johnson, a licensed mental health counselor specializing in gambling addiction, said, “Usually you’re going to see some progression of the process and the person often will start to cross their own value system. Start to lie, start to not be fully truthful, start to hide money from others, which usually is losses.” The Super Bowl is a peak time for sports betting … “Some of the people I work with have commented that trying to quit gambling in this culture and these days is like an alcoholic trying to get sober in a bar,” he added.…
“The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love.” – Bad Bunny, b. March 10, 1994
VIDEO – TRUTH LOSES – Jan. 16, 2026 – A B.C. psychologist who led a major study into addiction and criminality is speaking out now that the government is shutting down its decriminalization experiment. Health Minister Josie Osborne announced on Wednesday that the controversial trial project would end on Jan. 31, admitting it hadn’t achieved the results the government had wanted. A clinical psychologist from Simon Fraser University, who opposed the decriminalization plan, was part of a two-decade study that spanned addiction, homelessness, housing and the justice system. “We were looking at everyone who was diagnosed with an addiction, involved…
PHONE BASKET? – Jan. 17, 2026 – And so we settled in, with my mother in her recliner, my father on one couch, and me on another. Almost by instinct, my parents reached for their iPads. I caught myself scrolling through my phone without any real purpose. In that silence, I had a moment of clarity: This was supposed to be the time for conversation — for catching up in person. And here we were, on our devices. Even their 3-year-old Kooikerhondje, appropriately named Jersey, seemed bored. A couple of days later, we drove four hours to my sister’s house…
VIDEO – WE CARE WHY? – Jan. 17, 2026 – The mom-of-four shared that she’s three years sober in a video posted to her Instagram Stories on Friday, January 16. Kardashian, 46, revealed her big achievement while celebrating the launch of sister Khloe’s latest Khloud popcorn flavor. The clip showed the Poosh founder – who stopped doing Botox for a bizarre reason – getting the VIP treatment from a white-gloved server who poured a portion of Khloud’s new truffle white cheddar popcorn in a large martini glass. The server boasted the snack was made with ‘all natural ingredients, no seed…
VIDEO – DEATH IS LEGAL – Jan. 17, 2026 – “It’s terrifying. How highly addictive this is,” said Michelle Leopold, whose son Trevor died of an accidental opioid overdose in 2019 while a freshman at Sonoma State University. She has since gone on to become a fierce advocate and educator, partnering with local health departments. “The fact that now I am getting a phone call from people who have loved ones, that they’re very concerned about being addicted to,” said Leopold. Kratom and 7-OH products are not FDA-approved and are not legal for retailers to sell. Yet, they are widely…
ANTI-SCROLLER – Jan. 17, 2026 – It’s simple to accidentally become entranced by an endless loop of videos on Instagram or TikTok. But sometimes, that mindless scroll is interrupted by a reminder that what you thought was a 10-minute break spent on your phone was closer to 30 minutes. Olivia Yokubonis, armed with a kind voice and scientific research, often pops up in feeds on social platforms, gently reminding viewers that they might not remember the video they saw two videos before she appeared on the screen. Yokubonis is a content creator who goes by the name Olivia Unplugged online,…
WHAT ABOUT ALCOHOLISM? – Jan. 17, 2026 – Imagine, in fact, that no virus can harm you, from chickenpox to Dengue to HIV. Even the deadliest viruses we know of, like rabies or Ebola, don’t cause you serious problems. For a handful of people, this seems to be the case. Anyone with a specific and rare genetic mutation benefits from a superpowered side-effect: they fight off viruses with ease, to the extent that most of the time, they don’t even know they’ve been infected. The mutation in question causes a deficiency in a key immune system protein called ISG15. In…
UN-STUCK – Jan. 18, 2026 – Today, the key scientific and regulatory question is shifting away from if psilocybin could produce major durable improvements in depression and anxiety—because we’ve already come close to establishing, yes, it can—to whether benefits can be delivered affordably and safely. What about hallucinations? Getting rid of depression is great, but the person taking hallucinogens must spend hours with in-person professional guides, safe facilities, and long-term monitoring. Psilocybin is therapeutically promising. Recent mechanistic and clinical milestones—such as Fleury and Nautiyal’s January 2026 report in Molecular Psychiatry on a potential “non-hallucinogenic receptor target” for psilocybin-like medicines, along…
BOB APPETITE – Jan. 19, 2026 – Drinking and the service industry have long been tightly linked — a reward after a double shift, a ritual woven into late nights and a balm that cements relationships. For many, consuming alcohol isn’t so much a choice as it is part of the culture, where the end of the day is marked by the first shot poured. For some, that consumption can swell into something that touches everyone around them. Though the journey toward sobriety rarely follows a straight line, in Richmond, a subtle shift is underway as more food and beverage…
AUDIO – WHAT A WAY TO GO – Jan. 19, 2026 – Imagine the Grinch as a porch pirate, stealing to feed a drug habit. After he’s shunned by fellow thieves, he has a change of heart and returns one of the stolen packages. Another Grinch answers the door — the father he thought had abandoned him. This was the retelling of the classic tale that was staged last month in the Vista, California, jail by the men in its medication-assisted treatment module. Their story reflects themes that surface often in addiction recovery: accountability, acceptance and what a second chance…
IT IS AND IT ISN’T – Jan, 20, 2026 – Mental health experts are nearly unanimous in endorsing the disease model of addiction. Alcoholism (now alcohol use disorder) was declared a disease in 1956 by the American Medical Association, and drug addiction (now drug use disorder) was declared a disease in 1987. The AMA was later joined by the American Psychological Association and many other professional organizations in defining addiction as a disease. Like other diseases, addiction has a strong genetic basis that’s often triggered in high-risk environments. Those with genetic vulnerability are likely to develop addiction in cultures where…
VIDEO – INSPIRATION MATTERS – Jan. 19, 2026 – “I went on a 12 day cocaine, alcohol, ecstasy, marijuana binge from New Year’s Eve to January 12th in Atlanta. I just started feeling like my heart was pounding out of my chest. And I thought, ‘wow, I think I’m having a heart attack.’ And then I looked at my friend, and I said, ‘I don’t want to die.’”Addiction took everything away from one woman in Chattanooga, but a second chance changed her life forever. On Pay It Forward, sponsored by the McMahan Law Firm, we surprise the person behind the…
DRUNK NO MORE – Jan. 20, 2026 – Dec Donnelly has shared why he thinks Ant McPartlin is a ‘much better person’ now as they seemingly addressed his 2018 drink-driving crash. Fans best know the pair for having worked in a duo for more than 30 years. But it was eight years ago that personal matters overshadowed their career, as Ant was arrested after he hit a BMW while driving his Mini Cooper. He was fined £86,000 and handed a 20-month ban, which was reduced to 15 months after he completed a drink-driving referral course. Speaking about his co-star and…
BEING SOBER DOESN’T MEAN BEING BORING – Jan. 20, 2026 – Søbr Market is a one-stop shop for non-alcoholic drinks, offering alcohol-free spirits, wines, mocktails, and ready-to-drink cans that recreate classic cocktails without the hangover. Customers can sample drinks in-store, making it easier to find flavourful, social alternatives to alcohol that still feel like part of the celebration.Whether you’re sober-curious or participating in Dry January, the Søbr Market sells a wide variety of mocktails some of which are non-alcoholic versions of common cocktails. Store manager Livia Rodrigues tells Now Toronto that “this is the holy grail for the non-alcoholic curious.”…