DESIGNER BAG…LADY – Feb. 4, 2021 – As an attractive, Caucasian, middle-class woman, I’m hardly the archetypical shoplifter. To my knowledge, I’ve never been suspected, which I’m certain is down to how I look, rather than my smooth sleight of hand. Raised in a middle-class home in Bristol, state-educated and with myriad opportunities handed on a plate, I was happy, loved and privileged. I occasionally stole items of little worth from shops or supermarkets when I was 11, but didn’t everyone? It was a phase I assumed I’d leave behind in adulthood. But at 25, my stealing vamped up to…
Author: Leonard Buschel
AN INJECTION OF OPTIMISM or SAY WHAT? – February 4, 2021 – “We’ve shown it is possible to prevent these unnecessary deaths by eliciting antibodies that stop the drug from reaching the brain.” The Scripps Research laboratory of chemist Kim Janda, Ph.D., has been working on new therapeutic interventions that may be able to prevent the bulk of deaths from opioid overdose. Janda and his team have developed experimental vaccines that have shown in rodents to blunt the deadly effects of fentanyl—which has been driving the boom in opioid deaths—as well as its even more fatal cousin, carfentanil, a growing…
WATCH – REBORN LIKE THE MASTER – Feb. 6, 2021 – Since I wasn’t getting drunk passing out on airplanes I had plenty of free time to read. That’s what actually started it. That’s the beauty of sobriety; you get to have a second life in one lifetine. All of these things I probably never would have thought of because I was getting intoxicated, suddenly having sober mind and judgement, I was going ‘Wow, let me open up a laptop and start writing.” The description reads: The Sledge Chronicles: Rock Star Hitman is the first chapter in the action-packed saga…
ROMANCING THE STONED – Feb. 6, 2021 – The experience was tough on his relationship with his father, but these days they are doing great, and Cameron even joined his father for an interview with Good Morning America in 2019. He wrote a new memoir about all of his experiences, Long Way Home, that chronicles his privileged upbringing as Hollywood royalty to his drug charges and prison sentence. “Seeing my family, my father and I doing that segment, was actually really healing for us,” Cameron explained to GMA. “We were talking about things that we would never talk about, just…
COWBOY UP – Feb. 5, 2021 – Other RecoveryGo™ resources and services now available in Montana and nationwide include a free one-day virtual Family Program, available in English and Spanish; a virtual Children’s Program; and numerous digital recovery support tools, such as mobile apps, podcasts and an online peer community. In addition, Hazelden Betty Ford’s prevention experts are looking to grow their support for Montana school systems by expanding into higher grade-level student services; and its professional education consultants are available to collaborate with treatment centers, hospitals, health systems and recovery organizations as well as Montana public health leaders who…
THE SHOT GLASS DOESN’T FALL FAR FROM THE TUMBLE – Feb. 5, 2021 – Addiction experts often say that the disease runs in the families who struggle with substance abuse, and Jack and Ozzy Osbourne are sharing their story about their battle with drugs and alcohol. In a new interview with Variety, Jack admits that having a dad who was a rock star definitely influenced his choices, and while he’s been sober for 17 years now, it was a slippery slope when he was in the midst of his own addiction struggles. At the beginning of his experimentation with drugs…
ONCE A MENSCH, ALWAYS A MENSCH – Feb. 4, 2021 – And then we walked two blocks up Eighth Avenue. We made a right on 24th Street and headed east. I went to my first 12-step meeting at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis’ David Geffen Center. I don’t remember much about the meeting except there were about a dozen men sitting in chairs in a circle. For the first time, I said, “My name is Marc, and I’m a crystal meth addict.” That was almost 17 years ago. I have been clean and sober for seven and a half years.…
TOO QUIETLY! – Feb. 4, 2021 – The White House seems to have done little to alert media to the changes. Drug Policy Alliance* Director of Media Relations Matt Sutton told Filter that National Public Radio (NPR) was the only outlet to have received the statement to his knowledge. Other mainstream publications appear to have been left in the dark, he suggested. At publication time, the notice cannot be found on ONDCP’s website. “While our nation grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, we must also face the addiction and overdose epidemic that affects communities all over the country,” Moreno said in…
SEEING THE LIGHT … IN PEANUTS – Feb. 6, 2021 – Andrew Heinz wrote in a 1999 profile of Rabbi Twerski for Judaism, the quarterly magazine of the American Jewish Congress. “He was moved by the example of men and women who would willingly be awakened in the middle of the night to go out and help a fellow alcoholic.” He saw no contradiction between the 12 steps and his belief in the laws of Torah, according to his granddaughter Chaya Ruchie Waldman. “The 12 steps may have been created by Christian believers,” she said, “but it was about spirituality,…
TOO MUCH IS TOO MUCH Feb. 8, 2021 – Work addiction is a clinical condition characterised by an obsessive and compulsive interest in work. People usually work more than they’re required to… characteristics include being concerned about their performance at work, rigid thinking and perfectionism, which is often projected onto others. more@TheConversation
EMPTY BOTTLES, FULL COFFINS – February 2, 2021 – Between January and September, 5,460 deaths were registered with this cause – up 16% on the same months in 2019. It is the biggest toll recorded since records began in 2001. The high rates spanned the period during and after the first Covid lockdown, the Office for National Statistics figures show. It reached a peak of 12.8 deaths per 100,000 people in the first three months of 2020 and remained at this level through to September – higher than in any other time on record. As in past years, rates of…
IT’S OK, WE’VE GOT EYES IN THE BACK OF OUR HEADS – February 4, 2021 – And yet, the more I hear my patients use the term “burnout,” the more I think it doesn’t capture the depth of despair they describe. To get another perspective on burnout, I spoke to Dr. Wendy Dean, a psychiatrist who has dedicated her career to fighting moral injury in physicians, which is the concept that systemic problems in the medical industry prevent doctors from doing what they know is right for their patients. Dr. Dean said what working moms are facing is not identical,…
SPECIALIZE IN YOUR OWN LIFE – Dec. 30, 2021 – Journaling as inspiration for change could help you consider a new way of doing and thinking about things. Perhaps it will show you what the pandemic has taught you about yourself, your loved ones, or the universe. Or, you may begin to view the people in your life in an entirely different way. The silver lining of the pandemic is that even though many lives have been lost, and there are increasing numbers of COVID-19 diagnoses, we’re living in a time when we’re able to access the most up-to-date statistics…
BOTTOM LINES KILL PEOPLE – Feb. 3, 2021 – McKinsey’s extensive work with Purdue included advising it to focus on selling lucrative high-dose pills, the records show, even after the drugmaker pleaded guilty in 2007 to federal criminal charges that it had misled doctors and regulators about OxyContin’s risks. The firm also told Purdue that it could “band together” with other opioid makers to head off “strict treatment” by the Food and Drug Administration. Maura Healey, the Massachusetts attorney general, said the investigation of the firm involved reviewing “thousands and thousands of documents and emails” that, taken together, told “the…
IS ZOOM AA INFERIOR TO REAL AA MEETINGS? – Feb. 8, 2021 – In-person meetings also allow small acts of kindness – those mini-miracles that exemplify its members’ commitment to helping others – that don’t carry over to Zoom. For example, we’ve all seen a nervous newcomer fumble a freshly poured cup of coffee… only to have a half dozen regulars quickly assist with both comfort and clean-up. All of this is lost over Zoom. This is why the best in-person meetings are inspiring and invigorating, while the best online meetings are a heaping pile of meh. Another crucial difference…
TWEET THIS – February 6, 2021 – “Addicts” who changed their lives through digital detox confess that social media was killing them. Imagine that you’re a typical middle school student having dinner with your family. Your mother takes your smartphone away and puts it in a lockbox that won’t open for an hour. Would you: (a) go ahead and eat dinner with your family? (b) try to pry open the box? or (c) smash the box with a heavy tool when your family is sufficiently distracted? The health-care industry has capitalized on this digital detox trend, depicting extreme use as…
LOVE AND SOBRIETY – February 5, 2021 – When he tried to cash the check, the bank teller knew something was wrong. But instead of calling the police, she called Clark’s father, who rushed to the bank before his son could disappear back onto the streets. Two days later, after hitting what Clark describes as rock bottom, he was in treatment. Fast-forward 10 years and Clark, who turned 37 the week of this interview, is one of the most notable reality stars to address his sobriety on television as the most recent winner of ABC’s “The Bachelorette.” He became engaged to…
RECOVERY ROAD – February 4, 2021 – (The book’s title comes from a phrase Beau and Hunter would say to each other after Beau was diagnosed.) Hunter Biden is publishing a memoir about his struggles with addiction and drug abuse — from his first sips of alcohol as a child, when he was dealing with the aftermath of family tragedy, to his crack-cocaine use. The book, titled “Beautiful Things,” is scheduled to be published in the United States on April 6 by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. It has already drawn praise from high-profile writers like Anne…
CELEBRITIES, THEY’RE JUST LIKE US. – February 4, 2021 – From time to time, however, a celebrity will surprise the world and suddenly announce that they got sober. Us rounded up the public revelations and confessions from stars who bravely got sober in private, then shared the inspiring news with fans by coming clean on getting clean. Here are just a few. Florence Welch The Florence + The Machine frontwoman celebrated seven years of sobriety in February 2021. “I am 7 years sober today.” Anthony Hopkins “Forty-five years ago today, I had a wake-up call. I was headed for disaster, I was drinking myself to…
“Work is the force that gives life meaning” —Rachel Maddow
IT’S NOT A TIME SHARE – Feb. 1, 2021 – The hard sell often happened before callers were screened to assess their need for treatment and determine if the program might be helpful. In fact, a third of callers were offered a spot in an addiction program before they even had a clinical evaluation. “If a hospital was admitting anyone who walked into the emergency room regardless of how sick they are, giving them treatment that may or may not help them, we’d find that absurd,” said Dr. Michael Barnett, the study’s senior author. “But for some reason we tolerate…
DO THE RIGHT THING – Jan. 26, 2021 – “The value of it is about $33,000 and it’s really there to extend the invitation for anybody to get services who needs it,” Sandoval said. Within the past year, AspenRidge has given out $323,000 in other scholarship categories. One of the recipients, 27-year-old Kayla Winter, credits a scholarship for the 90-day treatment program that saved her life. “I was homeless, and I pretty much was just surrounded by this huge cloud of darkness that I did not know how to get out of,” she said. Winter has battled an addiction to…
WATCH – TREATMENT WORKS – Jan. 25, 2021 – “I wasn’t considering my brother, his well-being; ultimately I didn’t care about my brother,” Gabe said. It enabled their most destructive tendencies to surface. “It was a daily battle, and it was something that I didn’t think I was ever going to be free from,” Zach said. “We got in a situation where it just got really, really dark and like, hopeless,” Gabe said. By 2016, the Millers say they’d found hope, love and God at St. Matthew’s House’s Justin’s Place, a yearlong addiction recovery program. “We showed up and…
SMOKESCREEN – Jan. 25, 2021 – The Biden administration has a chance to embrace this agenda after Trump’s FDA abandoned it. Ending Covid-19 is their top priority, and rightfully so. But the new administration will hopefully recognize that combating cigarette addiction and Covid-19 go hand-in-hand and both should be pillars of their overall public health agenda. Cigarette addiction continues to take a serious toll on millions of Americans, causing about one in five deaths in the United States, or more than 480,000 deaths annually, and costs $300 billion in health care expenses each year. In New York alone, smoking kills…
WATCH – LARGER THAN LIFE – Jan. 25, 2021 – TMZ broke the story … Balducci was found unresponsive in his bed back in July and paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene. When we spoke to his mom, she told us his death came unexpectedly since he hadn’t exhibited any kind of sickness. For the non-hardcore reality TV aficionados out there … Balducci is known as a trailblazer of sorts in the reality TV world after appearing in “True Life: I’m Getting Married.” He allowed MTV cameras to follow him for 4 months before marrying Sabrina … which…
STILL EXHALING – Jan. 25, 2021 – On Sunday, the R&B singer revealed she gave up the green and the alcohol, in response to a fan who created a Twitter thread of images that show Kehlani smoking. “Wow, It’s been almost three years. Prada me I thought I’d never get free from the backwoods clutches,” she tweeted. “That’s why I be dead when people’s response to something I do is about how I must be high. I am a square. I do nothing at all,” Kehlani continued. “Absolutely zero drugs. [I] ain’t smoked in 3 years, ain’t even drank in…
GOT KNOWLEDGE? – Jan. 27, 2021 – Substance use disorder counseling is an increasingly specialized area of behavioral health, serving patients who have complex substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders. Employment in the field is projected to grow 25% from 2019 to 2029, much faster than the average for all occupations. “We are so pleased to welcome Dr. Doyle to our team,” said Dr. Valerie Slaymaker, vice president of education and research at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and provost of the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies. “He has an admirable breadth and depth of experience…
OPEN MOUTHS, OPEN MINDS – Jan. 27, 2021 – “I have a perspective that I bring to the conversation that a traditional clinician may not,” he said. “And I also know that an hour a week [the traditional model for conventional therapy] may not be enough. My goal is to move them to the next level of support.” The structure of Confidential Recovery’s program is 10 hours per week, he said. In some cases, more action may be needed. “With someone who’s lying, cheating, manipulating and is actively involved with their disease of addiction, sometimes you need to do…
LISTEN – STORMY FEBRUARY – Jan. 29, 2021 – The new administration has also appointed California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to head the Health and Human Services Department. Becerra, who hasn’t been confirmed by the Senate, has been active in the past on opioid issues. Earlier this month, he joined a coalition of state attorneys general demanding immediate action by the FDA on the addiction crisis. “The COVID-19 pandemic has hit us all and further exacerbated the opioid crisis — people need support now more than ever,” Becerra said in a Jan. 11 statement. Drug use appears to have increased…
WHEN 911 IS THE LAST RESORT – Jan. 30, 2021 – The moment their family members called 911, both Carlos and Christian became unwitting players in a system that is massive, complicated, and, according to many experts, manifestly broken. Both families would come to regret the decision to call the police for help, and Christian would not survive. “We were blind to the fact that something could happen to our son in that jail,” Jose told me. “Completely blind.” Two weeks earlier, Christian had tried hallucinogenic mushrooms for the first time, and he hadn’t been normal since. “When you looked…