Safe in the end zone – Jan. 7, 2021 – Étienne Boulay revealed this Wednesday on social networks that he has been sober for 4 years now. 4 years ago to the day, I escaped it for the thousandth time. I had tried quitting so many times and it never really worked. I almost gave up that day, telling myself I would never make it. But before I throw in the towel and do something irreparable, I decided to ask for help. Just a little “help me please”. Only that. Worse here I am 4 years later! What was my…
Author: Leonard Buschel
Pandemic relief – Jan. 5, 2021 – “To get methadone, you have to show up in person every day and have people watch you take the medications,” Burke said. “Imagine if you had diabetes and you had to show up to get insulin every day – people would often miss doses and have health problems. So it’s a huge barrier.” Ideally, patients should have similar access to both methadone and buprenorphine, researchers said. But since buprenorphine is available by prescription only, those who don’t have health insurance or a primary care physician may not be able to get it…
WATCH – What a good idea – Jan. 6, 2021 – Cumberland County Jail has now hired Medication Assisted Treatment Re-Entry Coordinator Jessica Verdajo, who will work to add more accessibility to medical treatment for inmates. She will also work to provide resources for those inmates who are about to leave the jail, and fear having no access to help once they are back in the real world. Both Verdajo and Joyce believe this program will address the large drug problem they see inside their facility, and they hope to limit the number of reoffenders. “There is probably about 340…
Too much – Jan.6, 2021 – According to Heino, the manner of the death was ruled as being accidental. He was 38 and is survived by his wife and four children. Reyes’ wife, Heather Sullivan, told USA TODAY over email her family is recalling fond memories of Reyes to make the “impossible situation bearable.” “We laugh and remember all the funny stories and have been surrounded by an amazing group of our best friends and family,” Sullivan wrote. “I am in awe of the people that he touched just by his positive attitude and smile.” “He was my rock…
But not wages – Jan. 7, 2021 – The findings “reinforce the complex and bidirectional relationship between physical and mental health,” says Total Brain CEO Louis Gagnon. “Poor physical health can increase the risk of developing mental health issues. Poor mental health can negatively impact physical health, leading to increased risk of disease and addictive behaviors,” he says. Garen Staglin, chairman of One Mind at Work, says the new research is important for employers and should spur them to “understand that they must act now to help support employees who may be struggling with addiction issues as a result…
Careful with your mouthwash – Dec. 2020 – The OMNI Institute served as the research partner and provided support with data collection, analysis, and reporting. OMNI is a non-profit research and evaluation consultancy with the mission of accelerating positive social change by supporting the public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors around the country with integrated research and evaluation, capacity building, and data utilization solutions. OMNI has more than four decades of experience conducting research and implementing best practices as they relate to substance use disorder treatment. Soberlink and Aware Recovery Care’s study collected data related to patient demographics, substance use, medical…
One super power at a time – Jan. 7, 2021 – According to the outlet, there is a history of alcoholism in the actress’ family. And during the time Carter began drinking, she was unhappily married to her first husband, talent manager Ron Samuels. That union lasted from 1977 until 1982. Since then, Carter has found love again. She and her current husband, lawyer and business Robert A. Altman, tied the knot in 1984. They share two children. Carter also decamped from Hollywood more than 30 years ago with Altman and currently resides in Potomac, Md. “It works because we…
Sobriety sometimes leads to marriage – Jan. 8, 2021 – The lessons from the love story of Irene Sibaja and Hal Karp are many, but here are some of the more obvious: The old dating adage “right person, wrong time” is real; forgiveness is a gift; sharing your darkest moments can have a positive outcome; and looking for an ex online can sometimes be a good idea. Mr. Karp and Ms. Sibaja first met in 1993. Mr. Karp, who graduated from Southern Methodist University, had grown up in Denver and Dallas, the oldest of three children of David Karp…
Stick with the Winners! – January 5, 2021 – Many of you will remember Jeannie from the Steps for Recovery newspaper, where she worked until 2008 with business partner and good friend Jason Levin, who passed away. Unable to continue working on the newspaper without him, Jeannie choose to go back to corporate America. After 5 years of healing she felt ready, willing and able to go back to my one true passion – carrying the message of hope and recovery … through Keys to Recovery Newspaper Inc. Q. If you are in recovery, what was your Drug of Choice?…
Happy to be alive – Jan. 2, 2021 – The 33-year-old sought help and weeks before Christmas 2020 he told his followers on Instagram that he was nearing the milestone of a year of sobriety. “A year ago today on my birthday I was rushed into hospital after a near fatal drug overdose,” he said. “Today I’m over 11 months clean & sober, If I can achieve this in 2020 with everything against me then I believe I can achieve anything. “Thank you for your love & best wishes. I will continue to make my family, friends & supporters proud…
Gray matter matters – Jan. 2, 2021 – “Make no mistake about it, smoking marijuana daily carries with it very real potential for addiction. The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that between 9% and 30% of those who use regularly will develop marijuana use disorder,” says Dr. Mary Gay. “I have observed significant negative effects on clients who habitually use marijuana including reduced academic performance, job loss, legal consequences, depression, anxiety, and in several cases, psychotic symptoms requiring hospitalization.” … “Compared with placebo, marijuana cigarettes cause increases in heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and forearm blood…
WATCH – Jews at risk of false imprisonment – Jan. 5, 2021 – I was a little kid watching that episode, it was a Sit-Com, it never crossed my adolescent mind that failing drug tests from eating bagels was a real possibility in life nor did I realize this was an urban legend that existed outside of Seinfeld. I probably hadn’t even gone through D.A.R.E. in school yet at that point in life and I’m not even sure I knew what drug tests were for other than old people needed them to get jobs or whatever. Anyway, I’m getting all…
Thank God he did – Jan. 5, 2021 – “Like the rhyme schemes didn’t even sound like familiar to me,” Eminem said. “So I was caught off-guard too. I was like, ‘What the fuck, I said that?’ I said it and I was wrong for saying that [line about Rihanna]. It was fucking stupid. “You know, a lot of times, especially with the ‘Relapse’ record, when I first started learning how to rap again, because of the drug situation that I went through and having to relearn a lot of things, that was one of those things that it…
You’re reading this article – Jan. 9, 2021 – “If your pattern of drinking results in repeated significant distress and problems functioning in your daily life, you likely have alcohol use disorder,” their health experts write. But according to Dr. Doyle, the surest sign your alcohol use is a real problem is if you try to stop for a period of time and you simply can’t. “Don’t drink for a month,” he advises. “If that’s hard for you, then maybe it’s a problem. Or ask the people around you what they think. If it’s causing them distress, then it’s…
Planting Esteem Seeds – Jan. 9, 2021 – He lost his job and, over the summer, his ex-fiancé beat him up, putting him in the hospital with a broken arm, a fractured foot and a gash across the bridge of his nose. “Only one of my friends was sober, so I called him up crying, bawling my eyes out saying I needed a change,” he says. “I was in the hospital, and I just lost it. I had to get out, so I packed all my things.” He eventually landed at Ranch House Recovery outside Elgin, a peer-to-peer recovery program…
Death for sale on aisle 5 – Jan. 3, 2021- When Ashwani Sheoran showed up for early morning shifts at pharmacies in rural Michigan wearing his white Walmart smock, he often found customers waiting, desperate for bottles of pain pills. “I see my patients, 15 to 20, already lined up to get prescriptions filled for morphine sulfate, oxycodone and other straight narcotics,” he said. This was in 2012 when the prescription opioid epidemic was exploding, killing tens of thousands of Americans every year. Sheoran, now 41, told NPR he kept seeing what the Drug Enforcement Administration considers “red flags.”…
WATCH – Disease model flawed – Jan. 4, 2021 – The original formulation of OxyContin didn’t create the opioid crisis, argues psychiatrist Sally Satel, and removing it from the market didn’t make the problem go away. more@YouTube
No more suicides, please – Jan. 7 , 2021 – Having tried everything, from parental controls software to gambling-blocking software to curb his activity, he came up with his own solution Gamban. Launched in 2016, the technology behind Gamban blocks access to any online gambling across all of a customer’s devices. The company works with the likes of Lloyds Banking Group as well as major players in the gambling industry to help people regain control without compromising on the benefits of new technology. Symons had previously been freelancing as a business development consultant for several design agencies. He’d also cofounded…
No boozeyness anymore – Jan. 5, 2021 – Justine quit alcohol when she was 40 years old after she spent most of her thirties ‘medicated from alcohol 24/7’. ‘The single turning point was my nine-year-old daughter looking at me with tears in her eyes and saying, “Mum I am scared you are not going to get better”,’ Justine said. ‘I dropped 14kg in six months, my liver reading was around 2500 (it should have been 42), my triglycerides were so high I was a major heart attack risk, my platelet count was so low I had bruises from head to…
All in a days daze – Jan. 8, 2021 – But the struggle doesn’t end with the physical. It’s mental. The misery of protracted withdrawal — dysphoria, depression, irritability — can drag on for weeks. Twelve-step programs refer to this as “the monkey on your back,” because the cravings weigh on you, pick at you, natter in your ear about how much more bearable this conference call, this meal, this round of hide-and-seek might be with a drink. My first sponsor insisted I find a job and keep busy, which I did, and I stayed sober. Tonight, I’m paying…
“We must cease being participants in our own oppression.” —Stacey Abrams
LISTEN – Yourself, destiny, fate, dreams, public defender – Jan. 4, 2021 – In describing his memoir, “The Five People You’ll Meet in Prison,” author Brandon Stickney offers a hard look at New York’s prison system and himself. The book is “more of a psychological journey,” according to Stickney who says he is bipolar and suffers from depression. He wants to depict “what it’s really like to be inside a prison with mental illness.” Stickney recalls how pain medications prescribed following surgery started him on the road to opiate addiction, a path that would lead to time in jail.…
We can, he did – Dec. 27, 2020 – He also created the Addiction Counselor Education Program at Westfield State University (then Westfield State College) and served as the director for 25 years (an extension of that program was later brought to Berkshire Community College). A participant in Alcoholics Anonymous for 46 years, according to his obituary, Cote’s work in addiction services continued until he retired in June. “He was the guy. He was Mr. Sobriety,” said Cote’s widow, Francesca “Cessa” Cote, who ran the Doyle Detox Unit in Pittsfield until it merged with McGee in 2000. The couple were…
LISTEN – Listening to loss – Dec. 28, 2020 – For many mothers, the arrival of a newborn comes with more than enough challenges. Imagine not only trying to take care of a baby, but also trying to withdraw from drugs at the same time. For some women, who are addicted to opioids, that’s exactly what they need to do, to maintain custody of their child. The World Today went to Phoebe House, the only specialist opioid treatment centre of its kind for mothers and their young children in NSW. Duration: 7min. Broadcast: Mon., 28 Dec. 2020, 12:00pm more@ABC
Just like us – Dec. 26, 2020 – His deconstructed sculptures take on a variety of forms, but many of them are pieced together using the kintsugi technique. This Japanese method uses a special lacquer that is dusted or mixed with gold powder to mend the objects. “The philosophy behind kintsugi aligns very well with one of the starting points of my practice,” de Vries remarks. “I believe that something damaged can still be beautiful. With kintsugi the damage is considered part of a piece’s history: rather than hiding it, it is celebrated as an integral part of that. I…
From across the pond… – Dec. 27, 2020 – The coronavirus crisis poses the greatest threat to mental health since the second world war, with the impact to be felt for years after the virus has been brought under control, the country’s leading psychiatrist has said. Dr Adrian James, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said a combination of the disease, its social consequences and the economic fallout were having a profound effect on mental health that would continue long after the epidemic is reined in. As many as 10 million people, including 1.5 million children, are…
LISTEN – RIP Cady Groves – Dec. 28, 2020 – Groves had a difficult upbringing, losing two older brothers to overdoses in her teens and 20s. She’d found pop-country success in the 2010s (Blake Shelton appeared in her video for “This Little Girl”), and after she lost her deal with RCA, she won an independent fanbase for her tender, forthright songwriting about loss and longing. “Cady was this free spirit who wore her heart on her sleeve. She was one of those people who would do anything for you within 15 minutes of meeting you,” said Camus Celli, head of…
All original writing – Dec. 30. 2020 – Why journalism matters. Journalism is living history that tells truths we might never learn otherwise. It quickly informs people, and the rapid publication of journalism is essential in our busy times. Even our in-depth projects are published relatively rapidly. What I love about journalism is that it brings us closer together with understanding. And what’s “extra” about it for me is, it can evoke empathy and it can elicit change. I don’t know what else can do that. more@Cincinnati
WATCH – Decency has come to the USA – Jan. 1, 2021 – In a unique twist, the law also created a program that reinvests 25% of cannabis tax revenue into a fund for youth development, anti-violence programs, re-entry programs, economic development and civil legal aid services for “R3 communities” ― those dealing with high rates of gun violence, child poverty and incarceration rates. With Thursday’s action, the state also met a separate January 2025 deadline to expunge all 492,192 state-level records. However, only nine of the state’s 201 counties have finished clearing their own non-felony cannabis-related arrest records. In…
He Can’t Stop – Jan. 1, 2021 – “We can’t meet now because of COVID,” Evans said. “But when we can meet, I’m there.” He said, “I was 50 when I quit drinking. It was a very serious problem for me for the last 14 to 16 years. But I didn’t realize it for a long time.” Evans said, “I lost everything. My wife, my kids, my home, my cars. I would drink myself out of jobs. I would end up homeless, begging on the streets, living in bushes and abandoned cars.” He said, “Everywhere I went, there was…