Move it – Sep. 26, 2020 – Exercise became my path to restoring my self-worth, my pride and my identity. I finally felt like myself again, and I’m convinced it saved me from going down a dangerous path. So many people have turned to alcohol or substances to cope with challenging times, and that could easily have been me too. Having seen the power of exercise bring me back from rock bottom, I’ve made it a personal mission to help others realize the healing power of exercise. Because mental health is such a critical factor in addiction recovery, exercise is…
Author: Leonard Buschel
WATCH – Like, Wow, Sad, Love – Sep. 25, 2020 – “Most people think they spend two hours a day on their phone. When we look at the data … it’s four and a half — it just shows there’s a disconnect between reality and your awareness,” said Kendall, now the CEO of Moment, an app that tries to incentivize users to reduce their screen time. “The thing that I have found that has moved the needle the most for me and actually allowed me to [be] a much better parent and much better partner is setting some limits…
Rigorous Honesty – Sep. 25, 2020 – “Eight years into sobriety, I had not done a single shady thing,” he said. “I hadn’t done anything gray.” At that time in 2012, he had been traveling back and forth to visit his dad, who was undergoing cancer treatment at a hospital. It was around this time that he also suffered a motorcycle accident on his way to the “Parenthood” set. “I immediately called my sponsor, and I said, ‘I’m in a ton of pain and I gotta work all day. And we have friends that have Vicodin,’” Shepard recalled. “He said,…
Makes ya wanna holler – Sep. 26, 2020 – “You are out of your mind with worry,” she had said in a phone call from her home in Boston. “And you don’t know where it ends. Well, you do. It ends with death.” Patty Solomon is a special education teacher and was at school when she got the news. A doctor was on the phone telling her all the things that he had done to save her son. She had been here before, on the phone with hospitals aiding her son, and in her mind he had been saved…
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ― Ruth Bader Ginsburg, March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020
WATCH – Expanding Series and Hope – Sep. 23, 2020 – “We’ve come a long way in Georgia since I stepped out of the crack house October 12, 1994 in terms of resources,” he said. “We’ve come a long way as far as stigma and public understanding, but we’ve got a long way to go.” Emory Psychiatrist, Dr. Justine Welsh, said now, it’s more important than ever to have the Alliance during this pandemic. “I’m seeing an escalation in alcohol use, and cannabis, and opioids, and stimulants like methamphetamine and cocaine,” Welsh listed Overdoses are up, too, experts…
Traditions – Sep. 17, 2020 – People rarely, if ever, get sober alone. In sobriety and in business, being part of a group allows you to benefit from the experience, strength and the hope of those around you. 2. What other people think of you is none of your business As a young advisor, I focused on what I should do and was consumed with what others might think of me. Older people made suggestions about where I should live, how I should dress and where I should go to be seen. I took their advice but ended up feeling…
Intriguing – Sept. 13, 2020 – “Along the way, through each and every one of those mergers and acquisitions, the organization has gotten stronger, has provided a better level of care and we’re able to respond to community needs in a better way,” he said. “We’re able to do more with scale than we would otherwise be able to do.” Organizations like The Centers and SMA rely largely on funding from the state. Private insurance, Medicaid and Medicare only cover a small portion of services, Norman said. “Florida, in the nation, sits at 49th in mental health and substance abuse…
Soulless Screens? – Sept. 14, 2020 – Amid the global pandemic, group gatherings have become nearly impossible. Weddings have been put on hold indefinitely, schools are turning to virtual learning and offices are encouraging employees to work from home until it’s safe to be in close proximity. Though everyone has been impacted in some way by the new restrictions put in place due to COVID-19, people struggling with addiction have had it especially hard in quarantine. Social isolation, economic despair and a global health crisis have made COVID-19 “the perform storm” for individuals with substance use disorders — and on…
WATCH – Sixxed to the twelve steps – Sept. 15, 2020 – But then again, there was a time when people wouldn’t have expected Sixx, now age 61, to even be alive in 2020. As chronicled in his harrowing memoir The Heroin Diaries, the band autobiography and Netflix film adaptation The Dirt, and VH1’s Behind the Music, Sixx overdosed on heroin multiple times in the ‘80s — most famously on Dec. 23, 1987, when he was declared clinically dead for two minutes before being revived. But now that Sixx has been clean for nearly 20 years now, he has made…
WATCH – The little ones left behind – Sep. 14, 2020 – Both men were into racing so the Schultz family hopes these t-shirts in his memory alert others to the danger of street drugs laced with fentanyl. “I hope they raise awareness for what fentanyl can do for anybody and obviously to raise money for her 3-year-old daughter to help her later in life,” Tanner’s mother, Marcia Leonard, said. The shirts say, “Life is not about winning the race. It’s about finishing the race.” The family has raised more than $1,300 for Sophia’s college fund. If you’d like to…
Encouragement in Life – Sep. 15, 2020 – Each poem is a testimony of the author’s strength and hope as he overcomes his experiences. Ultimately, the book offers readers inspiration and motivation to deal with the real life issues that they are going through, all while cleverly adding a poetic twist to each and every poem title. “I would like my readers to know that it’s okay to feel whatever you want,” Hunter states. “I want them to know that they are not alone because there is at least one other person that’s feeling the same way. Finally, I want…
Local Hero – Sep. 17, 2020 – “In this profession, you have many temptations but being sober is part of who I am today. It’s easy to say no to people when I am offered a drink. It used to not be that way.” Going back to those times that it wasn’t easy to say no, Velasquez explained, “My alcoholism started off as just fun. Drinks here and there, parties, the good old times with the friends and ladies. Then, it became very bad when I started drinking on my own. Late-night calls to my mother crying for no reason,…
WATCH – Mind Blowing – Sep. 15, 2020 – Belief can be tricky. Either you wholeheartedly believe in your faith or you have niggling doubts that crop up at the most inopportune time. The narrator of our latest read finds herself trying to reconcile her religious upbringing with her scientific pursuits. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi In her brilliantly executed sophomore novel, Yaa Gyasi asks readers to follow the protagonist’s internal journey as Gifty struggles to reconcile her religious upbringing with her scientific research after her mother falls into a deep depression. Gifty is a talented scientist working on a…
Everyone can quit – Sep. 16, 2020 – As we get closer to the final few bachelorettes in line to win Locky Gilbert’s heart, it’s safe to say things can get pretty heated, pretty fast. The Bachelor’s Juliette Herrera spoke to The Hit Network’s Xavier, Juelz & Pete about her dark history of her struggling with a major drug addiction and revealed how she finally was ‘set free’. She also spilled the tea on what really happened with the ‘skank comment’ which was reportedly said off-camera in the bathroom with Roxi Kenny… more@Hit
Sure, anything is possible – Sep. 18, 2020 – The state was awarded $16.7 million Friday to reduce drug-related deaths by funding drug prevention, treatment and recovery support services. The state Department of Health Services noted half of the money will be used for individual treatment costs and the remainder will be used for support prevention programs, overdose response efforts, an expansion of treatment options and recovery coaches. This grant is part of the latest round of funding under the State Opioid Response Grant Program which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program’s main…
Mama knows best – Sep. 19, 2020 – “I’ve got three dents in my head and a foot-long scar.” Matt, who now lives in Branston, received compensation for the assault, was spiralling in addiction and spent the money on alcohol. He said: “I had trouble sleeping and the drink would knock me out. “After that I went downhill. “I joined the Army and there was a big drinking culture. “You work hard then you have a drink to take the edge off.” Matt married and was delighted when he and his wife found out they were expecting a baby. But…
Someone’s happy place – Sep. 16, 2020 – An addict or alcoholic must hit “rock bottom” if they are going to recover. I asked one local counselor to explain “rock bottom” to me. She said “You hit your rock bottom when you quit digging.” One man I spoke with realized in his teens that when he drank he wanted more and that he always had some sort of negative consequence when he drank. Now in his fifties, he has not had a drink since. For the vast majority of people addicted, it seems there has to be some “consequence” of…
Aren’t we all? – Sep. 19, 2020 – As boys, Justin Reason had a knack for talking his younger brother, Aaron, into a variety of daredevil stunts. Aaron recalled his brother daring him to jump out of a second-story window and land safely by grabbing a tree branch, promising he would take a turn right after him. “I missed the whole tree branch and almost broke my back,” Aaron recalled with a smile. “He said he would go right after me, but he never did.” Aaron enjoys retelling that story because it epitomizes Justin’s personality and, he said, it’s one…
…to create future joy – Sep. 19, 2020 – Families and children mimic our very actions, teaching (in turn) what was taught to us — a long line of broken homes, trauma, abuse, addiction and depression. The beliefs and the values that are instilled at a young age carry on throughout your whole life if you don’t get help, look at the root cause and start correcting. You consume yourself believing “this is who I am” — that you are living a life that’s not yours, and that what’s broken can never be whole. The hardest part for me as…
The final decision… – Sep. 18, 2020 – Kane Watkins, 33, was found hanged under a bridge in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, on November 19 after previously making threats to take his own life on social media. A father-of-three battling with alcohol and mental health problems sent a final heartbreaking text before taking his own life, an inquest heard… Kane Watkins, 33, was found hanged by a dog-walker under a bridge on in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, on November 19 last year. The inquest heard he sent a number of text messages in the days leading up to his death saying he intended…
Lionrock Recovery Rocks – Sep. 16, 2020 – National Online Recovery Day was created to bring widespread awareness to the tens of millions of people suffering from SUDs that effective online services and support systems are accessible, flexible and private. Online recovery services remove many of the barriers that have prevented people struggling with SUDs from seeking treatment, including shame and stigma in their communities and access to treatment. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven that telehealth services are not only widely accepted by the public, but offer distinct advantages when compared to in-person services – namely, providing the highest level…
Tick Tock on American Teens – Sep. 15, 2020 – In Summer 2020, the so-named “Benadryl Challenge” dared social media users — generally teenagers — to overdose on the common allergy medication Benadryl to elicit a hallucinatory effect, record a video of the user’s reaction, and share the video on the social media platform TikTok. In an email to Snopes, a TikTok spokesperson confirmed that the platform had first learned of the challenge in May 2020, at which point its moderators removed the “very small” amount of content that was found at the time. In the months following, an…
Stick with the Winners! September 17, 2020 – Dr. Jamie Marich (she/they) began her career as a humanitarian aid worker in Bosnia-Hercegovina from 2000-2003, primarily teaching English and music while freelancing with other projects. Jamie travels internationally teaching on topics related to trauma, EMDR therapy, expressive arts, mindfulness, and yoga, while maintaining a private practice in her home base of Warren, OH. Jamie is the author of seven books on trauma recovery and healing, with many more projects in the works. Marich is the founder of the Institute for Creative Mindfulness. Her bibliography currently includes: EMDR Made Simple (2011), Trauma…
Maybe? Maybe not. – Sept. 14, 2020 – If addiction is a disease, then we should treat addicts the same way we treat diabetics. The goal in treating diabetics is not to cure diabetes but to limit its harm: Treatment helps prevent heart attacks, strokes, blindness, kidney failure, nerve damage, arterial blockages, etc. Similarly, addiction treatment is not aimed at “curing” addiction but at controlling damage: Treatment decreases mortality, criminal activity and transmission of hepatitis. Treated addicts often return to productive lives. Medicines used in opioid addiction have proven effective at controlling the damage from addiction. Understandably, many people bristle…
We can all help… September 18, 2020 – Experts say it’s too soon to tell whether suicide rates are already spiking as a result of the pandemic. But they warn that the risks are significant. The authors of a recent study in the Lancet on suicide risk and prevention during the pandemic note that suicides went up during the 1918 Spanish flu and 2003 SARS outbreaks, as well as after the 2008 recession. The authors of the study say that suicide is “likely to become a more pressing concern as the pandemic spreads and has longer-term effects on the general population, the economy, and vulnerable…
Everything is Possible – Sep. 15, 2020 – “At first, I thought, ‘I got this,’” says Hilliard. “Shortly after, I realized what I actually signed up for — a lifelong road of healing, patience, gentleness and acceptance.” As one of the creators of Empath, a pop-up sober bar, one of Hilliard’s self-care routines was as social as it was personal. As reported in NEXTPittsurgh, since its first gathering in April 2018, Empath has hosted dance nights, happy hours, yoga and sound bath events. Hilliard had noted the social challenges facing people in recovery and the many connections Empath was able…
WATCH – She’s Curious and Sober – Bryson started drinking at age 16 and was a self-professed party girl in her 20’s. Old scrapbooks contain memories of nights she’d rather forget. Sep. 14, 2020 – “I just surrounded everything with beautiful cocktail stickers and pretty paper and tried to glamorize it and make it look good, but it really wasn’t,” Bryson said. “It may have been how the night would start but it was never how the night would end.” She’s now been sober for more than a decade and while it isn’t always easy, she is certain of one…
Innocent until proven greedy – Sep. 17, 2020 – “Misrepresentation of opioids to consumers for profit is inexcusable,” Cuomo said in a statement. Johnson & Johnson did not immediately respond to requests for comment. New York said Johnson & Johnson manufactured opioid products in the state such as the fentanyl patch Duragesic and drug Nucynta, and said its “Norman Poppy” was once responsible for as much as 80 percent of the global supply for oxycodone raw materials. The New Brunswick, NJ-based company was charged with violating two New York insurance laws, with civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation.…
Paging Dr. Morte – Sep. 17, 2020 – Now the Scranton doctor accused of over-prescribing opioids in exchange for cash incentives from a drug manufacturer is facing federal charges for his allegedly illegal prescriptions. Now, more than two years later, the doctor faces a federal indictment accusing him of being part of an elaborate scheme to overprescribe an opioid called Subsys to 13 of his patients. According to paperwork filed in federal court, two of Moran’s patients — a 35-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman — overdosed and died from the drugs he prescribed. The indictment alleges the drug company…