Al-anon for All – August 20, 2020 – The comedy legend also said in the filing that her daughter sent multiple text messages on July 15 to Dylan and her adult son, Zachary Carlson, in which she threatened suicide. Dylan told his father, who called the Los Angeles Police Department, which conducted a wellness check on Erin and placed her on a 51/50 hold for “suicidality and drug use.” Erin Hamilton was taken to two hospitals for treatment and released on July 24, according to the filing. Burnett and Miller added in their petition that Tony West checked himself…
Author: Leonard Buschel
Not a DIRTY dozen – August 20, 2020 – Eminem has marked a serious milestone. The 47-year-old rapper, born Marshall Mathers, celebrated 12 years of clear dwelling on Monday and honored it with a photograph of his new sobriety coin. “Clear dozen, within the books! I’m not afraid,” he captioned the Instagram image, referencing his track “Not Afraid,” which detailed his battle with habit and restoration. more@GruntStuff
It takes all kinds – August 21, 2020 – Jessica Simpson is about to celebrate a major milestone: She’s been sober for nearly three years. The singer and author called in to “The Jess Cagle Show” on SiriusXM on Thursday and opened up about her struggle with alcoholism, her memoir called “Open Book” and her road to sobriety. “It’s almost been three years which is crazy. I mean, it’s awesome,” she told Jess Cagle and Julia Cunningham. During the interview, the 40-year-old recalled her motivation for confronting her alcohol addiction and making a huge shift in her lifestyle. “I was…
“To be a revolutionary you have to be a human being. You have to care about people who have no power.” —Jane Fonda
WATCH – One blockbuster at time – August 17, 2020 – No More Mr. Goody Two Shoes. When preparing for his role as Tony Stark in Iron Man, Downey met with director Jon Favreau in discussing the arc they wanted to take the hero on. Downey was concerned they’d follow the cliche’ of the hero becoming a nice guy with strict morals and zero development after that turn. He wanted to add more comedy while making Stark a man with questionable morals and ethics, creating a complex character with serious ego problems. This move was gold and allowed Stark to…
It’s never too late… – August 9, 2020 – 1. Quit the sugar completely. Throw everything with it out of the house, as it’s harming everyone in the family. This is a bit like a bad relationship. Often the person in the bad relationship knows it’s unhealthy but can’t leave because they are relying on their feelings to make the decision. It doesn’t feel right to leave because they are used to the abuse. Quitting sugar is the same. It won’t feel good for about 10 days, so it’s a decision we make with our mind, not our feelings. After…
Play Safe – August 13, 2020 – Standing among throngs of concertgoers at a Brooklyn music venue last year, Palamar spotted the bulky man with the contorted face nearby. He was struggling to remain conscious. “I’ve noticed that when people are meant to pass out and they keep forcing it, they make these very strange, primitive faces,” Palamar, an epidemiologist and associate professor of population health at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, told NBC News. “They look like they are in such euphoria it’s almost painful.” Within minutes, the man succumbed, apparently to the suppressive effects of…
Music is Magic – August 13, 2020 – Today Rolling Stone shared an excerpt of a new book, “Red Dirt: Roots Music, Born in Oklahoma, Raised in Texas, at Home Anywhere,” that is set to be released on September, 19th. The book chronicles the rise of the Red Dirt scene. It goes in-depth about Woody Guthrie, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Stoney LaRue, and more. It also features the last interview that Turnpike Troubadours did together as a band before announcing their “indefinite hiatus” in May of last year. As it turns out, Even Felker’s wife, Staci (you’ll be happy to learn…
LISTEN – How much more horrible will it get? – August 13, 2020 – Making matters worse is a separate trend: Street drugs are often more dangerous now because more dealers are lacing products with a deadly synthetic opioid called fentanyl. This means when people relapse, they’re at greater risk. “I had a young lady reach out to me, heroin wasn’t even her drug of choice,” Austin said. “She tried it for the first time and it wasn’t heroin, it was fentanyl. She overdosed.” Indeed, the rapid spread of illicit fentanyl into more parts of the U.S. was already…
And from India… – August 14, 2020 – Though Kabita found it difficult to find work due to the Covid 19 pandemic, her husband refused to support her and continued to forcibly take money from her for alcohol. Though the woman always refused to give him her hard earned money, Sushant used to beat her. On many occasions, the family had to live on empty stomach due to this habit of Sushant.On Wednesday night, a quarrel broke out between the couple when Kabita refused to hand over money to Sushant. In a fit of rage, he started to beat Kabita…
It’s Complicated – August 14, 2020 – The authors of the paper try to suggest causal arrows by putting a lot of statistics in the same place – Oklahoma is some nexus of drug addiction? Why do pill mill doctors move there instead of in places where there is less competition? It doesn’t make a lot of sense – but their conclusion also does not add up. There are societal factors at work that are not part of a conspiracy, and times when doctors have to succumb to the real world; tests, new examinations, and medicine for a non-specific…
Mixed Messages – Aug. 13, 2020 – But in the late 1970s, a young Canadian psychologist named Bruce Alexander began to ponder a divergent hypothesis. What if it wasn’t just the drugs’ addictive nature that led to the rats’ overdose and death? What if the bare, featureless cages and the rat’s forced solitude were playing a significant role? Alexander speculated that, given an enriched environment, ample mental stimulation and the opportunity to engage with numerous other rats, their preference for the drugged water would plummet, and overdose and death would wane as a result. Armed with some basic hand…
Obituary – AUGUST 15, 2020 – “The nation lost a hero when John Lewis passed away, and our community lost our own hero when Judge Bransford’s father, Jim Bransford, passed away,” Judge Kevin Burke wrote in an e-mail last week to judges in the 4th Judicial District. “Jim did not give up on people.” Bransford was born in Havre de Grace, Md., in 1930, the oldest of five children. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and earned his bachelor’s degree from Macalester College in biochemistry. In 1957, he married Jeanne Watson and became a biochemist…
Good Cop, Great Cop – August 15. 2020 – Fisher, of Mahoning Township, was called to make an arrest last year for a drug offense of a Montgomery County woman. “I was investigating a prescription fraud, and my investigation led to this woman and she was taking prescriptions and writing them out for medications,” Fisher said. “She told me she needed help.” Fisher said this particular woman whom he helped fight through her addiction holds a special place in his heart. “Her story is amazing,” he said. “She started out having surgery, started having pain, that’s how she got tied…
And to think… – August 16, 2020 – Bekaroglu said “addiction” in children emerges by the age of 4, when the parents and child cannot establish quality communication and interaction. Sometimes the child cannot achieve a secure attachment, she said. “As the attachment gets harder to obtain, the sense of addiction start to develop. So children who were unable to establish healthy relations with parents at age 0-4 are more prone to addictions,” she said. “This addiction does not necessarily have to be to screens, it could be to humans, food and other thing later in the person’s life.”…
Opinion: Zoom dooms some – August 16, 2020 – When Covid-19 shuttered the world, it also shuttered AA, which is a lifeline for alcoholics like me. I have depended on its meetings in church halls and community centres more than I have realised. Four months into the pandemic, I wrote on social media: ‘When will it open?’ I wandered around like a ghost which, in a way, I am. There is another me, you see, and she is not a fortunate mother. She is a monster: a drunk; an insane person. I put her away a long time ago —…
MUSICAL RELIEF – 1965 – COMMENTS: “his song we played when my boyfriend and I got married and we both were virgins sooo we really didn’t know how to touch each other but we were ready to learn!!! and that’s how we learned about real innocent beautiful love!” “Summer of ‘64: My cousin Mike and I used to go to the skating rink near Orange, TX. This song played while we skated round and round. I sure miss him; he died in ‘87.” “It sucks that these artists from the oldies generation never made the millions they deserved for…
Stick with the Winners! – August 9, 2020 – Tommy Rosen is an internationally renowned yoga teacher and addiction recovery expert who has spent the last 3 decades immersed in recovery and wellness. He holds advanced certifications in both Kundalini and Hatha Yoga and has 28 years of continuous recovery from addiction. Q. If you are in recovery, what was your Drug of Choice? When did you stop using?A. Cocaine mostly and Heroin was there so I could thankfully sleep. Q. Have you ever been arrested and if so, for what?A. I was arrested when Ii was 14 years old…
WATCH – From the street to Spago’s – August 14, 2020 – He wound up in New Mexico, right when the state started luring movie productions to the area with their tax incentives. “The Book of Eli comes to town and they’ve got Denzel and Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis and all of their heroes and main villains, and then who else is left? People that die. The bad guys,” said Browning. After years of being out of the business, he was back in. “And then the L.A. people saw me again, in movies like 3:10 to Yuma. I…
Panoramic Putz – August 13, 2020 – On his Instagram Story, he filmed himself atop the structure. “Hey, everybody. So I’ve been up on this billboard, duct-taped, for an hour and a half now,” he said. “Starting to get kind of sore. There are some cops over there, but they say they’re not sure I’m committing any crimes. I don’t think so — I paid for the billboard, man. And I assured everybody this has been professionally rigged, it’s safe, so hopefully nobody gets too upset and hopefully the whole world gets the message about what I’m up here…
If not now, when? – TODAY – Even bad situations. Even painful or scary ones. If we act virtuously, they believed, everything else important could follow: Happiness, success, meaning, reputation, honor, love. “The man who has virtue,” Cicero said, “is in need of nothing whatever for the purpose of living well.” Ok, but what is virtue? The Stoics believed there were four virtues: Wisdom, Courage, Temperance, Justice… more@DailyStoic
No Walls – August 12, 2020 – Nationally, Hispanic people, the category selected by data, see far lower rates of overdose deaths than non-Hispanic white people. But Hispanic people are not a monolith, and there is concerning variation within the broad category. In fact, Puerto Ricans died at a slightly higher rate from drugs in 2017 than non-Hispanic whites, according to a study by Manuel Cano, professor of social work at University of Texas, San Antonio, published in Substance Use & Misuse on July 25. Cano suggests that this could be related to where most Puerto Ricans reside in the…
Greed Kills – August 14, 2020 – In some cases, he wrote prescriptions in combinations that were dangerous even if used correctly. One patient, Ashley Adkins, was prescribed Oxycodone — an opiate pain medicine — and alprazolam — an anti-anxiety benzodiazepine better known as Xanax — in a single visit. She died of an overdose two days later. Although Sakkal’s attorneys argued that Adkins and other patients were responsible for their own actions, Sakkal was convicted of 30 counts of illegal distribution of controlled substances outside the scope of a medical practice and with no legitimate medical purpose, plus six…
Milk is for Children – August 14, 2020 – 1. Chocolate increases the production of endorphins, the body’s natural opiates. As a result, it decreases pain and lifts your mood. It’s also the only known food source of anandamide, a natural cannabinoid that attaches to the body’s cannabis receptors, just like marijuana. This is another source of chocolate’s pain-relieving effects. Chocolate also boosts the release of the body’s natural amphetamines, phenylethylamine, which increases energy. Serotonin, a neurotransmitter that acts as an antidepressant, is also boosted by eating chocolate. This may be why so many people reach for chocolate when they…
One yard at a time – August 14, 2020 – “He’s a big inspiration to us,” said Raiders defensive back Lamarcus Joyner. “He’s actually a leader. So I’m pretty sure you know of his story. Just to see a guy go through that kind of stuff and clean himself up, both off the field and on the field, is just amazing. “And if you can’t be encouraged by that, then you don’t have a heart.” Waller, 27, hit rock bottom in 2017 while with the Baltimore Ravens when he failed his second drug test and was suspended for the entire…
Winner! – August 13, 2020 – Lowe describes their behavior in the St. Elmo‘s days as “f*#king wild.” And Moore admits that director Joel Schumacher hired a 24/7 paid companion to keep her sober on set, who stayed with her all day, every day — for the entire shoot. Moore has spoken out about the pivotal role Schumacher played in her sobriety before, and describes again to Lowe what it meant to her to have this director really devote himself to her health, safety, and sobriety, at a time when the 22-year-old Moore felt utterly disposable to both the movie…
WATCH – A Happy Story – August 9, 2020 – After back-to-back months of record illicit drug overdose deaths in B.C., a man who successfully fought addiction on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is now hoping to show others that recovery is within reach. Kristen Robinson reports. more@GlobalNews
WATCH – Must be awesome – August 11, 2020 – So when an unfamiliar virus began sending scores of patients to the hospital with failing lungs, doctors wondered whether there would be consequences for the newly addicted generation. On Tuesday, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine published a study which may confirm the fears of parents and doctors across the nation. Vaping is not just a small risk for coronavirus. Among teens and young adults who were tested, those who had used e-cigs were five to seven times more likely to be infected than non-users. “We were surprised,”…
WATCH – She’s been there, done that – Aug. 14, 2020 – The Seattle journalist said she missed almost a decade of life when her problem with alcohol grew out of control in 2007. At the height of her addiction, Barnett drank more than two bottles of wine or a bottle of vodka a day. She was fired from a job, lost a relationship, lost friends and had a hard time supporting herself because she was spending so much money on alcohol, she writes in her new book, “Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery.” Now Barnett, who has…
Alcohol: The deadliest drug of all – August 7, 2020 – Cady Groves was born in Kansas and was living in Nashville when she died. She began her career in 2009 and toured with acts like Good Charlotte, Third Eye Blind and LMFAO before transitioning to country music in recent years, according to Vel Records. The singer was the third of the family’s siblings to die at a young age. Kelly Groves died at 28 in 2013 after struggles with prescription drug addiction following a serious car accident, about seven years after older brother Casey Groves also died at…