Very…some – April 8, 2020 – More than 90 days later, Lombardi is still abstaining. But she was surprised by how tough the coronavirus pandemic has made sticking to her goal. “I thought the hardest part would be navigating not drinking in situations like at bars or at work events. But honestly, the most challenging time has actually been over the last two weeks or so as I’ve been solo in my apartment,” she says. “In the moments of uncertainty where I feel a little bit sad or lonely, and when I look online and see people raising their glasses…
Author: Leonard Buschel
Fresh Air? – April 10, 2020 – A Love Story, out now, chronicles author Casey Schwartz’s lifelong obsession with humanity’s ability—or lack thereof—to focus, with an emphasis on how the shift to an “attention economy” exacerbates the ancient conundrum of living in the here and now. “We have entered into a situation where the gadgets we carry around with us—and the cognitive rhythm they dictate—are pitted against the possibility of deep engagement or thorough ‘encoding,’” she writes. “They ask us to be anywhere but here, to live in any moment but now.” The prospect of “anywhere but here, any moment…
Always room for one more – APRIL 10, 2020 – In late September 2018, the Vikings ordered Griffen to undergo a mental health screen after multiple incidents in which the defensive end became uncontrollably irate at the team facility days including a police report that said Griffen threatened to shoot someone at a downtown Minneapolis hotel. Griffen’s agent, Brian Murphy told Pelissero doctors were able to rule out “serious mental health issues,” yet the defender continued to seek help, ultimately discovering a source of trauma and putting him on a road to recovery that allowed him to return to work…
Seeing the light of recovery – April 9, 2020 – “I would say 2018 was a tough year,” Smith told Jay Glazer, as transcribed by the Dallas Morning News. “In that year, I was in a really dark place, and I didn’t have a lot of value for how I thought about myself. When I was in a bad spot, it got bad. Pretty bad. I was sleeping under a car for some nights because my sickness took me there. And I had a home to sleep in. But I was in such a dark place that I didn’t see…
No, you’re kidding? – April 10, 2020 – Finlay left the relationship and the zoo behind and is now engaged to a woman. And he wants to start a new career as a motivational speaker who helps others overcome drug addiction. “I want to work with the youth about drugs and abuse,” he revealed. “It’s time for me to take a negative and turn it into a positive. “I used to have a lot of pent up negative thoughts and bad aura about myself. I just quit thinking about the past and the negative stuff that’s happened to me,” Finlay…
Recommendations – Apr 10, 2020 – In-person meetings are not just a means to find social connections, they provide accountability. Members have to be accountable to their sponsor or other members in the group regarding their whereabouts, new habits, and other behaviors (such as not calling), etc. • In AA, it’s recommended that members attend a meeting EVERY DAY for 90 days. Recovered addicts may attend a meeting multiple times a week leading to longer stretches of abstinence. • An integral part of recovery for people going through recovery is to ‘participate in their lives’ — i.e., go out to…
Probably for nerves – April 12, 2020 – Officers subsequently arrived and arrested Gutierrez without incident. He was booked into jail on suspicion of attempted robbery but was released Saturday after posting $30,000 bail. “A big shout out to the bank employees for remaining calm the entire time and relaying the suspect’s description and location inside to our dispatchers,” police said. @NBCLosAngeles
Quitting Time? – April 10, 2020 -You’re already making your body fight off foreign particles before it even has to fight off the infection.” Dr. Mitchell Glass, a pulmonologist and spokesperson for the American Lung Association, adds that cannabis, which often causes a dry cough, can also complicate the diagnostic process. “COVID-19 is a pulmonary disease,” he tells CNN. “You don’t want to do anything that’s going to confound the ability of health care workers to make a rapid, accurate assessment of what’s going on with you.” Daily, or “chronic,” cannabis smoking can cause what “looks a lot like chronic…
Girls! Gone Not So Wild – April 10, 2020 – The 33-year-old writer and actress posted a carefree and fresh-faced picture of herself smiling in her pajamas, next to a long and heartfelt caption which updated followers regarding her achievement. ‘Today I have 2 years clean and sober. It’s a miracle I can’t take for granted no matter how hard I try,’ the actress who played Hannah Horvath began. ‘Two years ago I didn’t think I needed to get sober. But a quiet voice inside me said, “lay it down for a moment” and then other, louder voices helped me…
Dr. Watson, Come Here, I want you – April 11, 2020 – The rules were revised in order to promote physical distancing, and thus decrease the spread of COVID-19. But the change has also profoundly improved the ability for providers like me to address the ongoing national epidemic of addiction and overdose that preceded COVID-19, and that will almost certainly outlast it. Many of my patients are unemployed, tenuously housed, or without any housing at all. With this rule change, I can now prescribe to patients who don’t have bus money to make it to clinic, but who have a…
Census 100% – April 10, 2020 – “We were getting more and more recoveries,” Beste said. “Initially when social distancing started, our providers sat together and all talked and decided we are absolutely essential. We’re here to help people stay in recovery and one of the biggest obstacles for recover is isolation or loneliness. So, we decided to stay available throughout the whole social distancing.” Group therapy is one of the most important tools recovering addicts can use, according to Beste. “During our programs, there is therapy three hours, three days a week, which is intensely looking at how…
Not Satire – April 10, 2020 – Last week, the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse opened at tent hospital in Central Park to help hospitals that are overflowing with patients. The organization, which got $700 million in revenue in 2018, requires all volunteers to sign a Statement of Faith that says that “God created man and woman” who were “made to complete each other.” “God instituted monogamous marriage between male and female as the foundation of the family and the basic structure of human society,” the statement says. “For this reason, we believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one…
Everyone working from home? – April 9, 2020 – If you find yourself or anyone in your household reaching for the bottle as a coping mechanism too often, it can be cause for concern, especially considering the current circumstances in which we have found ourselves as a nation,” Dr. Lawrence Weinstein, chief medical officer of American Addiction Centers, said in alcohol.org’s final report. “These are stressful times, as many employees struggle with having to adapt to a home working environment, in which distractions are abundant and alcohol may seem like a good solution.” … Other resources include the Substance Abuse…
Advice from a Slugger… – April 6, 2020 – The slugger-turned-St. Louis pastor shared a message for those struggling to stay sober during the coronaviruspandemic, per Newsday. “I think so many people are on the edge of going to drinking and going to drugging to escape,” Strawberry said. “And I can tell you right now: It will not help you. It will not change the situation. What changes the situation is you inside when you make the right decision. “Those of us who have been on the journey and have been in a good place for a long time, we…
What a Pro! – April 6, 2020 – One night, I had to edit my story back at the station, so I stopped at a drive-through for a bite before heading to the gas station to pick up a large beer. I emptied out my soda, poured the beer into the cup and secretly drank it while I was in the editing bay. I had a pretty little clear and purple “bumper” that I would take snorts of blow from, too. My drug use often made the drives to and from the desert difficult— I was either too tired or…
Dead bodies in all 50 states – April 13, 2020 – A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper published last fall sheds light on Purdue’s role. The researchers, economists from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Notre Dame and the RAND Corporation, looked at variations in prescribing regulations that led Purdue to market OxyContin more aggressively in some states than in others. The study found that OxyContin distribution was nearly twice as high in states where regulations made it easier to market. Misuse of the drug was also higher in the more marketed states, both immediately after OxyContin’s…
A Woman’s Tale – April 2, 2020 – I instantly felt a rush of energy and … happiness. From then on and for the next few years, I used only on an occasional weekend: I was going to college and wasn’t going to let my use interfere. I was almost done with my medical assistant degree though when I began using more to help me stay up to study. Then I started to use every day. I ended the term with a C average. My using continued for many years after that. So in 2005 I went to my first…
No Plan for pandemic – April 10, 2020 – While the pandemic is unprecedented, such shortages are not. Health experts say the U.S. government has been slow to strengthen the drug supply chain, despite recent painful reminders of its vulnerabilities. Production at several major pharmaceutical factories in Puerto Rico was disrupted for months in 2017 after Hurricane Maria tore across the island — leaving hospitals without a reliable supply of saline IV bags and other infused fluids. Less than a year later, manufacturing problems at several other U.S. plants caused nationwide shortages of opioids used in surgeries and end-of-life care. …
Hard Drugs Down a Dead End Street – April 11, 2020 – The Philadelphia native signed with the agency Ford Models at age 14 after being discovered at the Six Flags Great Adventure park in New Jersey, according to Pitchfork magazine. But she always had goals of being in the music industry. Rogers’ dream became a reality when in high school she teamed up with the late producer A$AP Yams, who formed the hip-hop group A$AP Mob. A$AP Yams died of an accidental drug overdose in 2015. During a 2018 interview with Pitchfork, Rogers opened up about her music career,…
“If you give a little more then you’re asking for your love will turn the key.” —Barry Gibb
GOOD NEWS on Robertson Blvd. – April 8, 2020 – According to a WeHo City press release, an agreement was signed this week. The City of West Hollywood will lease the site from Beverly Hills for a period of twelve months and intends to sublease the premises to the West Hollywood Recovery Center, which will hopefully offer a much better space than what currently stands under the Lions Club management. “We are thrilled to be able to secure this space to safeguard vital recovery services. Tens of thousands of people have been helped by the 12-Step meetings offered at the…
Hell hath no fury – APRIL 2, 2020 – If a police officer responds to an overdose, they’ll try to revive the person with Narcan and leave extra with the family. But they don’t go back again. Instead, recovery coaches are calling clients more often. “Really trying to make sure that people feel some level of connection to another human being, even if they can’t see them in person, is really important,” Sullivan said. Drug users can be especially vulnerable to COVID-19. Some are HIV-positive. Others have chronic disease from years of substance abuse or homelessness. And if they do…
Tears for our fallen brethren – April 5, 2020 – Jacob Fain, senior VP of A&R artist development at Sony/ATV, paid tribute to Lasher on social media. “I had the pleasure of working with Neil for over a decade and our work together on MusiCares was some of my most memorable together,” wrote Fain on Instagram. “A true music man from every fiber, Neil lived and breathed a passion for our business that few have and his respect for songwriters and artists ran deep. He was a loving partner and a friend to all he met. Those who had the…
Pray for the newcomers – MARCH 29, 2020 – Getting clean is challenging enough in regular times, and the coronavirus has also upended South Florida’s fragile care system for people battling alcohol and substance abuse, putting many more at risk of relapsing and overdosing. Substance-abuse therapists have traded in couches for platforms such as Skype or Facetime as some South Florida residential rehab centers have stopped accepting new patients for fear they might infect existing clients. Because there’s been a steep drop-off in patient visits, clinics are bracing for private insurance and federal government reimbursements to vanish, forcing layoffs of…
Anything Can Happen – Mar. 30, 2020 – Other countries, including Canada and Australia, have licensed growers for research cannabis without taking possession of the drug, Sisley says. “All of them have looked at the [Single Convention] language and decided that this treaty was never designed to block research.” The new rules may immediately eliminate several applicants from contention. A requirement that growers have never broken federal law, if enforced, would be a stumbling block for companies that already produce or distribute marijuana in states where it is legal. (Although it hasn’t been an enforcement priority for DEA, growing, selling,…
They’re at it again – April 2, 2020 – Our exit strategy from the global lockdown depends on the development of an effective vaccine, as is well-known. A huge effort is under way to find such a vaccine, but we cannot afford to wait the 18 months it might take. In the meantime, as the death toll increases, doctors are desperate for treatments that would lessen the impact of the virus, by shortening the infection, reducing its severity and in that way saving lives. There is now a global hunt for a coronavirus drug. But it is a fight against…
Blondie or Black Tar? – April 2, 2020 – “I wasn’t taking drugs when I was working, so when I was working I wasn’t taking drugs,” she explained. Harry then went on to reveal that acquiring substances took too much effort, eventually turning her away from using. “The thing that drove me away from taking them was having to acquire them and what a drag that was,” she told ES Magazine. “It was kind of a full-time occupation and a waste of time. It became unpleasant,” she said. @CelebrityNine
Another GOOD Reason to Quit! – April 2, 2020 – The Ideas and Opinions piece raises several important concerns regarding COVID-19 for specific vulnerable populations, including: Patients with already compromised lung conditions may be at higher risk for more severe complications from COVID-19. Specifically, people who smoke or vape, or use opioids or methamphetamine may face heightened risk. In addition, chronic opioid use already increases the risk of slowed breathing due to hypoxemia, which can lead to cardiac and pulmonary complications that may result in overdose and death. While all people should be taking precautions to prevent exposure to COVID-19,…
“Ain’t No Sunshine” – April 4, 2020 – “I lived a good portion of my life before I started to play music,” Withers recalled in “Still Bill,” the 2009 documentary about his life and career. He was in his late-20s when, as he told Rolling Stone, he bought a secondhand guitar after seeing R&B singer Lou Rawls perform at an Oakland, Calif., bar. But it wasn’t necessarily musical inspiration that motivated the former Navy aircraft mechanic’s purchase: the bar manager had groused that Rawls was late despite being set to earn $2,000 from the gig. When Rawls finally arrived, women…
1,763,901 views on YouTube – WTF? – April 1, 2020 – “I spent the next six years continuing to bottle in any emotional pain that I could while I was also snowballing into a bigger and bigger point of fame. Months before I started my YouTube channel, my best friend died, and I was spending the days filming and the nights staring at the ceiling, bottling in the depression,” Mongeau said in the video. Mongeau shared that she went on to experience a number of abusive relationships and opted to numb her pain rather than address it. “Ever since I…