Faux Childhoods? – January 29, 2020 – Never have we been more connected yet felt lonelier. While we realize that most of what we see on social media is staged, we are still compelled to make comparisons. It’s easy to think, “Why is everyone else so happy when I’m so miserable?” Depression soon follows, which has now become an epidemic. For a “harmless” high, we open the games app and after buying some inexpensive upgrades, we soon find ourselves in pure gambling mode, as those 99-cent purchases become dollars. Like most addictions, we use our phones to escape the reality…
Author: Leonard Buschel
Eat Your Heart Out – January 28, 2020 – We need food to survive, but certain foods — especially those rich in sugar, fat and salt — can trigger chemicals in the brain that make us feel good, such as dopamine. When you feel that, it can make you want to eat those foods again. The health portion of my life was more about having a stack of Oreo cookies with a glass of milk at 10 o’clock at night while I’m watching TV in bed,” said Don Prince, who struggled with food addiction. “I’d justify the cookies and say,…
There is a pill for everything – February 1, 2020 – Later that day, finally loaded on 15 Vicodins, Peres met boxing champ Mike Tyson to discuss an upcoming story. Sweat-soaked and “swaying back and forth,” Peres made it outside and vomited on the street where a town car waited for him. Things turned extra-scary in 2003, when his girlfriend — nicknamed Chickpea, for the lie he told about meeting her in a supermarket aisle instead of through an escort service — couldn’t wake him for two minutes. “You weren’t breathing,” she told him. “I thought you were dead!” Even…
Way Too Young! – JAN. 28, 2020 – Music ran in her family, as her father Roger Troutman Jr. recorded with Capitol Records during the 1980s, and her grandfather, Roger Troutman, founded funk band Zapp. Less than a month before Alijai’s death, rapper Juice Wrld, also 21, died, which officials last week attributed to an accidental overdose. @NYDailyNews
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” —Plato
Stay Safe! – Jan 28, 2020 – Celebrating Super Bowl Sunday, this year on February 2, is an annual ritual for many, but because alcohol is often involved, roads on game weekend can be particularly dangerous. Drunken driving can be deadly. In 2018, 29% of all crash fatalities were the result of alcohol-impaired-driving. There are other serious consequences of driving under the influence, too. A driver can face jail time and a huge financial hit; the average DUI court case costs approximately $10,000, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Hosts can end up in jail, too, if…
Demi Lovato Sings Her Heart Out – Dylan James wrote “I watched the Grammy’s Sunday night with a group of strangers. I was sitting in the social room at an inpatient hospital that I had been admitted to a week before to get the help I needed to live with my mental illness and addiction. The piano started and I knew something beautiful was about to happen. When you cried, I cried. I felt every single word you sang. We were all silent when you finished. We knew then and there that we weren’t alone. We all struggle differently, but…
Gambling with Death – January 15, 2020 – Two areas where the AG plans to spend the grant funds are on developing cross-sector partnerships so that communities can make meaningful use of the data and to establish an Application Programming Interface for stakeholder agencies to contribute data. Local agencies and groups who want to pursue public safety and assist in tackling the opioid crisis as well as help the community deal with drug addiction and overdoses should apply to receive funding. @News3LV
In the Dark – Jan. 24, 2020 – Treatment Options If you have a history of drug abuse, we do not advise solving your insomnia with medications. Any prescription drugs or sleeping pills that need to be consumed continuously represents a risk factor for former addicts. If you think that that is the easiest solution, you must know that there are no quick solutions or magic pills that can change things overnight. Time and patience are your best companions. So, instead of trying to cure one problem by creating another one, try some of the slower but safer approaches which…
Faces of Evil – JANUARY 24, 2020 – On Thursday, Page Six reported that now, Mortimer and Jacqueline have traded New York for, well, Gstaad, showing that even when legal and financial situations change, tastes don’t. The couple had just sold their East 75th Street townhouse for $38 million earlier in the month, and the tabloid got a hold of Mortimer’s email announcement to New York friends, the casual tenor of which makes you wonder how regular…
Russell Brand hosts – Jan. 25, 2010 – Longevity and conflict have become defining characteristics in the shared half-century career of Aerosmith, the classic rockers who were honored Friday at the annual MusiCares Person of the Year Gala. Over the decades, they’ve survived addiction, cancer and a falloff of chart action, and somehow bounced back mostly intact. The band’s latest moment of glory and dysfunction landed during a Grammy weekend planned as triumphant recognition for a winning streak of hits and fortitude — unfolding at the MusiCares tribute and on the Grammy telecast on Sunday. But after sidelined drummer Joey…
All The Right Notes – Jan. 24, 2020 – As 84-year-old Cajun music legend Doug Kershaw looks back, he’s still looking ahead too — fiddling, singing, writing and performing as the quintessential “Louisiana Man.” Kershaw taught himself to play by surreptitiously using his daddy’s fiddle at age 5. And in a life marked with struggles, drug addiction and family trauma, he’s never really stopped. But with his memoir published in October, and upcoming performances at a rockabilly festival in Spain and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, he’s once again in the spotlight. “I’m relearning songs I wrote 65…
Just Say No More – Jan. 23, 2020 – “No matter what you’ve done, no matter how bad it’s been, recovery is possible. I think that showing empathy and meeting people where they are is key. And that’s what it took for me.” She is one of the few to accomplish what many saw as the impossible: she now works to prevent overdoses in our region and finally regained her nursing license. “It’s an inspiration to me to know I am trusted in that field from the board of nursing. And that is a trust I will not break again,”…
Easy Does It Easily – January 2020 – It is now well known that the repetition of rewarding behaviors produces changes in brain function and structure that facilitate habits and, for some, sustained compulsivity and addiction. Like other complex illnesses and disorders, addiction is multifactorial, resulting from a combination of genetic, social, psychological, and environmental forces. Genetics plays an important role in conferring vulnerability to addiction. Genetic factors influence how substances are metabolized and experienced. Such biological differences can influence whether substance use continues and increases, remains “social” and occasional, or does not occur at all. In the early stages,…
University of Arkansas! – Jan. 23, 2020 – He has been in long-term recovery from alcohol, cocaine and bulimia since April 2007, and he speaks and writes extensively about these subjects. Cuban has spoken at colleges, universities, conferences, non-profit and legal events across the United States and in Canada. He has appeared on prestigious talk shows such as the Katie Couric Show and media outlets around the country. His columns have appeared and he has been quoted on these topics on CNN, Fox News, The Huffington Post, Above the Law, The New York Times and in online and print newspapers…
First Brexit, Now This! – Jan. 25, 2020 – Narconon, which has close links to Scientology, promotes the theories of its founder L Ron Hubbard, including the ‘Purification Rundown’ to rid the body of toxins. The controversial procedure involves ingesting a high dose of vitamins before entering a sauna for up to five hours. The facility was originally intended to be used as a nursing home. Claire O’Mara, of the Ballivor Community Group, said although they were ‘overwhelmingly disappointed’ by the decision, they would fight on if they could. … “I’m gutted. We literally put our heart and soul into…
WATCH (at your own risk) – December 24, 2019 – Additionally, her album engineers got a nod in the best-engineered album category, including her brother and collaborator Finneas, who received three nominations, according to The Guardian. Up until now, Eilish has been candid and realistic about the fact that she has been a minor and the personal challenges she’s faced in the music industry. Her art has taken on an ethereal form in itself, with a unique sense of electropop/gothic alternative intertwined between dark and warped themes … Eilish had us sinking in sadness and floating in charm with her…
Stick with the Winners! January 28, 2020 – Sherry Gaba, LCSW, is a licensed psychotherapist and life coach who helps people cope with codependency, addictions, trauma, and mental health issues. Sherry is a single mother and once her daughter was old enough, Sherry returned to school to receive her Master of Social Work from the University of Southern California.As a leading expert on addiction and recovery, Sherry’s TV appearances include: Vh1’s Celebrity Rehab, CNN, Inside Edition, the Robert Irvine Show and Access Live, E! News, among others. She has been featured in Cosmopolitan, Women’s World, the LA Times, Thrive Global, the…
Nixon Lives – Jan. 26, 2020 – That means a person dealing in one of these analogues — even one that is harmless — could be subject to mandatory-minimum penalties with no opportunity to prove the analogue is benign. For any offense involving 10 grams of a substance that contains a detectable amount of a SOFA substance, the Justice Department could seek a five-year mandatory minimum. (In contrast, 100 grams or more of heroin is required to trigger the same mandatory minimum.) Judges will have no choice but to impose mandatory minimums, even though street-level dealers — many of whom…
Bail, Not Jail – Jan. 27, 2010 – So while it’s easy and comforting to think that these laws are holding accountable drug kingpins for bringing poison into our communities, the truth of the matter is much different. More often, these laws are brought to bear on people who have drugs and needles because they are personally addicted. If they are caught multiple times with drugs, it’s often because they can’t get by without them. Placing the weight of a felony conviction on them will not get them any closer to recovery. For a few, that threat may be the…
Like a needle in a haystack – Jan. 21, 2020 – An estimated 130 people die from opioid-related drug overdoses each day in the United States, and 2 million people had an opioid use disorder in 2018. This public health crisis has left officials scrambling for ways to cut down on illegal sales of these controlled substances,including online sales. Now the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, is investing in an artificial intelligence-based tool to track how “digital drug dealers” and illegal internet pharmacies market and sell opioids (though…
Was it Manslaughter? – Jan. 23, 2020 – Earlier on Thursday, Insys sales chief Alec Burkaloff was sentenced to 26 months in prison for his role in the bribery and fraud scheme. “This was an offense of greed,” U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said before sentencing Burlakoff. The sales executive hired a stripper as a Subsys sales representative to help persuade doctors to boost prescriptions. The woman, named Sunrise Lee, eventually was promoted to oversee a third of the company’s sales force. “I didn’t think of who we were at Insys, and how unethical what we were doing was,” he…
Grown-ups at fault – January 14, 2020 – In the addiction treatment field, we actually don’t abide by the old adage of people having to “hit rock bottom” before they are ready to get treatment. This is somewhat of a myth. What we are trying to emphasize in our article is that overdose is a particularly crucial time that we can draw someone into treatment because they are presenting into the medical setting, seeing doctors, and we have this opportunity to interact with them and offer them treatment. Coming into the emergency department with an overdose may be the only…
TRAGIC – Jan. 23, 2020 – Producers of ABC’s “Bachelor” franchise said a in statement: “We are heartbroken to hear the tragic news of Tyler’s passing today. Our thoughts are with the Gwozdz family and his friends.” Gwozdz, known as “Tyler G.” to “Bachelorette” fans, appeared briefly on the show’s 15th season in 2019. After landing the “first date” with Hannah Brown, Gwozdz abruptly departed the series after three episodes without an explanation from the show. @Today
Tearful Triumph – January 26, 2020 – She actually wrote the song just before the incident. “I tried to talk to my piano / I tried to talk to my guitar / Talked to my imagination / Confided in to alcohol / I tried and tried and tried some more / Told secrets ‘til my voice was sore / Tired of empty conversation / Cause no one hears me anymore,” Lovato began, “A hundred million stories / And a hundred million songs / I feel stupid when I sing / Nobody’s listening to me / Nobody’s listening / I talked to shooting stars /…
Show Me The Money – Jan. 23, 2020 – Another member of the victims’ committee, 33-year-old Garrett Hade, said he has been sober for nearly five years after a long odyssey through addiction that began with OxyContin when he was a teenager in Florida. He said he would donate any money he receives from Purdue. Now, as an organizer with the Recovery Advocacy Project, he said he’s telling people that they will be able to make claims. “People need to know that as a person there is some recourse out there,” said Hade, who now lives in Las Vegas. Also…
Everything is Possible – January 24, 2020 – Outside the control of a lab, people began to use psychedelics for their mind-bending effects, swearing the drugs improved creativity and made them happier long past the bliss of the high. Celebrities helped spread the word: Gary Grant used LSD over 100 times in the late ‘50s, according to the documentary film, “Becoming Cary Grant,” claiming it made him a better actor. Grant was so taken with the drug that he decided to go public with his experience in the September 1, 1959, issue of Look magazine. Vanity Fair wrote about the…
Coming Out Party in Print – January 24, 2020 – “Bryony has never been afraid to explore the darker aspects of her reality and this book takes the power of her writing to a new level,” said Emsley. “In turn, shocking, brutal, funny, hopeful and uplifting, Glorious Rock Bottom is a sobriety memoir like no other. We couldn’t be prouder to be publishing it this spring.” Gordon, who has worked for the Telegraph for almost 20 years, is the author of The Wrong Knickers, Mad Girl and Eat, Drink, Run (Headline), and You Got This: A Fabulously Fearless Guide to…
And Tasty Too – JANUARY 14, 2020 – As Bruenig sees it, however, there’s more to be gained than lost in abstaining. In fact, she supports stronger restrictions on alcohol sales. Alcohol’s effects on crime and violence, in her view, are cause to reconsider some cities’ and states’ permissive attitudes toward things such as open-container laws and where alcohol can be sold. Breunig’s outlook harks back to a time when there was a robust public discussion about the role of alcohol in society. Today, warnings about the devil drink will win you few friends. Sure, it’s fine if you want…
Six of one… – Jan. 24, 2020 – Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God’s world could not stay sober, unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.” Sixx himself added, “From my worn bruised and loved big book … let go.” Let’s Start Again Shall We also asked Nikki on social media, “can I ask why no Canada for the tour this time round? We think we…