Stick with the Winners! – April 9, 2019 – In June of 2011, Zach successfully got sober. At just three and a half years into sobriety, Zach was diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder 1.In 2016, Zach moved to Jerusalem where he earned his International License as a Drug and Alcohol Counselor. After working for two years abroad, he returned to Los Angeles in pursuit of helping others. While back in California, Zach worked for five different facilities before starting A Life After Recovery, or ALAR for short. ALAR helps people suffering from both substance abuse and mental health issues integrate back…
Author: Leonard Buschel
Cloudy Issue – Apr. 7, 2019 – While cigarette smoking is the top risk factor for lung cancer, some of scientific evidence suggests there’s no link between marijuana smoking and lung cancer. That’s according to a 2017 federal report that rounded up nearly two decades of studies on marijuana, research that’s been limited by the federal government’s classification of marijuana as a controlled substance like heroin. While cigarette smoking is a major cause of heart disease, the report concluded it’s unclear whether marijuana use is associated with heart attacks or strokes. But there’s strong evidence linking long-term cannabis smoking to…
Of Course It Can… – 04/05/2019 – The scaling up of the “Hub and Spoke” system, particularly in rural areas, has presented challenges but also delivered results in locales like this Gold Rush-era city east of Sacramento — and dovetailed with existing efforts to expand medication-assisted treatment to give the state a two-pronged approach to confronting the opioid epidemic. Hub and Spoke, first launched in Vermont in 2012, features a system of regional addiction treatment centers or “hubs” that are connected with “spokes” like primary care practices and local clinics. Patients have individual treatment plans. The system allows many patients…
Moderation is the Key – April 1, 2019 – “Our estimation of a cigarette equivalent for alcohol provides a useful measure for communicating possible cancer risks that exploits successful historical messaging on smoking,” lead study author Theresa Hydes said in a statement. “We hope that by using cigarettes as the comparator we could communicate this message more effectively to help individuals make more informed lifestyle choices.” While the comparison seems pretty effective, there are some caveats about this research that everyone should keep in mind. The study did not take into account the many other health risks associated with smoking,…
Link This! – April 3, 2019 -The FDA said that between 2010 and 2019 it received 35 reports of people, especially teens and young adults, experiencing seizures after using e-cigarettes. Severe nicotine poisoning can cause seizures. However, the FDA said it’s unclear whether e-cigarettes caused the seizures in these cases. Shares of Altria, which late last year invested $12.8 billion for a 35 percent stake in e-cigarette giant Juul, fell nearly 5 percent. Shares of British American Tobacco traded in the U.S. slid nearly 3 percent. Shares of U.K.-based Imperial Brands traded in the U.S. dipped 4 percent. Full Story…
Showing The Message! – APR 07, 2019 – Two Brooklyn artists believe there is an aspect of the opioid crisis few people see – life after an addict has stopped using substances. That’s why couple and co-curators Graham MacIndoe and Susan Stellin — married professors at The New School — have unveiled a new exhibition that features photos and audio of addicts getting and staying clean taken by more than a dozen artists. Full Story @ NYDailyNews.com
87 people showed up… – Apr. 6, 2019 – Rebecca Wu, public affairs officer for the FBI St. Louis Division, said it was the first time the 2016 documentary, titled “Chasing the Dragon: The Life of an Opiate Addict,” was shown to the general public in Jefferson County, although it had previously been presented to Seckman High School students, said Jillian Bissell, Jefferson County Drug Prevention Coalition prevention specialist. “We wanted to reach communities beyond the city and county of St. Louis,” Wu said. “One of the (FBI St. Louis Citizens Academy Alumni Association) board members, Randy Gray, is a…
Easy Does It – April 8, 2019 – She began taking twenty milligrams of Prozac, an antidepressant; when she still didn’t feel better, her dose was increased to forty milligrams, and then to sixty. With each raised dose, she felt thankful to have been heard. “It was a way for me to mark to the world: this is how much pain I am in,” she said. Laura wasn’t sure whether Prozac actually lifted her mood—roughly a third of patients who take antidepressants do not respond to them—but her emotions felt less urgent and distracting, and her classwork improved. “I remember…
It’s About the Message! – Apr. 7, 2019 – “Hi, I’m Wendy Williams Hunter,” she says at the start of the announcement. “My organization, The Hunter Foundation, recently launched a nationwide hotline to offer treatment resources for you if you are a drug addict or substance abuser. 1-888-5HUNTER.” … “The calls are being answered by specially trained, certified recovery coaches,” she said. “They’re very smart. They conduct screenings to determine your needs. The substance abuse will be taken care of. We will provide you with referrals for long- or short-term treatment at facilities all around the world: detox, rehab, sober living…
Hunting for Heroin Addicts in Delray Beach – With a film such as AMERICAN RELAPSE, it is difficult to separate the technical and artistic quality of this documentary from the setting, the characters, and the film’s overall impact. Being a documentary, there isn’t a cleverly drafted screenplay replete with characters both static and dynamic. We see 72 hours in the lives of two altruistic “junkie hunters” who comb the streets and alleys of Florida’s Delray Beach seeking heroin addicts and attempting to get them into detox. From a filmmaking perspective, American Relapse is wonderfully constructed, visually impressive, and perhaps a…
Doing The Right Thing – April 3, 2019 – Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay, sponsored the legislation. It was co-sponsored by Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury. “Anyone who has made the brave decision to begin their journey to recovery should be encouraged and supported every step of the way,” Jones said in a prepared statement. The tax credit is an incentive to help counter reluctance by employers to hire people recovering from addiction, Jones said in a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “By gaining steady employment during the recovery process, individuals are more likely to complete their recovery and maintain a sober,…
Read It and Weep – Apr 6, 2019 – Jake started experimenting with alcohol and marijuana in college, then Oxycontin, which led to heroin. Burwell shares how her middle-class, smart, athletic son lost three years of his life to addiction and how this impacted their family. She offers three suggestions for other families who are involved in this battle. … 1. Get support. Take advantage of support groups such as AL-Anon, Nar-Anon and other groups to decrease your feelings of isolation and gain help from others who have been affected by addiction. Locally, we have Mothers of Hope support group…
Or Created It? – APRIL 5, 2019 -The group urged FDA to stop approving “dangerous” opioids and to instead encourage the development of more drugs to treat addiction. Many protesters decried the November approval of Dsuvia, a mega-potent pain drug, and urged the Trump administration to nominate an FDA commissioner who would take a different tack than Gottlieb on opioid approvals. The protest comes after a series of demonstrations at museums funded by the Sackler family, the now-infamous founders of Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin. But Friday’s event, which took place just five blocks from the Arthur M. Sackler…
Save the Children – Born April 2, 1939 – As the critic Michael Eric Dyson put it, the man who “chased away the demons of millions … with his heavenly sound and divine art” was chased by demons of his own throughout his life. That life came to a tragic end on this day 1984, when Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his own father one day short of his 45th birthday. Full Story @ USPS.com
You Really Are What You Eat – Apr. 4, 2019 – Overall, poor diet is behind 16-percent of adult DALYs around the world. Variations in poor diets aside, the study points toward three dietary factors that greatly contributed toward diet-related death and DALYs: high sodium intake, low whole grains consumption, and low amounts of fruit in one’s diet. Other risky dietary habits include high red meat consumption, eating large amounts of processed meats, trans fatty acids, and sugary drinks. Full Story @ SlashGear.com
Helpful Humor – April 6, 2019 – Step 1: Set Your Intention How do you want to feel once this vision board takes effect? Use simple phrases that describe your post-vision board self. To inspire you, I’ll share intentions from my previous vision boards: “Happy.” “Successful at literally anything.” “Skinnier than my sister.” (Pro tip: If you don’t have a sister, pick anyone whose genetics you find flagrantly unfair.) Step 2: Gather Your Supplies You’ll need a corkboard, scissors, magazines with pictures so… Full Story @ NYTimes.com
Only The Living Can Get Clean – APRIL 5, 2019 – The logic for overdose prevention sites is simple. Opioids kill by shutting down the brain’s respiratory center. Breathing slows, then stops. An individual who has overdosed on opioids will die from lack of oxygen in a matter of minutes. That’s plenty of time for a trained person on the scene to administer naloxone, which re-starts breathing immediately. But it isn’t enough time for an ambulance to arrive after a 911 call. Overdose prevention sites, also known as supervised injection facilities, offer a clean, safe environment in which people can…
Not Funny Business – APRIL 4, 2019- Even though people with mental illness are less likely to commit violent crimes than the mean, and are more likely to be victimized by them, the news media regularly speculates as to whether certain violent criminals have mental health issues (as opposed to just being, you know, bad people). Film and television reinforces this by frequently giving their character an explicit or implied diagnosis to explain why they’re bad, whether it’s James McAvoy’s villain in the 2017 movie “Split,” Anthony Perkins’ legendary portrayal of Norman Bates in the 1960 movie “Psycho” or the…
Writer/Alcoholic/Recovering – April 5, 2019 – From the last drop to the daily struggle to keep sober, my sobriety was a gradual leveling off of emotions over time. It took a few years, not to mention a lot of support group meetings, therapy, drugs (the legal, prescription kind), religion, and good ol’ rock and roll. It took work, but it also took learning self-love. But not everyone is so lucky. There are many lives that alcoholism has utterly destroyed, or damaged beyond repair. Leslie Jamison’s “The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath” is the story of her own battle with alcoholism,…
Urine Prison Now – April 2, 2019 – The task force coordinated its work with law enforcement in Pennsylvania, where 20 people have been arrested in connection with the scheme. Aronberg said it’s all part of the task force’s efforts to end the “Florida shuffle” that lures drug addicts to the Sunshine State with the promise of recovery. The county created a task force to tackle problematic sober homes, similar to halfway houses, where the formerly drug addicted transition back into society. Officials discovered fraud and abuse at many homes in Palm Beach County and began arresting unscrupulous owners for…
It Hurts – March 27, 2019 – I am not alone. Victims of tragic accidents, disease onset, combat wounds, complicated surgeries, workplace injuries, gun violence or even a simple fall off a ladder are among the 20 million Americans like me who experience some form of high-impact, chronic and often debilitating pain. Many, given a second chance at life after a serious illness or injury, tragically choose suicide over pain. Why? The most unfortunate among them, those with life-altering, unspeakable pain, are being denied access to the medications they need to go on. Their doctors, now numbering nearly 70 percent…
Not Just Another App – March 25, 2019 – Digital health apps, which let patients chat with doctors or health coaches or even receive likely medical diagnoses from a bot, are transforming modern health care. They are also — in practice — being used as suicide crisis hotlines. “To be honest, when we started this, I didn’t think it was as big an issue as it obviously is,” said Daniel Nathrath, CEO of Ada Health. Since the app launched in late 2016, people around the world have used it to complete more than 10 million health assessments. In about 130,000…
Exaggerations from a Cop? – March 25, 2019 – Foster and Boyer compare the panic stirred around fentanyl to the irrational fear held by medical providers who refused to treat people with, or suspected of being positive for, HIV in the 1980s. Additionally, as Filter has reported, the fear-mongering encouraged by unfounded beliefs about fentanyl continues a xenophobic and racist legacy that once held opium to be an uncanny force violating white bodies. After the publication of this article, Filter learned of a letter sent by the Commissioner of Public Safety Thomas D. Anderson to VT Digger, the regional news…
Gaming For Your Life – March 28, 2019 – “Sea of Solitude,” which Electronic Arts will publish this year, is among a growing number of video games that are tackling mental health issues. “Mental health is becoming a more central narrative in our culture… “With that trend comes response from creative industries, including games.” Video games can be “a more effective way of bouncing back from negative moods than passive forms of media like TV or movies,” said Raffael Boccamazzo, a mental health practitioner in Seattle. Full Story @ Medium.com
Get In Line – March 25, 2019 – In February, Circuit Judge Laura Johnson made a ruling in a separate patient-brokering case that could change the outcome of future prosecutions. In part of her ruling, she said prosecutors must prove that those charged with patient brokering knew what they were doing was illegal. Before the ruling, prosecutors only had to prove that those charged were paying in part for the referral of patients. This was the first patient-brokering case to go to trial after the State Attorney’s Office created the Sober Home Task Force in 2016. A Palm Beach Post…
HALLELUJAH! – March 25, 2019 – “The vending machine provides easy access that does not require a medical appointment,” the news release said. It “is part of Center for Behavioral Health’s mission to address addiction on multiple fronts.” Trac-B Exchange, part of the Harm Reduction Center in Las Vegas, offers infectious disease consulting to community members. Its existing needle exchange vending machines, which also dispense Narcan, are at the Huntridge Family Clinic, 1830 E Sahara Ave., and The Center, 401 S Maryland Parkway. Full Story @ ReviewJournal.com
All In and All Out – March 28, 2019 – “I used to blame it on my anxiety or depression issues, but really the root of all my problems was the alcohol and drugs.” Haynes added that he began to use alcohol and drugs more heavily after coming out in 2016 … “I came out and, in a way, my downward spiral started,” he said. “I felt extremely free but at the same time the amount of attention I was getting was making me spin out of control.” Haynes entered a four month treatment facility and has been sober for…
Career Highs and Lows – March 29, 2019 – And restaurants are just one of the many businesses where employees are under the influence. A new survey from DrugAbuse.com, which offers educational content and recovery resources to people dealing with addiction, found that 23 percent of U.S. workers responding to the survey say they have used drugs or alcohol on the job. Roughly six in ten say they have used alcohol at work, outside of office parties or functions, while nearly 23 percent say they’ve smoked pot on the job. Full Story @ USAToday.com
Happy World Bipolar Day, or Are We? – March 29, 2019 – Bipolar disorder is one of the most misunderstood mental illnesses, and the confusion around it persists even as we make strides in the way we talk about other mental health conditions. It is a complicated, multifaceted mental illness that can significantly impact someone’s daily life. So why isn’t it given the time and space that anxiety and depression are given in our collective conversations around mental health? part of the story here is that anxiety and depression are among the most common mental illnesses. While an estimated 31.1…
Health Care for None – Mar 30, 2019 – Under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, West Virginia expanded its Medicaid program to those who make up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line. According to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, the state’s expanded Medicaid program spentabout $58 million on mental health and substance abuse in fiscal year 2015, $61 million in 2016, $79 million in 2017 and $90 million in 2018. President Donald Trump’s administration said Tuesday it supports striking down the entire Affordable Care Act. Trump’s Department of Justice wrote that…