WITH GOD ON THEIR SIDE – April 24, 2025 – The place I call Deliverance Alley is a vacant lot of grass and dirt in a neglected south Dallas neighborhood. Drive by and you won’t see much. A sign on a deli across the street reads: “No trespassing, prostitution, drug dealing, loitering, weapons or criminal activity will be tolerated.” Why do I call this seemingly god-forsaken slice of scarred urban ground Deliverance Alley? What if I said it’s where God delivered me one afternoon almost two decades ago? When I landed in Deliverance Alley, I wasn’t just homeless. I was…
Author: Leonard Buschel
BOOK REVIEW – April 22, 2025 – Eating Protein Saves Lives, Inc. announces the release of EAT!: A Guide to Radiant Recovery Using Food and Amino Acids to Repair the Addicted Brain and Reduce Cravings, a groundbreaking new book offering a fresh perspective on addiction recovery. This comprehensive guide emphasizes the critical role of nutrition in achieving lasting sobriety. The book details the Feeding Recovery System, a structured, evidence-based approach to restoring brain balance and making recovery sustainable. This innovative approach addresses the often-overlooked connection between nutritional imbalances and addiction relapse. EAT! provides practical strategies and tools to help individuals…
IN HIS OWN VOICE – April 25, 2025 – For this year’s luncheon, Hank Azaria, a multi-award-winning actor who’s most notable work includes voicing various, albeit iconic, characters on The Simpsons and movies like Along Came Polly, Heat, and Night at the Museum. He has also been outspoken about his journey overcoming substance and celebrates 18 years in recovery. Before taking that first step toward actively seeking change, Azaria tells me he had to trust the little voice telling him he needed to do so. Having previously been a part of the Al-Anon Program, for friends and family members of…
NO MORE BUCKETS – April 24, 2025 – Chicken has long been lauded as a healthy alternative to red and processed meats, which have been linked to diabetes, heart disease, and several cancers. But a new study has found a clucking scary link between chicken consumption, overall mortality, and gastrointestinal cancer — and you don’t have to eat that much to experience negative effects. In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO)’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared that red meat — such as beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse, and goat — is “probably carcinogenic to humans,” while…
AND SUGAR TOO? – April 24, 2025 – Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested Thursday banning cellphones in schools as a remedy for the nation’s addiction crisis. Citing an epidemic of hopelessness and isolation among children. “These little devices that we have are taking us away from each other,” Kennedy said. “That feeds the addiction crisis.” Overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 44, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From October 2023 to September 2024, 87,000 people died from overdoses in the United States. Multiple studies…
HELPING OTHERS EVERY DAY – April 25, 2025 – The former Milwaukee Bucks star was was using alcohol and drugs and he was seeking help, but he wasn’t at the point where he could see living any other way. He was retired from his 11-year NBA career but still young, in his 40s. A recovering alcoholic, who will go only by his first name, James, paid Johnson a visit in his California home. “He looked around and my house: it was nice on the outside, but sparsely furnished on the inside. And it kind of symbolized my life,” Johnson said.…
COUPLES THERAPY WORKS – April 25, 2025 -Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are thriving both on and off the screen, leading their talk show to new heights while delighting fans with their authentic chemistry Kelly has been open about her personal evolution, candidly sharing her journey of sobriety and how quitting drinking led to unexpected changes in her life, from gaining weight to finding surprising ease in embracing healthier habits. The couple recently gave fans a peek inside their art-filled home, showing off sentimental touches like paintings of their children’s eyes and reminiscing on family memories even as their kids…
WHY INDEED? – April 12, 2025 – Mallory berry was ready to give up. It was 2019, and her addiction—prescription opioids had led her to heroin—had left her bedridden. An infection had eaten through parts of her pelvic bones, stomach muscles, and vertebrae, causing a pain so excruciating that she was afraid to move. Her partner, Randy, placed buckets under her body when she needed to use the bathroom. Bathed her and fed her. Before long, Mallory stopped eating entirely, subsisting on sweet tea and water, wasting away. Four years later, Mallory would recount this memory to me over the…
“Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now.” – Jack Kerouac, 1922–1969
AUDIO – SHE WAS THERE – April 13, 2025 – Linda Beckstrom, co-author (with Angalia Bianca) of ‘In Deep: How I Survived Gangs, Heroin, and Prison to Become a Chicago Violence Interrupter‘ joins Rick Kogan to highlight the book and discuss her relationship with Angalia, including what it was like to work together. CONTINUE@WGN
AUDIO – COMEBACK TO LIFE – April 18, 2025 – She lost two children, cycled through jail and survived breast cancer — now, 13 years sober, this woman is turning her pain into purpose. “I kept going down that negative path, looking for validation in other people and chasing acceptance wherever I could find it,” Judy Berrocal told St. George News. “And using made that easy.” Berrocal recalled her battle with addiction, which started at 10 years old when she began drinking and using marijuana. By 13, meth had entered her life. She then faced a series of traumatic experiences…
TOO CALM FOR TV – April 12, 2025 – Beloved producer Patrick McDonald, who recently stepped back from his work on reality TV to launch an OnlyFans career, appeared on Bethenny Frankel’s “Just B” podcast on Friday, where the pair also suggested that the shows rewards drunkenness and punishes “boring sobriety.” The claims come as Bravo prepares to defend itself in a lawsuit filed by former “Real Housewives of New York City” star Leah McSweeney, who alleges that Bravo coerced and manipulated her into abandoning her sobriety because producers believed it would make for better TV if she was drinking. …
METHICATED – April 16, 2025 – John once fielded customer complaints for a telecommunications company. Now he usually hangs out with friends in the courtyard of a center offering services to help people who use drugs, hitting his pipe, or as he calls it, “getting methicated.” He usually lives outdoors, though he can sometimes handle a few days at a shelter. By noon, he tries to stop smoking meth, so he can get to sleep later that night. Quitting is not on his radar: meth rules his life. “We cannot ride on the railroad, the railroad rides upon us,” he…
GAMED IF YOU DO… – April 14, 2025 – The most common types of cancers estimated to be a result of CT scans were lung cancer and colon cancer—two cancers that are becoming more common in younger people for reasons experts do not fully understand. The types of CT scans linked to the greatest number of cancers were abdomen and pelvis CT scans. The study’s authors—led by epidemiology and biostatistics researchers at the University of California, San Francisco—concluded that doctors should use CT scans when they can be justified and at optimized doses to balance the risks and benefits. “CT…
BAD BOY – April 16, 2025 – A former Grantham physician was sentenced to eight months in federal prison and ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution for unlawfully distributing opioid medication to clients at drug rehabilitation clinics. Adnan Khan ran the now-defunct New England Medicine and Counseling Associates, which had drug rehab clinics in northern New England locations. … Khan’s sentence imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Frank P. Geraci Jr. on Monday in Burlington was less than the 10 months of incarceration that prosecutors sought. At the same time, the judge rejected the “non-custodial sentence” of probation, community service…
AUDIO – BOOK REVIEW – April 14, 2025 – If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em on a multi-day, drunk-driving road trip in middle-class middle of America to find their missing father with a garbage goth girl named Yivi whom they met two weeks ago in an Airbnb basement. That seems to be the mantra for “Make Sure You Die Screaming,” Zee Carlstrom’s debut novel from Flatiron Books. The first-person narration follows no-name Gunderson, nonbinary queer person, at what surely must be their rock-bottom. They stole their ex-boyfriend Clinton’s car to drive from Chicago to Arkansas. Also the protagonist has…
FUNDING FIASCO – April 17, 2025 – Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia sought a restraining order to protect the $11 billion in funding. In early April, a federal judge granted a temporary injunction on their behalf, on the grounds that the Trump administration didn’t have the legal authority to revoke the funding so abruptly without cause. Gabrielle de la Guéronnière, vice president of health and justice policy at the Legal Action Center, told Filter on April 16 that despite the temporary injunction, many community organizations are still being informed that grant funding has been revoked. This has caused…
VIDEO – GOOD FOR BUSINESS TOO! – April 17, 2025 – Beginning this month, care for substance use and mental health will go hand-in-hand. Rannon Arch, Director of Co-Occurring Clinical Services for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, says mental health treatment is being integrated into all levels of care, across every site. 79% of patients now have more than one treatable mental health condition, a 10% increase in just five years. “The pandemic impacted our patients in pretty profound ways,” he said. “Most of our patients have two to three – if not more – mental health conditions that they’re…
AN ACTOR’S OBSERVATION – April 17, 2025 – At 8.30am, on the morning of 7 July 2005, Max Beesley was at a hotel in Marylebone participating in a read-through for a new BBC drama, Hotel Babylon. The producer had asked everyone to be in early and the actor – star at the time of Jed Mercurio’s medical drama Bodies – had been there in good time. By 9am, as the cast were going over their lines, they heard multiple sirens screaming on the road outside. Ten minutes earlier, suicide bombers had detonated improvised explosive devices on three underground trains. One…
BETTER THAN MICRO-PLASTICS – April 17, 2025 – “I started microdosing and within a couple of months, I had a general sense of well-being that I hadn’t had in so long,” said Marine Corps combat veteran Matt Metzger. He grows his own mushrooms in Olympia, Washington, where psilocybin has been decriminalized. In Loveland, Colorado, Aubrie Gates said microdosing psilocybin has made her a better parent and enhanced her creativity. “It makes you feel viscerally in your body a new way of being, a more healthy way of being,” Gates said. “And so instead of just like thinking with your conscious…
SAME OLD MUSIC – April 14, 2025 – From Lewis Hamilton’s alcohol-free tequila to a ‘Free AF’ spritz, here’s what sober-minded festival goers are sipping on this year. The New Bar is back for its third year in a row as the official non-alcoholic partner of Coachella 2025 (both weekends one and two). Located at the Terrace opposite the main entrance and 12 Peaks VIP next to the main stage, The New Bar offers a variety of drinks, including craft cocktails, wine, beer, and ready-to-drink alternatives. Brands featured at their non-alcoholic watering holes this year are French Bloom Le Rosé,…
ONLY BINGING NETFLIX – April 18, 2025 – The Loose Women star, 66, said she woke up hung over with no recollection of the night before to find she’d pulled a bathroom door off its hinges and thrown a lamp on the floor. Denise said the incident occurred in then boyfriend – now husband – Lincoln Townley’s flat after he himself had stopped drinking two months previously. Alongside a beaming snap of her today and a throwback from the height of her addiction, the actress said the thought of losing Lincoln forced her to get sober. Adding that sons, actor…
REHAB DANGERS – April 17, 2025 – The former adult film star – born Litzy Lara Banuelos — checked into the Summit Malibu rehab on January 27, 2024, in hopes of overcoming her ketamine addiction, but things took a turn for the worse just days later, Following her cardiac arrest, the star’s family hired attorney James Morris to represent them in a negligence lawsuit against the rehab center, claiming Banuelos was free of ketamine upon arrival and throughout her stay at the facility. According to Morris, Banuelos is permanently disabled due to an anoxic brain injury, which is what occurs…
VIDEO – MUSICAL INTERLUDE 2025 – April 14, 2025 – Watch Benson Boone’s performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Special Guest Brian May live at Coachella 2025. CONTINUE@YouTube
VIDEO – MUSICAL INTERLUDE 1981 – 10,650,637 views since Mar 2, 2013 – “Queen Rock Montreal” Live Concert 1981 “the older i get, the more i realize that queen (and many other bands) simply enriched my life so much. freddie was simply a millennial talent, and so were roger brian and john. simply unbelievable how much good music the 4 men created, and even today, 33 years after freddie’s death, their work is unrivaled. queen forever” “One of the greatest vocalists of all time…Freddie brought a stage presents that not many can match…what a severe loss when he past…he will…
WTF? – April 17, 2025 – Tech out of the University of Vermont Medical Center is helping babies suffering from drug exposure get a better night’s sleep. Vermont’s opioid overdoses increased almost 500% in the last ten years. UVMMC sees the fallout of addiction right down to newborns going through withdrawal. Now, a new initiative could make their first moments a little more comfortable. Then, Vintinner discovered smart bassinets. “When he would cry or cry out in an uncomfortable way, the bassinet would start to move back and forth gently to kind of soothe him and provide a little bit…
STICK WITH THE WINNERS! – April 22, 2025 – Heather Hayes is the founder and CEO of Heather R. Hayes & Associates, Inc. She is a Master’s level Licensed Counselor in the State of Georgia, and Board Registered Interventionist (CIP). With over 35 years of experience in treating clients with complex mental health issues and the full spectrum of addictive disorders, she has worked with clients of all ages and specializes in the treatment of trauma. Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date?A. 2/24/82.Q. What do you like most…
WHATEVER WORKS – April 16, 2025 – Over 10 years, Schaefer had tried recovering from what began with dependence on a prescription for the pain killer Percocet and later spiraled into an all-consuming heroin addiction. As Schaefer waited for his supplies, he noticed an advertisement seeking volunteers for a study into whether therapy assisted by psilocybin – the active compound in psychedelic mushrooms – could unshackle people from addiction. “I’ve tried all types of rehabs,” said Schaefer when he spoke recently with the Wisconsin Examiner. Schaefer is 42, off heroin and training to be a peer support specialist. But from…
YOU WANT FRIES WITH THOSE MAGGOTS? – April 18, 2025 – In a move raising major concerns across the food industry, the FDA shuts down food safety quality checks amid staff cuts, putting key food testing programs on hold. An internal FDA email revealed that due to a wave of layoffs, the agency has paused its laboratory quality control programs — a decision that could impact national food safety. The cuts are reportedly impacting testing for Cyclospora in spinach and glyphosate pesticide in barley, two areas that are essential for tracking contamination risks. The suspended programs are part of the…
ENJOYING THE RIDE – April 11, 2025 – But medics have warned one sex position could be responsible for up to half of all penile fractures, a serious eye-watering injury that can leave men in agony. According to surgeon Dr Karan Raj the ‘reverse cowgirl position’ — when the woman is on top and faces away from her partner — presents the biggest risk. Although the penis doesn’t contain any bones, the internal connective tissue which fills with blood during an erection can fracture when the appendage is subject to sharp, blunt force. Such an event is usually accompanied by…