Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – WORKING TO MAKE THINGS BETTER –   

July 24, 2021 – “We had a high increase in relapse because our meetings were shut down,” she said.

During the height of the pandemic, the report documented nearly 1,400 accidental overdose deaths caused by methamphetamines.

“That means an average of just about four people died every single day from an overdose of meth,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of LA County’s Department of Public Health.

“White and Latinx populations are the two most common groups involved in meth overdose deaths,” said Dr. Gary Tsai, division director of the Substance Abuse Prevention and Control with LA County Department of Public Health

All ethnic groups saw spikes.

From March to December 2020, accidental overdose deaths compared to the year before increased 75% among Asians, 68% among Blacks, 56% among Latinx and 42% among Whites.

“Anyone can be impacted by meth at any age and from any cultural background,” said Tsai.

MethFree LA County debuted new television ads to step up awareness and bring people out of isolation. With the help of COVID-19 vaccines, Ferrer said those fighting addiction can seek professional help safely.

“As we reopen fully, it’s a layer of protection that many of us want to make sure we have,” she said.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

EVERYONE IS SUSCEPTIBLE –   

July 20, 2021 – It was touring with Soundgarden in 2017 though that Chris tragically took his own life.

He was found unconscious in his hotel room in Michigan while on tour with the band in the early hours of May 18 2017, and medics were unable to revive him.

Following his passing, Chris’ widow Vicky explained that she believed “something was very off” in the situation surrounding his passing, as he had been sober for many years and certain substances were found in his body by the autopsy.

She said: “When we spoke after the show, I noticed he was slurring his words; he was different. When he told me he may have taken an extra Ativan or two, I contacted security and asked that they check on him.”

She later released a full statement to press which read: “Many of us who know Chris well noticed that he wasn’t himself during his final hours and that something was very off. We have learned from this report that several substances were found in his system.

“After so many years of sobriety, this moment of terrible judgment seems to have completely impaired and altered his state of mind.

“Something clearly went terribly wrong and my children and I are heartbroken and are devastated that this moment can never be taken back.

“We very much appreciate all of the love we have received during this extremely difficult time and are dedicated to helping others in preventing this type of tragedy.”

Chris had struggled with depression and addiction throughout the 1980s and 1990s and had spoken before about how it feels to be suicidal.

more@Mirror

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

BEWARE THE FANCY COCKTAILS –   

JULY 16, 2021 – There are a few biological pathways that lead from alcohol consumption to a cancer diagnosis, according to the study. Ethanol, the form of alcohol present in beer, wine and liquor, breaks down to form a known carcinogen called acetaldehyde, which damages DNA and interferes with cells’ ability to repair the damage. 

Alcohol can also increase levels of hormones, including estrogen. Hormones signal cells to grow and divide. With more cell division, there are more opportunities for cancer to develop. Alcohol also reduces the body’s ability to absorb certain cancer-protective nutrients, including vitamins A, C, D, E and folate. 

What’s more, the combination of drinking and smoking might indirectly increase the risk of cancer, with alcohol acting as a kind of solvent for the carcinogenic chemicals in tobacco. 

The more a person drinks, the greater the likelihood of biological damage. 

To come up with their statistical estimate, researchers crunched three sets of data: estimated global alcohol consumption estimates, specific cancer risks from alcohol, and estimates of the global incidence of those cancers in 2020. 

They found that the more alcohol people drink, the higher their risk of an alcohol-related cancer. Drinking at least two and as many as more than six drinks a day, defined as risky to heavy drinking, posed the greatest risk of a future cancer. Even moderate drinking, two or fewer drinks a day, accounted for an estimated 14%, or 103,000 cases, of alcohol-related cancers, according to the study.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – NOW THAT’S A DISEASE! – 

July 17, 2021 – White is not an outlier. The number of Americans being treated for severe liver disease from alcohol increased during the pandemic, experts told NBC News.

“What we’ve seen during Covid-19 is really a dramatic increase in hospital admissions for alcohol-associated liver disease,” said Dr. Brian Lee, an assistant professor of clinical medicine and a liver transplant specialist at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. “Because of things like lockdowns or being stressed out at home, people started to drink more, didn’t realize that they were drinking harmful amounts,” he said. And then they come “into the hospital with life-threatening liver disease.”

Lee said that USC has seen a 30 percent increase in hospital admissions for alcohol-related liver disease since March 2020. That includes people who had a previously under-control alcohol problem as well as those who had no history of issues with alcohol, a trend Lee said is worrisome.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

SHE’S GOT IT ALL – 

July 20, 2021 – “We are so proud of you Christy! You were always a role model to me since the 2000s!” one person commented.

“One month sober today! Thank you for sharing this,” another inspired fan wrote. 

“Didn’t know you struggle with sobriety. Proud of you and hope you continue winning,” someone said.

The former Disney star opened up about her past struggles with drinking and depression in 2018. “While many witnessed my costar Shia LaBeouf struggle publicly, I have largely suffered in silence,” Romano, who began acting at age 6, wrote in a Teen Vogue essay at the time. “Nothing could have prepared me for fame and the responsibilities that came with being on television screens everywhere.”

The “Kim Possible” star attempted to live a normal life by attending college after “Even Stevens” ended in 2003, but she ended up dropping out. 

“I struggled with all of my relationships, alcohol usage, and career path for 10 years before going back to school and re-centering myself,” Romano, who ended up graduating from Barnard College, wrote. 

Barnard was where she eventually met her husband Brendan Rooney. They share two daughters and Romano said at the time that she hasn’t had a drink since before her first pregnancy around 2016.

more@PageSix

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

TO BE SOBER…OR NOT TO BE SOBER – 

July 19, 2021 – Lala Kent slammed Demi Lovato’s “California sober” lifestyle — whose adherents drink and smoke weed in moderation — as “extremely offensive.”  “I don’t like to judge, but I actually think that that’s super offensive,” the “Vanderpump Rules” star said on David Yontef’s “Behind the Velvet Rope” podcast Monday. “There are people out there who work their ass off to never take themselves out of reality and to never place themselves in an altered state.”  Kent — who has been sober since October 2018 — added that there are people who won’t even take DayQuil or NyQuil when they have a cold.

“So to say that you’re like California sober or this type of sober is extremely offensive,” the 30-year-old reality star remarked. Kent also declared that “California sober” is not a real thing.   “… I’ve been in rooms with men and women who have given up everything just to not pick up,” she said. “You’re not sober if you’re drinking or you’re smoking weed, you are not sober.”

Kent began to struggle with alcohol abuse after her father suddenly died in April 2018, and decided to seek help later that year after she drank for four straight days in Disney World on a family vacation with her fiancé Randall Emmett and his two young daughters.  Meanwhile, Lovato, who recently came out as non-binary and use they/them pronouns, revealed that they were drinking in moderation and smoking cannabis in March 2021, nearly three years after their near-fatal heroin and fentanyl overdose.  “Yeah. I think the term that I best identify with is ‘California sober,’” they said in an interview for “CBS Sunday Morning.”  “I really don’t feel comfortable explaining the parameters of my recovery to people, because I don’t want anyone to look at my parameters of safety and think that’s what works for them, because it might not.”  Lovato has struggled with addiction for years and admitted in October 2017 that they were still using drugs while promoting a “sober lifestyle” in 2012.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

GRIEF IS THE COMMON DENOMINATOR –   

July 19, 2021- Her death was first announced by Cole’s sister Elite Noel, who shared the news on Instagram, describing her passing as “the worst pain ever … to see my mama in a body bag on her birthday! My heart so f—- broke.”

The singer-songwriter has yet to make a public statement regarding her mother’s passing.  Cole was adopted at a young age and raised by family friends, according to reports.  Her relationship with her biological parents was mostly dysfunctional until her burgeoning music career paved the way for the family to reconnect.  The complicated private lives of the singer’s family was chronicled on various reality TV series, including “Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is” in 2006 and more recently in 2019′s “Keyshia Cole: My New Life” on BET, where the two shared many revelatory conversations, according to TMZ.  Lons appeared to have gained control over her demons after achieving 60 days of sobriety in March 2020, something her daughter was eager to share with her social media fans, reports said.  Cole previously addressed her mother’s struggles with addiction, writing in a 2018 Instagram post, “Every time my mom relapse, it breaks my heart more than it’s already been broken. I’m hoping, if any of u are dealing with a family member who’s battling with drug addiction, that you, yourself are learning how to cope with the struggle of it all. And all the pain it brings to see a loved one constantly relapsing.”  Cole’s brother Sam also confirmed Lons death, saying he had been trying to help her stay sober by checking in with her on a daily basis, according to TMZ. He told the entertainment news website that the family “wants the world to remember Frankie as someone who loved her kids, and who wanted her children to be together … despite their turbulent history.”

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

NO VACCINE FOR THIS EPIDEMIC –   

July 20, 2021 – If you had told me at any point in the last ten years while my brother, Jeremy, was battling his opioid addiction, that it would end in a St. Louis hospital listening to the beeping of machines, learning terms like anoxic brain injury and diabetes insipidus while a transplant team discussed organ donation, I would have insisted you were mistaken. I would have told you there was no way he would be brain dead by 30 years old.  This was the reality, though.

On November 11, 2020, I got a call from my mom telling me that a woman found my brother unconscious and without a pulse in his truck on the side of a highway in St. Louis. The stranger had called 911, and when paramedics arrived on the scene, they spent eight minutes resuscitating him before transporting him to the hospital. Before I knew what I was doing, calls were made, credit card numbers were entered, bags were packed, and I was in a rental car racing through five states to get to him.

The world was still at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when I arrived at St. Louis University Hospital, so I had to get my temperature checked when I entered the building and fill out contact tracing forms before I could actually see my brother. When I finally reached his room, I hesitated outside the door, intently focused on the 30 year old male label attached to it. There was no name or other identifying characteristics — it could have been anyone on the other side of that door. It was the first time I had seen my brother in four years, and those days in the hospital that followed would be the last moments I’d get with him.  His nurse was finishing up in the room as I stood idly by, asking what they knew, which at that point wasn’t much. All they said was that if Jeremy’s condition didn’t change rapidly (for better or worse), someone would have to make the decision to turn off his ventilator or move him to a long-term nursing facility, where the chances of him being in a vegetative state forever were high.

When the nurse finally finished in his room and I was able to pull up a chair to sit with him, just the two of us, I reached for his hand, fixed my gaze on the exposed patch of skin on his arm covered with his first tattoo — a compilation of punk-rock-style stars he got before he turned 18 — and tried to think of what to say to him. I was surprised how strong he looked, even in his traumatic state. His dirty blond hair matted to the sides of his head, and he had a full, well-groomed beard. His broad shoulders filled out the delicate yellow hospital gown.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – BOOK REVIEW: QUITTER: A MEMOIR – 

July 20, 2021 – With the pandemic came isolation and with isolation came, for some, a greater desire to consume alcohol.

Author and journalist Erica C. Barnett joins New Day NW to talk about her book “Quitter” (available here) and the pandemic’s impact on those who struggle with addiction or are in recovery. In her late twenties, her addiction became inescapable. Volatile relationships, blackouts, and unsuccessful stints in detox defined her life, with the bottles she hid throughout her apartment and offices acting as both her tormentors and closest friends. By the time she was in her late thirties, Barnett had quit and relapsed again and again but found herself far from rehabilitated.”Rock bottom,” Erica Barnett writes, “is a lie.”It is always possible, she learned, to go lower than your lowest point. She found that the terms other alcoholics used to describe the trajectory of their addiction — “rock bottom” and “moment of clarity” — and the mottos touted by Alcoholics Anonymous, such as “let go and let God” — didn’t correspond to her experience and could actually be detrimental.With remarkably brave and vulnerable writing, Barnett expands on her personal story to confront the dire state of addiction in America, the rise of alcoholism in American women in the last century, and the lack of rehabilitation options available to addicts. At a time when opioid addiction is a national epidemic and one in twelve Americans suffers from alcohol abuse disorder, “Quitter” is indispensable reading for our age and an ultimately hopeful story of Barnett’s own hard-fought path to sobriety.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

A SLAP ON THE WRIST AND NO ONE GOES TO JAIL –

July 21, 2021 – The agreement, announced Wednesday, lays the framework for billions of dollars to begin flowing into communities across the country for addiction treatment, prevention services and other steep expenses from the epidemic. The deal comes as Overdose deaths from opioids hit a record high in 2020. 

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