Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT OF CARING – 

June 16, 2021 – From the suit: “During the week of February 24, 2020, The Bridge failed to conduct any drug testing of Meredith Cortesis. During the week of February 24, 2020, The Bridge failed to properly and adequately monitor the whereabouts of Meredith Cortesis. No check of Meredith Cortesis was conducted by Defendants on Saturday, February 29, 2020 or the evening of Friday, February 28, 2020. On March 1, 2020, at 3 p.m., Meredith Cortesis was found dead in the Mizner Apartments residence provided by The Bridge.”

Reveals the suit: “Based upon the autopsy performed by the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner, Meredith Cortesis died from Fentanyl toxicity due to overdose.”

The Bridge apartment is identified as 6503 North Military Trail in Boca Raton.The suit makes other allegations. Read the complete filing, below. No immediate response was filed by representatives for The Bridge. The suit was filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.

more@BocaNewsNow

The post The Bridge Sober Home Let Client Use Drugs, Die appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

LISTEN – PRAY THE SHOOTING STOPS – NO WINNERS EXCEPT PRISONS – 

June 17, 2021 – In many parts of the U.S., some of the most severe policies implemented during the drug war are being scaled back or scrapped altogether. Hinton, a 37-year-old community organizer and activist, said the reckoning is long overdue. He described watching Black men like himself get caught up in drugs year after year and swept into the nation’s burgeoning prison system. “They’re spending so much money on these prisons to keep kids locked up,” Hinton said, shaking his head. “They don’t even spend a fraction of that money sending them to college or some kind of school.”  Hinton has lived his whole life under the drug war. He said Brownsville needed help coping with cocaine, heroin and drug-related crime that took root here in the 1970s and 1980s.

His own family was scarred by addiction. “I’ve known my mom to be a drug user my whole entire life,” Hinton said. “She chose to run the streets and left me with my great-grandmother.” Four years ago, his mom overdosed and died after taking prescription painkillers, part of the opioid epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Hinton said her death sealed his belief that tough drug war policies and aggressive police tactics would never make his family or his community safer.

more@NPR

The post The 50 Years War appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – FORGIVENESS – 

June 15, 2021 – ‘In elementary school, when kids’ dads were showing up for soccer games and little league, my dad wasn’t there. As I got older, he missed more important things,’ … While they knew that Lawrence loved them, he worked the graveyard shift at a postal facility and was either sleeping or drinking during their waking hours.  

In his book, which he describes as an ‘exploration of fatherhood,’ Craig detailed instances in which his father failed him and his brothers, including the time he left Ryan at grade school.  

‘Pops would pick up Ryan when Mom was at work. But this day he never showed up,’ he wrote. ‘He had gotten drunk and was either passed out or gambling at Tom’s Party shop.’ Craig said a teacher had to wait with Ryan for hours until their mother could pick him up after work. He also wrote about how his friends started calling his dad ‘Ghost’ because he was never around, a nickname that weighed on him. 

‘The nickname really bugged me. Most of my other friends, their dads were present,’  he explained. ‘I had written mine off. It got to a point where I thought, “Oh damn it to hell. I got a dad, but I don’t really have a dad.” He was like a ghost: there, but not there.’

In a segment about the book that aired on the Today show on Tuesday, Craig said that the older he and his brothers got, the worse their father’s drinking got.   

‘By the time I left for college, we were almost estranged in some ways,’ he admitted, recalling how his family staged an intervention for his father in 2018. 

more@DailyMail

The post Today host Craig Melvin opens up about his alcoholic father appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER –   

June 17, 2021- For lessons on longevity, you’d be remiss not to at least consider the morning habits of people from the Blue Zones (Ikaria, Greece; Loma Linda, California; Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; and Nicoya, Costa Rica), where residents consistently live to see their 100th birthdays.

Dan Buettner, the author and explorer who’s pioneered research on longevity hotspots, made it his mission to share exactly what people from these regions do throughout their lives that keeps them so healthy. 

1. Find your ‘ikigai’

When you wake up in the morning, what gets you out of bed? What’s your drive? Finding whatever that is and embracing it fully is one of the habits embraced by the residents of at least one of the Blue Zones.

2. Don’t skip a healthy breakfast

Unsurprisingly, a healthy diet is an important part of becoming a centenarian. Buettner says that sticking to nutritious eating plans, like a plant-based diet or the Mediterranean diet, can help fuel a long, healthy life. A part of this includes the most important meal of the day: eating breakfast.

3. Enjoy a cup of morning coffee

People who live in each of the five Blue Zones savor their morning cup of joe. “[People in these areas] drink up to two or three cups of black coffee per day,” according to Buettner’s findings. “The American Heart Association found that consuming coffee, both caffeinated and decaf, was associated with a lower risk of total mortality.” 

4. Say something nice to the first person you see

Sarah Wilson, an Australian journalist and author of First, We Make The Beast Beautiful: A New Story on Anxiety, once asked Buettner for his own morning routine. In addition to eating a healthy breakfast (full of fruits and grains) and completing 20-minutes of exercise (usually yoga or a bike ride to work), Buettner starts each morning by literally complimenting others. “Say something nice to the first person we meet,” he wrote in an email to Wilson. “A Harvard study shows that behaviors are contagious so if you do it to your neighbor, it’s likely to come back to you.”

more@Well+Good

The post How to live to be 100 appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO TAKE THIS STEP? – 

June 18, 2021-More than 600 days after he underwent the experimental surgery, Buckhalter has not touched drugs again — an outcome so outlandishly successful that neither he nor his doctors dared hope it could happen. He is the only person in the United States to ever have substance use disorder relieved by deep brain stimulation. The procedure has reversed Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and a few other intractable conditions, but had never been attempted for drug addiction here.

The device, known as a deep brain stimulator, also is recording the electrical activity in Buckhalter’s brain — another innovation that researchers hope will help locate a biomarker for addiction and allow earlier intervention with other people.

Buckhalter, 35, is a walking, talking laboratory for the outer edge of drug addiction therapy, a living experiment in what may be possible someday.

Yet for all the futuristic prospects, he is also proof of how difficult treatment of addiction remains. Quelling it with a scalpel helps refute the false belief that substance use disorder is a weakness or a moral failing, rather than a brain disease. But it does not address the psychological, social and socioeconomic factors that complicate the disease.

more@WashingtonPost

The post Addiction treatment failed. Could brain surgery save him? appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – WAR, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? IMPRISONING MINORITIES!

June 17, 2021 – Despite a steep decline in illicit drug usage in the earlier years, drug use in the U.S. is climbing again and more quickly than ever. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the number of illicit drug users rose to 13% of Americans 12 years or older in 2019, nearly reaching its peak from 40 years ago. If the goal of the war on drugs was to decrease drug usage and prevent drug-related deaths, it hasn’t made much progress.

“We are still in the midst of the most devastating drug epidemic in U.S. history,” according to Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow at the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at Brookings Institution. In 2020, overdose deaths in the United States exceeded 90,000, compared with 70,630 in 2019, according to research from the Commonwealth Fund.

Yet, the federal government is spending more money than ever to enforce drug policies. In 1981, the federal budget for drug abuse prevention and control was just over a billion dollars. By 2020, that number had grown to $34.6 billion. When adjusted for inflation, CNBC found that it translates to a 1,090% increase in just 39 years.

According to the White House, the national drug control budget is estimated to hit a historic level of $41 billion by 2022. The largest increases in funding are requested to support drug treatment and drug prevention.

more@CNBC

The post In 50 years, America has spent a trillion dollars fighting the war on drugs. And made 30 million arrests. appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – FATHERHOOD PRIDE – 

June 16, 2021 – Have mercy on John Stamos because fatherhood isn’t as easy as it appears on TV.

With Father’s Day just around the corner, the Full House alum gave E!’s Lilliana Vazquez a hilarious update on son Billy. According to the Big Shot star, 3-year-old Billy loves to hide things in his guitar.

“I should do a show, like, ‘What’s in Daddy’s Guitar?’” John quipped on the June 16 episode of E! News’ Daily Pop. “Literally, I’ll find like a pair of sunglasses in there. He thinks it’s funny, and it is funny.”

Billy’s other favorite pastime? To hide behind things and scare his famous father. John confessed, “I didn’t realize this until now, but I’m a jumpy guy. He scares me.”

Regardless, it’s clear that being a dad is John’s favorite role to date as he gushed, “Being a parent is about sacrifice. You don’t get rewarded for it. You don’t get a trophy or a ring, but what you do get is, you get a child who is more loving, more kind and a smarter version of you, and I think that’s really special.” John also credited his sobriety for making him the father he is today. “I know who I am certainly by 57 now,” he added. “It’s been close to six years in June that I sobered up. I never could have been a father during some of the more—some of it was really fun and some of it got to be very unhealthy.”

As John mentioned, he has a different lifestyle now, which includes getting up with Billy at five in the morning.

more@EOnline

The post John Stamos “Could Have Never Been a Father” Before Getting Sober appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

BOOK RECOMMENDATION – 

June 2021 – JESSE HARLESS is a leader and facilitator in the addiction recovery and mental health space. As CEO of Entrepreneurs in Recovery®, he facilitates highly experiential online and in-person events that help individuals and organizations harness their strengths and create purposeful visions. Jesse holds a MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Rivier University and is a HeartMath® certified trainer, Resilience coach, XCHANGE faculty member, and bestselling author of Smash Your Comfort Zone with Cold Showers. To learn more, visit www.JesseHarless.com … This is an easy read and a must have for anyone in recovery, family members of a person who needs recovery, or people working in the field of recovery. This book is packed with the hard-earned wisdom, practices, and mindset that Jesse used to reclaim his life and live his purpose which is to help others transform their lives. His passion, authenticity and straight from the heart candor shine through every word. I am a person in long-term recovery since 1997. Much of what he shares is what I stumbled on over the past 24 years. His practices WORK and produce the miracle of transformation. I met Jesse in the middle of the pandemic, in a ZOOM. He was our facilitator. I was not looking forward to yet another ZOOM, but it turned out to be the most inspiring, interactive learning experiences I have ever attended. And I am a trainer so that is quite a feat! I walked away from that ZOOM with Jesse more hopeful – more elevated – more inspired than I had felt in months. When this book came out, I knew I had to buy it – read it -and share it with others and I’m so grateful I did. His words, passion, and willingness to share his experiences will grab you and guide you in a process that he used to reclaim life – live on purpose – and not just survive – but THRIVE in this journey we call life. Thank you, Jesse Harless for living your purpose!

more@Amazon

The post If Not You, Then Who?: Harness Your Strengths to Shift from Addiction appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

TEENS KNOW BEST – 

June 10, 2021 – My relative passed away a few years ago from lung cancer. She had been a heavy smoker for years and was diagnosed shortlybefore her death. Yet, even though losing her was foreseeable, that didn’t make it any less devastating for my family.

My relative and her spouse met right out of high school, marrying in their early 20s. Both were avid smokers and drinkers, living for the rush of dopamine and serotonin that came with drugs and alcohol. Not long after they met, they both suffered severe injuries – one was hit by a tractor-trailer while driving her car, the other endured chronic back pain from his years of hard manual work – and were prescribed medicine for their pain. Given their predisposition for addiction, it wasn’t long until they both became dependent on prescription drugs.

Their addictions had unwelcome repercussions on their personal and professional lives. My relative, for example, managed to climb her way up the corporate ladder and land a managerial position at an established company but lost her job because of her addiction. She was the breadwinner. She carried the health insurance. Eventually, their family fell into a state of financial instability as their addiction increased. I hear becoming an addict after being prescribed an addictive drug is all too common a story. That doesn’t make the pain and the toll it takes on family any easier.

Just seven months after my relative was first diagnosed with lung cancer, she died, leaving behind her husband, their two children, and an entire community of people who missed her.

My relative’s death and the reckless abandon I witness some adults display when drinking are part of the reason I have resolved to permanently abstain from drugs and alcohol. I have witnessed firsthand how quickly substance abuse can regress a person from health to sickness, from independence to dependence, from living life to the fullest to not even living at all.

more@TheDay

The post ESSAY – Finding ways to not get hooked! by Maria Proulx Ledyard, junior at St. Bernard School appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

ALL PATHS TO SOBRIETY LEAD TO FREEDOM – 

May 23, 2021 – He broke free of the addiction at the age of 19 when he joined Teen Challenge, a Christian-based addiction service that offers rehabilitation from drug addiction by providing “transformation — not treatment.”

His time spent at the Teen Challenge in Pennsylvania amounted to six months in the late 1960s, instilling in him the idea that was the foundation of his book — not all addiction needs to be treated with medication.

“In the course of researching for my book, I found various studies that claim that over 65 percent of addicts overcome their addiction without treatment. Now, I know that’s counterintuitive to being an addiction therapist,” Carlin said with a laugh. “But the studies were out there, so I figured I was on to something.”

In his book, he goes on to describe his spiritual keys for overcoming addiction, going into detail about things such as the power of meditation and confession and forgiveness.

more@MoorsevilleTribune

The post Addiction help & recovery through new book appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.