Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

STILL IN ACTION – 

May 19, 2021 – Daisy Carter of Jackson is the executive director of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence of the Central Mississippi Area (NCADD), a nonprofit that raises public awareness about addiction. A native of Jackson, Carter graduated from Wingfield High School in 2002 and earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Jackson State University in 2007 and master’s degree in public policy and administration from JSU in 2015. 

Executive director at NCADD since 2015, Carter’s career has also included work at the Mississippi State Department of Health in preventative health services. Carter serves as a member of the board of directors for the McCoy House for Sober Living and is the incoming president of the Capital Area Sunset Rotary Club.

NCADD is funded by general donations and grants. A lot of our grants are funded by the state of Mississippi.”

What services does NCADD provide for people? 

“We provide services in three areas: prevention, which is our education piece; treatment, where we refer people to treatment programs by providing alcohol and drug assessment; and recovery, which is helping people maintain sobriety and recovering status, helping them find sponsors and literature they need. We have a recovery bookstore in our office.”

Which service receives the most attention?

“We spend the most time on the prevention piece. We think if we prevent people from using alcohol or drugs it will prevent the need for treatment for treatment and recovery. We hold alcohol and drug abuse awareness events. We do evidence-based prevention programs at schools, focusing on eight counties: Claiborne, Copiah, Hinds, Hinds, Madison, Rankin, Lincoln…

more@NorthsideSun

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

PINING THE BOTTLE FOREVER –  

May 19, 2021 – Dustin Rhodes marked his 13th year of sobriety on Wednesday. The AEW star posted to Twitter on Wednesday announcing that he’s been clean and sober for the last 13 years, writing:

“Very proud of me today!! Today marks my 13th anniversary for being clean and sober from drugs and alcohol. Absolutely living my best life now!”

You can see his post below, along with reactions and messages of support from talent like Sonny Kiss, Kane, Jerry Lynn, Lance Storm, Erick Redbeard, Nyla Rose, Ricky Morton, Rebel, Leyla Hirsch, and Mikey Whipwreck:

more@411Mania

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

STAY FREE: BE YOUR OWN COMPANION – 

May 14, 2021- “Clients really did reach out to us,” Ms. White said. And that was even though it was up to her, Mr. Lecorchick and Mr. Bielskie to enforce consequences. Ms. White sent a client to detox a day after he admitted using heroin after a family member died from Covid. “If you did anything substance-abuse-related, we came in with a response.” In New Jersey, the response was always drug treatment, inpatient or outpatient.That has not always been the case with Swift, Certain and Fair. The blueprint for it was created in Hawaii. In 2004, a judge, Steven Alm, got fed up with probationers repeatedly returning to prison. His frustration found expression in a program he named HOPE Probation — Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation With Enforcement — whose goal was to mete out modest punishments to deter slip-ups, like an automatic day in jail for failing a drug test.HOPE Probation worked. In 2009, researchers found that probationers who took part were 55 percent less likely to be arrested in connection with a new crime, 72 percent less likely to use drugs and 53 percent less likely to have their probation revoked. Word spread, and grant proposals for what became known as Swift, Certain and Fair started circulating. They were premature. “The results in Hawaii triggered all this interest,” said Jonathan Kulick, the deputy director of research and programs at the Marron Institute and a co-director of the Swift Certain Fair Resource Center. “But people took the wrong lesson and said, ‘Whatever worked in Hawaii, we’ll do here.’”The one-size-fits-all attempts didn’t take into account the norms and needs of each region. “What’s a really good idea in some places is a terrible idea in others,” Dr. Hawken said. “You’ve got to make modifications based on what works for your culture.” An adaptation in South Dakota called 24/7 Sobriety that started in 2005 and required repeat D.U.I. offenders to show up for twice-daily breathalyzer tests worked, but one in Clackamas County, Ore., in 2012 didn’t. Corrections there were already built on a model that was not overly punitive, according to a 2017 U.S. Department of Justice report.

more@NYTimes

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

STICKS AND STONES… –  

May 18, 2021 – The audience cheered and clapped. And then the MC there at the MGM Grand announced my name and the whole auditorium just booed and hissed,” Leaf, who has since recovered from substance abuse and now works for ESPN, said on the “Charges with Rex Chapman” podcast. 

“And it’s not like that hadn’t happened before,” the 45-year-old said. “You’re playing football and you’re on the opposing team’s field. But you’re wearing armor. My addict brain heard, ‘Not only are you a terrible football player, but you are an awful human being.’”

That night in 2004 he was offered vicodin and mixed it with alcohol.

“I didn’t feel that judgment, I didn’t feel that fear, I didn’t feel that less than. I didn’t feel anything,” Leaf said. “I didn’t feel better but it turns out I was just searching for that feeling of not feeling any of the feelings that I had been feeling for so long. I just wanted to numb out. And, that night changed. … And that would be the next eight years of my life, chasing that initial high from that night of not feeling it.”

more@NYPost

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

GETTING IT ON FILM –  

May 10, 2021 – “They promised me that they were going to tell it the way it was, and I trusted them, and I’m glad I did because they’re an awesome company,” she said. 

At its height about 30 years ago, Arnold’s operation raked in about $200,000 each week, allowing her to buy a ranch and run a biker bar, the Wild Side, in Ottumwa. As narrator in “The Queen of Meth,” she said she earned “in a few minutes” what she now earns in a day. “It was too easy,” she said. She told the Des Moines Register that retelling her story was the hardest thing she has ever done. She said she doesn’t want people to think she’s trying to brag about what she did, or glorify it.

more@TheHawkEye

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – WITHOUT PILLS OR INJECTIONS – 

May 14, 2021 – “Overdoses, which were already increasing hugely over the last few years, increased even more for the corona pandemic,” Dr. Alex Kral, an infectious disease epidemiologist, tells KPIX. Elizabeth Cook reports.

more@CBSSanFrancisco

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

LISTEN – IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD – 

May 23, 2021 – For decades, the field of psychiatry has been placing emphasis on the wrong domain—the mind or the psyche—when brain imaging teaches us that mental health is really brain health.

Over the last 30 years, my colleagues and I have built the world’s largest database of brain scans related to behavior. We have performed more than 170,000 brain SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) scans, which measure blood flow and activity in the brain. It has become crystal clear to us that as psychiatrists we are not dealing with mental health issues but rather brain health issues. And this one idea has changed everything we do to help our patients.

The human brain is an organ just like your heart is an organ, and you can only be as mentally healthy as your brain is functionally healthy. No one is shamed for cancer, heart disease, or diabetes even though they have significant lifestyle contributions. Likewise, no one should be shamed for depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder.

Reframing the discussion from mental health to brain health changes everything. It decreases shame and guilt and increases forgiveness and compassion. Doing so also elevates hope, increases the desire to get help, and improves compliance to make the necessary lifestyle changes to get well.

more@MindBodyGreen

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

THANK GOD – 

May 9, 2021 – It’s been a long, strange trip in the four decades since Rick Doblin, a pioneering psychedelics researcher, dropped his first hit of acid in college and decided to dedicate his life to the healing powers of mind-altering compounds. Even as antidrug campaigns led to the criminalization of Ecstasy, LSD and magic mushrooms, and drove most researchers from the field, Dr. Doblin continued his quixotic crusade with financial help from his parents.

Dr. Doblin’s quest to win mainstream acceptance of psychedelics took a significant leap forward on Monday when the journal Nature Medicine published the results of his lab’s study on MDMA, the club drug popularly known as Ecstasy and Molly. The study, the first Phase 3 clinical trial conducted with psychedelic-assisted therapy, found that MDMA paired with counseling brought marked relief to patients with severe post-traumatic stress disorder.

The results, coming weeks after a New England Journal of Medicine study that highlighted the benefits of treating depression with psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms, have excited scientists, psychotherapists and entrepreneurs in the rapidly expanding field of psychedelic medicine. They say it is only a matter of time before the Food and Drug Administration grants approval for psychoactive compounds to be used therapeutically — for MDMA as soon as 2023, followed by psilocybin a year or two later.

more@NYTimes

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – SOBER IS BETTER –  

May 20, 2021 – To most skateboarders, time at the local skate park is all about perfecting their craft — time to get on their boards, practice new skills and just let loose.

For pro skateboarder Brandon Turner, time at the skate park has become much more than that. “It’s a community and connection,” he said. “It’s freedom.”

Turner became a local legend in the skateboarding world as a kid. He rose up the ranks becoming a skateboarding prodigy. He spent most of his teen and young adult years touring the globe, becoming well known for his crazy stunts and fearlessness on the board.

“I connected with a couple pro skateboarders and they taught me the business side of it,” he explained. “It took off and I started getting paid at 14 years old.”

Turner was living the dream doing something he loved, but with the money and the fame also came drugs and alcohol.

“I thought everything was up to me and I was in the right direction in my own mind,” he said. “I did what I wanted.”

By his mid-20s, Turner had slipped into a downward spiral and spent time in both prison and jail.

“I was just hanging around the wrong people and getting into the wrong things,” Turner said. “I wasn’t sticking to my passion that gave me so much. The change for me came when I was able to make the decision to put my ego aside and ask for help.”

In 2016, more than just getting sober and getting back on the board, he also decided to start using his experiences to help others struggling with the same challenges.

more@SpectrumNews

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

LIVING IN D’LIGHT – 

May 21, 2021 – But, she says, after reaching out to addiction support group Heal the Hurt (HTH), her recovery has been ‘astounding’.

“Heal the Hurt has helped me to realise that childhood trauma was not my fault, to face my past and see it as the past, not my today. “With the help of group therapy in a safe environment of discussion and no judgements I slowly started believing in myself again with the help and power of the 12 steps to recovery.”

She adds: “I now have a new thinking process, I had to relearn a lot of things that I thought were true about me and I see now that I was sick and trying to get better.”

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous to avoid destabilising her recovery, says she had to confront her own ‘selfishness’; the ‘hurt and trauma’ that was being passed on to the next generation.

Breaking the cycle of alcohol abuse was key, she says, to ensure that her children and grandchildren never know that pain.

She is proud to have climbed that mountain: “Those were my wildest dreams that I thought I would never achieve and now I am with the help of Heal the Hurt.

“It’s amazing for everyone, especially my children.  They got their mammy back and I got to be their true, amazing mammy again and their world.

“I do my best not to judge or be judged, it’s all part of my recovery.”

At group sessions she now leads by example by helping others to ‘see the beauty of not being a slave to addiction – to see the beauty in the world, not the darkness.’

more@DerryNow

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