Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – AT ITS EXREME, EVERYTHING TURNS TO ITS OPPOSITE – 

May 12, 2021 – People become addicted to drugs for many different reasons. For Jeff Blackburn, it happened very young while he was living in a broken home. He told 59News his father was very abusive. He said while he was searching for a father figure in his life, he was molested at just 12-years-old. He turned to marijuana, and before he knew it his drug addiction was out of control.

“By the time I was 14 I was drinking, doing acid. By the time I was 16 I had a very expensive cocaine habit,” Blackburn said. 

Blackburn said somehow, he was able to graduate high school and did well for himself. He was living in Rainelle and his addiction was dormant

Until 2016, when the floods hit. He lost everything and battled depression. The life altering event took a toll and the drugs slowly crept back into his life.

“I went to the only thing I knew how to cope with and that’s drugs. I couldn’t do life on life’s terms,” Blackburn said. 

Things got so bad, Blackburn ended up in jail. He said he was sitting in what they call the “gladiator pod” and decided it was time to make a change. 

Unfortunately, that positive mindset did not last long. He didn’t make it two weeks when he failed a drug test for home confinement. Blackburn said he didn’t want to waste his life in jail, so this time he had a goal to get clean and he stuck with it.

“It took me losing everything and hurting a lot of people before I changed my life,” Black said. 

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – HIGH MARKS FOR HAPPINESS – 

MAY 10, 2021- “Today I have 31 years drug and alcohol free,” he wrote on Monday in honor of the anniversary. “I want to give thanks to everyone walking this path with me, and welcome anyone thinking about joining us; the free and the happy. And a big hug to my family for putting up with me!! Xoxo”

He shared a photo by Dewey Nicks, taken for a feature story in Variety earlier this year. In that piece, Lowe explained that the moment he realized he needed help was when he missed an important call from his mother.

“…My mother called me and I could hear her voice on the answering machine. I didn’t want to pick up because I was really, really hungover and I didn’t want her to know,” he told Variety. “She was telling me that my grandfather, who I loved, was in critical condition in the hospital and she needed my help. And I didn’t pick up. My thought process in that moment was ‘I need to drink a half a bottle of tequila right now so I can go to sleep so I can wake up so I can pick up this phone.’”

He added that he realized that line of thinking was “nuts” and he needed help.

more@Today

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – A GREAT TV SERIOUS – 

May 13, 2021 – The series finale of MOM comes to CBS and Paramount+. In “My Kinda People And The Big To-Do” Bonnie gains a new outlook on her sobriety after dealing with difficult news. Also, Jill and Andy take a big step in their relationship.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

IF WEED ONLY KNOWN BETTER – 

May 13, 2021 – Children, she said, are coming into the E.R. with a condition known as cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) at increasingly alarming rates. This condition, which once was hardly seen, is now “occurring across the state,” Rep. Caraveo says.

She describes a teenaged patient who “required hospitalization and frequent follow-up from our office to control abdominal pain and electrolyte abnormalities from her rapid weight loss.” Rep. Caraveo talks about both the physical toll the condition takes on kids as well as the psychiatric issues that are arising from the use of too-potent THC. She has said she favors a cap on THC potency to help prevent these harms, and that she has been considering ways to further limit youth access to the drug.  My generation uses the term “green out.” It’s what happens when you take too many edibles, dab, or smoke too big of a blunt.  I’m allergic to marijuana and stay away from it as much as I can. But I find myself hit with waves of smoke as I walk down the street of Denver. Just because I avoid the drug doesn’t mean I don’t see what it does to people in my life. Green outs are common among my college peers now.  But what’s more startling is how common they are in high school; I worry about my 16-year-old brother facing this new reality in his freshman class. I also think about a 19-year-old family member who started with weed, which became an appetizer for other drugs like speed.

more@ColoradoSun

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

YOU DON’T HAVE TO DRINK TO START OVER – 

May 14, 2021 – Brené Brown has been sober for 25 years, and took to Facebook recently to talk about what her sobriety has meant to her life.

The bestselling author, podcast host, and speaker is inspiring multitudes once again with her words — this time about her own life journey. 

In keeping with her message of vulnerability, she’s revealing details about the challenges she’s personally faced in order to reach those who need to hear her message. Along with spreading the knowledge of her success, she’s shared tips for those who are also recovering from addiction.  Fortunately for anyone struggling with addiction who’s been in recovery for several years, the statistics are on your side. After five years of sobriety, the chance of suffering a relapse plummets to under 15%. 

For those who are just starting out on their recovery journey, things can be much more challenging. Two thirds of those who’ve been sober under a year will relapse. After the first year, though, only 50% of addicts go back to abusing drugs or alcohol. 

The most important factor, it seems, is time and distance. Sure, staying away from something harmful for so long might continue to diminish the need for that thing going forward, but that’s much easier said than done.

more@YourTango

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

ROLE OF A LIFETIME – 

May 11, 2021 – Living with Holiday for such an intense stretch of time seems to have gifted Day the opportunity to consider different ways of being and thinking, particularly around the ideas of beauty and sexuality. “I feel now, after playing Billie, that I’m honoring her, and the strength that is femininity. I’m definitely in a healthier place to enjoy that because I’m outside of the addiction, if you will. So, yeah, it’s been really fun, because it’s been very new for me.”

Day’s willingness to be so open, steered by her vulnerability and compassion for herself, speaks so resolutely to who she is.  

“I’ve had people ask me, ‘Do you feel prettier now that you’ve lost weight?’ I was like, ‘Hell, no! I liked being juicy! I was cool,’ “ she says, laughing. “But I do like the way [the weight loss] feels on my body, I like the way it feels on my joints. You do notice a difference. Besides, to me, there is no such thing as a classic beauty. Beauty takes on so many different forms, in different times and depending on the nation. It’s just about being confident, loving yourself, and understanding your value.”  Still, in an industry and a culture where understanding your value as a woman, especially as a Black woman, comes with all manner of caveats, does Day herself feel beautiful? “I definitely do. And it has to do with Billie. It was almost like she said, ‘Sis, we’re going to have to close this, because I have to survive.’ She opened me up to valuing myself in a way that I hadn’t fully before.” 

 As we wind down our conversation, it occurs to me that Day actually knows exactly who she’s supposed to be in this particular season she’s in — one of purpose and growth, beauty and complexity, and the fierce agency of a Black woman who has arrived. “Somebody was trying to tell me the other day, ‘Just make sure you don’t get typecast, because you don’t want to always be playing the powerful Black woman.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I do. I also am one.’”

more@InStyle

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – SOLD IN VENDING MACHINES – 

May 12, 2021 – Until the pandemic struck in March 2020, Rohr and her Kalamazoo-based staff rarely encountered Kratom, or it was mistaken for an opiate in a patient entering rehab. She sees it more and more and primarily because it has been readily available.

“It doesn’t show up on our urine drug screens, and the withdrawal that they have from it is just like opiates,” Rohr said. “In Michigan you can go to any tobacco store, gas station and purchase it. It’s something they smoke and it’s a mix between an opiate and a stimulant for some of the effects that they get.”

Some of those effects are increased energy and a sense of invincibility. The perfect antidote to the isolation caused by COVID-19, if only it weren’t so dangerous.

“A lot of people I think have developed new levels of hopelessness.” Community Healing Center addictions counselor Vince Miller said. “We’re kind of all living through a constant low level, and sometimes not low level, trauma. I mean, every day.”

Miller, a former addict, said there was a big increase in drug use in the last 14 months, including new Kratom dependencies. Emotional stress and COVID-caused uncertainty are two obvious reasons why.

more@WWMT

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

IT WORKS IF YOU WEAR IT – 

May 13, 2021 – Avoiding addiction relapse is no small feat, however. Relapse is common during recovery, especially when the patient isn’t receiving treatment. One study has shown about a third of patients relapse within three months of completing inpatient treatment, although results improve for patients who completed longer-term courses of treatment. It can take years to equip a patient with the skills and tools to stay sober, and for many, this is a lifelong struggle. Access to ongoing, cost-effective care allows patients to go beyond detox and eliminating substance use to examine the underlying emotional triggers and unhealthy habits that contribute to relapse. It also helps establish new habits of self-care that reduce at-risk moments and put the patient in control of their success. Eighty-five percent of Americans now have smartphones, making apps and other online technology readily accessible to patients who need the extra support. For rehabilitation organizations, consider these features when developing an app or wearable to help your patients maintain sobriety:  

Keep it discreet. Just over half (51%) of Americans think there’s “a lot” of stigma associated with having mental health issues. With technology, patients can receive help inconspicuously on their phone or mobile device while at work, out with family or friends, or literally anywhere.

more@Forbes

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

MIRACLE AND MIRACLE WORKER – 

May 16, 2021 – Trejo’s children, Gilbert and Danielle Trejo, both got help at CRI-Help when they were struggling with addiction. Gilbert Trejo has nearly seven years clean while his sister has almost eight years. “My kids are my greatest accomplishment,” Danny Trejo said. “I just adore them. But I wouldn’t have them if I didn’t get sober. If I didn’t get clean and sober, there’s no doubt that I’d still be in prison or dead. It’s that simple because that’s the train I was on. The only thing that stopped it was the program.”

Also honored during the event were CRI-Help’s Jack Bernstein and Marlene Nadel. The evening included dinner from Trejo’s Tacos as well as a screening of the Brett Harvey-directed documentary “Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo.”

more@Variety

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

HAPPENING TODAY – 

May 14, 2021 – Rosenblum, a former federal prosecutor and state judge serving in her third term as attorney general, has prioritized expanding understanding of addiction, treatment and recovery within the state’s justice system and assisting local and state leaders in their missions to treat substance use disorder and create communities free from addiction. Dr. Lembke, professor and medical director of addiction medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, was one of the first in the medical community to sound the alarm regarding opioid overprescribing and the opioid epidemic. Her book—Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop—helped educate the public and policymakers across the country about the causes of and solutions to the national addition crisis.

“Attorney General Rosenblum and Dr. Lembke understand that addiction is a public health problem so big and complex it requires leadership and change at every level and in every area of society, and we’re grateful for the tremendous impact they’ve made in their respective spheres of influence,” Mishek said.

Nationally known speaker and bestselling author William C. Moyers, Hazelden Betty Ford’s vice president of public affairs and community relations, will emcee. Speakers will include Mishek; Hazelden Betty Ford CEO Designate Joseph Lee, MD, who takes the helm of the nonprofit on June 28; and Hazelden Betty Ford Executive Director of Medical and Professional Education Joseph Skrajewski—with special guest Susan Ford Bales, daughter of former First Lady Betty Ford and longtime trustee of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.

All proceeds from the Humanitarian Awards event will support Hazelden Betty Ford’s Addiction & Recovery Institute for Medical Education, which serves as a national training center for health care professionals.

more@BusinessWire

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