Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

VIDEO – BABIES MATTER –

Feb. 4, 2025 – Thirty-year-old Lydia Kareha knows what it’s like to hit rock bottom.

“My decisions led me down a really rough path,” Kareha said. “I had a lot of felonies. I thought I was going to be a felon the rest of my life.”

Kareha knows what it’s like to lose yourself and lose everything to drug addiction.

“My addiction really started when I was in high school and kind of progressed from there,” she explained. “It got really bad in about 2016, started with pills and just escalated to my main drugs of choice were crack and heroin.”

She went to rehab five times, but she still ended up back out on the streets.

“In my darkest moments, I thought, ‘This is who I was meant to be. This is as good as my life’s gonna get.’ Because I heard so many times like, ‘She’s either lost potential,’ or, ‘She’ll never reach her potential. She’s a basic, lost cause.’ I was told that so many times in rehab, ‘She’s never going to go anywhere.’ Because I tried so many times and failed,” Kareha said.

CONTINUE@News19

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

YOUNG AT HEART –

December 8, 2024 – Rancho Santa Fe author Dr. Louise Stanger has released her fourth book, “Reflections on Aging from the Sunset Marquis,” which she hopes to be an inspirational guide to embracing the aging process and never losing one’s sense of authenticity, adventure or joy.

“Life doesn’t dim with time—it deepens,” said the 78-year-old Stanger in a news release. “Every morning brings a new chance to compose your life’s melody. This book is about turning up the volume on your dreams and letting your spirit soar, whether you’re 28 or 78.”

A signing event for the new book will be held on Friday, Dec. 13 from 11:30 am. to  2 p.m. at Solana Beach’s Gerhard Clothing, 143 S. Cedros Avenue. On Saturday, Dec. 14 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. she will appear for a joint signing event at Seaside Market in Cardiff with her daughter Shelby Stanger, the author of “Will to Wild.”

CONTINUE@SanDiegoUnionTribune

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

STICK WITH THE WINNERS! – 

Feb. 11, 2025 – Anthony Brown is the founder and director of Coordinating & Assisting Recovery Environments. With a M.S. in Nursing from United States University, Anthony developed and directed a long-term residential treatment model, which has fueled his dream to open a home for those who have are experiencing homelessness. 

Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date?

A. Drug of choice was methamphetamine and cocaine. Sobriety date: March 29, 1999.

Q. What do you like most about 12-step meetings?

A. The comradery.

Q. Do you think addiction is an illness, disease, a choice, or a wicked twist of fate?

A. Illness / disease.

CONTINUE@AddictionRecoveryeBulletin

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WEIGHT UP –

Feb, 1, 2025 – Amy Schumer once hopped on board the Ozempic trend, but the side effects were so intense she had to stop. I tried Ozempic almost three years ago and I was like bedridden, I was vomiting and then you have no energy but other people take it and they’re all good,” she explained.

“I lost 30 pounds so quick,” said Schumer, who is mom to 4-year-old son, Gene, whom she shares with husband, Chris Fischer. “I looked great and I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow, so what’s the point?”

Ozempic, which is a semaglutide injection, was originally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, but the medication has increasingly been prescribed off label for weight loss, along with several other similar medications.

CONTINUE@YahooLife

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

VIDEO – MORE OUTRAGE PLEASE –

Jan. 2025 – “I cannot tell you the amount of times I’ve had to listen to the screams on the other end of a phone when family members are notifying other family members about their sister, their uncle,” said Gwynn. “Those screams are repeated when they walk in the door.” A bill that would criminalize fentanyl trafficking unanimously passed out of a Utah House committee Wednesday after an emotional hearing.

HB87, sponsored by Rep. Matthew Gwynn, R-Farr West, would make it a first-degree felony for someone to produce, distribute, or traffic fentanyl in the state. The House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee unanimously approved the bill, sending it to the full House of Representatives for a vote.

Gwynn, who works as the Roy police chief, was visibly affected as he described the problems caused by fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid used to relieve pain.

“Over 600 times last year in the state of Utah, someone came home and found their son, daughter, or parent deceased from an opiate overdose,” Gwynn said, his voice breaking.

CONTINUE@KSLTV

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

NO OVERSIGHT – 

Feb. 4, 2025 – But a closer look reveals a dark cloud around that silver lining. Black people are still dying from drug overdoses in higher numbers than whites.  That’s due in part to systemic and social barriers to treatment. These include lack of access to healthcare, health insurance companies refusing to cover treatment, and the stigma of asking for help to overcome drug addiction. 

When the drop in addiction overdoses started making headlines last fall, Paul N. Samuels, director and president of the Legal Action Center in New York, called it encouraging news. Still, “it’s crucial to keep in mind that there are still places in this country and groups of people for which this is not the case,” he said in a statement. 

States that examine recent overdose data “have found that the declines are almost entirely among white people, while rates among Native American, Black, and Hispanic communities continue to rise,” Samuels said.

CONTINUE@WordInBlack

The post As Fatal Overdose Rates Fall – Black Drug Deaths Remain High appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

CROSSING THE BLOOD BRAIN BARRIER –

Feb. 3, 2025 – It found a rising trend in micro-and nanoplastics in brain tissue from dozens of postmortems carried out between 1997 and 2024. The researchers also found the tiny particles in liver and kidney samples.

The human body is widely contaminated by microplastics.  They have also been found in blood, semen, breast milk, placentas and bone marrow. The impact on human health is largely unknown, but they have been linked to strokes and heart attacks.

The scientists also found that the concentration of microplastics was about six times higher in brain samples from people who had dementia. However, the damage dementia causes in the brain would be expected to increase concentrations, the researchers said, meaning no causal link should be assumed.

“Given the exponentially rising environmental presence of micro- and nanoplastics, this data compels a much larger effort to understand whether they have a role in neurological disorders or other human health effects,” said the researchers, who were led by Prof Matthew Campen at the University of New Mexico in the US.

CONTINUE@TheGuardian

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

VIDEO – MUSICAL INTERLUDE – 

84,794,972 views Since Jan 22, 2016 – 

I was born by the river in a little tent

Oh, and just like the river I’ve been a-runnin’ ever since.

It’s been a long, a long time comin’,

but I know, oh-oo-oh,

a change gon’ come, oh yes, it will. 

CONTINUE@YouTube

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

SPEED THE WOW – 

Jan. 28, 2025 – A venti-size pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks contains 150mg in the United States, exceeding the 100mg limit recommended for young people aged 12-18. 

Previous Government reports have linked excessive caffeine consumption in children to negative health outcomes.

Expressing concern about the suitability of this autumnal drink for teenagers, Dr Masarat says: “While we’ve rightly seen a lot of political interest in the risk that energy drinks with high caffeine content can pose to children and teens, less has been said about fashionable coffee drinks such as this season’s popular pumpkin spice latte.”

He added: “Excessive caffeine intake for young teens can lead to an increased heart rate, known as tachycardia, which can be dangerous, especially for teens with underlying heart conditions.”

CONTINUE@ExpressUS

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

AUDIO – HOW MANY SCREENS? – 

Feb. 1, 2025 – A friend of mine once told me that “You are where your attention is.” That line always stuck with me. It was a reminder that the most important choice we all make is also the most common one. It’s the decision about what to pay attention to and what not to pay attention to.

One of the primary features of this age of the internet and smartphones and algorithmic feeds is that our attention is everywhere and nowhere at the same time, because we’re endlessly pushed around by a parade of distractions. Your phone is ringing, your Apple Watch is blinking, you got a ping on Slack from a coworker, you’re getting an email notification as you’re sitting down for dinner… it’s always something.

This level of distraction is not an accident. Our devices have engineered the incessant need for stimulus and a whole industry has emerged that’s devoted to capturing our attention and then selling it to the highest bidder.

CONTINUE@Vox

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