Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

HIS WORK CONTINUES – 

April 1, 2021 –  I benefited from this article as much as any information I received while in treatment. The insight and knowledge I gained has compelled me to pass it on to patients, students, and colleagues ever since. As an aside, a couple of decades later I filmed a talk based on the same information which has become my best-selling rehab video. The information is as relevant today as it was when he first went public with it in the late 1980s.

In the fall of 1999, I had the honor of meeting Gorski when he spoke at the California Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (CAADAC) annual conference. I was awed to hear this recovery icon speak in person. I shook his hand at the end of the talk and shared with him the effect his work had on my recovery and career.

Later that night, I was headed for my hotel room across the street and there he came, walking down the street! Once again, I extended my hand to him and elaborated on the influence his work had on me. I spoke about my relapse prevention lecture series, which is largely based on his work from a decade prior, and he appeared genuinely thrilled that someone was using the information in that way. The next thing we knew, an hour and a half had passed as we spoke at that Sacramento intersection until around 11:00 PM. The genuine interest he exhibited in me and my work, and the time he took at that hour to visit with this “wet behind the ears” counselor, left a lasting impression regarding who this man was.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – FAMILY LOVE – 

April 2021 – She continued for three pages, detailing the pain she felt after her parents’ divorce — mostly because of her dad’s addiction — and how her father finally sought rehab after he slammed into another car one day while driving drunk. There were injuries, but none serious. It was a wake-up call.

“My dad never would have gotten sober without [the accident],” she wrote. “He had to hit rock bottom before he could get the help he needed.”

Preslee’s teacher gave her an A on the paper, and the teacher mentioned to her father that she’d written something powerful but didn’t reveal the topic. Preslee also told her dad that her teacher was impressed by the essay.

Her father, Casey Scott, 47, a former television news reporter who now has a weekly podcast about addiction, “Project Recovery,” asked Preslee if he could read what she’d written.

“He asked to read it, but I wondered how he’d react,” said Preslee. “So I stalled as long as I could.”

In February, when she finally gave her dad a copy of the essay, he wept as he read it, he said.

“It was so raw and so real — I had to walk away to collect my thoughts,” Scott said. “And then I thought: ‘This is something that everyone needs to hear.’ ”

So on Feb. 19, he read his daughter’s essay on his podcast, and he posted the emotional video on several sites, including Facebook. It resonated widely.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – IT TAKES ALL KINDS – 

April 20, 2021 – Dedee Pfeiffer, best known for her role in the hit ‘90s sitcom “Cybill”, is back on the small-screen after taking a 10-year break to sober up and get her masters in social work. While speaking with ET Canada’s Morgan Hoffman, the actress, who is also the younger sister of Michelle Pfeiffer, speaks candidly about her road to sobriety and how she used that journey to bring her “Big Sky” character to life.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

JUST LIKE MOTHER TERESA – 

April 22, 2021 – Oh, and the pandemic. She almost did not have time for it, she says. She’s not being cavalier or reckless, Ross says. “I have literally just been so busy,” she said. “It’s scary,” Ross said of working directly with clients during the coronavirus pandemic. She was diagnosed with Lupus 20 years ago, an autoimmune disease that puts her at high risk, but while addiction and recovery would not take break during the coronavirus, neither would Ross.

She masked up and went to wherever clients needed her — bedsides, police stations — for interventions and other work. (She had to quarantine twice, but never caught the virus and currently has the first shot of the vaccine.)

Ross presses on because she has so much to give back, she said.

“I took for so many years,” Ross said. “And when you take for so many years from your community, and from my family – I can’t, I can’t stop doing this work.”

“For me, this is a God-given passion, this is what I’m meant to do. This is my purpose,” Ross said.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – SO MANY GONE – 

April 20, 2021 – Debbie had walked downstairs in her home that morning to where Matthew and his young son were sleeping.

“I found Matthew collapsed on the floor and I knew he was gone,” she said. “From that point, it was just like a fog. I just couldn’t believe it.”

She and her daughter Heather Parish are now speaking out on recreational prescription drug use.

“The scary thing about fentanyl is that it can be laced into so many things that people don’t realize what they’re taking, and it takes such a small amount to kill you and cause immediate death,” Heather explained. “No drug is safe unless it is delivered from your doctor with a prescription.”

The Parish family has teamed up with the men behind Bare Knuckle Recovery, Nate Moellering and Tommy Streeter. The brand allows them to share “experiences and advice to recovering addicts all over the world.” These two addiction recovery experts also both work for Fort Wayne Recovery, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility.

“Fentanyl is just about as easy to access as any drug you can imagine right now,” he said. “It’s literally everywhere. If someone’s using a prescription drug off the street, it’s likely full of fentanyl.”

Streeter said the two of them can empathize deeply with what the Parish family is going through.

“It definitely hits close to home,” he said. “Nate and I have both overdosed on fentanyl before. My mom and dad have found me overdosed on fentanyl in a basement before. It’s something we absolutely relate to and we really care about the people and the families that are struggling with this and that’s why we do what we do now.”

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

AA PROMOTION? – 

April 21, 2021 – We discovered that we had an illness called alcoholism – often referred to by the medical community as “Alcohol Use Disorder.”

We found out that many people suffered from the same feelings of guilt, loneliness and hopelessness that we did.

We decided to get honest about what alcohol had done to us. And we shared our experience, strength and hope with others. And we have recovered by helping others do likewise. Without expense and never as reformers, we offer our experience only to those who want our help. We in A.A. believe alcoholism is a disease that is no respecter of age, gender, creed, race, wealth, occupation, or education. Our experience shows that anyone can be an alcoholic. And, beyond question, anyone who wants to stop drinking is welcome in A.A. 

Our sole object in publicity is to offer alcoholics who still suffer from this baffling malady a chance to get well.  Individually, on media platforms at the public level, we are an “anonymous” group. We prefer to share about the program of A.A. rather than the “personalities” of the people who may be in it. Understanding that, newcomers are less reluctant about approaching us. If an A.A. member is identified in the media, we use first names only (such as Sofia M. or Ben T.) and only non-identifiable images. This helps to provide members with the security that anonymity can bring.

Whether in person or online — if you have a drinking problem — A.A. may be able to help. (There are no dues or fees.)

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN – 

April 13, 2021 – One unique addition Boyd brings to his Petaluma location is equine therapy, where clients feed, groom, and ride horses. This therapeutic approach helps build communication, interpersonal connections, impulse control, and spiritual connections that are integral to one’s journey in recovery.

The horses used in the program aren’t simply rented animals either. Boyd actually purchased his own horses and stables them himself to ensure his clients always have the right to them.

Boyd’s efforts have helped countless people recover from addiction, even numerous high-profile celebrities. He co-produced the A&E series “The Cleaner,” which is loosely based on the story of his own life.

Despite his connections to Hollywood, Boyd has never forgotten that addiction is the great equalizer. No matter how rich or glamorous someone may be, we are all the same when in the throes of addiction. He wanted to bring all he had learned to his hometown in Sonoma County.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

CALIFORNIA DREAMING – 

April 22, 2021 – The State Senate Republicans noted they are fighting to combat the deadly fentanyl epidemic, while their Senate Democrat colleagues appear to be normalizing substance abuse. “Missing from this bill are any strategies to appropriately utilize methadone alternatives, mandatory treatment protocols, onsite drug counseling, or even efforts to gradually wean an addict off the cycle of dependence,” bill analysis in opposition to SB 57 says.

“This is like giving a person struggling with alcoholism a gift card to BevMo. The Democrats are the party of enablers right now – and at taxpayer expense,” said Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita). “Instead of robust efforts to help drug addicts kick the habit, Senate Democrats are throwing everyone under the bus in a ‘feel good’ push to embrace the addict rather than help them get housed, healed, and back to productive life. There is zero consideration for the neighborhoods in which these sites will operate, the victims of crimes resulting from addicts roaming the streets, or the families of individuals struggling with addiction who are praying their loved one gets treatment rather than drugs.”

It is evident Sen. Wiener is concerned about drug addiction as well as the dramatic increase in drug overdoses just since 2019, attributable to the lockdown, however reaching a solution is where Wiener and others don’t see eye-to-eye.

Wiener said: “In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and in California, the already alarming rate of drug overdose is worsening. A recent study of Emergency Medical Services data in the Journal of the American Medical Association found overdose rates were doubled in May of 2020, compared to 2019. More than 40 states have documented increases in opioid overdoses since the beginning of shelter in place. OPPs, also called supervised consumption services, are a necessary intervention to prevent overdose deaths. Approximately 165 OPPs exist in ten countries, and have been rigorously researched and shown to reduce health and safety problems associated with drug use, including public drug use, discarded syringes, HIV and hepatitis infections, and overdose deaths.”

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WHAT A LOVE STORY!!! – 

April 19, 2021 – They divorced in 1952; Mr. Albin’s mother cited “extreme cruelty and gross neglect of duty.” Mr. Albin said his father had once shot his dog to teach a lesson.

Jerry Lee left home at 15, after hitting his father with a shovel during a fight. He settled in Los Angeles and then served as a cook in the Army between 1962 and 1963.

After his discharge he began to drift. He lived without a home for stretches of time, and soon joined a branch of the Hell’s Angels. In 1965, a reporter and a photographer for Life magazine followed members of the branch around for several weeks for an article; Mr. Albin figures prominently in one of the photos that did not originally run with it in print but is now shown in an online archival version (he is in the foreground of a picture showing a boy seemingly fascinated by a motorcycle). Mr. Albin moved to New York in 1967, where he worked in factories and drove a truck. That year he met a German immigrant named Sonja Kandaurow. They married in 1968.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

STILL NEEDS ALANON – 

April 22, 2021 – Alongside a screenshot of an app which tracks his sobriety, he wrote: “It’s not that it get easier or harder, It’s just that it’s life on life’s terms. If anyone is trying to get sober, know that it possible if you are willing to do the work. Sending lots of love to my people who have been on this journey with me. #sobersbetter (sic)” Jack frequently opens up about his addiction battle and his journey to sobriety, especially through his multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis in 2012.

Last April, the star explained in an Instagram post for his 17-year anniversary that he got sober from drugs and alcohol when he realized he will “never be a normal drinker” and that drugs and alcohol will “only ever lead to bad things” for him.

He wrote at the time: “If someone would have told me 17 years ago I’d be celebrating my 17th year of sobriety locked down at home because of a global pandemic I’d of literally laughed in their face.

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