Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

MORE THAN JUST THE 12 STEPS – 

MAR. 16, 2021 – Red Oak Recovery® and The Willows at Red Oak Recovery® have completed their sixth year of partnership with the Center for Research, Assessment, and Treatment Efficacy (CReATE; Asheville, NC) and the Arkansas Interdisciplinary Sciences Laboratory (University of Arkansas) in collaboration on an all-inclusive dual diagnosis outcome study. This research study investigated the effectiveness of the integration of clinical and experiential modalities utilized with young adults, ages 18-35, that are struggling with trauma, mental health, and substance use issues. This is an IRB approved study.

The research team has collected data from hundreds of consenting Red Oak Recovery® and The Willows at Red Oak Recovery® alumni since 2014 by utilizing state-of-the-art assessment, sampling, and retention methods. Phase One of the study included a pre-treatment assessment at admission and post-treatment assessment at the time of graduation. During Phase Two, alumni were assessed at the three-month mark and the twelve-month mark post-treatment. 

The data collected from these rigorous assessments are used to gain further understanding of how clients respond to therapeutic interventions and what factors influence their recovery over time. The standardized instruments measure factors influencing a client’s therapeutic response while navigating recovery programs, sober living environments, therapy, 12 step support groups, and re-entry into their communities. Lastly, clients reported on skill acquisition, including mindfulness and emotion regulation.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

SUPER WEALTHY CON JOB? – 

March 16, 2021 – By Associated Press | March 16, 2021 at 11:53 AM EDT – Updated March 16 at 6:08 PM 

(AP) – Some state attorneys general and opioid addiction activists pushed back Tuesday against a settlement offer from OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, saying it didn’t include enough money and goes too far in protecting the company and family members who own it from future liability.

A group of nearly half the state attorneys general said it was disappointed in the plan Purdue filed late Monday night in federal bankruptcy court and some said they would seek changes. The lukewarm reaction from them and others raised doubts about how soon the company could emerge from bankruptcy and begin to compensate victims.

“We think it’s a step in the right direction, but we’ve got a long way to go,” said Joe Rice, one of the lead lawyers representing local governments that have sued Purdue and other companies over the toll of opioids.

The $10 billion plan calls for turning the Connecticut-based pharmaceutical giant into a new company, with its profits going toward efforts to combat the opioid crisis. Members of the Sackler family who own Purdue would contribute about $4.3 billion.

A new public health-oriented arm of the transformed company would produce addiction treatment and overdose antidote drugs, and a trove of company documents would be made public.

Most of the money would go to trusts that would distribute it to state and local governments. They would be allowed to use it only on initiatives that address the opioid crisis, which has contributed to more than 470,000 deaths in the U.S. since 2000.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III, a Republican, offered only tentative support Tuesday for Purdue’s plan. He said details remain to be ironed out on exactly how much money will go to state and local governments.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

LOVING BILLIE EILISH – 

March 18, 2021 –  “I don’t get it,” I yelled into my sister’s ear through throngs of people and piercing screams. “Me neither,” she said, as the crowd suffocating us sang along to the instrumental theme song from The Office, the cue for the shadow of a 17-year-old girl in an oversized sweatsuit to float onstage. Jaded and weary, at the end of my second day at the Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival in 2018, I was unimpressed by Billie Eilish’s shtick. I was even less amused by it five months later, when she was an hour late to perform her set at Coachella. She appeared over the top while trying to be casual, self-aware in a superficial way that felt completely delusional, and I was just old enough to find it weird to idolize a girl a year younger than myself. But three years later, especially after an intimate glimpse into her rise to stardom from the new Apple TV+ documentary, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry (2021), I have grown not only to enjoy Eilish’s music, but also to admire and respect her artistry and persona. Idiosyncratic, individual, and outspoken, the ease with which she brings topics such as mental health, body image, and family values to light both within and beyond her discography is admirable and sets a golden standard for Gen Z musicians to embrace and follow.

In May 2020 she released a short film called NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY, which she produced herself. The four-minute video shows her unzipping a black hoodie to reveal her shoulder in a black bikini, while she narrates dialogue that questions bodily perception and being. She says, “We make assumptions about people, based on their size. We decide who they are. We decide what they’re worth. If I wear more, if I wear less … Who decides what that makes me? What that means?” Ultimately, she concludes that it is not her responsibility to manage or care much about other people’s opinions of her.

She also shared with Rolling Stone in 2019 that in addition to her struggles with Tourette’s and depression, she has battled body dysmorphia, which began during her twelve years of competitive dance at a company in Los Angeles. She recalls being forced into a room lined with mirrors, full of pretty girls who were all friends, all of them wearing tiny clothes that brought out every physical flaw. As a girl who grew up in the superficial fairyland that is Los Angeles at the exact same time Eilish did, I can identify with the excruciating imposter syndrome and internal toxicity that came along with living as a teenage girl in my body. Attending an all-girls school from seventh through twelfth grade full of over-achieving, under-nourished students meant constantly examining the width of my thighs where my pleated gray skirt fell. In this age of social media, it also meant searching for validation from my peers in the form of generic compliments on an Instagram photo that had three filters on it and been morphed on Facetune. By the time I discovered Eilish I had college on the horizon and felt comfortable in my skin, but I can imagine how powerful of a role model she must be to young women facing similar (and more serious) battles with their body image and self-confidence.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

EXPERIENCE ESSENTIAL – 

March 10, 2021 – Andrew’s is passionate about the operational aspects of treatment. He is a visionary that blends creativity with practicality. He has extensive experience developing innovative and compassionate mental health treatment programs while simultaneously cutting facility costs and boosting employee productivity.

The unique balance of acute business sense and expansive clinical knowledge makes Andrew an in demand consultant. He helped several agencies commit to a culture of staff development, more effective systems and curriculum, and, most importantly, treating patients with respect, compassion, and dignity during some of the most difficult times of their lives.  

Andrew’s dedication to inspiring, collaborative leadership has us thrilled for the future of Recover Integrity and those we serve. We’ve always taken pride in our exceptional, compassionate care for men dealing with substance abuse issues. We believe role modeling integrity throughout all aspects of treatment teaches others how to live with integrity. 

This is an opportunity for Recover Integrity to move further and become an even more useful resource for the community and beyond.

In the coming months, we will keep you updated on the changes and innovations to our clinical addiction and mental health treatment programs. This includes our private clinic, The I House, luxury sober living facility in Brentwood, Los Angeles and the Santa Monica Sober Suites.

more@RecoverIntegrity

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD? – 

March 19, 2021 – Most evangelical churches, including Southern Baptist churches, teach that sex is permitted only within heterosexual marriages, similar teaching to the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions. However, several experts have said this week that Long’s ties to evangelicalism shine a light into a subculture called “purity culture,” a belief among some evangelicals that promotes the idea that any sexual desire outside of marriage is lustful, and therefore sinful. Some evangelicals are taught from a young age to control their sexual urges and if they cannot, they are sometimes labeled sex addicts or porn addicts.

HopeQuest is affiliated with several large evangelical churches in and around Atlanta, including the North Point megachurch and the historical First Baptist Church of Woodstock. With several counselors licensed by the state of Georgia, it is also a “professional” affiliate of the evangelical organization Focus on the Family.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – THAT’S A RELIEF – 

March 18, 2021 – Carol Juergensen Sheets, a certified sexual addiction therapist,  said the proper classification for the behaviors they were accused of was “a disorder of power and control, not sex addiction.” Compulsive sexual behavior – commonly known as sex addiction – is an excessive preoccupation with sexual fantasies, urges or behaviors that is difficult to control, causes distress or negatively affects one’s health, job or relationships.  Sex addiction is a progressive disorder that typically begins in the late teens to early 20s, she said. The vast majority of people struggling with sex addiction are men, but they include women, too.

The World Health Organization classified “compulsive sexual health disorder” as a mental health disorder in its International Classification of Diseases in 2018. Treatment can range from therapy sessions to stays at rehabilitation facilities to simpler 12-step programs. Sex addiction is a progressive disorder that typically begins in the late teens to early 20s, she said. The vast majority of people struggling with sex addiction are men, but they include women, too.

The World Health Organization classified “compulsive sexual health disorder” as a mental health disorder in its International Classification of Diseases in 2018. Treatment can range from therapy sessions to stays at rehabilitation facilities to simpler 12-step programs.

more@USAToday

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

SEE WHERE ALL THE MILLIONS GO – 

March 10, 2021 – New York has a robust system of addiction care, and with better collaboration and coordination people in need will experience easier access to care, including medication for addiction treatment, as well as more successful transitions between residential and outpatient settings, and better integration of prevention and recovery supports. The funding awarded under this initiative supports efforts to find regional approaches to care, and is designed to help prevention, treatment, and recovery providers increase their collaborative efforts to address the entire continuum of addiction services. Providers who receive funding have identified specific needs in their region and proposed services to address the gaps in care.

Regional networks are made up of multiple providers, in most cases serving multiple counties, in a region. Award amounts are listed below along with the counties served by the network. n addition to the regional network awards listed above, funding will also support the following initiatives within the counties served by the networks.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

SERIOUS BRUSH WITH THE LAW – 

March 13, 2021 – Lane said he cultivated and perfected his art by first creating miniature paintings that he would send from prison to his family.

“When you write letters, there’s not much to say after a while,” Lane said. “So I would just make these cards and I tell them ‘I love you’ or whatever.”

And then on Easter of 2007, Lane was baptized, which he says was the turning point in his life.

“The first seven years were just total awful,” Lane said. “Then I got saved and the last 10 years God got me ready for my work, I guess. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I got out. Life changed for me. I didn’t like it but I was able to deal with it and be content (in prison).”

He painted his first mural in prison and then was transferred to create murals at two other prisons once the wardens learned of Lane’s work.

Lane said those prison murals gave him experience and confidence to pursue as a business once he returned to society.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

STANDING IN HIS TRUTH – 

March 14, 2021 – You can sense the trepidation in Poyer’s message. He eventually says, “Can’t lie even writing this, Im embarrassed, it’s shameful but If I can overcome the struggle of alcohol, so can you.” “My first step was realizing I had a drinking problem. Cause I did. I couldn’t drink just to hang. When I drank I had to drink to get F’d up. I used alcohol to avoid all my issues in real life. My family, my job, my friends … when I drank I could forget all of my issues. I didn’t have to deal with them face on. After we lost to Houston in 2019, I felt I didn’t play the way I wanted to and we lost in such a bad way that for the next 5 weeks after that game I drank every damn day. Alcoholism is, of course, nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of, and Poyer’s message is courageous and important. My wife had seen it first hand and honestly if it wasn’t for her & the consistent support from my family and friends idk where I would be. I remember days she would cry because I just couldn’t put a beer down. I remember not being able to play with Aliyah cause I was too intoxicated. I remember feeling thoughts in my head; that would scare the hell out of sober me now. 

I finally decided to take a few trips to AA. My mom told me it helped her. Never spoke in them . Just took 3 trips and listened. I realized my issues were not even close to other’s life issues.”  Having Poyer speak out about a subject that is still frustratingly taboo is a vital step in helping more people understand the many forms of alcohol abuse. Poyer got broad support after posting his message, but if you look hard enough you’ll find some people who used it to create a discussion  full of misconceptions and stereotyping about alcohol addiction and the programs used to assist those suffering from it.I wrote earlier today about how sad it is to see Johnny Manziel and Josh Gordon playing in the Fan Controlled Football league, as both of their careers were derailed by addiction. ESPN ran a story earlier this year about CC Sabathia’s — and writer Ryan Hockensmith’s — fight against addiction.

more@USAToday

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

NOT ALL FOR MAT? – 

March 16, 2021 – Though the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will have to more thoroughly detail the list of programs eligible to receive the funds, the legislation states that grants will be given to help control the spread of infectious diseases (like HIV and hepatitis C), distribute overdose reversal medications (like naloxone) and provide overdose education, among other uses.

“The money couldn’t come at a more critical time given what we know about the worsening overdose crisis during the pandemic and economic downturn,” Smith said. “Given what we know in terms of talking with providers around the country and hearing that they’ve lost revenue, lost staff during the pandemic and economic downturn. Many have seen cuts to their revenue sources.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the overdose crisis deadlier.Between June 2019 and May 2020, more than 81,000 people died from overdose, according to figures released in December by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People are using more, and in isolation—and in the absence of robust harm reduction services like syringe service programs, they’re more likely to reuse supplies like syringes and stems, elevating risk of transmitting HIVand hepatitis C. 

Weekly overdose visits to emergency departments also rose drastically in 2020. While the total number of ED visits dropped precipitously, weekly ED trips linked to overdose were as much as 45 percent higher than in 2019.

more@FilterMag

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