Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Just like us – 

Dec. 26, 2020 – His deconstructed sculptures take on a variety of forms, but many of them are pieced together using the kintsugi technique. This Japanese method uses a special lacquer that is dusted or mixed with gold powder to mend the objects. “The philosophy behind kintsugi aligns very well with one of the starting points of my practice,” de Vries remarks. “I believe that something damaged can still be beautiful. With kintsugi the damage is considered part of a piece’s history: rather than hiding it, it is celebrated as an integral part of that. I try to express that in my own way.”

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

From across the pond… –  

Dec. 27, 2020 – The coronavirus crisis poses the greatest threat to mental health since the second world war, with the impact to be felt for years after the virus has been brought under control, the country’s leading psychiatrist has said.

Dr Adrian James, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said a combination of the disease, its social consequences and the economic fallout were having a profound effect on mental health that would continue long after the epidemic is reined in.

As many as 10 million people, including 1.5 million children, are thought to need new or additional mental health support as a direct result of the crisis. The prediction comes as the virus surges in the UK, and highlights the need for a plan that ensures those who develop mental illness or see existing conditions worsen have swift access to effective support in the years ahead.

“This is going to have a profound effect on mental health,” James said. “It is probably the biggest hit to mental health since the second world war. It doesn’t stop when the virus is under control and there are few people in hospital. You’ve got to fund the long-term consequences.”

Demand for mental health services dropped at the start of the pandemic as people stayed away from GP surgeries and hospitals, or thought treatment was unavailable. But the dip was followed by a surge in people seeking help that shows no sign of abating.

Data from NHS Digital reveals that the number of people in contact with mental health services has never been higher, and some hospital trusts report that their mental health wards are at capacity. “The whole system is clearly under pressure,” James said.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

LISTEN – RIP Cady Groves – 

Dec. 28, 2020 – Groves had a difficult upbringing, losing two older brothers to overdoses in her teens and 20s. She’d found pop-country success in the 2010s (Blake Shelton appeared in her video for “This Little Girl”), and after she lost her deal with RCA, she won an independent fanbase for her tender, forthright songwriting about loss and longing.

“Cady was this free spirit who wore her heart on her sleeve. She was one of those people who would do anything for you within 15 minutes of meeting you,” said Camus Celli, head of her label, Vel Records. “I think with all artists, that’s one of the hardest things to maintain without a buffer. You’re susceptible to so many things.” COVID-19 shutdowns were brutal for many musicians, with tours canceled, income dwindling and their families and communities adrift. Celli said Groves, riding out the pandemic in her suburban Nashville home, took it especially hard. She’d struggled with eating disorders and had received aid from MusiCares. As the stress and isolation of the pandemic took hold, they resurfaced. 

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All original writing –  

Dec. 30. 2020 – Why journalism matters. Journalism is living history that tells truths we might never learn otherwise. It quickly informs people, and the rapid publication of journalism is essential in our busy times. Even our in-depth projects are published relatively rapidly. What I love about journalism is that it brings us closer together with understanding. And what’s “extra” about it for me is, it can evoke empathy and it can elicit change. I don’t know what else can do that.

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WATCH – Decency has come to the USA – 

Jan. 1, 2021 – In a unique twist, the law also created a program that reinvests 25% of cannabis tax revenue into a fund for youth development, anti-violence programs, re-entry programs, economic development and civil legal aid services for “R3 communities” ― those dealing with high rates of gun violence, child poverty and incarceration rates.

With Thursday’s action, the state also met a separate January 2025 deadline to expunge all 492,192 state-level records.

However, only nine of the state’s 201 counties have finished clearing their own non-felony cannabis-related arrest records.

In a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times, state Sen. Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford (D) said the expungements are encouraging, yet ultimately incremental.

“Dismantling decades’ worth of criminal justice atrocities will take years. That’s evidenced by how this country handles cannabis,” she said. “We must never stop chipping away at that painful history. I’m proud of these critical first steps.”

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He Can’t Stop –  

Jan. 1, 2021 – “We can’t meet now because of COVID,” Evans said. “But when we can meet, I’m there.”

He said, “I was 50 when I quit drinking. It was a very serious problem for me for the last 14 to 16 years. But I didn’t realize it for a long time.” Evans said, “I lost everything. My wife, my kids, my home, my cars. I would drink myself out of jobs. I would end up homeless, begging on the streets, living in bushes and abandoned cars.” He said, “Everywhere I went, there was a bar. My first wife and my daughter died of alcoholism. I married again and we’ve been married 33 years.” Evans said he stopped smoking five years after he quit drinking. He said he was a painting contractor in Florida for 25 years, painting such homes as that of basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal.

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Hugs Not Drugs – 

Jan. 1, 2021 – As complications of the opioid crisis spread in US communities, nurseries across the country also felt the impact of the crisis. Over the last 2 decades, the number of infants diagnosed with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS), also known as neonatal abstinence syndrome, grew nearly eightfold, reaching 1 infant diagnosed every 15 minutes in the United States in 2016. However, just as overdose deaths represent only a fraction of adults affected by the opioid crisis, diagnoses of NOWS represent a fraction of all opioid-exposed infants. Currently, there are no gold standard diagnostic criteria for NOWS nor validated quality measures for opioid-exposed infants. Thus, there remain substantial gaps in care delivered.

In this issue of Pediatrics, Young et al4 present findings from a large cohort of infants treated at 30 hospitals participating in the ACT NOW (Advancing Clinical Trials in Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Current Experience Study). The authors found profound variation in care for NOWS in every domain examined, including which units cared for these infants and breastfeeding rates. Strikingly, the proportion of infants requiring pharmacotherapy ranged from 6.7% to 100% and hospital mean length of stay ranged from 2 to 28.8 days between centers. Although the authors found hospital differences in study populations, it seems implausible that individual patient factors could account for this level of variation. It is apparent that 2 decades into the present opioid crisis, and despite countless state and national efforts to improve quality of care for opioid-exposed infants, one of our nation’s most vulnerable populations is receiving highly variable care, resulting in disparate outcomes.

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Extended families matter –  

Jan. 1, 2021 – If he hadn’t already started drinking hours before with patrons while on the clock, he’d start soon after finishing work late at night. Pocketing the cash he’d earned in gratuities that evening, Smith would go out to party into the early morning hours with the other servers, cooks and bartenders.

The next day, he’d wake up and do it all again.

“You make 400 bucks on a Tuesday, you go out with 400 bucks in your pocket, and you make it back Wednesday,” Smith said. In an industry where alcohol is readily accessible and revelry is always on the menu, Smith’s lifestyle epitomized the “work hard, play hard” mentality of many who make their living at bars and restaurants. For 20 years, Smith became immersed in a culture where the demands of high-stress jobs fueled the desire for drugs and alcohol.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

It’s True –  

Jan. 1, 2021 – “This year has brought up so many challenges but I know that because I choose to rise to the challenge each and every time I am loving myself and showing myself that I am capable of getting through anything,” the former “Empire” star shared. Willis, who took home the Mirror Ball trophy on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2015, concluded her inspiring note with a message to anyone else thinking about pursuing sobriety, noting it’s a personal journey that is different for everyone. “For anyone and everyone who is struggling or has a desire to get sober know that it is not a one size fits all process but it’s one day at a time,” she wrote. “I don’t have all the answers, I know what has worked for me but always here to lend support or just listen.” In the past, Willis did not clarify specifically what she was becoming sober from. That was intentional. “I didn’t say I was sober from anything, I could have been sober from a food addiction or buying too many clothes or from relationships or whatever, but I think we’re in this culture where we naturally presume and assume,”…

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Talk is cheap –  

Jan. 2, 2021 – Shepard celebrated a major milestone in his sobriety journey in September 2016. “12 years ago today I came out of my last toxic, life threatening stupor. I now have a wife & babies & some self-esteem #gratitude #promises,” he tweeted at the time. “There’s a couple of common fallacies about sobriety. One being that people hit a bottom and then that’s that. Most addicts have many bottoms,” Shepard explained during a 2019 conversation on Off Camera With Sam Jones, reflecting on one moment that made him “take stock” of his life. “I am about to star in this movie, Zathura; they’re paying me a ton of money; people recognize me at the airport. I’m doing everything I had dreamt of doing for 30 years. It all came true, and I’m the least happy I’ve ever been in my life. I’m closest to not wanting to be alive as I’ve ever been, and I had every single thing on paper that I’d ever wanted. I feel grateful for this because I was able to say, ‘Something much more profound is broken.’”

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