Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Torah and Coffee –

August 27, 2020 – In an unofficial way, Stern’s ministry began at the homeless shelter in Minneapolis where he stayed, and where he also began to work. He would help at mealtimes, and saw the heart-rending situations others were in. It was a testament to the plight many go through because of addiction and mental illness, which Stern said are often linked. Seeing parents line up with children every day was particularly hard. “I used to grab ice cream bars and bring them to the kids at their tables and sit and talk to them.”

Stern was born in the “Orthodox Jewish section of the Bronx” – as he described it – and was raised in Connecticut before his time in Minnesota. He’s now in California, pending a permanent move to Springfield. After 10 months in the homeless shelter three decades ago, Stern worked for a rehab facility, and then continued a successful career in insurance. He also did a lot of studying, and has a dizzying list of degrees. The most recent one is from the Academy of Jewish Religion at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was ordained this past spring.

more@IllioisTimes

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Purple Haze Rave? –  

August 31, 2020 – As anyone who has been to Shakedown Street knows, the drug cocktail of LSD and MDMA is referred to as “candyflipping.” But for JR Rahn, the founder and co-CEO of psychedelic drug development startup Mind Medicine Inc., the combination, along with therapy, could become an FDA-approved treatment for certain mental illnesses one day. 

“What we don’t want is people think they can take this every weekend. This is medicine, it should be treated as such,” says Rahn. “We are not developing this so people have a better rave.” 

Rahn believes that “classic psychedelics,” like psilocybin and LSD, will be the first-generation medicines based on hallucinogenic compounds. The next generation, he says, will be combination therapies like LSD and MDMA. 

Mind Medicine, which is based in New York City, will launch the first-ever clinical trial on LSD and MDMA in January 2021 to determine if the drug combination is safe for human use. Dr. Matthias Liechti, one of the world’s leaders in psychopharmacology research, will conduct the Phase 1 study with 24 healthy volunteers in his lab at University Hospital Basel in Switzerland. The study will be double-blind, and placebo controlled.

more@Forbes

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – No one has to die –

Sept. 4, 2020 – This time was different, though. When Leahy was going through patient intake at the hospital, he told the doctors what he had taken — the remnants of a bottle of liquid Percocet along with some other drugs — and he was rushed to the ICU.

“They asked what I took and I told them, and they told me that I was going to die,” Leahy said. “I had accidentally taken 8 grams of Tylenol at once [from the Percocet].” Thankfully, Leahy survived the Percocet overdose, but his three-day stint in the ICU was just the beginning of what is now a lifelong journey.

After getting discharged from the hospital, Leahy was sent to a treatment center where a staff member suggested he try something different.

“I took that pretty seriously,” he said. “I had really thought about it and everything I had tried up to that point clearly hadn’t worked ‘cause I found myself in the same situation again and again.”

That staff member’s suggestion was for Leahy to wait a month until he turned 18 years old and then give an adult program a try. And that’s exactly what he did: After riding out his final year of adolescence in detox, he did four months in an adult program, then spent another four months in a more regimented program where he attended AA meetings and worked with a sponsor until he was deemed capable of handling himself in his old environment.

After graduating early from that final program, Leahy returned home and surrounded himself with like-minded sober people.

more@Yahoo

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – And the young shall lead us –  

Sept. 2, 2020 -“I didn’t really grow up with my mom as much as I’d hoped,” Preston told KDKA’s Kym Gable. “I lived with my grandma most of my life. The reason why is she struggled with drug addiction throughout my childhood.”

After his mother’s death, Preston started raising money for the Washington County non-profit Harmony Life Center. The center is run entirely by volunteers and helps people with addiction and recovery through various programs and services.

Preston initially donated the money he made with his lemonade stand sales. But this year, coronavirus prevented him from setting up the lemonade stands. So he put a simple pink bucket in his grandmother’s salon so people could make donations to Harmony Life Center.

more@CBSPittsburgh

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – Loving sobriety on two wheels –  

Sept. 4, 2020 – His personal journey turned into a call to help others. Over the nearly 50 mile bike ride, he raised $900 for Treasure Coast Hope for the Homeless. Living a life that honors his past, while setting proud examples for his two children. “I want to be half the man my father was to me and I hope that I can accomplish that and I hope to be the best example to them as I can be. I think if they look back on what I’ve done with my life I hope that they can say my father was a good man,” said Link.

more@CBS12

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Prisons are Dangerous –  

Sept. 3, 2020 – This semi-normal life, combined with my White skin and the fact that I lived in an under-policed suburban neighborhood, allowed me to evade criminal justice involvement for years.

All good things come to an end. I was arrested for the first time at age 23, still in my work uniform from the pizza place. Possession of heroin was a Class B felony in Oregon at the time. I knew that if I was found guilty, I would likely lose my EMT license and any chance of a future career in the medical field. I was pretty sure it would also ruin my financial aid and make it hard for me to find housing or jobs. A felony is forever. It was as if being addicted to heroin wasn’t miserable enough and the system making things more miserable would make me stop using. 

Motivated by the fear of that felony, I opted for drug court. If I successfully completed it, the charge would be wiped from my record. So I went to detox and then a drug treatment program (thanks to still being covered by my mom’s health insurance). I also got lucky and found a Suboxone doctor who was accepting patients. 

I was doing better—using only occasionally—until I was arrested by the sheriff’s office. A scrap of plastic they’d found in my mess of a car was swabbed and tested positive for heroin. It could have been in there for months. After I was taken into custody, they supposedly found less than a tenth of gram embedded in the seat upholstery.

more@MarshallProject

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Staying in the Groove –

Sept. 2, 2020 – “Hey y’all guys, this is my newest piece, I hope you like it,” the reality star, 37, wrote in his caption. “Also I just put out a YouTube video where you can watch me draw a cool picture in timelapse! (Don’t forget to help me out and subscribe, and see my next videos as they come out). God bless.”

It appears the eldest child of the Brown brood is exploring his talents and creativity these days. Just last month, Matt posted a portrait of himself gazing up at the sky and shared how much he enjoyed his hike following his lifestyle change.

more@InTouch

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

We all are! –

Sept. 3, 2020 – In many ways, the current crisis makes it even more important and feasible for people to seek help. For a generation that lives and works online, having the option of Zoom treatment or a virtual Alcoholics Anonymous meeting can encourage more people to seek support in ways that are second nature to them. That includes me. I have been in recovery since March of this year, and these six months have been disorienting, plodding, bizarre and miraculous. In December of 1979, my father walked into a rehab facility in Salina, Kansas to be treated for alcoholism. He got to have his big front door rehab entrance moment – very dramatic and flashy!

Not me. In March, I ended up in a hospital in Washington, D.C., delivered by (I’m told) kind EMTs. This was thanks to the quick thinking and huge hearts of my father and my best friend, who together insisted those first responders kick in my apartment door.

more@NBCNews

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Stick with the Winners!

Bob Messinger’s film, LOCKDOWN: The emotional impact of Covid-19 and Quarantine, premieres Wednesday on the REEL Recovery Film Channel. Click here to register for FREE TICKETS. Bob Messinger has studied screenwriting under some of the brightest writers in both New York and L.A. His scripts have placed in competitions such as Francis Ford Coppola’s 2006 American Zoetrope Contest (Semi-Finalist), the 2012 ENDAS International Screenwriting Expo (Best Script), the 2011 Garden State Film Festival competition (Finalist), and eleven of his scripts have been winners in the Indie Gathering International Screenwriting Competition (2012-2020). His first production, “Dongmei” may be seen on Amazon Prime and “Over the Line” is currently finishing its festival run. Bob was inducted into the Indie Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 2018.

Q. Where did you grow up?
A. I grew up in suburban Philadelphia

Q.  From what school or teacher did you learn the most?
A. Vinnie LaBarbera was my journalism advisor in college. I learned the importance of ethical storytelling from him.

Q.  If you had an extra million dollars, which charity would you donate it to?
A.  I’d probably split it between St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and NAMI.

full profile@AddictionRecoveryeBulletin

FREE TICKETS TO LOCKDOWN SCREENING

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