Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – I see America –

Oct. 1, 2020 – He was dishonorably discharged” — which he was not. “For cocaine use,” Trump added. My father is a one-time Republican and now a staunch Biden supporter, but you can never assume to know how someone else experiences a moment like that or exactly what my father saw in Joe Biden that night. I know what I saw: a reflection of my dad. Biden is a father whose unwavering love has been essential in his child’s struggle and recovery from addiction. And my father’s love has been essential in mine.

Tuesday marked six months and 14 days into my recovery from alcoholism, and six months and 14 days since my father, my best friend and a team of EMTs saved my life. My dad and that friend together made what I know now was a difficult but instant decision to call 911, and then insisted that those EMTs kick in the door of my apartment in Washington, D.C. Because they insisted, the first responders found me on the floor, semiconscious and unable to stand; I had both pneumonia and hepatitis. I learned later that I had been close to death.

more@NBCNews

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Arrested envelopment – Read List –

Oct. 3, 2020 – The massive federal crackdown charges defendants with submitting more than $6 billion in fraudulent claims to federal health care programs and private insurers. That includes some $4.5 billion connected to telemedicine schemes; $845 million connected to substance abuse treatment or “sober home” schemes; and another $806 million in other health care fraud and illegal opioid distribution schemes.

“These ‘sober homes’ cases are particularly egregious, not just because of the substantial amounts of financial loss they cause, but also because of the significant harm they cause to patients who are used and abused along the way,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt in announcing the crackdown on Sept. 30.

“In many of these cases, defendants are alleged to have preyed upon addicted patients, recruiting them from their hometowns, where they have support networks, and shipping them off to far-away states where they are placed into these so-called ‘sober homes.’ Once there, these vulnerable patients are often provided with drugs that undercut their ability to recover from the addiction they are trying to kick, and they are often shuffled from facility to facility to boost headcount and maximize billing, instead of being given the care they so desperately need.”

more@OCRegister

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

President of U.S. Demeans S.U.D. sufferers –

Oct. 1, 2020 – Even the Real Housewives know that kids are always off-limits. Around 20 million Americans ages 12 and older have a substance abuse disorder, according to a 2019 report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. When Trump took a shot at Biden’s son on this prime-time stage, he was also firing off at them and at the tens of thousands of family members who have an addict in their lives.

With roughly 70,000 people dying per year from accidental overdoses and with alcohol use skyrocketing during the pandemic, it feels wildly callous and irresponsible for our president to “go in” on people who are struggling with a disease formally recognized by the American Medical Association.

On April 22, 1978, then-first lady of the United States Betty Ford bravely announced to the world that she was addicted to prescription medication and alcohol. Later on, she famously created the gold standard in treatment centers, the Betty Ford Center. And up until her death at age 93, she worked tirelessly to remove the stigma that many people associate with alcoholism and addiction. 

Last week when actor Dax Shepard opened up on his podcast Armchair Expert about his drug use after claiming 16 years of sobriety, he spoke about being scared — not just of having “lost his time,” but of being stigmatized. Shepard spoke candidly about how his ego was his own worst enemy, saying he had been afraid of what people would think of him if he confessed.

more@HuffPost

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

He did it all –

Sep. 30, 2020 – Mac Davis, a singer-songwriter who parlayed a string of hits for Elvis Presley into a varied career as an actor and recording artist, blending country and pop in chart-topping songs such as “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me” and playing a quarterback in the football movie “North Dallas Forty,” died Sept. 29 in Nashville. He was 78.

His manager, Jim Morey, announced the death in a statement, after a tweetin which Mr. Davis’s family revealed that he was “critically ill following heart surgery.”

With a Texas drawl and country charm, Mr. Davis became a crossover country-pop success in the early 1970s, performing at cow palaces and casinos, writing a No. 1 song that started out as a joke with his producer, and hosting his own musical variety show for three years on NBC. His songwriting process was simple, he said: “I try to tell the truth and hope it rhymes.”

more@WashingtonPost

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – Family Values –  

Sep. 22, 2020 – Gaga thanked her mother for her honesty and gave her own advice, noting that not everyone has parents who are receptive to conversations about mental health.

“I think that it’s actually interesting to subvert that question a little bit,” she said, adding that “some people can’t tell their parents.”

“I feel the need to say this, because it’s real, and it’s true, and some people don’t have parents that can hear what you’re saying,” she continued. “They don’t have parents that are willing to listen, and some people don’t have parents at all.”

For those who, for whatever reason, cannot talk to their parents about mental health, Gaga recommends starting a conversation with people in their community.

“I encourage them to celebrate their stories by sharing it with each other and creating a community, creating a culture around you, where you can say, ‘Hey, this is what I’m going through. What have you been through?’” she said. “Role-modeling can actually happen between us. I don’t believe that it’s only our parents that role-model for us. I believe it’s also our friends.”

more@Yahoo

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – Listen to the Lions –

Sep. 10, 2020 –  Introducing Dr. Louis Stanger Topic: Courage, Creativity, Communication & Celebration

Host: Dr. James Flowers, PhD, LPC-S, Founder, J. Flowers Health Institute Facilitator: Robin French, VP of Concierge Relations, J. Flowers Health Institute, About Dr. Louise Stanger, LCSW, CSAT-1, CDWF, CIP

Dr. Louise Stanger focuses on strength-based solutions and invitational change. Dr. Stanger is an Ivy League Award winner (2019 Interventionist of the Year from DB Resources in London and McLean Hospital – an affiliate of Harvard), educated social worker, popular author, internationally renowned clinician, interventionist and speaker and an expert on mental health, addiction, process disorders and chronic pain. 

She gets to the heart of the matter in helping families because she’s passionate about bringing hope and healing to loved ones. When you call, you won’t have to go through any intermediaries. She will pick up the phone and talk directly with you. 

Dr. Stanger developed and refined her invitational method of mental health and substance abuse interventions using the well-established research methodology of portraiture. She has performed thousands of family interventions throughout the United States and abroad. She has received numerous awards for her years of dedication to the fields of intervention & recovery. 

In addition to her years of experience, Dr. Louise is a published author whose work covers a range of topics including mental health, substance abuse, well-being, the opioid epidemic, marijuana and other drugs, parenting, high-wealth clients, finding happiness, spirituality, failure to launch, chronic pain and pain management, family and many more. Her books Falling Up: A Memoir of Renewal is available on Amazon, Learn To Thrive: An Intervention Guidebook on her website, and The Definitive Guide to Addiction Intervention: A Collective Strategy through Routledge Press and Addiction in The Family (in press, Nov 2020)

more@YouTube

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – Listen to the Lions –

Sep. 10, 2020 –  Introducing Dr. Louis Stanger Topic: Courage, Creativity, Communication & Celebration

Host: Dr. James Flowers, PhD, LPC-S, Founder, J. Flowers Health Institute Facilitator: Robin French, VP of Concierge Relations, J. Flowers Health Institute, About Dr. Louise Stanger, LCSW, CSAT-1, CDWF, CIP

Dr. Louise Stanger focuses on strength-based solutions and invitational change. Dr. Stanger is an Ivy League Award winner (2019 Interventionist of the Year from DB Resources in London and McLean Hospital – an affiliate of Harvard), educated social worker, popular author, internationally renowned clinician, interventionist and speaker and an expert on mental health, addiction, process disorders and chronic pain. 

She gets to the heart of the matter in helping families because she’s passionate about bringing hope and healing to loved ones. When you call, you won’t have to go through any intermediaries. She will pick up the phone and talk directly with you. 

Dr. Stanger developed and refined her invitational method of mental health and substance abuse interventions using the well-established research methodology of portraiture. She has performed thousands of family interventions throughout the United States and abroad. She has received numerous awards for her years of dedication to the fields of intervention & recovery. 

In addition to her years of experience, Dr. Louise is a published author whose work covers a range of topics including mental health, substance abuse, well-being, the opioid epidemic, marijuana and other drugs, parenting, high-wealth clients, finding happiness, spirituality, failure to launch, chronic pain and pain management, family and many more. Her books Falling Up: A Memoir of Renewal is available on Amazon, Learn To Thrive: An Intervention Guidebook on her website, and The Definitive Guide to Addiction Intervention: A Collective Strategy through Routledge Press and Addiction in The Family (in press, Nov 2020)

more@YouTube

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

But if drugs were legal…? –  

Sep. 22, 2020 – Mexico’s militarised crackdown on organised crime has left nearly 39,000 unidentified bodies in the country’s morgues, which are often unable to handle the volume of corpses brought in for autopsies.

A new investigation by the investigative NGO Quinto Elemento Labs found that an alarming number of people were simply buried in common graves without proper postmortems. Some were left in funeral homes and more than 2,500 bodies were given to medical schools.

“It’s possible that [medical] students are learning with bodies of persons being searched for by their families,” said an article accompanying the report, published on Tuesday. “The forensic crisis has transformed the Mexican state into a burying machine: 27,271 unidentified bodies went from the morgue to common graves – 70% of the total.” The investigation found that the number of unidentified corpses in Mexican morgues was 178 in 2006 – the year president Felipe Calderón first deployed the country’s armed forces against drug cartels.

That figure soared by 1,032% over the next 13 years to 38,891 , as the murder rate mushroomed.

Mexican morgues have routinely run out of space to store unidentified bodies, prompting some local authorities to seek makeshift solutions such as storing bodies in refrigerated trailers. In 2018, a scandal erupted in Guadalajara when the stench of decomposition led to the discovery of a trailer containing 273 corpses which had been parked in a suburban neighbourhood.

more@TheGuardian

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Rising sober star –  

Sep. 23, 2020 –  After finding her rhythm during lockdown with her mum and girlfriend – “I took up dancing, not very well, but I realised how happy it made me” – 22-year-old Delilah returns with new single ‘Loud,’ about turning up the volume on your inner and outer confidence.

In a catch-up with Attitude, the London-based artist opens up about the confessional quality of her music, addressing her issues with addiction and writing about her relationship, the good, the bad and the ugly. Delilah assures us that her girlfriend is totally fine with it, hopefully not in a Ross-from-Friends-”I’m fine” way… Who are your biggest music influences?

Carole King and Leonard Cohen. All the classics – my parents have very good music taste. I love her melodies and his lyrics. I am also very in love with Nina Simone.

Can you remember the first single you bought?

It was McFly, ‘All About You.’ Still to this day one of my faves.

Tell us about your latest song, ‘Loud.’ What was the inspiration behind it?

Confidence. I wrote ‘Loud’ about being confident in myself and in all of my relationships – not just the romantic ones. It definitely symbolises a time of my life that I am in now of acceptance.

more@Attitude

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

What a downer –  

Sep. 24, 2020 – “Although benzodiazepines are very helpful for short term treatment, providers need to consider the risks and benefits of prescribing longer courses of these medications,” she said. 

Stopping these drugs abruptly or reducing the dosage too quickly after a long period of time can result in withdrawal reactions such as seizures, which the FDA says can be life-threatening. Patients should speak with their health care provider to develop a plan for slowly tapering medication before stopping, the agency said.

In addition to the warning label, the FDA is also requiring changes to prescribing information on all products and existing patient Medication Guides.

“The FDA is hoping that by adding verbiage to the current warning that providers will be extra careful in not only prescribing these medications, but also to be mindful of the duration,” Amato said. 

more@MSN

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