Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Sept. 8, 2020 – Ryan Ekmark used art as an outlet that helped him on his road to recovery and sobriety. He has since turned his wood art into a business named Recovered Calling.
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Sept. 7, 2020 – Although this memoir follows Laura’s journey to sobriety, it’s not your typical addiction story. Laura has crafted a fearlessly honest presentation of her journey with grace and humility. She destroys the stereotypical image of an alcoholic. She’s an educated woman with a young daughter and a fancy career living in the city of her dreams. Despite these facts, and the normalization of drinking in all aspects of her life, she has lost herself in her addiction and it’s become a disaster. She unflinchingly describes her most vulnerable moments and the episodes that ultimately led her to take her life in an opposite direction.
Even if you can’t relate to substance abuse, Laura explains that everyone has their thing in life, the thing they don’t like, or the thing they want to change. Her thing just happened to be drinking. She believes everyone has an invitation to wake up at some point and those that show up are truly the luckiest. They’re the ones that make it through their struggles and now recognize the miracles of daily life, knowing what it’s like to be on the other side. Laura gives us permission to see the struggles as steppingstones to our greatest blessings.
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Sept. 8, 2020 – “When it was time for me to graduate from law school, I passed the bar on the first try,” she told In The Know. “I moved back to the city, I got my apartment [and] had a job, but I just wasn’t used to having this nine-to-five.”
Unsure of how to adjust to her new reality, Olagoke said her alcohol consumption increased following her graduation. That, in turn, led to a struggle with an addiction she initially had trouble recognizing.
“I just wasn’t familiar with addiction,” she said, noting that her life had “slowly spiraled.” “I didn’t know anyone who had an addiction.”
In 2018, Olagoke decided to take the first step toward sobriety, frequently traveling more than an hour to attend Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings in predominantly white neighborhoods. Still, as a Black woman, she found it difficult to relate to her peers. At one meeting, for instance, a white speaker seemingly talked down on the mostly non-white residents that lived in Olagoke’s neighborhood, suggesting that she had a difficult time living there as a result.
“That’s when I was like, ‘Okay, yeah, this is not for me,’” she recalled. “Not to say AA wasn’t for me, but just AA in my borough wasn’t for me.”
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
September 4, 2020 – People wanting to go sober in September this year may find it’s less popular due to the pandemic. The stress of 2020 have led to a spike in drinking; data released in July by Nielsen showed that in-store alcohol sales had increased by 54% and online alcohol purchases by 500% compared to 2019. If you feel like your quarantine drinking habitshave gotten out of hand, though, Sober September may offer a reset button.
The idea of Sober September may have emerged in England with the charity Cancer Research UK, which was credited with creating it in 2016 and now hosts “dryathlons” year-round to raise money for cancer research. In the U.S., Yahoo Health suggested in 2018, it may have gotten a boost because it coincides with the start of the new school year. “September has a back-to-school feel, and after a boozy summer it’s a month that finds a lot of people in detox mode,” Warrington tells Bustle. “People also see September and October (‘sober October’ is also popular, in the UK in particular) as a good time to take a break from drinking before Halloween and the holidays kick in.”
If one month without booze seems difficult, particularly in a pandemic, go slow. “Even if you don’t go completely sober, a reduction in drinking is still a worthy goal as it not only improves your sleep but can improve your overall health and wellbeing,” Dr. Joseph Volpicelli M.D., a psychiatrist and sobriety expert, tells Bustle. “Sometimes a goal of lessening up alcohol consumption can be a great lifestyle transition for a month.”
Sober September may be just the beginning.The Atlantic reported in 2019 that alcohol-free cocktails had become easier to find as millennials — and, as they come of age, Generation Z — become less enthused about drinking in general. Sobriety may be tougher now that we’re all hosting cocktail parties on Zoom, but if you’re thinking about going sober before Halloween, you definitely aren’t alone.
If you or someone you know is seeking help for substance use, call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Sept. 13, 2020 – Florida reported 5,621 overdose deaths, a 14% increase from January 2019 to January 2020, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And in parts of South Florida, early numbers suggest 2020 could be even worse. In Palm Beach County, overdose deaths are already 49% higher from January to August of this year than they were for the same period last year, according to records. At the current rate, the county could see nearly 200 more deaths in 2020 than there were in 2019.
Palm Beach Fire Rescue said they have already administered Narcan, an antidote that reverses the effect of an opioid overdose, as many times as they have in all of 2019. They have received nearly 300 more calls for overdoses than they did by the same time last year. In Miami-Dade County, a supervisor for IDEA Exchange, the first needle-exchange program in the state, said they have seen a dramatic increase in requests for Narcan, as well as an increase in self-reported overdoses by clients.
The county medical examiner said documented overdose deaths are so far slightly lower this year than they were last year, but Miami Dade Fire Rescue has seen a 3% rise in overdose-related calls compared to the same time last year.
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Sept. 11, 2020 – Further still, when a life event, such as a death in the family, divorce, etc. demands real clinical care, they simply increase a patient’s dosage.
The aforementioned population that constitutes a majority of the people getting opioid “treatment” in Colorado don’t actually see much of a quality of life improvement beyond the replacement of IV and street opioids. Though certainly getting off of recreational opioids is a major improvement, these individuals are no better prepared to find the sort of life one can achieve through evidence-based therapy, a supportive and accountable community, and integrated medication-assisted treatment services.
This fractured care model makes sense, however, because the clinics are looking to get as many people off IV drugs as possible for the sake of public health, not to improve each individual’s quality of life. That’s why between 2015 and 2018, the number of people in OTPs (methadone clinics) rose from an average of 1,967 to 5,242 in Colorado despite there only being 12 OTPs in Colorado in 2015 (with a recent uptick to 22) according to state government data. Though we can agree that looking after public health is a noble cause, it does not take the needs of each individual with an addiction into account.
I believe recovery programs should be designed to provide an outpatient MAT program coupled with individualized and comprehensive treatment experience. Why doesn’t this exist already? A doctor’s prescription doesn’t address mental health concerns that are often the root of the addiction, quitting opioids “cold-turkey” is just plain dangerous for the user, and residential detox means putting one’s entire life on hold. Shouldn’t we provide care and treatment that actually works for the individuals who are suffering from opioid use disorder without them having to give up their life, family, and career? You wouldn’t treat a broken leg with a flu shot, so why isn’t MAT coupled with counseling and mental health services the norm for treating opioid use? Why aren’t all opioid users treated with a focus on the needs of the patient as opposed to simply arresting the development of the addiction?
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Sept. 10, 2020 – “It was a long journey. In the end, there’s a small amount of peace knowing he’s not in pain anymore,” Etheridge said Thursday on “Today.” “Of course, we miss him. My wife and my other three children, we come together, and we know he’s there in spirit. So, we do what we love, and we love each other and come together. You just do it one day at a time.”
The singer established the Etheridge Foundation in June to support research into the causes of narcotics addiction. The foundation will hold its initial fund-raiser on Oct. 11, noted “Today.”
“Unfortunately, there’s way too many of us,” lamented Etheridge. “This is an epidemic. We lose over 150,000 people a year to opioid addiction.”
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Sept. 4, 2020 – LARA’s mission is to create Recovery Community Organizations in Spanish that will ultimately reduce health disparities among the Hispanic communities.
Angelo Lagares has worked as an activist and leader in prevention in treatment services internationally. Since 1991, he has received extensive professional training and development throughout the years.He trained with Boston University Public Health and CASA in The Joined Together Program in 2009 until 2012, Introduction to Certified Addiction Professional at Palm Beach Community College in 2008, and Human Service Specialist at Boricua College in New York in 2004. He was one of fifty advocates nationwide to be chosen to lead Mobilize Recovery, funded by Facebook’s Community Leadership program, which was aimed at changing public and professional attitudes about addiction recovery, and breaking the intergenerational stigma surrounding addiction.
Q. If you are in recovery, what was your Drug of Choice? When did you stop using?
A. In Recovery since 2005. Methadone, crack and Etoh (ethanol).
Q. Have you ever been arrested and if so, for what?
A. Drug possession.
Q. Do you think addiction is an illness, disease, a choice or a wicked twist of fate?
A. For me a brain disease.
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Sept. 8, 2020 – When Covid-19 struck, the U.S. was already in the grip of an expanding drug-overdose crisis. It has only gotten worse since then.
Counties in states spanning the country, from Washington to Arizona and Florida, are reporting rising drug fatalities this year, according to data collected by The Wall Street Journal. This follows a likely record number of deadly overdoses in the U.S. last year, with more than 72,000 people killed, according to federal projections.
The pandemic has destabilized people trying to maintain sobriety or who are struggling with addiction during a time of increased social isolation and stress, according to treatment providers and public-health authorities. In a survey of U.S. adults released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13% of respondents in June said they had started or increased substance use to deal with stress or emotions related to Covid-19.
The drug deaths are adding to the pandemic’s toll, which includes more than 188,000 infection-related fatalities, but also other deaths linked to factors such as disruptions in health care and economic dislocation.
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Addiction Recovery Bulletin
Sept. 13, 2020 – The insider explains that booze “became a problem as he and Jen were going through their own issues” and “neither one cause the other, but they didn’t help either.” Though the outsider claims Jon Hamm’s rumored affair with his Mad Men costar January Jones put pressure on the marriage, Hamm didn’t cheat, saying … Gossip Cop thought one major detail stood out and you might have noticed it too. Where were the quotes from Jon Hamm? As the headline says, “Jon Tells All,” a reader would understandably expect to see some heartfelt comments from the Baby Driverstar, but alas, in typical tabloid fashion, this is just a disappointing bait and switch. Hamm doesn’t, in fact, tell anything. Every quote comes from a supposed “insider,” whose relationship to Hamm is never explained. Is it a close friend? A family member? A fellow actor? Who knows. Most likely, the source is not very close to Hamm, or even completely made up.
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