Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – She’s been there, done that –

Aug. 14, 2020 – The Seattle journalist said she missed almost a decade of life when her problem with alcohol grew out of control in 2007. At the height of her addiction, Barnett drank more than two bottles of wine or a bottle of vodka a day. She was fired from a job, lost a relationship, lost friends and had a hard time supporting herself because she was spending so much money on alcohol, she writes in her new book, “Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery.”

Now Barnett, who has been sober for five-and-a-half years, is watching with concern as many people turn to alcohol as a way to cope with the stress and anxiety of life during the pandemic.

Alcohol sales spiked this spring during the national lockdown. In one survey, 1 in 3 Americans said they were more likely to drink alcohol during working hours while stuck at home. People joked about relying on “quarantinis” to get through the day. “I hate the joke-y marketing, the ‘Everything is great, it’s 4 o’clock somewhere.’ It drives me crazy,” Barnett said.

“With people drinking so much right now, you’re going to see more people seeking treatment and more people falling into addiction.”

She shared what it was like to try to end her dependency and what it took to finally recover:

more@Today

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Alcohol: The deadliest drug of all –  

August 7, 2020 – Cady Groves was born in Kansas and was living in Nashville when she died. She began her career in 2009 and toured with acts like Good Charlotte, Third Eye Blind and LMFAO before transitioning to country music in recent years, according to Vel Records. 

The singer was the third of the family’s siblings to die at a young age. Kelly Groves died at 28 in 2013 after struggles with prescription drug addiction following a serious car accident, about seven years after older brother Casey Groves also died at 28 from prescription drug abuse, Cody Groves told The Oklahoman in 2014.

In his initial tweet announcing his sister’s death, Cody Groves wrote, “Rest In Peace little sis. Hope you’re reunited with @kellydgroves and Casey.”

more@Today

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Not an exclusive club –

August 8, 2020 – Day said: “I grew up in a poor family, we went through some tough times, but so does the majority of the world. “My eldest sister basically raised us because mum and dad were gone at 4.30am and back at 7 at night.”

Heartbreak was to strike when Alvyn died of stomach cancer when Jason was 12. Jason started drinking and fighting.

It looked like he would go off the rails until Dening sent him to boarding school, triggering a chain of events that would lead to him becoming world No 1.

Jason met Colin Swatton at Kooralbyn International School – who until just last month was his full-time coach and mentor. The pair turned Day into a world-beater on the course with 17 professional wins, but more personal tragedy was to strike in 2017.

Day married Ellie in 2009 and soon after welcomed son Dash and daughter Lucy.

more@TheSun

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Doesn’t look like a murderer –

July 7, 2020 – The Drug Enforcement Administration determined in its investigation that Kay had met with Skaggs and had text exchanges with him regarding drugs the night before the pitcher was found dead in his suburban Dallas hotel room.

Kay was placed on leave by the Angels shortly after the incident and has not actively worked for the team in more than a year.

Attorney Michael Molfetta, who had been representing Kay, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

The criminal complaint details the DEA’s findings as it relates to Kay and a victim the document identifies as “T.S.,” who was found dead in a Southlake, Texas, hotel room on July 1, 2019.

According to the DEA, Kay had been supplying fentanyl since 2017.

more@OCRegister

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Crazy Times! Drugs Can Kill! –

August 2, 2020 – And that has left people who have another potentially deadly disease — addiction — with fewer opportunities for treatment, while threatening to reverse their recovery gains.

“It’s hard to underestimate the effects of the pandemic on the community with opioid use disorder,” said Dr. Caleb Alexander, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “The pandemic has profoundly disrupted the drug markets. Normally that would drive more people to treatment. Yet treatment is harder to come by.” Drug rehabs aren’t as much of a COVID “tinderbox” as nursing homes, Alexander said, but both are communal settings where social distancing can be difficult.

Shared spaces, double-occupancy bedrooms and group therapy are common in rehabs. People struggling with addiction are generally younger than nursing home residents, but both populations are vulnerable because they’re more likely to suffer from other health conditions, such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease, that leave them at risk of succumbing to COVID-19.

more@GoodMenProject

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Pinning the Demons… –

August 5, 2020 – Celebrating 7 years of sobriety today. To all of you who supported me and stood by me, through good and bad, I want to thank you for not giving up on me. Salute! (With a glass of milk in my You Suck cup). 

more@Mandatory

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Slitherin’ out on top –  

AUGUST 5, 2020 – he actor admitted that he first got drunk at the age of 12.

The bartender, whom we then considered a hero, and now I understand that he belongs in prison, secretly brought us a full bottle of liquor. We drank it in the toilet and then staggered to the party. I vomited, I fell and tore off a giant curtain, climbed to kiss the girl, God bless her … I ran out into the street, vomited again, then I stumbled, smashed my head on the sidewalk and covered all my clothes with blood. The next morning I woke up with a splitting head, a stench from vomit, a huge scab on my head, and the memory of how I was completely disgraced yesterday. And I thought: I’d rather repeat it all. Why is that? I have no idea. Genes? Education? Zodiac sign? – Isaacs shared.

Jason also talked about what happened before he stopped using drugs:

I remember not long before I quit, it suddenly occurred to me that if everyone I knew died, literally everyone, I probably wouldn’t mind. I would even be glad because then it would be an excuse to sit in a room alone and take drugs, and everyone else would say: “You heard what happened, right?”

more@FreeNews

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – Zoom and six feet away… –

August 6, 2020 – He says he was at his wits end: in-and-out of jail and loved ones giving up on him.

“I got 56 misdemeanors, 7 DUI’s, 6 felonies, and 16 driver’s suspensions. That’s all I used to know, that jail was an institution,” Anastasia stated.

Then he hit rock bottom.

“My mom died in 2011. She overdosed on Xanax and oxycodone, so I was just tired of my life. I just wanted to die,” he said.

Until a friend got him some help. He spent months at several treatment centers like Maryhaven, House of Hope, and a sober house.

“I took about 14 months just to work on myself,” Anastasia stated.

He started attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings regularly and now helps recruit more members.

“The biggest part of my sobriety is staying busy and helping others.”

Making ever-lasting friendships during these meetings. But with COVID-19, meetings are now small or moved online, like Facebook.

more@ABC6

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – Human interest story –  

August 5, 2020 – “According to numbers I received from the 911 center, we’ve had 277 911 calls involving overdoses. Last year, for the whole year of 2019, I think we had 360. So we are on course to expand on last year’s number,” said Wood County Sheriff Steve Stephens.

Walters says people with addiction need community and fellowship. He says it’s a crucial part of their recovery and the pandemic has largely taken them away.

“Different buildings have different rules and regulations. And people just aren’t willing to have people in those buildings and that’s unfortunate because fellowship is a big, big deal when it comes to addiction recovery,” said Walters.

On top of that, Walters says fear and hopelessness created around the virus has pushed people recovering from addiction to make bad decisions. He and the sheriff suspect the stimulus checks sent to millions of Americans this spring allowed many of them to make those bad decisions. “During the month of May we had 83 in Wood County, which was up from 35 in April and if you will recall that’s when the stimulus checks were starting to get mailed out. So, I’m sure there is a correlation there between that and the stimulus checks.

Walters has teamed up with J. Morgan Leach to try to help people with addiction find some community again by putting on the Fifth Annual Parkersburg Memorial Walk. In years past, the event has drawn hundreds of people. Leach says it is legal for them to host such an event despite Governor Jim Justice’s executive order limiting the size of certain gatherings.

“Now the governor’s office did amend that stay at home order to allow for more broader gatherings that are not purely social in nature.” said Leach. “ does have that higher purpose. There are more things going on than just a social aspect. We’re literally trying to reach out to people who are overdosing or committing suicide at a higher rate than they would have been because of the isolationist nature of this pandemic.” said Leach.

Organizers hope the event will be something positive in a world they say is full of negativity.

more@WTAP

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Doesn’t sound very Christian –

August 7, 2020 – “So, to me, I see that there’s clear need in Millville for this type of in-and-out patient addiction recovery service,” Worthington said. “There are people here now who are suffering from addiction. It’s not people from somewhere else. It’s people in Millville.

“The site has been hosting recovering addicts for more than 20 years now through Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous,” Worthington added. “So, `those people,’ as they were called, are already on that property.” As board members and witnesses noted, the variance was needed because city ordinance only allows up to 15 people in a residential treatment center. No city approval would have been needed had Hendricks House stayed within the ordinance limit.

Testimony from the nonprofit’s representatives, based on their similar operations in Vineland and Galloway Township, say a patient on average stays with them four to five months. Patients get counseling but also hold jobs, incrementally getting ready physically, mentally, and financially to go home.

more@DailyJournal

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