Category: From Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

You have entered the Zoom Zone –

July 26, 2020 – Moreover, how that social interaction happens seems to matter. For instance, functional MRI data reveal that live face-to-face interactions, compared to viewing recordings, are associated with greater activation in the same brain regions involved in reward (ie, ACC, ventral striatum, amygdala).12 So, more active social connection is associated with more perceived reward, which in turn affects the very neurological pathways modulating alertness versus fatigue.

This neuropathophysiology may explain other proposed reasons for Zoom fatigue. For example, if the audio delays inherent in Zoom technology are associated with more negative perceptions and distrust between people, there is likely decreased reward perceived when those people are videoconferencing with each other. Another example is direct mutual gaze. There is robust evidence on how eye contact improves connection—faster responses13, more memorization of faces14, and increased likeability and attractiveness.15 These tools of social bonding that make interactions organically rewarding are all compromised over video. On video, gaze must be directed at the camera to appear as if you are making eye contact with an observer, and during conferences with 3 or more people, it can be impossible to distinguish mutual gaze between any 2 people.

Not only are rewards lessened via these social disconnections during videoconferencing compared to in-person interactions, but there are also elevated costs in the form of cognitive effort. Much of communication is actually unconscious and nonverbal, as emotional content is rapidly processed through social cues like touch, joint attention, and body posture.16 These nonverbal cues are not only used to acquire information about others, but are also directly used to prepare an adaptive response and engage in reciprocal communication, all in a matter of milliseconds.17 However, on video, most of these cues are difficult to visualize, since the same environment is not shared (limiting joint attention) and both subtle facial expressions and full bodily gestures may not be captured. Without the help of these unconscious cues on which we have relied since infancy to socioemotionally assess each other and bond, compensatory cognitive and emotional effort is required. In addition, this increased cost competes for people’s attention with acutely elevated distractions such as multitasking, the home environment (eg, family, lack of privacy), and their mirror image on the screen. Simply put, videoconferences can be associated with low reward and high cost.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Speed is of the essence –

August 8, 2020 –  Over the first nine months of the fiscal year, methamphetamine seizures increased by 52 percent, which shows how widely available this deadly drug has become. We must implement a national, whole-of-government plan to address this threat before it becomes the next preventable drug overdose crisis in our country.”

“For years, meth has taken lives and destroyed families across America, particularly in the Midwest,” said Grassley. “Though this drug is not new, drug traffickers are finding new and harmful ways to increase meth’s potency and distribution, spiking overdose rates. By declaring meth an emerging drug threat, our bill helps law enforcement better respond to the challenges presented by drug traffickers’ evolving tactics, and urges our federal partners to continue to prioritize a response and strategy to address the meth crisis.”

What the bill does:…

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Is anywhere safe from Fentanyl? –

July 20, 2020 – Meanwhile, the South, as defined by the US Census standard, is faring better than the Midwest. Out of the 12 Midwestern states, all of them saw increases in overdose deaths except Michigan and Missouri, which each had rates of decrease below 10 percent.

The Midwest suffered the nation’s starkest rate increases. South Dakota experienced a 54.4 percent rate increase in overdose deaths, the most severe in the US, while North Dakota’s rate increase came in second place at 31 percent. Efforts there to stem harms that can result from drug use still largely consist of law enforcement interdiction, exclusionary, traditional rehab services, and tone-deaf ad campaigns, like the widely mocked “Meth. We’re On It” billboards.

In comparison, four out of 16 Southern states saw decreases in their overdose death rate from 2018 to 2019: Georgia, Maryland, Arkansas and Oklahoma. In the latter two, the rate decreases were in the double digits, with Arkansas seeing a significant 16.6 percent decrease. Only Vermont saw a greater drop in its overdose death rate, at 18.1 percent.

A 2019 story from Stateline, the state policy newswire from Pew Charitable Trusts, explains how policymakers and law enforcement in the Southern states have been slower to adapt to harm reduction than their counterparts in the Northeast, but are still making progress in recent years.

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