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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

A merrier Christmas for sure – 

Dec. 9, 2020 – Just this week, The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHRMC) released new guidelines around alcohol consumption. Under the recommendations, they suggested adults should drink no more than 10 standard drinks in a week and no more than four in one day.

Retrofitting these guidelines onto my previous drinking habits makes it pretty clear that my behaviour was unhealthy. I don’t think I ever had just 4 drinks in one day and definitely wasn’t sticking to the 10 a week suggestion either.

When everyone around you is doing the same thing and drinking the same amount as you, it’s difficult to take a step back and critically think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. 

Drinking was such a habitual thing for me and the cornerstone of most of my social life. If there was a brunch I was going to, it was probably boozy, if I was catching up with a friend, we were catching up over drinks. Alcohol gradually became something that facilitated most of my social interactions.

more@MamaMia

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Do not offer to buy her one drink… –  

Nov. 26, 2020 – How she deals with it is a whole different story – if she hadn’t had that much of a booze-filled night with Alex, she maybe could have pieced the night together. In fact, in the trailer, we hear her clearly say, “I’m a crazy drunk flight attendant, not a killer,” and while we can’t tell if the latter is true, the former sure is.

Dealing with her drinking habit seems to not be her priority though considering she’s still trying to figure out who killed Alex — it’s just ironic that a drunken night filled with drunk sex is what led her to this daunting reality in the first place. The first three episodes of ‘The Flight Attendant’ premiere on HBO Max Thursday, November 26, followed by the launch of two new episodes on December 3, two episodes on December 10, and the finale episode on December 17.

more@Meaww

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

One solo at a time –  

Dec. 11, 2020 – The Bronx native’s drive to help fellow addicts led to his diving into a four-day-a-week, five-month training program to become a substance abuse counselor in training and certified recovery coach. Byrd also recorded two albums composed of songs that “…deal with addiction, recovery, hope and change for the better,” he said. The first outing came via 2017’s Clean Getaway followed up by the recently released Sobering Times. A true family affair, this project, like its predecessor, features photographic contributions by college student daughter Frankie. Byrd also made both albums 12 songs long (“the same number as a certain recovery program”) and made sure both releases follow a distinct theme.

“Each one of these songs speaks to some aspect and angle of either addiction or recovery,” Byrd explained. “I try to have a solution at the end of each song and try to be positive. On this record compared, to the last one, I tried to widen the path of what the messages were. Part of it is business—I wanted to get some airplay too. I don’t mention drugs or alcohol at all. It’s about getting knocked down, getting back up and coming back stronger.”

A rock and roll die-hard dating back to the first time he saw the Rolling Stones and Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show as a 12-year-old who decided that’s what he wanted to do with his life, Byrd describes his material as “…a product of what I listened to between the ages of 13 to 20 style-wise.” obering Times finds Byrd reteaming with bass-playing co-producer Bob Stander and penning songs with a number of longstanding collaborators including Aerosmith songwriter Richie Supa and New York City singer-songwriter Willie Nile, both of whom Byrd has known for four decades. The guitar-driven delights include the glammy stomper “Together” (featuring Blackhearts drummer Thommy Price), the mando-guitar-soaked gratitude track “Hear My Song” and the Georgia Satellites-flavored shuffle “Tired.” One of the album’s many highlights is a rollicking cover of the Merle Haggard classic “The Bottle Let Me Down” featuring the kind of accompaniment that would put a smile on the face of late Chuck Berry pianist Johnnie Johnson. Equally resonant is the melancholy acoustic number “Pour Me,” a nod to a Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer standard.

more@LongIslandWeekly

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Death Marches On –  

December 6, 2020 – In a study published in JAMA Psychiatry this week, researchers monitoring an emergency medical systems database in 47 states found that medics were responding to more than double the number of overdose-related cardiac arrests in May, at the height of the pandemic lockdowns, than they had in 2018 and 2019.

“There have been controversies around the lockdowns — people arguing the treatment is worse than the disease, that it’s going to cause mental health and substance use issues, and that we shouldn’t have lockdowns,” said Leo Beletsky, a Northeastern University professor who runs the school’s Health in Justice Action Lab and was one of the study’s authors.  “That’s not what we’re saying. What we’re saying is that when you design COVID response measures, you have to keep in mind that additional measures are necessary to mitigate the negative consequences of these mandates to stay home,” he said.

“People need access to [overdose reversal drugs] and treatment. People need access to economic and social supports. And in all of those, the COVID response measures are really lacking.”  In Philadelphia, between January and March 2020, 273 people died from overdoses. Between April and June, there were 309 fatal overdoses — the highest number in a single quarter since the third quarter of 2017.

“It’s preliminary still, but Quarter 3 of 2020 is going to look even worse than that,” said Kendra Viner, the director of the Division of Substance Use Prevention and Harm Reduction at the city health department.

The drugs driving the city’s fatal overdoses are shifting as well. More people are dying with a combination of a stimulant like cocaine and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl in their systems. Prescription opioids — long targeted by law enforcement and the medical community — are much less of a factor than illicit drugs. Philadelphia’s heroin supply, once famous for its purity, now is virtually all tainted with fentanyl, officials say.

And finding victims with a combination of stimulants and opioids, which act as depressants, suggests fentanyl contamination is spreading, killing drug users who never built up a tolerance for opioids, making even a small dose of fentanyl deadly, health officials said.

more@PhillyInquirer

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – It works if you work it? – 

Dec. 8, 2020 – But many of the workers in these rehab programs are not receiving pay. By not paying recovering drug and alcohol abusers, these programs do not provide the most effective approach to healing patients. Moreover, such arrangements are wrong — and illegal.

Most rehab programs that require work act essentially as temp agencies, farming the rehab residents out to commercial enterprises. The work is often for third parties, such as tree trimming services, dairies, poultry processing plants or oil refineries. The wages are remitted not to the workers but to the rehab centers. In many cases, these workers are not receiving the benefits of a hard day’s work, working for no pay, no Social Security credits, no unemployment insurance payment, with all of the fruits of their labor accruing to the treatment centers.

Other rehab-affiliated programs, notably the Salvation Army, have their patients perform grossly underpaid work for their commercial enterprises — if they did not have this captive workforce, they would have to seek labor from the open market.

more@NBCNews

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

WATCH – Celebrities … they’re just like us –  

December 11, 2020 – Lizzo came forth reflecting on her journey of struggling with body image issues.

In a Tuesday TikTok video, the American singer revealed she has struggled with anxiety because of self-image in the past and still has phases that make her doubt her confidence. “Like, you know, ‘What’s wrong with me? Maybe everything, [and] all the mean things people say about me are true.’ And, you know, ‘Why am I so disgusting?’ And [I was] hating my body.””I think these are normal [thoughts and feelings] and they happen to everybody, they happen to the best of us.”

Lizzo explained she knew this is just a phase and tomorrow would definitely be better, but at that moment, the pain was immense. “I can only hope that it changes for the better,” she said. “I know I’m beautiful, I just don’t feel it. But, I know I’m gonna get through it.”  She continued, “We are the best of us, and I just have to know that tomorrow how I feel in here,” pointing to her head, “is gonna change. And I can only hope that it changes for the better. But I know I’m beautiful, I just don’t feel it. But I know I’m gonna get through it.” The next day, Lizzo reported that she “woke up feeling better — not 100 percent but I’m getting there,” she wrote. “Gave the parts of me I hated last night a rub & a hug. Issss a new day.”

Right before this, Lizzo was celebrating how far the body positive movement has come. She said she was “proud of the big girls who gave it wings. My body is changing but I’m gonna keep appreciating it from every angle.”  Lizzo has long been praised for her plus-size body positivity and self-confidence — and received support from followers for her candid post. Earlier this year, she adopted a vegan diet and shared that with her followers, but made it clear that she is “happy both ways” —whether she’s eating a plant-based diet or a meat diet — but “right now, this is what’s bringing me joy.”

more@Yahoo

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

This is your brain on resentment – 

December 12, 2020 –  To be clear, the retaliation doesn’t need to be physically violent—an unkind word, or tweet, can also be very gratifying. Scientists have found that in substance addiction, environmental cues such as being in a place where drugs are taken or meeting another person who takes drugs cause sharp surges of dopamine in crucial reward and habit regions of the brain, specifically, the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum. This triggers cravings in anticipation of experiencing pleasure and relief through intoxication. Although these are new findings and the research in this area is not yet settled, what this suggests is that similar to the way people become addicted to drugs or gambling, people may also become addicted to seeking retribution against their enemies—revenge addiction. This may help explain why some people just can’t let go of their grievances long after others feel they should have moved on—and why some people resort to violence.  Like substance addiction, revenge addiction appears to spread from person to person. For instance, inner-city gun violence spreads in neighborhoods like a social contagion, with one person’s grievances infecting others with a desire to seek vengeance. Because of his unique position and use of the media and social networks, Trump is able to spread his grievances to thousands or millions of others through Twitter, TV and rallies. His demand for retribution becomes their demand, causing his supporters to crave retaliation—and, in a vicious cycle, this in turn causes Trump’s targets and their supporters to feel aggrieved and want to retaliate, too.

 People suffering from addiction tend to experience relationship problems and conflicts, display periods of euphoria followed by depression and restlessness, and fail to meet their responsibilities or fulfill their professional obligations. They spend long periods of time obsessing over and planning ways to gratify their cravings, and engage in the addictive behavior despite the physical or psychological harm it causes. 

more@Politico

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Too little too late –  

December 9, 2020 – In one internal email sent in July 2018, a McKinsey executive appears to acknowledge the growing legal risk faced by Purdue Pharma over its opioid business.

“It probably makes sense to have a quick conversation with the risk committee to see if we should be doing anything other that [sic] eliminating all our documents and emails,” McKinsey senior partner Martin Elling wrote in an email sent to another executive at the company. “As things get tougher here someone might turn to us.”

The documents, released as part of a tsunami of civil lawsuits hitting Purdue Pharma, have sparked growing criticism of McKinsey, which also has large contracts with the federal government.  “McKinsey’s abhorrent conduct also demands that Congress consider broader action,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., in a letter to the company last week. “No firm that proposes paying kickbacks for overdose deaths should receive a single cent from U.S. taxpayers.”

Hawley also wrote that the 2018 email exchange about “eliminating” documents “raises the prospect that McKinsey may also have engaged in obstruction of justice.”

In a statement posted Sunday on its website, McKinsey said its work with Purdue Pharma was “designed to support the legal prescription and use of opioids for patients with legitimate medical needs.”

But the firm added that its decision-making “fell short” of the company’s ethical standards and failed to “take into account the broader context and implication” of its work to boost Purdue’s opioid sales.

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

A dream deferred is a dream denied – 

December 11, 2020 – The shutdown of society worsened my disordered thoughts around food and body image and the aggressive advertising I’ve received for “home workouts” and “tips on staying thin in lockdown” have not helped. I’m not happy where I’m living and I’m desperately trying to find another place to live that won’t compromise me financially.

I’m 21 now and in my fourth year of studying Law and Global Studies. I want to make material changes in women’s lives while also advocating for a radical restructuring of our world and society’s perception of gender. Fortunately, I’ve witnessed, even in my short lifetime, a shift in how we discuss gender and sexuality. The relentless work of the women before me is paying off. And now it’s my turn. I’m still unsure of how I’ll make my mark. Maybe I’ll be a lawyer working for survivors of gender-based violence, a grassroots organizer or an author. Idealistically, I believe I can be all three. One day I hope I can be the woman that bold young girls can look up to and feel a sense of belonging; the kind of woman that gave me comfort and inspiration when I was a young girl, isolated in my Melbourne home with my Turkish parents who did not know how to raise a girl who was opinionated and bold.

I’ve done my rounds interning at (disturbingly underfunded) women’s rights organizations. In fact, I’ve just completed my sixth unpaid internship and I’m wondering if I’ll ever be economically independent enough to be inspiring to anyone. Cumulatively, I’ve done over a year’s worth of work for free. I’ve been told that this is what I must do if I hope to ever get a paid job. But if that logic checks out then the gap between the classes is sure to exacerbate, with only wealthier students being able to obtain well-paying jobs. After all, to do an unpaid internship you need to have the financial security to engage in it without becoming economically compromised. I guess this is why we’re all so anti-capitalist now.  Overall, this has been a very disheartening start to both my 20s and the 2020s. I hope the next few months bring some hope.

Relying on endlessly fluctuating government payments is paralysing as it’s impossible to predict when they’ll be reduced or cut and when my gigs will return. Constantly asking for parental assistance feels infantilising and undignified, particularly when your parents have also lost their jobs. Although, most young people are much worse off than me; I recently found out that my friend didn’t turn his heater on all winter because he couldn’t afford it.

more@TheGuardian

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Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Medically Assisted Telephone – 

December 10,  2020 – New Yorkers who are using drugs alone, and who would like someone to stay on the phone with them and call emergency services if they become unresponsive, can now call the state’s new Never Use Alone hotline at 1-800-997-2280. The line operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The New York hotline is a collaboration between Truth Pharm, a Binghamton-based harm reduction nonprofit, and the national Never Use Alone hotline. The operators are all volunteers, although anyone who’s also a Certified Recovery Peer Advocates can have their hours volunteered for the hotline count toward their required CRPA service hours. So far, 25 volunteers across New York State have been trained to take calls and another 20 have signed up.  Operators can chat with the callers as much or as little as the caller is up for, but their primary function is to check in every two to three minutes to make sure they’re still responsive and contact the caller’s local emergency services number if they are not. The New York line had not received any calls by publication time, but—as with hotlines launched in other states—it will likely take several weeks for word of the new service to spread.  Pleus added that whether or not operators establish a rapport with callers, the grounding in harm reduction means there will be no judgment and no pushing for callers to enter treatment. “It’s just, ‘I’m here to hang out with you til you’re done doing your business and make sure you’re still alive and sitting upright when you’re done.’ We were taught as operators to stay on the line as lone as the person wants us there. When the person feels safe, we can end the call.”

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