Category: source

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

The American way of death – 

Now, 2020 – Overdose deaths have spiked in San Diego County this year, as an already worsening drug epidemic collides with the coronavirus pandemic. Over the summer, that amounted to an average of three deaths a day.

Part of the increase is attributed to the illicit drug supply getting deadlier as traffickers increasingly rely on fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid. It is either laced into traditional street drugs or sold as counterfeit prescription pills similar to the ones that ended Alexander’s life. But experts say the bleakness of 2020 has played no small part. “I don’t know of anyone who is not impacted by what’s going on,” said Scott Silverman, a crisis coach and founder and CEO of Confidential Recovery, “and someone who suffers from the dependence of self-medication has really found themselves in a precarious position.”  Rising threat! The scourge of fentanyl has been a growing focus of public safety and health campaigns for a few years now. Fentanyl, a prescription pain reliever mostly used for surgery or to treat cancer pain, is up to 100 times more potent than morphine and up to 50 times stronger than heroin. Even small amounts can be deadly. Mexican drug cartels widely introduced fentanyl into the illicit street market about five years ago, won over by how cheap and easy the opioid is to manufacture compared to cultivating poppies for heroin. The cartels also seized upon another trend — Americans’ growing appetite for prescription pills. Little blue pills that began showing up on the streets and sold as oxycodone — with the signature “M” and “30” stamps — were actually filled with fentanyl. Fentanyl has also been regularly found in methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and counterfeit Xanax, making the illicit drug supply deadlier overall. Users are oftentimes unable to identify what they are consuming, much less its strength. Batches not mixed thoroughly can contain fatal hotspots of fentanyl. “One pill can kill,” said San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan, “and it has killed many.”

The demographics of the fentanyl crisis in particular are wide-ranging, from a teen at a pill party to a parent self-treating anxiety to a long-time drug user.

more@ENewspaper

The post Drug deaths were on rise locally; then the virus hit appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Never stop trying … it pays off with life – 

Nov. 29, 2020 – Henry continued to use and would go on to fail more than 50 drug tests administered through Indiana Department of Child Services, who still allowed him to participate in supervised visits with his kids. Henry was placed in treatment and was 40 days clean when he was able to have a second visit with his kids. It was during that visit that his then 7-year-old son said something that brought him “out of the fog” of substance abuse.

“He said, ‘Dad, I’m done being bad. Can I come back home?’” 

“This little kid, this little person blamed himself for being in foster care. He blamed himself for everything that I’ve done,” the father said. “For the first time in my life, I cried for someone other than myself. And that was the day that my path to recovery started.”

Henry would go on to attend Narcotics Anonymous and other therapeutic meetings, and lived at the Home with Hope, a facility in Lafayette that provides care often following primary treatment or detox for alcoholism and other drug addictions, for men and women age 18 and older. It was there where he met his wife Lori Henry, who Dock’s kids now call their mom.  

more@JCOnline

The post ‘Recovery is possible’: beating drug addiction to spread hope appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

A time of reason… –  

Nov. 27, 2020 – Pickard then writes about neuroscientist Marc Lewis’ learning model, which considers both the disease and choice model problematic. While the choice model demonizes the addict, the disease model disempowers them and minimizes their agency. Lewis maintains that the brain changes seen in addicts are a result of neuroplasticity, rather than the underlying cause of addiction and that the empowerment and agency of the patient are essential to recovery.

Pickard mostly agrees with Lewis but insists that the choice model cannot be easily rejected. First, there is a growing evidence base suggesting that drug use is not simply compulsive, and addicts have a degree of control and choice. Studies show that most people age out of addiction without treatment because they get preoccupied with life changes. Others quit cold turkey despite years of dependence. Both people and animal studies have shown that people with dependence will often choose rewards other than drugs (like money, small gifts) when provided alternatives; rats addicted to cocaine even chose snuggling over cocaine.

Second, if, as Lewis maintains, we are to use empowerment, agency, and self-awareness to help people, then this means that a person has some level of agency, some control over their behavior, and some power over their addiction.

Pickard writes that we can accept drug use to be a choice, but unlike the moral model, we must not consider it to be a shameful or a selfish one. Thus, we as a society also have a choice in seeing the addict not as someone who is lazy or bad, but as someone who is suffering and in pain.

Pickard’s responsibility without blame framework is about exploring and challenging our own attitudes about addiction. The model emerges from her work as a clinician in a Therapeutic Community. These communities are less hierarchical than hospitals. They require a deep and even a personal connection between experts and patients, and within the patient group. She writes:

more@MadInAmerica

The post New Addiction Framework to Empower Patients and Reduce Stigma appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

MEDIA: DOPESICK by Beth Macy hits the small screen – 

November 27, 2020 – Academy Award-nominated actor Michael Keaton will executive produce and star alongside Peter Sarsgaard, Rosario Dawson and Kaitlyn Dever.

“We are honored to host the impressive team behind this compelling and consequential project, and to play a role in putting a universal spotlight on the opioid epidemic that continues to devastate American families and communities from all walks of life,” Northam said in a news release.

Production will be required to adhere to comprehensive industry health and safety protocols developed over the past six months during the coronavirus pandemic. Those safety measures are in addition to the current Virginia pandemic workplace safety guidelines and those required by Touchstone Television.

“Dopesick” will be eligible to receive a Virginia film tax credit or grant. The exact amount will be based on the number of Virginia workers hired, Virginia goods and services purchased, and deliverables, including Virginia tourism promotions.

more@OANow

The post Hulu series on opioid addiction will star Michael Keaton appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Hindsight IS Indeed 2020 – 

by Dr. Don Grant, MA, MFA, DAC, SUDCC IV, PhD

November 27, 2020 – In the early 2000’s, I began to notice sobriety support “chat rooms” online, and online recovery opportunities increasing.  My observations of this phenomenon caused me to direct my doctoral work towards a non-prejudicial investigation of their use and efficacy value, ultimately resulting in choice of my dissertation topic and subsequently published research study exploring any potential differences between face-to-face (F2F) and online sobriety support.

It still stands as the only legitimate investigation comparing these two types of recovery communities and is entitled “Using social media for sobriety recovery: Beliefs, behaviors, and surprises from users of face-to-face and social media sobriety support.” 

My study investigated key questions related to F2F versus technologically mediated sobriety support. My original 2009 study hypothesis, and four subsequent research questions, have now become even more relevant in 2020.

more@AddictionRecoveryeBulletin

The post 12 Step Meetings: What is was like, what happened and what it’s like now! appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Here comes the knight –  

Nov. 27, 2020 – Tevis, originally from San Francisco, learned to play chess as a young boy but fell ill at the age of eight. He was put in a nursing home and abandoned by his parents, who moved across the country to Kentucky, reports The Ringer.

In The Queen’s Gambit, we watch as eight-year-old Beth is put in an orphanage and becomes addicted to the tranquilisers she and the other girls are forced to take.

Similarly, Tevis was drugged with sedatives when he was left in the nursing home as a child. He was given barbiturates three times a day, starting him on a path to dependency.

“I loved it,” he told the San Francisco Examiner years later. “That may be one reason I became a drunk.” Tevis was later taken back in by his strict mother and alcoholic father and struggled to fit in at school in Lexington; just like Beth, an outsider among her peers.

As an adult, he got married and had two children. He became prolific short story writer, as well as a drinker and a gambler.

“He gambled my milk money away, and the way he got it back was by selling short stories to various magazines,” his son William later said.

more@Her

The post The childhood drug addiction that inspired The Queen’s Gambit appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

And to stay alive – 

Nov. 23, 2020 – Everyone knows that tobacco causes cancer, and severe dental problems can happen due to the use of methamphetamine. It is common to hear about deaths occurring due to drug overuse, especially for those who take opioids for pain relief.  Some drugs like inhalants can destroy or damage nerve cells in the peripheral nervous system or the brain.

The threat of infections is also high for those addicted to drugs as sharing of injection equipment increases the chances of contracting HIV or hepatitis C, both of which are deadly diseases. Injecting drugs increases the chances of heart infection that affects the valves and can cause cellulitis, a skin infection. Often, mental illness aggravates due to the use of drugs. … Starting an addiction treatment at any of the luxury rehab centers will help reduce the cravings for the drug that put a check the drug intake and then coupled with psycho-therapy paves the way for giving up drugs altogether. It signals a new beginning as a continued treatment for the long term will help complete recovery from addiction, and people can start leading a regular life once again.

Going to a rehab center is the best way to start treatment for drug addiction, and here are some more reasons for choosing the treatment.

more@LiistStudio

The post 5 Reasons to Start Addiction Treatment appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

High or Low Bottom Line – 

November 28, 2020 – “They intoxicate themselves with work so they won’t see how they really are.” —Aldous Huxley.  The end result of these differing work styles may look the same from the outside—an unbalanced life dominated by long hours at the office—but each face expresses a different set of emotional vulnerabilities. The broad umbrella of work addiction is only a starting point. If you’re a relentless or dyed-in-the-wool work addict, you’re distinguished by high work initiation and high work completion. 

You work compulsively and constantly day and night, holidays and weekends, regardless of the deadline. You’re a hard-driving perfectionist, your work is thorough, and your standards practically unreachable.  When you approach a project with a six-month deadline as if it were tomorrow, you get an adrenaline charge. Getting the project finished early leaves extra time to focus on other job tasks. Your focus is constant initiation of tasks and completing them at all costs. If you’re a bulimic workaholic, you have out-of-control work habits that alternate between binges and purges and are distinguished by low work initiation and high work completion. If you’re an attention-deficit work addict (ADW), you’re distinguished by high work initiation but low work completion. You’re adrenaline seeking, easily bored and distracted, constantly after stimulation. Your appetite for excitement, crisis, and intense stimulation is a strategy you unwittingly use to focus on a task. You like risky jobs, recreation and living on the edge because it gives you an adrenaline charge that helps you focus at work or play. Creating tight deadlines, keeping many balls in the air and taking risks at work make it difficult for you to slow down and relax.  If you’re a savoring work addict, you’re the opposite of the ADW—slow, deliberate and methodical. You’re distinguished by low work initiation and low work completion.

You’re a consummate perfectionist, terrified deep down that the finished project is never good enough. You have difficulty telling when something is incomplete or finished. You savor your work as an alcoholic would savor a shot of bourbon. You inadvertently prolong and create additional work when you’re almost finished with a task. You’re notorious for creating to-do lists that take longer to generate than completing the task. 

more@Forbes

The post Is Work Addiction Hurting Your Career? appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.