Thirteen is generally said to be an unlucky number, but troubled comedian Andy Dick is hoping to change that, as RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that he is now in rehab for the thirteenth time! Dick, 49, entered SOBA Recovery Center in Malibu three months ago, an insider told Radar. “Andy is doing really good right now. He is a clown, but he is also a total sweetheart and is trying really, really hard at sobriety,”the insider revealed. On Monday, he wrote, “Nothing beats a sober Monday,”tagged with @sobarecovery.
Does alcohol in movies make teens more likely to drink?
Seeing actors drink alcohol in movies seems to increase the likelihood that teens will drink and have alcohol-related problems, a new study suggests. The findings fit with a growing consensus of evidence that teens are more likely to engage in various risky behaviors that occur in the films and TV shows they watch, said study author Andrea Waylen, a senior lecturer in social sciences at the University of Bristol in England.
Reformed gambler explains why flutter can lead to an addiction worse than alcoholism
Saturday’s Grand National saw people placing bets that won’t bet again this year. For others, that first win can spark an addiction more hidden than alcoholism, one reformed gambler says Jonathan de Burca Butler. For them, the English Grand National is the only occasion they set foot inside a bookies shop. Horse selection is often made on a whim; its name evokes a memory or the jockey is wearing your favourite colour. Traditionally, punters stick a pin in the list of runners and riders and hope for the best. There are winners and losers and, for the majority of us, that will be that until next year.
Hazelden Betty Ford Intensifies Its Advocacy Presence
“We have been somewhat silent on mainstream topics even if they were related to the space we’re in,” says Hazelden Betty Ford’s Nick Motu. “We’ve shied away from controversy. We now have an obligation as the largest nonprofit to take a stand on controversial issues such as marijuana legalization.”… Motu adds that while Hazelden Betty Ford will continue to participate in advocacy activity spearheaded by other organizations around the country, its leaders did not feel it would suffice simply to attach its advocacy efforts to an existing national organization or other mechanism in the field.
“I must admit that even as I type, I’m not entirely sure if I will, in fact, send this,” her email begins. “I’m just a wee bit intimidated, and I’m truly afraid after I ask you my question that I will find myself on the receiving end of, well, basically a response fitting to that of a complete and utter f–king moron.”
For 40 years, smoking cigarettes has been as fundamental to Will Self’s way of life as eating and sleeping (often much more so). Lately, though, he’s a changed man, thanks to a new addiction: vaping. According to our orally fixated correspondent, the pleasures of the plastic fag are many. So start sucking now, smokers, before someone tries to ban them.
CONTINUED @ Esquire.co.uk
Benchmark Transitions
AcademicAddiction.com
Rocky Road Indeed
Ben and Jerry’s takes heat for ice cream beer
“It’s a crass, corporate greedy move to put put a brand name like Ben and Jerry’s on a beer,” says Bruce Lee Livingston, executive director and CEO of Alcohol Justice, an alcohol industry watchdog consumer group. “It’s bad for children – who will start looking at beer as the next step after ice cream.”
“‘Alcoholism’ made its debut in the lexicon around 1900, associated almost exclusively with ‘crime’ and ‘dreams’ – coincidentally around the time that Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams was published,” Recovery.org notes. “However, the association with crime was soon eclipsed by concern over ‘chronic’ alcoholism and ‘death’/’deaths’ related to alcoholism, which ballooned in the 1920s during the height of the prohibition movement.”
The purpose of the following open letter written by Olivia Kirks, is to provide insight about the disease of addiction. In it, she shares her own experience with opiate addiction. Having battled drug abuse since 2006, Olivia proudly attests to being clean and sober since July 17, 2014. To those who suffer with us and because of us: First of all, you need to know that my addiction is not your fault. It’s nothing you did or did not do. Mom, it’s not because you worked so much or didn’t have dinner with me every night…
CONTINUED @ Surfky.com
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In Memorial RAP VIDEO
Rapper’s Video About Drug Plague, made ‘for Joey VIDEO
The Tottenville resident, a former drug abuser himself, has written several songs highlighting Staten Island’s prescription pill epidemic. I just wanted to write something for his family so Joey would never be forgotten,” Stroh said. He says he has known too many friends who died from drug overdoses, and he hopes his music can inspire some addicts to seek help. The deeply personal track chronicles the damaging effects drug abuse has had on Porcello’s family as well as on Stroh.
…That’s why there’s so much excitement in the recovery world lately about oxytocin. In human studies, a synthetic, inhalable version of the hormone seems to quell alcohol cravings. And it does this not by making people dependent on yet another drug (Ativan and Valium are the classic detox helpers) but by actually killing the urge … Last month, researchers reported that drunk rats given oxytocin immediately started acting sober, an odd discovery that hints at still more avenues for manipulating the brain chemistry of alcoholics.
98 hospitalized in 1 month span due to ‘Spice’ overdose VIDEO
Ninety-eight people have been hospitalized in the span of a month due to drug overdoses suspected of being caused by Spice, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. Spice is the street name of synthetic cannabinoids. It is also known as K2, Spice Gold, Sence, Genie, Zohai, Yucatan Fire, Smoke, Sexy Monkey, Black Mamba and Skunk. The substance consist of dried plant material sprayed with synthetic cannabinoids. It mimics the effects of marijuana because its chemicals stimulate the same areas of the brain.
Authorities said both King and Ebat exhibited physical signs of recent methamphetamine use. While searching the vehicle the deputies found a glass meth pipe and two plastic containers with meth residue inside the glove box. In the trunk of the car, the deputy found a variety of items used to manufacture methamphetamine, including lighter fluid and bottles of sulfuric acid based drain cleaner.
CONTINUED @ AZFamily.com
But One Has Stockholders
Editorial: Trading one addiction for another doesn’t solve problem
…while programs that use Methadone and Suboxone have been successful in helping those addicted to drugs maintain their employment and lead reasonably normal lives, those programs do not help people kick their drug habits. Instead, the drug addicts are given a different drug that avoids some of the woeful effects of heroin, OxyContin and other opiates. However, this also can increase the risk for drug overdose, as users may attempt to overpower the Naltrexone by taking more opiates.
CONTINUED @ DailyIndependent.com
Trauma In The Spotlight
Trauma Boomerang: Too Much vs. Too Little by Dr. Tian Dayton MA, PhD
Dysregulation is a hallmark of trauma. If we are regularly exposed to frightening situations and we aren’t able to process, understand or gain comfort for our fears, our bodies can become sensitized and wired for overreactions. We go from zero to ten and… Traumatized people can have trouble living in four, five, and six; that middle ground where thinking feeling and behavior operate as a fairly integrated whole. In Twelve Step rooms the phenomenon of dysregulation is intuitively referred to as “black and white thinking.”
CONTINUED @ CounselorMagazine.com
MEDIA: Book Review – Da Capo, $26.99
‘Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll: The Science of Hedonism, the Hedonism of Science’ Da Capo, 352 pp., $26.99
Did you know goats, hyenas and gibbons all engage in oral sex? Or that Vesalius (the “father of modern anatomy”) was unable to locate the clitoris? Or that the human penis is rare among mammals in that it doesn’t include skeletal support and consequently it is more closely linked to the brain? And this is just the start (cue the punch lines here).
CONTINUED @ SeattleTimes.com
Hollywood Relapse VIDEO ONLY
Kim Richards Arrest: Her Struggle With Sobriety VIDEO
CONTINUED @ AccessHollywood.com
Another Good List
15 Shocking Alcohol Statistics for Alcohol Awareness Month
Often times, people get caught up in the glitz and glamour of alcohol. Cocktails for every occasion, drinks that smell good and look pretty, and the fact that alcohol is a drug is promptly forgotten. That’s why once a year it’s good to remind people about the dangers and health implications associated with alcohol. April is alcohol awareness month.
The 2nd Annual Comedy Benefit, “Laugh for Recovery” which is YPR-NJ’s major fundraiser is slated for 6:30PM May 16, at the Old Bridge Knights of Columbus (61 Pine Street, Old Bridge, NJ). Last year’s event was a great success, and this year’s Comedy Benefit will be even better.
I am going to be 61 years old in 48 hours. Wow. I thought I was only 47, but looking over the paperwork, I see that I was born in 1954. My inside self does not have an age, although can’t help mentioning as an aside that it might have been useful had I not followed the Skin Care rules of the 60s, i.e., to get as much sun as possible while slathered in baby oil. (My sober friend Paul O said, at 80, that he felt like a young man who had something wrong with him.)
Why Supposedly Abuse-Proof Pills Won’t Stop Opioid Overdose Deaths VIDEO
Oral pain pills containing opioid have become a big business, drawing in companies including Purdue Pharma, Pfizer PFE -0.43%, and Zogenix ZGNX -1.25%. But they’ve also become a huge public health problem, leading to record numbers of drug overdose deaths. In 2013, more than 16,000 people died of opiate analgesic drug overdoses, up from 4,000 a decade ago. So when Purdue, the maker of the category-defining Oxycodone, asked to come by to show me the abuse-resistant technology in its new Hysingla pill, I was game:
Pouring our lives away? The rise of the female wineaholic
Tick tock, tick tock, that’s the sound of wine o’clock. For many women like me, in their 30s, our poison of choice is wine – so civilised and lovely, such a necessary complement to a delicious meal, the sophisticate’s drink of choice. Wine is all that, and of course it’s an instantaneous de-stressor. Bad day at the office? A glass of wine is always the solution. Friday night wind-down on the couch with Netflix? Time to crack open a bottle of cabernet sauvignon.
“I thought of it as a clean slate. Nobody knows my history. I could be a new person,” says the now 21-year-old junior at Brown University. “I didn’t want people to see me as the girl with anorexia.” Ms. Lanzillo started struggling with the eating disorder and anxiety in high school. She had been doing so well the summer before college that she stopped therapy when she arrived for college in Providence, R.I. But a few months into her first semester, she relapsed.
A potent new designer drug called “flakka” is making headlines across the United States, driving many users into fits of screaming, naked rage accompanied by vivid hallucinations. Flakka is a chemical-cousin of the “bath salts” drugs. Both are synthetic versions of naturally occurring amphetamine-like drugs called cathinones.
“Jon Stewart disrupted traditional political news … It’s time for a revolution in health and human behavior.”
This first episode’s panel discussion, called Weed Nation: Moving Beyond Legalization, has already helped introduce a new bill to legislation! I would love your support and feedback in the YouTube comment section. Featured Guest: ERIC ROBERTS Eric Roberts is a highly esteemed actor, and a two-time Golden Globe and Academy Award nominee.
Kenny, a high school senior in Weston, Fla., likes to puff e-cigarettes during study sessions with friends after school. James, a senior in Fauquier, Va., uses them outside at lunch with friends who do smoke tricks. Joe, a senior in Jackson, Miss., uses them in the morning before class as a coffee-flavored way to pass the time. E-cigarettes have arrived in the life of the American teenager.
There’s no handbook on how to survive a loved one’s addiction.You start to see the person who raised you through a different lens. Their disease changes you. Every day, I would come up with new ways to distract her so we could pour her alcohol out. I went as far as throwing myself down the stairs to get her attention. I spent every day confused, depressed, mad and burdened.
Opioids During Pregnancy = Risk of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome
Almost 259 million prescriptions were handed out in 2012 for opioid pain relievers in U.S. alone. As per a new study, hydrocone and comparative opioid pain relievers tend to be commonly prescribed for pregnant women. So, there is a higher risk of the babies suffering from neonatal abstinence syndrome. Scientists analyzed the records of a little over 112,000 pregnant women apart from examining data obtained from Tennessee’s Medicaid program for 3 years.
CONTINUED @ GeekInfinite.com
InTheRooms.com
Come to Denver This Spring
Haight-Ashbury Grows
Pot Startup Donates $2 Million to Legalize Marijuana in CA
One of California’s largest marijuana-related apps is donating $2 million toward the drive to legalize weed in the state – a move that not only would vastly expand its customer base but also foreshadows an expected increase in political activity from the cannabis industry.
Parents Overdose On Heroin While Giving Toddler a Bath
Police say the parents of a 3-year-old boy have been charged with endangering his welfare after they overdosed on heroin while giving him a bath in New Hampshire. Eric Carter and Stephanie McCassin, both of Manchester, were arrested on warrants Thursday, four months after the child’s grandmother and primary caretaker reported finding the child in the tub, with the parents passed out. The child was not hurt.
Kentucky Reforms Drug Court Rules To Let Heroin Addicts Take Prescribed Meds
Kentucky will no longer require opioid addicts to stop taking prescribed treatment medications as a condition of participating in the state’s drug court program, according to a motion filed in federal court. The state court system had previously mandated that addicts taper off such medications within six months in order to remain in drug court — a policy that contradicted established medical research and best practices.
How alcohol is changing your parenting and harming your children
Parents are always so proud of their children. There’s just something about our kids that makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside. Anytime you talk with a parent about his children, he’ll tell you how bright and smart his children are. He’ll talk about how his kids pick up on so much that they can hardly keep up with all the things they learn from one day to the next. By: Aaron Anderson is a therapist and Director of The Marriage and Family Clinic in Denver, CO. He is a writer, speaker and relationship expert.
CONTINUED @ KTAR.com
Celebrity on the Edge
Cara Delevingne Drinking For Breakfast: Alcoholism Spiraling Out Of Control – Needs Rehab Before Career Crashes!
Supermodel Cara Delevingne has always been a party girl and had a bit of a wild side, but the alleged alcoholic’s drinking problem is getting out of control! Cara recently decided to branch out and pursue a career in acting, which we’re sure had everything to do with the fact that she wasn’t being invited to as many fashion shows as she used to because she was partying too hard and considered unreliable. But, according to a new report from Star Magazine, Cara’s acting career might be short lived if she doesn’t sober up!
American experts studied a small sample of 30 products and found a “significant” number contained aldehydes – compounds which are thought to damage the lungs. ‘Vapers’ have almost 8,000 flavour to choose from including menthol, cherry, coffee and bubble gum, the study found. If vapers inhale 5 millilitres of e-liquid a day, researchers claimed they would be exposed to twice the recommended occupational exposure limits of benzaldehyde and vanillin.
Common pregnancy pain drugs leave newborns suffering horrific withdrawal symptoms
Mums who take common pain relief drugs during pregnancy risk giving birth to an addict baby, horrifying new research has found. If pregnant women take “opioid” drugs they risk giving birth to a child going through withdrawal, it has been claimed. Up until now, a condition called “Neonatal abstinence syndrome” was blamed on junkie mums binging on illegal narcotics during pregnancy.
HELPING FAMILIES IN MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS ACT By Rep. Tim Murphy, PhD
More than 11 million Americans have severe schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression yet millions are going without treatment and families struggle to find care for loved ones. The Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act fixes the nation’s broken mental health system by focusing programs and resources on psychiatric care for patients & families most in need of services. To read the full Energy and Commerce Committee report on its investigation of federal programs addressing serious mental illness, please click below.
CONTINUED @ Murphy.House.gov
Obituary By Alcohol
Philly taverns to pay $7M to settle fatal beating
Two defunct Philadelphia nightclubs have agreed to pay $7 million to settle a wrongful death suit filed by the family of a Temple University graduate who was beaten to death in Old City by three drunk men. “When you have a license to sell alcohol, you have the responsibility to do it safely,” Mongeluzzi said. “If you serve underage, drunken patrons, and they leave your bar and commit a heinous crime, you will be held accountable for your actions.”
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