Shuttered addiction treatment agency under investigation for fraud
A Hallowell mental health and addiction treatment agency that closed suddenly in September – leaving a few hundred clients without services – was under investigation for fraud and owed more than $300,000 to the state, according to emails exchanged among state health officials, agency staff members and others in the weeks that followed. The privately owned agency, Protea Integrated Health and Wellness, had operated at the Hallowell site since 2012, as well as at several satellite locations, and was serving more than 300 clients. It offered Suboxone treatment and counseling to those recovering from opiate addiction, as well as community integration services for those with mental illness … But in September, Protea entered a tailspin after a business partner withdrew about $20,000 in cash…
7 Signs You Might Have An Addiction But Don’t Realize It
Nearly every mental illness has a stereotype attached to it – and these tropes are often overgeneralized and straight-up inaccurate. For instance, when people think of the illness of addiction, they often picture a person who’s been fired from their job for showing up visibly inebriated, or imagine some version of the “strung out party girl” who conspicuously disappears every 15 minutes at social gatherings, coming back infinitely happier and more energetic. Because of the stigma attached to addiction, we don’t talk about it nearly enough – and, as a result, the illness can very easily go undetected, as we rely on stereotypes for information about what addiction looks like.
Things You Only Know if You’re the Adult Child of an Alcoholic at Christmas
As far as I can tell there doesn’t seem to be much of a happy ending or Christmas miracle for children of alcoholics when they grow up and become adults themselves. After all, real life isn’t like Love Actually. Even if your parent gets sober (ish), which is of course a great thing, it can create a whole new set of problems. Things that should be fun are stressful. Things which should be indulgent Christmas treats, like drinking, are guilty minefields. Things which other people look forward to fill you with apprehension and anxiety. I guess the silver lining is this: as I enter what is, somewhat terrifyingly, proper adulthood I’m determined to do Christmas differently, to make every Christmas from now on count and make up for the 27 years when it was totally crap…
2017 iaedp™ Symposium Presents the Latest in Eating Disorder Treatment
The 31st annual iaedp (International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals) Symposium has announced its 2017 program schedule, now available online. This year’s conference event will continue the Symposium’s reputation for presenting the latest in new treatments and research concerning eating disorders. The dynamic Symposium will take place March 22 – 26 at the Green Valley Resort and Spa in Las Vegas and will feature nearly 60 sessions, including keynote speakers, workshops, pre-certification courses and other special events.
Police arrested the suspect, Cavan Devine, 24, on multiple charges. Shaw said he couldn’t comment further with regard to the sober house because of privacy laws. He said officers had been working around the clock since responding to the address over the weekend … The recovery of more than a pound and a half of suspected crystal methamphetamine last week from a recovering addict’s room at the Nexus sober house on Silver Hill Road shocked many community members and infuriated others.
NYC’s hottest mess survives to tell her tale of hard-core addiction
In June 2012, Cat Marnell left her beauty and health director gig at xoJane, a popular confessional Web site aimed at young women. At the time, Marnell, then 29, was the most famous train wreck/party girl/Internet star/gossip subject in NYC. A self-proclaimed bulimic and drug addict, the blonde had earned a cult following for her rambling essays on perfume, cosmetics and excess – the chemical kind. She was the Hunter S. Thompson of the beauty beat.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to the media on Capitol Hill in Washington. Schumer is increasing the heat on the federal government to consider recalling e-cigarette batteries and devices that explode and catch fire, injuring users. The New York Democrat calls e-cigarettes “ticking time bombs.” … Faulty lithium-ion batteries are seen as the likely culprits. Schumer wants the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to figure out why so many devices from China and elsewhere are exploding. He says recent injuries are proof federal action is urgently needed.
READ MORE @ WashingtonPost.com
Near Mexican Border with No Walls
Betty Ford Center Announces Ribbon-Cutting, Affiliation with Scripps Health Jan. 11
Part of the national nonprofit Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, the new San Diego facility will become an in-network provider of substance use disorders treatment in the Scripps Health network. And, it will be headed up by respected clinician Brian Couey. In addition, the general public is invited to an open house at the new Betty Ford Center facility, which is located in Del Mar Heights, from 2:30-6:30 p.m. on January 11. Staff will be on hand to provide tours and answer questions about the services and programs. Please join us to celebrate the opening of the Betty Ford Center outpatient treatment clinic. We’re proud to carry forward the healing legacy of former First Lady Betty Ford, bringing world-renown addiction expertise to the greater San Diego community as part of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. 1-1:30 p.m.-Ribbon Cutting 1:30-2:30 p.m.-Refreshments and Tour 2:30-6:30 p.m.-Public Open House Betty Ford Center 11720 El Camino Real, Suite 200 San Diego, CA 92130
Documentary on how much and how Americanss – imbibe
A few vodka-infused gummy worms seem harmless enough. Then come the shots. There’s a trip to the ice luge for a gulp of tequila. And it isn’t long until a bartender is mixing up the 14th drink of the night. It’s nothing out of the ordinary for Kenzie, a 20-something who’s one of four people profiled in the HBO documentary “Risky Drinking,” a collaboration with the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which debuts at 8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 19. (It will also be available on HBO’s other platforms.)
Drug overdoses jump 33% across the nation over the past five years VIDEO
Drug overdose deaths have increased by 33% in the past five years across the country, with some states seeing jumps of nearly 200%. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30 states saw increases in overdose deaths resulting from the abuse of heroin and prescription painkillers, a class of drugs known as opioids. New Hampshire saw a 191% increase while North Dakota, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine had death rates jump by over 100 %. “Too many Americans are feeling the devastation of the opioid crisis either from misuse of prescription opioids or use of illicit opioids,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the CDC.
Kids turn violent as parents battle ‘digital heroin’ addiction
His first exposure to screens occurred in first grade at a highly regarded public school – named one of California’s “Distinguished Schools” – when he was encouraged to play edu-games after class. His contact with screens only increased during play dates where the majority of his friends played violent games on huge monitors in their suburban homes. The results for Barbara’s son were horrific: Her sweet boy, who had a “big spirit” and loved animals, now only wanted to play inside on a device. “He would refuse to do anything unless I would let him play his game,” she said. Barbara, who had discarded her TV 25 years ago, made the mistake of using the game as a bargaining tool.
Friends, family of addicts find strength in Nar-Anon
Megan’s son, an addict who has been incarcerated nearly a year, was released recently, and while she is optimistic, she knows not to try to predict the future. The group, she said, has given her strength. “It’s given me the understanding and the feeling that my life is going to go on, no matter what I do, what I say. It’s taken away the guilt that I caused my son’s addiction, that I could have prevented it.”
8th Annual Experience, Strength & Hope Awards – Feb. 23 in LA
Broadcast giant and Recovery advocate PAT O’BRIEN is set to receive the Experience, Strength and Hope Award presented on Thursday, February 23, 2017 Guest Host, Ed Begley, Jr. Guest Singer, Sherri Lewis Spoken word performance by author Dejuan DJ Verrett Actress Joanna Cassidy will be Thanking our VIP Sponsors from the stage. SPECIAL COMEDY performance, from South Florida to you, SARGE (He’s half Jewish and half Black. What could possibly go wrong?) PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS TBA Previous Honorees: Christopher Kennedy Lawford, Lou Gossett, Jr., Buzz Aldrin, Duran Duran’s John Taylor, Carrie White, Joe Pantoliano, Mackenzie Phillips Previous Participants: Danny Trejo, Tony Denison, Robert Downey, Jr., Ione Skye, Bobcat Goldthwait, Joanna Cassidy, Alonzo Bodden, Mark Lundholm, Dan Fante, Bob Forrest, Sharon Lawrence, Barry Diamond, Jack McGee Event Will Sell Out – Book now to avoid disappointment
Lamar Odom says ‘dark times’ with Kardashian led to brothel overdose
The so-called ‘Kardashian curse’ may have led to Lamar Odom’s overdose at a Nevada brothel in October of 2015, the former athlete said during a recent interview. The ex-NBA star opened up to “The Doctors” about what led up to his near fatal overdose, revealing that he and his now ex-wife Khloé Kardashian were in a bad place at the time. “I wasn’t in a good place mentally – especially mentally before the incident happened. My wife at the time (and I were) going through some things, and I was in a dark place,” Odom said to Dr. Travis Stork in an interview.
T2 Trainspotting’ Trailer: Danny Boyle Rounds Up the Gang for Another Drug-Fueled Adventure VIDEO
Twenty years after Trainspotting, the gang’s reuniting for T2: Trainspotting. Specifically, Renton (Ewan McGregor), Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), and Begbie (Robert Carlyle), all rounded up by director Danny Boyle for another drug-fueled adventure. Watch the first full-length T2 Trainspotting trailer below…
94-Year-Old Oil Heiress Has Anonymously Given Away Her Fortune for Decades
While showing off the new vegetation, New Directions for Women CEO Rebecca Flood mentions that among the contributions Texas oil heiress Strong has lavished the program with over the years was $800,000 toward the more than $2 million it took to totally rebuild the main building, which has resident beds on the second story. “She has been a donor here for all 40 years of our existence,” Flood says of Strong, who has been in recovery herself for more than half a century. “She was a signer of our incorporation papers [in 1977], and she has donated millions of dollars to our organization throughout our lifetime.”
READ MORE @ OCWeekly.com
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REEL Recovery Film Festival
is a social, educational, networking and recovery forum showcasing first-time filmmakers and experienced professionals who make films about addiction and recovery. Our audience is treatment professionals, people in recovery, members of the entertainment industry, media representatives, educated moviegoers & the general public.
Shopping Addiction is Common During Holidays VIDEO
Buying gifts for the holidays can be dangerous for people with addictive personalities. “It’s kind of a rush, especially, sometimes you get caught up if something is a great bargain, you end up spending a little more than you planned on,” said shopper, Melissa Noonan. Shopping addiction is more common this time of year, especially with people who are lonely or face a high level of stress in their daily lives. “We see a lot of similarities in terms of the signs and symptoms and how it can be affecting the brain and how it can affect that person’s life,” said Brittany Ott with the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery. The shopaholic normally feels good about buying gifts for others, which gets them addicted. That could mean spending a large amount of money they don’t have.
Patient brokering arrests: Woman, 25, youngest to be charged
Amanda LaFrance came to Florida three years ago to get clean and sober and found herself in court Saturday facing 13 counts of patient brokering – the latest arrest by a task force tasked by the state legislature to investigate corruption in the sober-home industry. LaFrance, 25, is the only woman and the youngest of eight sober-home and treatment-center owners and operators facing multiple counts of patient brokering. All eight arrests stem from the business practices of Whole Life Recovery, a treatment center in Boynton Beach.
My attitude and outlook on life in recovery changed completely, and I began to embrace all the things I so fiercely resisted in the beginning–meetings, fellowship, sponsorship, and the truth about my condition. Over time, I even began to embrace those annoying AA slogans. Today, I find that these simple words of wisdom can help me through any situation in life, much less the holidays. Here’s how…
VATICAN – Drug addiction is a “new form of slavery” and a “wound in our society” that should be combatted with education and rehabilitation. That was Pope Francis’s message to a Vatican conference called “Narcotics: Problems and Solutions of this Global Issue,” … Reflecting on the causes of drug addiction, the Holy Father said it results from a variety of factors: “the absence of a family, social pressure, propaganda from traffickers, the desire to live new experiences”. However, he said, “every addicted person brings with them a distinct personal history, which should be listened to, understood, loved, and, where possible, cured and purified. We cannot fall into the injustice of classifying them as if they were objects or broken junk; rather, every person should be valued and appreciated in their dignity in order to be cured.
I have spent a fine Sunday afternoon on the couch with this fantastic book. I literally cried with laughter at one description of a life drawing model. So viscerally written, I called my parents and through peels of laughter read them all the funny bits on Skype. They live 3000 miles away and begged me to hurry up & finish it so I can put it in the post tomorrow. Hilarious. Poignant. Telling. Familiar. Loved it.
Adrian Anthony Gill, journalist, born 28 June 1954; died 10 December 2016
In his 2015 memoir Pour Me: a Life, Gill described the alarming symptoms of his alcoholism: “Death signals from the blood in the bog, the pus in the sock, the tingling in the fingers. The renowned restaurant and TV critic earned fame and infamy for his brutally honest reviews and sharp wit. The journalist AA Gill, who has died aged 62, less than a month after revealing he was seriously ill with cancer in his newspaper column…Gill started drinking at the age of 15 and by his early 20s was consuming a bottle of Scotch a day. On the dole through much of his 20s, he reckoned to spend £40 a week on alcohol even though his income was £19. “I suppose I was endlessly borrowing money off people. And I always had very accommodating girlfriends.” During this time, he was briefly married to writer and journalist Cressida Connolly.
Drug wholesalers shipped 780 Million pain pills to West Virginia
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – A newspaper investigation found that drug wholesalers shipped 780 million prescription painkillers to West Virginia over a six-year period. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that between 2007 and 2012, 1,728 West Virginians died from overdoses of hydrocodone and oxycodone. The newspaper obtained shipping sales record sent by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office. The companies had tried to keep the sales numbers secret.
READ MORE @ NewsOK.com
Turning The Corner VIDEO
60 days clean, fentanyl addict has changed drastically since CBC last spoke to her VIDEO
Considering how her life was going in September, Kati Mather made an improbable appearance at a vigil to reflect on fentanyl deaths in Vancouver and push for more long-term treatment for addicts. “If I didn’t choose to get clean when I did, then I’d probably be dead today, and that’s thanks to treatment,” said Mather, 22, on Saturday from the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Trading the ‘Ugliness’ of Drugs and Jail for Motherhood and College
Beverly Emers strode through campus with assurance, her 13-year-old son, Jabari, a few paces behind, as she gave the history of each monument at Bronx Community College this fall. Although decades older than most students there, Ms. Emers, 43, cannot walk between the buildings without someone waving, calling her name or inviting her to a party. It was not always this way. About fourteen years ago, Ms. Emers was too consumed with getting high to even consider college. It was winter 2003, and she was with friends strung out on drugs, her mind in a crazed disorientation.
‘Hometown Girl’ heroin addict battles back to sobriety VIDEO
Persephanie Lesperance gained notoriety as a Maxim magazine “Hometown Hottie,” then as a heroin addict. Because of heroin, she was incarcerated in two states, lost her Maxim modeling contract and was brought back from the dead with the opioid overdose antidote Narcan. But unlike many of her friends, who died from their addictions, Lesperance is now 14 months sober, a volunteer in the recovery community and in the home stretch of earning her certification to be a recovery coach … I’m happier than I’ve ever been,” Lesperance, 27, said this past week.
6,400 British troops treated for alcohol abuse in last four years
Other troops were described as being “very heavy drinkers” and suffering from a range of life-threatening medical problems. The conditions included chronic alcoholism, acute alcoholic hepatitis, alcoholic paranoia, cirrhosis and chronic liver disease and chronic alcoholic brain syndrome. Many senior officers believe that alcohol abuse in the armed forces now poses a greater danger to the military than drugs.
Homeless Across Country Fall Victim to Synthetic Marijuana
Nearly 300 homeless people became ill last month in St. Louis due to the man-made hallucinogen that experts believe is far more dangerous and unpredictable than the real thing. Other outbreaks have occurred in New York City, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas. “It was common for us to see reactions where they were violent, incoherent, sometimes catatonic on the ground,” Austin police Lt. Kurt Thomas said. The homeless are easy targets in a confined area, experts say. The drug is cheap – as little as $1 or $2 for a joint – more difficult to detect in drug tests and is a fast escape from a harsh reality.
READ MORE @ ABCNews.com
No Slips, No Relapses
Don’t Let Alcohol Spoil Your Holiday Celebrations
The winter holiday season is in full swing, and that means parties and celebrations – and alcoholic beverages. But for many Americans drinking too much leads to tragic consequences on the road between Christmas and New Year’s Day. More than 103 million Americans are expected to be traveling between now and January 2. Statistics show that 40 percent of traffic-related deaths during the period between Christmas and New Year’s involve alcohol-impaired drivers. That’s a 12 percent increase, compared to during the rest of the year, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) says.
READ MORE @ NewsMax.com
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Katya Opens Up About Her Battles With Drug Addiction AUDIO
“I’m thinking of suicide everyday because I can’t imagine at losing at life started stealing speed from my roommate. I wanted to do drugs to do more, to live, to cope, to be happy.” Our favorite Russian Drag Czarina, Yekaterina Petrovna Zamolodchikova, recently sat for a very honest chat with RuPaul and Michelle Visage … When she suffered a nervous breakdown while attending the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Katya, who out of drag goes by the name Brian McCook, explained that she used drugs to cope with the depression that followed.
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