Jerry Stahl’s heroin-soaked 1995 memoir “Permanent Midnight,” charts the author’s decent into a deep heroin addiction. Stahl has since gotten clean but is still obsessed with drug-induced storytelling. He joins us to discuss addiction and recovery. See Video
Drug Study
Cocaine may Increase Stroke Risk by up to 700 Percent
“Cocaine use is one of the risk factors we investigated and we were surprised at how strong an association there is between cocaine and stroke risk in young adults,”. “We found the stroke risk associated with acute cocaine use is much higher than some other stroke risk factors, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and smoking.” Read More
Another Attack on AA
After 75 Years of AA, Is It Time to Admit We Have a Problem?
In any other area of medicine, if your doctor told you that the cure for your disease involved surrendering to a “higher power,” praying to have your “defects of character” lifted, and accepting your “powerlessness,” as outlined in the original 12 steps, you’d probably seek a second opinion. The only alternative, as the 12-step slogan has it, was “jails, institutions, or death.” By 2000, 90 percent of American addiction treatment programs employed the 12-step approach. Read More
Sober Sex
Colin Farrell on Sex After Sobriety
“I made love to a woman about two and a half years after I got clean, and it was one of the most terrifying moments of my life,” the 37-year-old actor told Elle’s March issue. “It was in the afternoon. The windows and the curtains were open. It was lovely, and, to be crass, it wasn’t f***ing. She was very gentle. But it was terrifying. Because I was just used to drunkenness and dark rooms and clubs and toilets and wherever.” Read More
Sharon Osbourne tells of love for ”softie” Ozzy as Black Sabbath singer celebrates 12 months of sobriety
The former X Factor judge told of their “fantastic” relationship as the Black Sabbath singer celebrated 12 months of sobriety. After admitting last year how she threatened him with divorce, Sharon, 61, said she partly blamed herself for not noticing his relapse. Ozzy, 65, who had been sober for seven years, had been taking drink and drugs in secret for months. Read More
Celebrity Advocacy
Matthew Perry visiting Tampa for lecture on drug addiction
We all seek advice from our pals sometimes, but here’s an opportunity to get some guidance from a real-life friend. Perry will discuss the benefits of sobriety and share the intimate details of his personal struggle with addiction to prescription drugs and alcohol, a USF news release said.
University Lecture Series talks are free and open to the public and take place at the Tampa campus’ Marshall Student Center ballroom. Read More
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Celebrity Recovery
For popular rapper, an unusual calling card: Sobriety
Despite these debates and many more, there’s one important, but often unnoticed, issue on which Macklemore does have unquestionable legitimacy: addiction. Macklemore’s relationship with drugs began when we was a young teen. One day after school, when he was 13 or 14, he got into his parent’s liquor cabinet and took 12 shots by himself. And so it began. By the time he reached his 20s, Macklemore struggled not only with alcohol but also weed, cocaine, lean (a drink made from cough syrup) and Oxycontin. He was only 25 when he hit rock bottom; he began the rehabilitation process in 2010. Read More
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Must Read by Leading Experts New York Times
What Is Addiction?
But what causes the addiction that lets drug abuse flourish? Is addiction a disorder, a matter of human frailty or something else?
Quitting Smoking Linked to Better Mental Health in Study
Researchers analyzed data from 4,800 daily smokers in the United States who took part in two surveys conducted three years apart. Those who had an addiction or other mental health problems in the first survey were less likely to have those issues in the second survey if they’d quit smoking.Read More
VIDEO of the MONTH with Dr. Gabor Maté
Dr. Gabor Maté on the Stress-Disease Connection, Addiction and the Destruction of American Childhood
In December 2012, Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, did a one-hour interview with Dr. Gabor Maté. It’s old, but Because it’s not on Vimeo or YouTube, this can’t be added to the video section. Democracy Now! special with the Canadian physician and bestselling author, Dr. Gabor Maté. From disease to addiction, parenting to attention deficit disorder, Maté’s work focuses on the centrality of early childhood experiences to the development of the brain, and how those experiences can impact everything from behavioral patterns to physical and mental illness. Read More
Experience, Strength and Hope Award
Carrie White honored by Writers in Treatment
Hairdresser to the stars, Carrie White was honored at the 5th Annual Experience Strength and Hope Awards at the Skirball Cultural Center in Brentwood last week.
My heart wants to say thank you to all your support and helping to get the shame out of this disease. But as someone once said, ‘to take credit for your recovery is like getting an applause for running out of a burning building.’ Read More
Health Warning of the Week
Bacon Addiction Is Real: Creates Big Concern for Cardiovascular Health
Bacon sales increased 9.5% last year and hit an all-time record nearly reaching $4 billion in sales, according to MarketWatch. People will eat anything wrapped in bacon: scallops, chicken, mini hot dogs, fruit, etc. Doctors are becoming more alarmed over the bacon craze because such processed meats (also sausage) are linked to heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Read More
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Sugar is the New Tobacco
See If You Can Stop Eating Sugar After Reading This
Fed Up, a new documentary produced and narrated by Katie Couric, digs deep into the obesity epidemic, and discovers a surprising culprit – sugar, not fat, is making us fat. Using data reported on in the documentary and dozens of similar studies which are now shedding light on the dangerous effects of sugar, here are 25 things about sugar that you need to know. Read More
Eating Our Own
How America’s Insane Drug Laws Are Killing People
More than 38,000 people died from a drug overdose in 2012. Deaths from drug overdose have been rising steadily over the past two decades and have become the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. The pervasive and well-founded fear that a person will suffer heavy criminal penalties if they call an ambulance to help someone overdosing is killing people.Read More
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About Us
Writers In Treatment
501 (c)(3) nonprofit
WIT gets treatment for individuals who suffer from alcoholism, drug addiction or other self-destructive behaviors.
Epic 6-Minute Exchange, Oregon Congressman Eviscerates U.S. Drug Policy VIDEO
Botticelli is trying hard to convince us that marijuana harm should not be minimized in comparison to hard drugs. As frustrating as the video is, the exchange represents a systematic failing of our national drug policy. It is almost completely detached from data, reality and general common sense. The Department of Justice lists marijuana as a schedule I drug, the most severe labeling on it’s one through five scale. See VIDEO
College Studies
Substance abuse still problem in college culture
These surveys include stimulants, like Adderall. Use of such substances are swiftly climbing the charts for abuse. Medically prescribed to treat Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, students frequently list reasons for use as to study better, have more energy and lose weight. Adderall is listed on the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s commonly abused prescription drug list, and these small hyper-packed pills are not only easy to get, but are easy to get addicted to. Read More
BBC Report o Rave Drug
Ketamine to become Class B drug in UK
Ketamine, the horse tranquiliser used as a party drug, is to be upgraded to a Class B banned substance.
Crime Prevention Minister Norman Baker said he hoped to send a message that the drug was harmful.
Ketamine will be reclassified from Class C to B in the face of mounting evidence over its physical and psychological dangers.
Evidence has emerged of users as young as 20 having their bladders removed due to heavy consumption of the drug.Read More
Fetuses Begin Opiate Use Earlier in USA
U.S. women frequently prescribed narcotics during pregnancy
It looked at the use of medications, including narcotics such as Vicodin and Oxycontin — also known as opioids — in more than 530,000 pregnant women who gave birth between 2005 and 2011 in the United States.
Prescription narcotic use among pregnant women is more common in the United States than in Europe, the researchers said. Among American women, those living in the South used the drugs more than women living in other parts of the country. Read More
News Flash from the Washington Post
Dennis Rodman: ‘I’m not an alcoholic’
I don’t need to drink,” he said. “I don’t need to do anything. I went to rehab just to sort things out. That’s it.”
He said he could curb his drinking and did not have a problem because he doesn’t drink every day.
“I’m not an alcoholic,” he said. “An alcoholic drinks seven days a week. I don’t drink seven days a week. When I drink, I don’t hurt nobody, I don’t have no DUIs, nothing like that. Read More
Creativity and Prevention
USM hosts Dance Program Against Substance Abuse
Dancing Against Substance Abuse is a unique event inspired by a true story. Barbaresi, a junior at Southern Miss, was inspired to create the dance piece because of a personal life event. Barbaresi is using the event as an opportunity to educate the public on substance abuse and the ways it can negatively affect other individuals, including family members. Read More
More Drugs for Recovering Addicts
Is NA too unscientific to work? Maia Szalavitz
First off, anyone who cites a “study on AA” (or NA, I’m using the two interchangeable from here on) or spouts off statistics about the program, is full of shit. AA, by its very nature, cannot be tracked. Its insistence on anonymity for its individual members, as well as at the “level of press, radio, and film” (quote from AA 12 Traditions), prevents any accurate studies from being done. Read More
Article of the Month
Russell Brand on heroin, abstinence and addiction
It is ten years since I used drugs or drank alcohol and my life has immeasurably improved. I have a job, a house, a cat, good friendships and generally a bright outlook.
Without these fellowships I would take drugs. Because even now the condition persists. Drugs and alcohol are not my problem – reality is my problem. Drugs and alcohol are my solution. Read More
Meditation from Center for Healthy Sex
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” ~ Arundhati RoyRead More
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Substance abuse still problem in college culture
