Back for 2010

After a much-needed two-month writing sabbatical (due to work reasons, writers block, etc.), it's good to be back in 2010. Lots of stories to cover this year. First and foremost, thanks so much to AllTreatment.com for naming my blog one of the best of 2009! (Congrats as well to my friend Adi Jaffe at All About Addiction who also had his blog listed as one of the best). Had a great end to 2009, helping a number of people find their way to treatment and start the journey of getting well, and spent much needed time with family and friends over the holidays. One can only hope the holiday experience was as relaxing for everyone else. As we know, the holidays can be a difficult time for families that have been ravaged by addiction; for those of you who need help, please ask for it! Asking for helping is the only way to get it.

One of my new favorite reads during the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 is Joe Schrank's Core Company blog, covering lots of different topics around addiction. Schrank isn't afraid to share his opinion, which can seem grating to some but we at Addiction Tomorrow find it fairly refreshing to see someone speak their mind. His 2009 recap column brought up a number of different issues, mostly documenting the numerous "celebrity" drug and alcohol deaths, which seemed to be higher this year than in years past. Although, it may just be that the 24/7 news/gossip channels and blogs have been paying more attention this year. Obviously, Michael Jackson's death in June sparked the greatest awareness (We blogged about it numerous times, starting here.) Jackson's overdose brought to light the abusive natures of overprescribing doctors, enabling family members, and what fame can do when left unchecked. A tragic end for one of the most interesting figures of my lifetime.

For current events, the healthcare debate has been raging all year and preliminary voting looks like things are in for a change. But we will see; as with all things government, time will tell how much reform is actually put in play.

A very interesting article on the Americanization of mental illness was in the New York Times this weekend. Check it out; some interesting perspectives on how mental illness is diagnosed around the world. One of the most interesting segments of the article spoke about a specific form of anorexia that occurred in Hong Kong; Dr. Sing Lee, a psychiatrist in Hong Kong saw a few patients who simply expressed that their stomachs always felt bloated, instead of the usual Western diagnosis of fat phobia. What Lee saw after the death of one of his patients was what made it very interesting- it seemed that his patients who suffered from disordered eating patterns turned their OWN SYMPTOMS into the more widely-accepted Western views. “Culture shapes the way general psychopathology is going to be translated partially or completely into specific psychopathology,” Lee says. “When there is a cultural atmosphere in which professionals, the media, schools, doctors, psychologists all recognize and endorse and talk about and publicize eating disorders, then people can be triggered to consciously or unconsciously pick eating-disorder pathology as a way to express that conflict.” This is definitely worth a read.

Here's one of my favorite videos, from Dr. Kevin McCauley:



Here's a great video on healthcare reform from Robert Reich, professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and former Labor Secretary under the Clinton administration:




Here's something funny.

As always, connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on Twitter. Become a fan of the blog on Facebook. And see you later this week (I promise!)

Michael Jackson, back in the news.

This afternoon, CNN reported that Michael Jackson died of a propofol overdose. Taken directly from that article, here are the doses administered to Jackson during those final hours:

-- At about 1:30 a.m., Murray gave Jackson 10 mg of Valium.

-- At about 2 a.m., he injected Jackson with 2 mg of the anti-anxiety drug Ativan.

-- At about 3 a.m., Murray then administered 2 mg of the sedative Versed.

-- At about 5 a.m., he administered another 2 mg of Ativan.

-- At about 7:30 a.m., Murray gave Jackson yet another 2 mg of Versed while monitoring him with a device that measured the oxygen saturation of a his blood.

-- At about 10:40 a.m., "after repeated demands/requests from Jackson," Murray administered 25 mg of propofol.

If this isn't gross negligence, I don't know what is. Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal doctor, administered the doses himself. Now, being a doctor, he should've recognized that all of these are dangerous doses and that a "normal" person wouldn't have been able to survive even 1/5th of these. Regardless- if Jackson, as reported, was receiving prescriptions from multiple doctors, then shame on them as well. However, if Dr. Murray was Jackson's personal physician, he had a RESPONSIBILITY to insure Jackson's health. I hope, at the very least, that his license to practice is pulled, and at the most, he and the other prescribing doctors are charged with gross negligence, if not homicide. If the doctors knew this was going on, they should've done something, like refuse to prescribe or practice with Jackson. A gross abuse of power and money seems to be the what's behind this.

The power, apparently, laid in Jackson's hands, as he requested that Dr. Murray give him the injection. Murray, however, HAS a conscious. He should've been aware of the problem- and yet, he refused to do anything about it. A shame. Enabling behavior by family, staff, and healthcare providers contributed to the loss of yet another life.

In other news, it appears as though Miami Heat forward Michael Beasley has entered drug rehab.Beasley was fined $50,000 by the NBA last September after security officers at the league's rookie symposium detected the scent of marijuana in his hotel room. Too bad it took some consequences to get him in the doors, but we are glad he's getting the help he needs. As I touched on a couple of weeks ago, drug use is becoming more and more of a prevalent story. We can only hope that this awareness leads to more people seeking the help that they need.

Here's a video of Dr. Sanjay Gupta talking about the effects of Propofol:



Here's something funny.

I'll be posting another blog entry tomorrow morning, so be sure to check back in. In the meantime, as per usual, follow me on Twitter and connect with me on LinkedIn. Become a fan of the blog on Facebook. And see you tomorrow.

Michael Jackson's Tragic End

On June 25th, we lost one of the marvels of the entertainment world, a truly talented and tortured artist, Michael Jackson. With his meteoric rise to fame as the centerpiece of the Jackson 5 and then an amazing solo career, in total selling over 750 million records worldwide. However, this fame came at an amazing price.

Having been in the spotlight since the age of 5 or 6, Jackson seemed to struggle with his place in the world. Naming his home the "Neverland Ranch" lead us to believe he wanted to be a child who never grew up (which, of course, led to the infamous sleepovers on the Ranch and the molestation accusations). A documented addiction to painkillers, two failed marriages, and numerous lawsuits for pedophilia dominated Jackson's last 20 years, causing him to become a late-night joke mainstay and most of us to forget his talent.

The question remains- do we remember him for the art he produced? Has there ever been a more polarizing, successful individual? His death caused delays and nearly shut down numerous websites. He had become the centerpiece of a media storm- mostly negative in the last 20 years.

In 1993, Jackson abruptly canceled the remainder of his "Dangerous" tour after admitting on an audiotape that pain from a burn injury while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984 as well as allegations of sexual abuse have caused him to become addicted to painkillers. As of yesterday, June 29th, various news and entertainment outlets were reporting that Jackson had received a Demerol injection the morning of his death- but we'll only find out for sure after the autopsy is published. Lisa Marie Presley, Jackson's wife for a few short years, posted a blog entry on her Myspace page talking about his drug use. She talks about how she and Jackson had conversations about how he would end up with the same fate as Elvis- and it's looking more and more like he did.

Either way, we've lost the most tortured and talented artist we've seen in a long time. There will never be another like him, good or bad. Here are some of the telling articles from a series of Vanity Fair interviews. It will be interesting to see what unfolds from the autopsy results- but it seems as though we've lost another soul to the disease of addiction. Would it have been possible for Jackson to get help? Had anyone offered treatment? Had he BEEN to treatment? Was there support for him to get well, or just to prop him up and keep him out in the public eye? We may never know, but these are questions we can answer as we move forward to help other artists in the future. He was not a commodity- he was a person. And it's hard to remember that sometimes.

Here's a tribute to Michael Jackson:





In health news, here's a great video by Lance Armstrong's organization, Livestrong:



Here's something funny.

As always, connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on Twitter. Become a fan of the blog on Facebook. See you this week.