Really, California? Really??

I opened the paper yesterday to see a disturbing headline: "California might act to jail more drug offenders." Great. We really need more criminals, and less people in recovery. The question here, you bureaucratic imbeciles, is who does this make the world better for? Is prison somehow better at rehabilitating drug addicts than drug addiction treatment? How does this make sense?!? We already have 3.2 percent of our population in prison; do we need more? Two weeks ago, federal regulators ordered California to cut their prison population; so, oh government of ours, what the hell?

"While one side of the government is addressing prison overcrowding, another side seems to be acting directly counter to that goal," said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy state director of the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance. Here's a fun fact- the mere $120 million for California government funded drug treatment has been cut in half from 2006. Last month, legislators here in California decided to cut 1.2 BILLION from the prison budgets. Why not full, oh, say, 1/10th of that money into drug treatment and help cut down recidivism rates? Why not focus and develop better treatment programming and staff so that the people you have turned into criminals can have a shot at a better life? I mean seriously, people, COME ON. Open your eyes. Prison is not rehabilitation when one is dealing with drug addiction. Addiction treatment will create change. Develop better programming- and laws- and we won't need nearly as many prisons. But will special interest groups be upset? Who cares?? It will be better for our entire population.

Here's a quick excerpt from a New York Times article from a couple of weeks ago:

"R. Gil Kerlikowske, who in May was sworn in as the Obama administration’s director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, is a supporter of drug courts as an alternative to mandatory drug sentencing. The new drug czar and the man nominated as his deputy, A. Thomas McLellan, are viewed by many addiction experts as representative of a sea change in thinking about treatment: away from the punitive, toward more acceptance of nuances and complications of addiction.

“Ten years ago, if you would have asked me this question about addiction, I would have said it’s obviously a moral failure and I don’t know why people can’t pull themselves up from their bootstraps and handle this and get themselves totally clean,” Mr. Kerlikowske, a former police chief in Seattle, said in an interview. 'But we can be going in a different direction. We can look at this from different viewpoints now.'"

So let's build out our drug courts if we can't change the laws. But if we change the laws, we'll have less need for punishment- divert people with possession charges to treatment and allow them a chance to get better. Legal consequences can be a GREAT motivator for people to get well. Allow them that option. Please. We beg you.

So California? I say, get it together. Make us better. Stop creating problems for yourself.

Here's a video on Prop 5, the drug treatment bill that failed to pass in 2008:




A special thanks goes out to Adi Jaffe with the All About Addiction blog for his guest post on Take Part which got me fired up about this.

My friend Jane Mintz of Real Life Interventions recently started an online school for intervention training- check it out here. Pretty cool option, and helps with accountability. This is a training available for her newly designed intervention model, the Field Model of Intervention. Great user interface as well.

Here's something funny.

As always, follow me on Twitter and connect with me on LinkedIn. Become a fan of the blog on Facebook. Support my advertisers! And see you this week.

Exercise and Substance Abuse Prevention

Don't know how I missed this in my previous post about exercise and recovery, but there have been some articles published about the effectiveness of exercise and sports as actual deterrents to substance abuse. About a year ago, the Associated Press posted an article about exercise as a prevention tool. The National Institute on Drug Abuse received a $4 million grant to explore this further. "Exercise has been shown to be beneficial in so many areas of physical and mental health," said Dr. Nora Volkow, NIDA Director. "This cross-disciplinary meeting is designed to get scientists thinking creatively about its potential role in substance abuse prevention."

There has been other research: Brown University took smokers to the gym three times a week and found adding the exercise to a smoking-cessation program doubled women's chances of successfully kicking the habit. The quitters who worked out got an extra benefit: They gained half as much weight as women who managed to quit without exercising, says lead researcher Dr. Bess Marcus.

''Exercise improves blood flow to the brain, it helps the body detoxify, it puts you on a better cycle of physical behavior, and it leads to decreased stress. It also improves thinking and mental function and decreases your tendency toward addiction,'' said Dr. Marc Siegel, an internist at New York University Medical Center and an associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine in New York City.

For example, ''there's evidence that exercise is maybe the best non-pharmacological antidepressant we have - studies have shown that it works better than some drugs. It's also a great anti-anxiety intervention,'' said James Maddux, a professor of psychology at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and an expert on the mind-body health connection.

I know when I was in treatment, I used exercise as a type of coping tool- gaining a "runner's high" and creating a challenge to complete. I still work out today as a way of keeping my cravings (especially around nicotine!) at bay. Not to mention the fact that working out creates chemical changes in our mind and body to make us feel better and happier. I know my mood has improved since I started working out more often. For now, let's list exercise as a tool in a toolkit for fighting addiction- it's not the end-all/be-all, but it's another way to encourage this next generation to avoid the pitfalls of addiction.

If you're looking for a great blog about exercise, staying in shape and diet advice, check out Move Ur Body- great content and advice here. Be sure to check out Phoenix Multisport, a group in Boulder, CO who uses exercise as a recovery tool. And Sober Living By The Sea, where I work, provides physical activity to their patients as an ongoing part of treatment.

Here's a great video about Todd Crandell of Racing For Recovery, an individual who used triathlons to help defeat his own addiction:



And Jaywalker Lodge, an extended care program for men who have been through multiple addiction treatments, does expeditions every year. Here's a video of their winter expedition:



As always, follow me on Twitter and connect with me on LinkedIn. Become a fan of the blog on Facebook. And see you later.

U.S. Drug Czar calls for end to "war on drugs"

As I talked about in an earlier post, I'm very excited to have Gil Kerlikowske as our new drug czar. On Wednesday, we finally got some good news in the so-called "War on Drugs." In a Wall Street Journal article, new head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske, said that the "war on drugs" was a, "barrier to dealing with the nation's drug problem."

"Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," he said. "We're not at war with people in this country."

FINALLY some progress and someone who sees the nation's drug problem as something that can't be fixed by putting more and more people in prison. The more people we funnel into treatment as opposed to prison, the better the solution is going to get. I also like how the Obama administration is going to change the policies surrounding the major criminal disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine, thus hopefully closing the racial barrier. The administration is also planning on changing the current federal rules that allow federal agents to raid state-run medical marijuana facilities based on federal law. This would allow states that legalize medical marijuana to operate freely as opposed to being under constant threat from the federal government. All of this is progress. As much as we can do to keep people out of prison for unnecessary reasons and put them into treatment when needed, the better we'll be off.

Here's a video about Barack Obama's stance on drug policy:



Here's a video from Ron Paul about ending the war on drugs:



And here's the famous episode of Different Strokes where Nancy Reagan talks about the war on drugs and just saying no:




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 please support my advertisers!

Also, if you're feeling generous, please donate a couple of dollars towards the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society- I'm riding 100 miles on August 15th in support of individuals suffering from these terrible diseases. Thanks so much, and see you tomorrow.

The Mechanism of Addiction

In an article posted in the Salt Lake Tribune, BYU researchers as well as Canadian neuroscientists, induced drug addiction in lab rats without using actual drugs. This is a huge breakthrough, basically proving that addiction is a brain disorder and not one of willpower.

Scott Stephenson, a lead researcher on the project, provided some good feedback. "We are wired for pleasure," said Steffensen, a professor in the department of psychology. "Drugs overwhelm this system that is under tight regulation. It's a sad spiralling disregulation that takes place." By isolating a protein in the brain (known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF) that is enhanced in people struggling with addiction, they were then able to inject the protein into the rats and create the symptoms of opiate addiction.

This research opens many new directions for drug and alcohol treatment. Are we getting closer to a medical solution to addiction prevention? Maybe it's going to be possible in the future to establish blockers to these proteins that create the insatiable need for drugs and alcohol. Will it be possible to help a child with a family history of addiction to block the effects of drugs and alcohol with a simple medical treatment or prescription? I don't think that these are far off in the future.

I've been reading "The End of Overeating," by Dr. David Kessler (available here on Amazon), and in it he speaks about certain foods affecting our opiate receptors almost as much as drugs do directly. So we may also be on a path to developing further medical treatments for overeaters as well. Some doctors are already seeing progress in using naltrexone to stop the craving for carbohydrates. Dr. Richard Bernstein, in his book "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution" has published studies on the effectiveness of this method of treatment on chronic overeaters.

So it's possible that medical treatments may, in the future, be the true path to prevention and treatment. But we'll see.

Here's a video about some of the uses of naltrexone.



And here's a clip about the book, The End of Overeating:




And of course- here's something funny.




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Smoking and Recovery

Columbia University recently published a study saying that adults who grew up around second hand smoke have lungs that look different than those with non-smoking households. Actually, the lungs have holes that look similar to the ones of people who suffer from emphysema. Is this shocking? Not really. We've been hearing about the detriments of smoking for years. And yet we see smokers day in and day out, huddled in small masses near heaters during winter and shunned to the street corners during summer. Now, don't get me wrong- I was a heavy smoker until this past year, despite the consequences. And I also believe in the freedom of choice- that individuals should be able to decide their own fate. However, tobacco kills about 438,000 people per year, according to the Virginia Department of Health. So my question is this: why do we allow smoking in addiction treatment centers?

In 2008, New York State banned smoking in their all public and private treatment programs. Their government-funded programs have been smoke-free since 1998. So why aren't other programs dealing with this? I know that in my experience, I smoked MUCH more in treatment than I did before- the only fix I had left! But for most of the people in an addiction treatment program, this was the only time they would take 30 days out of their lives to work on their addictions. Why not push for anti-smoking as well? If someone is going to deal with difficult withdrawals, why not deal with them in an ADDICTION TREATMENT CENTER???

I don't have a solution for this, nor am I completely pushing for the change. I'm just wondering what the therapeutic value of smoking has in the treatment world. Looking forward to your feedback.





Here's a TheTruth.com anti-smoking ad:




Here's a video on the facts of smoking.

Here's something funny.

Follow me on Twitter and connect with me on LinkedIn. Become a fan of the blog on Facebook. And please support my advertisers! Check back in tomorrow for another post. Looking forward to your feedback.

Treatment moving forward

I read an interesting blog post in the New York Times this morning by Dr. Mark Willenbring. Here's the question and answer that piqued my interest:

"Q: Why aren’t patients being told of the medical options available to them in addition to AA/rehab? Is it ignorance of doctors? Lingering stigma that alcoholics are somehow “bad” and their only solution is to admit their powerlessness and find a higher power? No other disease relies on meetings in church basements for its primary treatment. I’m a recovering alcoholic who attends AA meetings and takes Campral. Not one AA’er I’ve met thus far has heard of Campral. It has been a tremendous help to me and it’s too bad that it’s not being used more, especially as it relates to reducing relapses. Cew5x

Answer:

The type of treatment offered at more than 90 percent of treatment programs in the United States consists of group counseling and referral to community support groups provided by non-medical staff. This treatment model was developed about 50 years ago, and it represented a real advance at the time.

However, the treatment field has not kept up with scientific advances in either behavioral or medication treatment. For example, it is about as difficult to obtain high quality cognitive-behavioral therapy for alcohol dependence as it is medication therapy. This is likely to change eventually, but for the time being, people seeking treatment for themselves or loved ones need to be informed “consumers.” Insisting on access to high-quality, scientifically-based care is one way to help drive system change."


What I find interesting about this are a number of things. First and foremost, why haven't we, as an addiction treatment field, continued with the progress seen in other areas of medicine? Since addiction is recognized as a disease, we should be taking advantage of all scientific advantages availed to us. I find it interesting that we are so resistant to change, and that for 50 years we've done basically the same thing in treatment. What is ALSO very interesting is the RESISTANCE to change. It's hard to find a treatment program that is consistent in adopting new methodologies for addressing the brain and medical issues associated with addiction. Within the industry, there is almost a stigma associated with medication in the treatment process.

Why aren't we using every tool available to combat a disease that directly affects 10 percent of our population and countless numbers of family members?

The other point is that a 12-step program works, when instituted and practiced diligently. However, what we've seen with alcoholics and addicts is that a relapse can often completely derail the recovery train. With the help of certain medications and medical knowledge, combined with therapy, support network and 12 step work, our chances of seeing a full and complete recovery should vastly improve. I can only hope that we start to see this before we lose more people.

Here's a video of Dr. Mark Hillenbring:



Here's something funny.

As always, find me on Twitter and LinkedIn. Also, become a fan of my blog on Facebook! See you tomorrow.

High-functioning alcoholics?

An article in the New York Times today spoke in depth about a segment of the population not often talked about- the high-functioning alcoholic. Sarah Allen Benton has recently published a book called "Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic" which can be found on Amazon here. Her basic premise is that this special type of alcoholic is able to somehow manage a job, family, friends and yet mask their problem drinking, sometimes for years. Many of these people are able to maintain a semblance of a normal life while covering up the massive wreckage that alcoholics routinely suffer.

What's interesting about this segment of the population is that it has existed in almost secret for hundreds of years. Employees, customers, and family members are often willing to overlook out-of-control drinking since their loved one or boss can maintain their job performance. The three martini lunch, popular up through the early 90s, was almost a right of passage for high-performing executives. They looked at alcohol as a reward for their hard work.

For many of these high-performing people, the major consequence for them is the fact that the one aspect of their lives that they can't control is their alcohol intake. They've avoided many consequences- loss of job, loss of family, financial ruin, etc. The other interesting thing is that there is an entire segment of the treatment world devoted to treating this population. Talbott Recovery Campus in Atlanta functioned for years by simply treating doctors. Hazelden Springbrook in Newburg, OR has a program dedicated to helping healthcare professionals. And programs such as The Landing, Promises, and other high end facilities specialize in treating high-functioning alcoholics- basing treatment tracks on the assumption that clients their don't need a complete overhaul of their lives, just around their relationship with alcohol and/or drugs.

What can be troubling about this segment of the population is relapse. When high-functioning alcoholics, who are used to perfection in all aspects of their lives, have trouble with sobriety, they can run into trouble when relapse happens. They can often move downhill fast. Luckily, there are resources available. Places such as Sunrise Recovery Ranch, Mayflower Center, and Jaywalker Lodge provide programs for chronic reluctant-to-recover patients, and can work together with the job and family to insure a smooth transition back into life.

It will be interesting to see how much this article and book bring awareness to this issue. People suffer in silence daily due to the ignorance of their friends and family members about the signs of out-of-control drinking. I can only hope that this article can help bring things to light about the secret lives of high-functioning alcoholics.

In other news, my friend Rick Ohrstrom over at Sober Bulldog just returned from the Gaza Strip working on addiction and trauma. Make sure to check out his website and stay tuned for a new blog about his experiences overseas.

Here's Anderson Cooper's breakdown of doctors in treatment:



Here's something funny.

As always, follow me on Twitter and connect with me on LinkedIn. See you tomorrow.

Anti-addiction pill? Buyers beware...

CNN posted a story at the end of last week about naltrexone, an anti-craving drug. Dr. Mark Willenbring had this quote: "There will be a 'Prozac moment', when primary care doctors start handling functional alcoholics."

Here's another quote, this the response from Hazelden's medical director: At Hazelden in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a small proportion of patients receive anti-addiction drugs, but medical director Dr. Kevin Clark says the traditional model -- based on intensive therapy and the 12 steps popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous -- is still best. "It is a disease of the brain, but it's a multifaceted disease. It has a spiritual component, a behavioral component to it," says Clark. "Our experience tells us that having the network of support and recovery is what really makes the difference."

I lean towards the Hazelden response- I am in recovery and I believe that simply taking medication without a sufficient support network would lead to an unhappy life. There's a difference between stopping drinking and actual recovery. Until we develop a medical treatment that can do something besides simply reducing craving, then we still need to work with addicts and alcoholics to find recovery through 12-step programs, therapy, and supportive rehabilitation centers. However, I do think this is huge medical progress- and I'm happy that we're making strides to find other solutions which may increase successful outcomes.


Here's a video about placing naltrexone under the skin of heroin addicts:



And here's something funny.

As always, find me on LinkedIn and Twitter. Take care.

Addiction and Insurance

I found an article on the PBS website talking about health insurance and the coverage for addiction. Even with the Wellstone and Domenci Parity bill passing, there still is a lot of room to grow in this world. Having dealt with this with a number of clients, insurance companies are still hesitant to pay for residential care, even when that is a clinical recommendation. Insurance companies, in general, want someone to FAIL in outpatient care before they are willing to pay, or look at paying for, residential treatment.
A quote from the PBS article: "We know that alcohol and drug addiction is a disease, yet we still have not integrated it into the health insurance system in a way that is meaningful," says William McColl, director of government relations for the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors.

We're in a tough spot. More people than ever need treatment, and still we have to fight daily to even have the disease of addiction recognized as something more than a weakness of willpower.

As we've seen with the AIDS movement and the GLBT movement in the last 20 years, equal rights and appropriate healthcare legislation can be passed when enough people are behind it. That's why I always push for advocacy; show the world that recovery works! To join the fight openly, check out Faces and Voices of Recovery. A good organization that needs more exposure and more members!

Last night I got the opportunity to record an online radio show with The Afflicted and Affected. Be sure to check them not; not quite sure when this will be posted, but I'll update when I know.

Here's an excerpt from the HBO special on addiction; the whole show is available through various clips on YouTube or on DVD.



Here's something funny.

As always, find me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Have a great day.

The Johnson Institute

The Johnson Institute in Minneapolis is an advocacy group who really brings the truth out about addictions. The institute used to train interventionists, and now focuses on advocacy around the disease of alcoholism and addiction. One of the best articles I've found on the web is here, featured on the Johnson Institute website. In this article, they talk about the seven policies necessary to create a solution for the huge problem of addiction. First and foremost, family members and people in recovery MUST make themselves available to the general public. WE are the best voice and the proof that recovery works! They also talk about creating early awareness and early intervention as a solution; teaching social institutions that addiction is not a stigma but a treatable illness, and educating the general public on the options available.

A great article, make sure to check it out.

Hope you all had a good weekend. For something REALLY interesting, a podcast featuring a great researcher in the addiction field, click here.

For something funny, click here.

As always, find me on Twitter and LinkedIn. See you tomorrow.

Advocacy and Treatment

A new Hazelden survey showed that over 8 out of 10 people sampled said first-time drug offenders should go to treatment and not prison. It also showed that 79% of those polled that the War on Drugs was a failure. However, this survey was a small sampling-- it only reviewed the opinions of 1,000 people. The opinions do represent a step in the right direction. It seems the stigma is getting washed off at least a little bit, that the general public can recognize that addicts need treatment and not jail.

For a history of the War on Drugs, check this out. NPR lays out a brief history, starting, of course, with Nixon declaring war on drugs in the early 70s do to a rising in arrests for both street crime and drug possession. In 1994, there were reports that the War on Drugs was responsible for putting 1 million people behind bars per year. In the 80s, with Reagan's policies around drugs kicking in, arrests for general crime rose 28%, while drug related arrests rose 126%. That's a huge, huge jump. And by not diverting people arrested for drug possession to treatment, we create a toxic prison environment soaked in drugs and more crime, as well as high recidivism rates.

How do we fix it? Support the Wellstone act. Vote for measures that allow tax dollars to be put towards treatment. For those of you who are more worried about what pubic services your tax dollars fund, push for those that support rehabilitation, as that will put more money back in the private secotr in the long run, as people who get adequate rehabilitation instead of a prison term are more likely to become productive citizens.

For folks who do a great job advocating recovery, click here, here, or here.

Here's a breakdown of the economic factors that addiction causes:



And here's Bill Maher's take on the war on drugs:






For something funny, click here.

As always, find me on LinkedIn or Twitter. Have a great day.

The Addiction Cure?

While watching CNN over the weekend, I couldn't help but notice repeated ads from Passages Malibu marketing "The Addiction Cure." Curious, I browsed the website and also Amazon for the book "The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure." I couldn't help but wonder if this was detrimental to the recovery process that we've worked so long and hard to develop in this country. With a blatant disregard to the 12-step model and the disease concept, it seems as though the two founders are trying a completely different approach. Now, don't get me wrong-- I haven't read the book, nor have I visited the center itself. They may be doing great work there; the problem is, how do people continue their recovery when they leave a place that does 60+ individual sessions a month? My personal experience, and the experience of many others I know in recovery, show that a combination of individual therapy, 12-step work, and service are the keys to better living. I have trouble believing that one could be "cured" of alcoholism.

On the other hand, what if they have it right and the rest of us are wrong? Or is this another "easier, softer way?" Only time will tell. For now, I just hope they aren't doing more damage than good.

Here's a video of Chris Prentess, the founder of Passages.



For a different viewpoint, here's a video of Father Martin's "chalk talk."



Let me know what you think!

Here's something funny.

As always, find me on LinkedIn or Twitter. See you tomorrow.

Great NY Times Article

I recently stumbled upon a New York Times article by Jim Atkinson which talks about getting and staying sober with a spiritual program. Most importantly though, he says, "While the image of those of us who manage to sober up has improved quite a bit since the temperance movement, we continue to be considered “lesser” for having had the problem in the first place."

And that right there folks, is the bottom line. There are countless members of society who are sober and doing well; I think the image of the skid-row drunk still crosses the mind of anyone who is not familiar with the treatment process or isn't open to the idea of not drinking.

I always find it interesting whenever I'm in a social situation and other people are uncomfortable with me NOT drinking. I was always pretty sure it would be the reverse. However, not everyone has been exposed to a sober alcoholic; there are, however, plenty of people who have been exposed to ACTIVE alcoholism, and the fact that there are sober people present could bring up a lot of emotion around that.

A study done by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in 2004 showed that nearly 17 million Americans fit the criteria for alcohol abuse. That means one out of every eleven people you meet is either struggling, or has struggled, with alcohol. That's a CRAZY amount for there still to be this kind of stigma around alcoholism and sobriety.

Get the word out! Become an advocate for recovery! And make sure to support measures that provide funding for treatment- not everyone can afford Hazelden or Sober Living By The Sea. As members of a sober community, we have a responsibility to get the message out that hope is available. Try to keep that message strong in your every day life.

For something interesting, check this
out.

Here's a New Jersey PSA about recovery from NCADD-NJ.



"Addiction is a treatable, preventable disease, not a moral failing." Well put.

Have a great weekend. Something funny here.

As always, find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

"Celebrity" Rehab

The first time I watched "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" I was pretty much appalled. I was wondering what would possess someone who has done a great deal to take away the stigma of addiction and worked in all areas of the field to expose fallen stars during their most vulnerable moments. I still have trouble with this, but I think Dr. Drew Pinsky has his heart in the right place. From day one, the show was overhyped, with commercials about relapse, people in treatment going crazy and getting angry during detox, and baring their soul on national television. I guess, in many ways, it's no different that the Real World on MTV EXCEPT for the fact that the people on "Celebrity Rehab' have a life-threatening addiction.

I'm more worried that the people who want to participate in shows like this (or the offshoot, "Sober House") may be more in this for the last grasp of fame.

I mean, with TMZ and Perez Hilton and the like, we see pictures, blurbs, and information about celebrities entering treatment all the time. For a while, it seemed almost cool to go to treatment.

I'm worried that all of this exposure will water down the treatment industry; there's a few programs out there that do a REALLY good job with addiction, and a LOT that are mediocre at best. I'm hoping that this glut of media coverage and reality TV doesn't inspire people who just want to make money and see a market available to open a treatment facility. That's where people get more hurt and traumatized, which I've seen with some former clients.

When you're treating people with the disease of addiction, make sure your heart is in the right place. Dr. Drew, you do a good job with this forum, and I hope you're in it for the right reasons.

Here's an interview with Dr. Drew.




Here's something funny.

As usual, find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

See you tomorrow.

Ritalin: The new cocaine?

Recently, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Addiction published a study which shows that Ritalin produces similar effects on the brain as cocaine. Not really shocking, considering the high level of Ritalin abuse we've started to hear about in the last couple of years. I can remember in college when people would trade medications and use Ritalin either to stay up late to study, or to get nice and speedy before going out. The fact that it's taken almost 10 years since that time for a study to come out is a shame. Here's a quote from the lead researcher, Yong Kim: "Methylphenidate, which is thought to be a fairly innocuous compound, can have structural and biochemical effects in some regions of the brain that can be even greater than those of cocaine." Just another sneaky way to get addicted, if you ask me. Basically, this proves to me that we need to keep a better watch on what medications we give to our children, and especially if they show signs of abuse or addiction, make sure to put solutions in the hands of the parents who need them.

Here's a report from Fox News in Atlanta on students using Ritalin as a "brain steroid." Interesting stuff.




For something fun, click here.

As always, find me on Twitter and LinkedIn. See you tomorrow.

Continuing Care

The Hazelden Foundation published a study in December regarding results of a research project about the importance of continuing care (you can find the study here.) The study shows a marked improvement when individuals in treatment follow their aftercare recommendation (specifically, this study is around outpatient and 12-step meetings). The basic underlying fact, and my experience, is this: the more engaged we can keep clients for the first year, the easier it is for them to achieve, or at least get on the road to, a successful recovery. If they go out on their own, are detached from their initial peer group and/or treatment center, and don't follow the recommended aftercare plan, their chances of success are slim. We, as an industry, need to do a better job recommending and enforcing aftercare recommendations; too many people are still under the impression that a person can go to treatment for 28 days and be "fixed." Once again, another stigma we have to break through!

Here's a PSA ad I found interesting and hadn't seen before:



Here's my favorite Super Bowl commercial from last night:




Here's something entertaining. Click here for some amazing art. Or here.

As always, find me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Thanks!

No Stimulus Funding?

According to an article on JoinTogether.org, the new $819 billion stimulus package passed by the house rejected a request for $100 million towards addiction research and chose not to pursue that option. However, there was a provision towards anti-smoking research and education, and almost $6 billion for general health and wellness provisions. Hopefully we can direct some of that money towards improving treatment outcomes and helping more people find a solution to their addiction and crisis.

Here's a great video from the UK featuring Jack Osbourne talking about 12-step recovery and talking to a younger population in treatment.



For something lighter, click here.

As always, you can find me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Thanks.

Checking in on Clarity

I finished the book Moments of Clarity by Christopher Kennedy Lawford this week and was super impressed (you can get the book on Amazon here). I think Christopher did a great job talking to folks not only of celebrity status, but those who work in the field as well. I was really touched by seeing Velvet Mangan's story in the book; it's great to see people I know advocating for recovery and sharing their personal experience on such a deep level. I'm hoping this book, which is currently on the New York Times Bestseller list, can help raise awareness that addiction can happen to ANYONE.

Here's a video that Christopher did promoting his book:



For something a little more fun, click here.

And as always, feel free to add me on Twitter or LinkedIn, and make sure to support my advertisers.

A new day dawns

Hi there.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be writing on occasion to update the world on what's happening inside the treatment world, as well as research, government action, and opinions. I would love comments and questions, and look forward to seeing some good results as we move forward in new ideas in this world.

For now, check out where I work here

You can also find me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

I'll be posting links and articles as well as anything I find out while exploring the field.

Take care, and see you soon.