Answer Addiction

Author: The Fix

  • Artie Lange "Doing Well" In Recovery, Working On Court-Ordered Community Service

    Artie Lange "Doing Well" In Recovery, Working On Court-Ordered Community Service

    One of Lange’s close friends released a video of the comedian participating in his court-ordered community service.

    Artie Lange appears to be making positive progress in early recovery after being taken into custody in January, when he tested positive for both morphine and cocaine. 

    Lange, a 51-year-old actor and comedian known for his roles on the Howard Stern Show and Mad TV, has long struggled with substance use disorder. At the time of his arrest, he was ordered to take part in mandatory drug rehab, Consequence of Sound reports.  

    A few days ago, Russ Meneve, a friend of Lange’s, tweeted a video of the actor cleaning up garbage as part of his community service and treatment. 

    “Just spoke to one of my greatest friends, Artie Lange, who’s doin’ great in recovery and asked me to share this vid of him “on the job” !!” his tweet read. “He looks great and will be back soon. Stay tuned and keep rootin’ for a truly great human being…we love ya, Art.”

    In the shared video, Lange says to Meneve, “You’re going to keep this quiet, right, I’m sure.” 

    Meneve responds, “Absolutely. No one will ever know, ” to which Lange replies “I love you!” and “Take care.”

    The video was also shared on Lange’s Twitter account, which read “We heard from Artie this morning, HA!” then added this snipped from Lange: “It’s true i’m working to satisfy my drug court program. I work with great people. Nothing wrong with a little hard work. Love you all and can’t wait to be back on stage.”

    According to Page Six, Lange’s rep has verified that “this is work Artie is doing as part of his [New Jersey] drug court case. He is working with a refuse company daily as he continues treatment.”

    This was not the actor’s first run-in with drug-related trouble. Last June, Lange was given four years of probation, 50 hours of community service and was instructed to attend outpatient treatment. Despite the charges, he was not given any jail time.

    “The judge and Prosecutor were unbelievably compassionate,” Lange tweeted at the time. “I’m not high. So I see it clearly now. They wanna save my life. 10 days ago when I left rehab I had to touch the flame. I used Cocaine.”

    Lange has been fairly open about his struggles. In December last year, he posted a photo of his nose on Instagram and called it “hideously deformed.” The reason for that, Fox News reported at the time, was accidentally snorting broken glass that had been mixed with Oxycontin. 

    At the time, some of Lange’s friends reached out on Twitter. 

    “Artie, this is my 1000th request over decades to beg you to surrender to your addictions,” Richard Lewis tweeted. “We had the most laughs sober. I love you. You’re beloved and a magnificent comedian cursed with self loathing and fear. Give it up and live.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool" Connects Jim Crow Oppression to Davis' Heroin Addiction

    "Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool" Connects Jim Crow Oppression to Davis' Heroin Addiction

    Miles Davis’ heroin addiction and alcoholism are all well known and well documented. However, Nelson frames this period as resulting from Davis’ return to a reality in which he was not wanted but his music was.

    The documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool opened up the world of one of the most innovative musicians in American history. In the film, Director Stanley Nelson laid bare all the details of the music man’s life, including the darkness and despair of Davis’s struggle with alcoholism and heroin addiction. It is during this piece of the film, which should have been the low and slow point, that the pieces Nelson offered began to connect. Davis’s heroin addiction was a direct result of the treatment he received as a black man living under Jim Crow laws in 1949.

    In the documentary, Nelson offers audiences the French tour where Miles Davis discovered love and existence without the restriction and oppression of Jim Crow America post-WWII. Davis went to France in 1949, touring with the Tadd Dameron group for quite some time. By all accounts—even those outside of Nelson’s documentary—the man became enamored with the country that embraced him for his talent without placing restrictions on him due to his skin color. Here he experienced life without the heavy hand of racism weighing him down.

    The freedom of living abroad was buoyed by a romance with a French singer named Juliette Gréco. The couple, despite their racial differences, was able to maintain a public relationship just like other couples in France and much of Europe. The oppressive, dangerously restrictive Jim Crow laws in the U.S. would have made their relationship illegal. American laws and policies in 1949 were enacted to maintain the belief that black people were inferior to their white countrymen.

    In Birth of the Cool, the narrator discusses how Davis became “disillusioned” by American racism after spending quite some time away in France. The weight of Jim Crow was enough to send the musician into a depression that he could not recover from. This was compounded by the lull in his musical career because of the waning popularity of bebop and the lack of a fresh new sound from Davis. He was also mulling the loss of the relationship that he would remember well into his later years. Davis told an interviewer that he never married Gréco because he loved her and wanted her to be happy. Their marriage could not exist in the U.S.

    The next part of the documentary was a slow plunge into the darkest parts of the musician’s life. Davis’s heroin addiction and alcohol abuse are all well known and well documented. However, Nelson frames this period as resulting from Davis’s return to a reality in which he was not wanted but his music was. Although Nelson never explicitly says so, the racism Davis experienced led to his depression, which sent him into the heroin addiction and alcoholism rabbit hole. Even in the documentary, Davis describes his depression as something that sprouted the moment he returned to the racist United States and followed him through the period of his life where he struggled with addiction.

    Studies like “Exploring the Link between Racial Discrimination and Substance Use: What Mediates? What Buffers?” from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology show that not only is there a relationship between racism and mental health issues as a whole, but the link also exists specifically between racism and addiction. The authors write, “Psychologists have known for some time about the pernicious effects that perceived racial discrimination can have on mental health.” The study goes on to dig into the research gathered from this link. They found that “[n]umerous correlational studies have documented relations between self-reports of discriminatory experiences and reports of distress, including anxiety and depression, as well as anger.” All of these elements were likely in place as Davis returned to the U.S. The weight of segregation, sundown laws, lynchings, and other trappings of Jim Crow laws was more than enough to anger and depress any black person at the time.

    Substance use promises an escape from pain and Davis needed a way to cope with all these feelings. According to the aforementioned study, “[T]he increased substance use we found was evidence of a coping style that includes use as a means of handling the stress of discrimination.” Davis probably became more angered and frustrated with the racist behavior (especially after returning home to the predominantly white St. Louis suburb his parents lived in). The documentary also described how his musical popularity waned and his personal life was disrupted from the breakup with Gréco. At the time, the musician’s life had all the elements in place to breed the raging heroin addiction that followed.

    Fortunately, Davis recovered from his addiction to opioids and alcohol, but it was a lifelong struggle. Nelson depicts as much in the documentary. In fact, racism and substance abuse become a very strong subplot to the documentary that works to educate viewers as much as entertain them. Between the scenes depicting the origins of the famous everchanging Miles Davis sound, Nelson buried important nuggets that should force us to redefine how we view and treat racism and addiction.

    Birth of the Cool essentially describes the environment from which Miles Davis’s addiction was created. There are other factors that also affected his addiction, but racism and depression were the primary and most powerful drivers that pushed him toward problematic substance use. Nelson thus lends one more voice to the chorus of stories that illustrate how racism and the oppression of white supremacy is an impetus to substance misuse and addiction. Acknowledging this can help with not only treating addiction in the black community, but also with understanding why racism should be considered a public health concern worthy of more serious attention.

    More info on Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool here.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Ketamine's Effect On Depression Examined

    Ketamine's Effect On Depression Examined

    A new study offers a better understanding of the way ketamine helps lift depression symptoms.

    Last month, the FDA approved a ketamine-based depression treatment for certain patients.

    The drug, esketamine, is said to relieve depression symptoms “in hours instead of weeks,” marketed for people who haven’t found success in other antidepressants.

    While it is yet unknown how exactly ketamine helps lift depression symptoms, a new study gives us a better understanding of how it works.

    The research confirms that ketamine triggers synapse growth, effectively rewiring the brain, Scientific American reports. They were able to “visualize and manipulate” the brains of stressed mice—demonstrating how ketamine first changes brain circuit function that improved behavior in “depressed mice” in up to 3 hours. Later, the drug stimulated regrowth of synapses in the brain.

    “It’s a remarkable engineering feat, where they were able to visualize changes in neural circuits over time, corresponding with behavioral effects of ketamine,” said Carlos Zarate of the National Institute of Mental Health, who was not involved in the study. “This work will likely set a path for what treatments should be doing before we move them into the clinic.”

    “Our findings open up new avenues for research, suggesting that interventions aimed at enhancing the survival of these new synapses might be useful for extending ketamine’s antidepressant effects,” said study lead Conor Liston of Weill Cornell Medicine.

    In March, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved esketamine (also known as Spravato) for people who did not respond to at least two other antidepressant treatments. The drug can only be administered under supervision by one’s doctor, and is said to relieve depression in just hours.

    “There has been a long-standing need for additional effective treatments for treatment-resistant depression, a serious and life-threatening condition,” said Dr. Tiffany Farchione of the FDA.

    Ketamine differs from traditional antidepressants by acting on glutamate, a chemical messenger in the brain, rather than the “monoamine” neurotransmitters (serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine) that traditional antidepressants act on. Glutamate plays an important role in the changes that synapses undergo in response to experiences that underlie learning and memory, Scientific American explains.

    A 23-year-old man suffering from depression, anxiety and other mental disorders shared his experience with ketamine infusion therapy with The Fix. “It helped with every aspect: anxiety, depression, psychosis. I know that’s not what it’s for, but in my case it changed everything,” he said.

    However, medical providers caution that while ketamine shows a lot of promise, there’s still more research to be done on its long-term effects on mental health patients.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Joe Biden: '80s Anti-Drug Bills Were "Big Mistake"

    Joe Biden: '80s Anti-Drug Bills Were "Big Mistake"

    “The big mistake was us buying into the idea that crack cocaine was different from the powder cocaine, and having penalties… it should be eliminated,” said Biden.

    Former Vice President Joe Biden again voiced regret for his support of a 1980s-era anti-drug bill that imposed tougher penalties and prison sentences for drug offenses that, in turn, bolstered disproportionate rates of incarceration in black and Latino communities.

    Speaking at a panel on opioid addiction at the University of Pennsylvania on April 11, Biden said that it was a “big mistake” to support the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 which levied more severe sentencing for possession of crack cocaine, a substance more predominantly found in communities of color, than for possession of powder cocaine. 

    But Biden, who is weighing his options in regard to a 2020 presidential bid, also noted that the crime bills added drug courts, which he viewed as a positive alternative to incarceration.

    Biden, who serves as Presidential Professor of Practice at UPenn, was joined on the panel by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney. The panel addressed the national opioid epidemic and efforts to address legal and cultural issues regarding addiction and drug use.

    Biden weighed in on several topics in the discussion, including the overwhelming amount of advertising dollars spent by pharmaceutical companies to promote opioid medications, which he described as “criminal.”

    Biden also said that closer negotiations with countries like China and Mexico, which are regarded as major sources of illicit narcotics, and increases in port security and technology to aid in detection—which he acknowledged was a missed opportunity by the Obama administration—would both help curb the flow of drugs into the United States. Biden specifically targeted President Donald Trump’s efforts to build a security barrier between the U.S. and Mexico while discussing this topic.

    “Instead of building more barriers, we could take one-tenth the amount of money talked about building the wall and significantly increase the technological capacity at ports of entry,” he noted.

    And in regard to the aforementioned crime bills, which Biden sponsored—and in the case of the 1986 bill, co-authored—he reiterated statements made at other public events in which he admitted that there had been missteps in his efforts towards criminal sentencing.

    “The big mistake was us buying into the idea that crack cocaine was different from the powder cocaine, and having penalties… it should be eliminated,” said Biden.

    And while acknowledging that he “[gets] beat up on the crime bill,” Biden also said that in his mind, there was also a positive outcome to his efforts.

    “The crime bill put in drug courts,” he said. “I think we have to do a whole lot more of that diversion to have an impact.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Kratom-Related Deaths Analyzed By The CDC

    Kratom-Related Deaths Analyzed By The CDC

    The herbal supplement has been targeted as a “drug of concern” by the FDA and DEA.

    The number of deaths associated with kratom appears to be rising.

    A new report by the CDC analyzed data from 27 states on 27,338 overdose deaths between July 2016 and December 2017. A small number was attributed to kratom.

    “Kratom was determined to be a cause of death (i.e., kratom-involved) by a medical examiner or coroner for 91 of the 152 kratom-positive decedents, including seven for whom kratom was the only substance to test positive on postmortem toxicology, although the presence of additional substances cannot be ruled out,” the report read.

    The herbal supplement credited with helping recovery from substance use disorder has been targeted as a “drug of concern” by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

    Some people in recovery say the plant, native to Southeast Asia, was vital to their recovery from drugs and alcohol, chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and more. But with every success story, there is a person struggling to quit kratom as well.

    A majority of the kratom-involved deaths involved people with a history of substance use disorder. A significant majority of the kratom-positive decedents were Caucasian.

    The data also showed that “multiple substances [were] detected for almost all decedents.” The most common were fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, then heroin, benzodiazepines and prescription opioids.

    The FDA has railed hard against kratom, stating last year that “compounds in kratom make it so it isn’t just a plant—it’s an opioid.”

    The February 2018 statement cited 44 deaths associated with kratom use. Prior to that, in a November 2017 advisory, the FDA reported 36 deaths related to kratom.

    The FDA said it is “especially concerned” about people who use kratom to treat opioid withdrawal, and though it states that it is open to reviewing evidence that kratom does have healing properties, it so far has not come across any “that would meet the agency’s standard for approval,” and warns against using kratom to treat medical conditions or as an alternative to prescription opioids.

    “While kratom may have useful effects, right now, it’s wholly unregulated,” Henry Spiller, director of the Central Ohio Poison Center, told ABC News.

    Only a few U.S. states have outright banned the plant. Some states are considering legislation to regulate the plant, rather than prohibiting it.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Julianne Hough Uses Dancing To Combat Anxiety & Depression

    Julianne Hough Uses Dancing To Combat Anxiety & Depression

    Hough says she considers dancing her “superpower.” 

    Two-time Dancing With the Stars winner Julianne Hough is opening up about how she used dancing to battle anxiety and depression. 

    As Hough explained to People, “I struggled with anxiety and depression growing up. I don’t think a lot of people would know that because I come off as sunshine and happiness and positivity.”

    Hough has struggled with endometriosis, which she was diagnosed with when she was in her early twenties. Endometriosis is a condition where tissue that lines the uterus grows outside of it, and it can lead to intense chronic pain and infertility. (It can also make sex very painful, and one in ten women suffer from the condition.)

    Hough told the Huffington Post, “It’s very debilitating. I can’t get up in the morning sometimes or it interferes with my daily activities. It really has affected my quality of life.”

    Hough also told Women’s Health that it was very traumatic when she was first diagnosed. “At the time I felt very lonely and like nobody understood me. I had no idea that [so many women] had endometriosis.”

    When Hough spoke at the annual The Wonder of Women Summit in Los Angeles, she also said that dance has helped her feel mental and physically balanced.

    “I believe that those two work hand in hand. I put on music immediately, which helps my auditory and sensory experience with my body. So then my body is activated and I’m moving my body, which changes my whole energy level for the day. So I get to choose how I show up in the world, with all the external pressures.”

    Hough considers dancing her “superpower.” She also feels that it “really transformed my experience and gave me a way to express myself. [Dance] actually breaks the barrier so you get confidence within yourself, and it’s for nobody else but you.”

    Hough said she is working with neurologist Dr. Wendy Suzuki, who also appeared at The Wonder of Women Summit, on studying the effects of dancing on people’s brains and well-being. “We’ve been really closely looking at how it affects the brain, our memory, and our ability to create endorphins and mood boost.”

    Hough’s brother Derek, a judge on the dance competition show World of Dance, released his first solo single “Hold On” in 2017, which dealt with mental health issues and had a strong anti-suicide message. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Could Working From Home Be Detrimental To Your Mental Health?

    Could Working From Home Be Detrimental To Your Mental Health?

    Experts say remote workers often struggle more with depression and anxiety than their peers in a traditional workplace. 

    While working from home is becoming more common and has certain conveniences, there are some pitfalls to doing so as well, new research has found.  

    The 2019 State of Remote Work report found that working from home may negatively affect wellness, Forbes reports.

    More specifically, when discussing the negative aspects of working remotely, 49% of those surveyed said they most struggle with wellness-related aspects. This includes 22% saying they are unable to “unplug” after they finish working, 19% reported feelings of loneliness and 8% struggled with motivation.    

    “These statistics could have a number of subjective influencers, such as the management style of their boss, their local connection speed, their personality or even which organization tools are used,” Forbes states. “However, there is one dominant common thread that can’t be ignored: 84% of all remote workers are working from a home office.”

    According to Dr. Amy Cirbus, PhD, Manager of Clinical Quality at Talkspace, those who work remotely often struggle more with depression and anxiety than their peers in a traditional workplace. They also often cite feeling lonely and isolated. 

    “Remote workers report a lack of concentration and focus that can compound and exacerbate these mental health challenges,” she tells Forbes. “It can lead to a loss of self-worth and a questioning of one’s abilities. Combined together, these symptoms can have a significant impact on job performance, job satisfaction and the efficiency of productive work.”

    According to Forbes, there could be a few reasons for this connection between working from home and wellness struggles. For one, self-management can lead to taking on more tasks than normal. Some remote workers also struggle to identify progress in their career, due to the lack of traditional milestones of climbing a career ladder. 

    The idea of work output also contributes to stressors for some who work remotely. Many who work in the freelance field, according to Forbes, are expected to pitch their own assignments and then complete them. Sometimes this may even lead to focusing so much on output that individuals are working unpaid hours or not taking sufficient breaks.

    However, these struggles don’t necessarily mean that working from home should be discouraged. Instead, remote workers can take a few steps to make sure they are doing so in a healthy manner. 

    One suggestion is creating a home office area, which will help create a literal separation of work and home life. Another is to stick to some form of normal working hours each day, while also making sure to move and exercise throughout those hours. Finally, Forbes suggests staying connected with others to limit isolation and being sure to have a support network. 

    “Research indicates that both exercise and connecting with others, even in short bursts, produces endorphins that boost mood, increase creativity and esteem, and decrease anxiety,” Cirbus tells Forbes.

    “The key is the consistency. One afternoon walk or one lunch break with a colleague or friend won’t eliminate these mental health challenges. Making a daily commitment to healthy injections of well-being on a regular basis is where the positive, lasting change occurs.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Lena Dunham Celebrates Sober Milestone

    Lena Dunham Celebrates Sober Milestone

    The “Girls” creator took to Instagram to celebrate her first sober birthday.

    On April 10, Lena Dunham, the creator of the groundbreaking show Girls, marked a year sober in an Instagram post.

    Giving the thumbs up in her Instagram photo, Dunham told her three million followers, “Today I’m in the miraculous position of being one year sober. I’ve done a lot of cool things in this life, but none has brought me the peace, joy and lasting connections of being part of a sober fellowship.”

    “Life is full of problems,” she added, “but the cool thing about this one is that there is a solution: in ever city, in many countries, you can find a group of people who are working hard to live sober, accountable lives, and want to support you on your quest to do the same.”

    Dunham had previously taken the anti-anxiety medication Klonopin, and didn’t realize an addiction was creeping up on her. “I didn’t know I had an issue with drugs for a long time,” she writes, “because they were doctor prescribed, because I was outwardly successful and not a wild in da club party chick. But wouldn’t you say that hurting people you love is an issue? Wouldn’t you say feeling lost and lonely much of the time is an issue?”

    Dunham also realized that sobriety doesn’t solve all your problems. “Life is still challenging,” she continues. “That’s the nature of the game. But every day I am surprised by the richness and depth of, well, reality. I don’t need to escape this beautiful carnival. Instead, I’m on the ride.”

    Dunham ended her post by telling the world, “Please remember you are never too far gone, too broken or too unique. There are people in plain sight waiting to help you. Let’s do this.”

    Dunham had previously confessed her struggles with Klonopin on the Dax Shepard podcast “Armchair Expert” when she hit her six-month sober mark. “My particular passion was Klonopin,” she explained. She started taking the medication when she was battling severe anxiety, but then she was taking it more and more often.

    “It stopped being ‘I take one when I fly,’ to ‘I take one when I’m awake. I didn’t have any trouble getting a doctor to tell me, ‘No you have serious anxiety issues, you should be taking this. This is how you should be existing.’”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Dear AA, We Need to Talk

    Dear AA, We Need to Talk

    You weren’t straight up so now we’re on the rocks.

    Dear Alcoholics Anonymous,

    I’m leaving you. I’ve had enough after 31 years and that’s not even counting the 2 before that. Oy, those were rocky. You sounded way too Christian with just a spritz of Buddhism thrown in for a twist. We’d be nothing but a sour mix because I’m a devout Jewish atheist.

    “Trust me,” you cooed. “Alcohol is cunning and baffling. I can help.” But when you strongly suggested I pray on my knees, I lost it.

    I screamed, “Jews don’t pray on their knees!”

    You weren’t alarmed but you asked that same old tired question. “How can you be an atheist and a Jew?”

    Before I could explain culture versus religion to you with my secular “bagel Jew” crack, you cooed at me:

    “That doesn’t matter. Anything can be a higher power—a chair or a doorknob. Just as long as you know you’re not it.”

    With an eyeroll, “A doorknob? What’re you, high? That makes no sense.”

    Unfazed, you kept trying to lure me in. “You’ll see the hoop you have to jump through is wider than you think.”

    But, oy vey, the goddamn god stuff left me feeling shaken so I split. Then when alcohol stopped working all together, I ran back. I dreamed about you warming me up like a stiff scotch used to. But instead of giving me euphoria, you said I needed to admit I was powerless over alcohol. If I surrendered this time, you said I could pour my sadness into you. I was lost and you were gentle, so when you told me to close my eyes, I did.

    You asked, “Can you think of anything that’s more powerful than you?”

    “Yes,” I said. “Rain. No matter how much I screamed at the sky, it wouldn’t stop raining.”

    Your face lit up. “You got it!”

    I beamed. “Oh! And the ocean, too,” I said. “Waves will keep crashing no matter what I do.”

    “Right. You’re powerless over alcohol and I can restore you to sanity.”

    Hands on hips, I yelled “I’m not insane!” But I was still shaken, not stirred.

    “You can use G.O.D. as in Group of Drunks,” you reminded me, then led me to a dark church basement where you said I’d feel welcome. But the pathetic coffee left me craving something stronger; I wanted to be under the influence till I was over the limit. Yet, still attracted to the liquor-free confidence there, I decided on the GOD acronym. Until the speaker cracked the Big Book open and read Step 11.

    You smarmy liar! And I was vulnerable, trying to quit getting lit. You gaslit me:

    “To certain newcomers and to those one-time agnostics
    who still cling to the A.A. group as their higher power….”

    Still desperate and confused, I kept going because people were nice to me. At a lunchtime meeting, the speaker talked about her fifth step. It sounded so much like confession I got excited and whirled my head around scanning the room for communion wine. Those early meetings taught me to pray—for a liquid lunch.

    You said it was a spiritual program so I had to accept the idea of a higher power. That nearly crushed me. You really didn’t understand that some people know there isn’t any god. I’d held out hope that you were going to unveil yourself as top shelf stuff but most of the time, you seemed like Mad Dog. Especially when you said stupid shit like, “Your best thinking got you here.”

    I wanted to be with you in the rooms, but most of the time I was dragging my ass around. But now I’m sick of feeling trapped. I hate your smoke and mirrors trickery. Your demand for rigorous honesty can cramp my style. When we almost broke up and I wanted to bolt, I cheated on you with meetings for atheists. The problem was there were so few of them and they were just as dogmatic.

    I can hear your disdain when you call me one of those “unfortunates” who can’t get the program because I’m constitutionally incapable of being honest. Now that’s grandiose. I’m sick of your self-righteous finger wagging at me, saying you’re not judgmental but then labeling me the belligerent one if I challenge anything you say. But come on, the idea of a looming spirit in place of intoxicating spirits is ridiculous.

    Okay, I admit I’m grateful that you always took me back. You’ve been patient and kind and most of all, you stuck by me. But damn it, I’m sick of being barked at for doing things that aren’t suggested. So I’m at a crossroads. The fear of leaving is a biggie. You and all of our friends will pull away from me if I leave you. The pressure to stay feels a lot like the bar pressure to do one more shot.

    If I went that route, at least I could take breaks from feeling everything so acutely while also stuffing down any critical words about you. Whenever I express frustration about how hypocritical you can be, I get looked at with pity: “Poor Dee. She’s taking her will back. Let’s pray for her. It only works if you work it.” 

    I wince at that crap. I refuse to wear a cone of shame if I save a seat, or gossip, or don’t feel like stacking the chairs some days. A lot of people think it’s healthy to fear slipping but I no longer want to fear anything. Peer pressure reminds me of junior high.

    Please quit telling me if I’m upset it’s because I’m obstinate, immature, and willful.

    Uh oh. But what if you’re right? If I leave, would I regress? I never want to be the sorry sot I was before we met. Those stakes are too high. I was afraid to give up alcohol and drugs because I “knew” I needed them. Then you proved me wrong. If I storm out, does that make me a brat who won’t take my medicine?

    You’ve always been a good listener and who else would love me in spite of my god rants? Maybe I am at the right party now. Though I long for the schnockered nights, I ain’t in my twenties anymore. I don’t even know if I could still stay up till four in the morning, much less hit the after-hours until the Tequila Sunrises. Yearning for wild nights of yore could be euphoric recall — rosy as a maraschino on top.

    Maybe staying together is fine after all. We’ve talked so many times about my expectations and you’re right—it’s stupid to blame you for being imperfect. I mean, look at me.

    G.O.D. can stand for good orderly direction, with Buddhism’s tangy flavor: a god within. Now that I’m thinking things through, I suppose a frothy soy milkshake could satiate me more than White Russians ever could. And, seriously, who wants a shit-faced higher power within anyway? No marriage is 100 percent bliss; perhaps I just caught a 31-year itch. My mind easily wanders back to booty calls with sexy bar pickups. Libidos on fire. At weak moments I ache to go back there. Then I snap out of it.

    Truth is, I love Netflix nights chillin’ with decaf chai latte from Starbucks. You’ve been there for me time after time. So, let’s hold up the paper cup. Cheers, AA. I’m not going anywhere.

    What’ll it be tonight? Barfly or Leaving Las Vegas?”

     

     

    How have you handled boredom and frustration in recovery? Or did you decide to leave your 12-step program? Tell us in the comments.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Are Older Adults Receiving Adequate Mental Health Care?

    Are Older Adults Receiving Adequate Mental Health Care?

    Suicidal ideation, self-harm and depression are among the mental health issues that senior citizens are battling without professional help. 

    Older adults are getting left behind when it comes to mental health care, according to an opinion piece in the The Guardian by Emily Reynolds.  

    According to recent research in the British Journal of Psychiatry, the self-harm rate for older individuals was around 65 per 100,000. This was based on an analysis of about 40 studies.

    But these results are hardly surprising, Reynolds writes. She states that in 2014, the World Health Organization discovered that in those over age 70 across the world, the suicide rates were highest.

    Additionally, the Royal College of Psychiatrists determined that 40% of older individuals in basic care clinics struggle with mental health, as do 50% in hospital settings and 60% in care facilities. 

    While it’s widely believed that focusing on eliminating or decreasing loneliness in older adults could aid in this issue, that’s not the full problem, Reynolds says.

    “Loneliness is sometimes presented as the primary problem when it comes to tackling mental ill-health in older people—and, while it indubitably contributes, this explanation doesn’t really go far enough,” she writes. “Many of those experiencing self-harm, suicidal thoughts or other signs of mental distress already have diagnoses—they’re people who have dealt with mental illness their whole lives. Social isolation may contribute to their problems, yes, but it’s not the full picture.”

    According to Reynolds, who cites research from the Journal of Psychiatry, there is more at play. Other factors apart from loneliness include age, an individual’s history when it comes to self-harm, physical conditions and other existing psychiatric diagnoses. 

    Another barrier, Reynolds points out, is access to aid—what she calls “a perennial bugbear for mental health campaigners.” Research from the Royal College of Psychiatrists has determined that 85% of those in the older population who struggle with depression do not receive the help they need.

    Additionally, they are only one-fifth as likely as younger generations to be able to utilize “talking therapies.”

    According to Reynolds, the solution starts with simply acknowledging who needs help. 

    “And on a very basic level, acknowledging that mental illness is not a problem that suddenly vanishes as you age would be a huge step,” Reynolds writes.

    “The current face of mental illness is young, white, middle-class, diagnosed with a condition such as depression or anxiety. People of color, those with more serious diagnoses and the elderly are often not given a look in at all.”

    View the original article at thefix.com