Author: The Fix

Former "Good Morning America” Anchor Details Gambling Addiction

The former weatherman wrote about his secret gambling addiction in his new book, “You Bet Your Life.”

Erstwhile weatherman and Good Morning America host Spencer Christian pulled back the curtain on his struggles with gambling addiction—and his brush with the FBI, a close call that still wasn’t enough to break the habit.

The long-time TV personality struggled mightily with his costly gambling habit, moving around so much money he attracted the attention of federal agents at one point.

“Before every gambling trip I’d go to three or four banks where I had accounts and take cash out and then I’d go off and when I’d come back, I’d have all this cash to redeposit, and that fit the pattern of someone covering up drug money or whatever,” the 70-year-old said in a GMA interview last week.

That sparked interest from the FBI, who thought it fit the pattern of illicit activity. But after investigating, the feds realized he wasn’t doing anything illegal.

“‘We found no criminal activity, you didn’t break any laws,’” Christian remembered an FBI agent telling him. “He said, ‘You obviously have a real gambling problem, and for your own good you need to seek some help.’ That was a scary moment and it was a huge wake-up call.”

But that wasn’t the thing that actually got him to turn things around. Instead, it was his family.

Even though he was able to keep his addiction from interfering with his on-air life, it wreaked havoc at home. It was his daughter who eventually took him to task for it, he recounted.

“She said, ‘Dad, you know I admire you and I love you, and I think the world of you, but you’ve got this problem and I’m going to bring grandchildren into your life,’” Christian remembered. “‘Do you want your grandchildren to know their grandfather as a gambler? Is this the legacy you want to leave, is this the way you want to be defined?’ And it just hit me like a ton of bricks.’”

That was the moment of clarity for him, the spark that prompted him to turn things around. Now, he’s in recovery, working for San Francisco’s ABC affiliate, and touting his new book, You Bet Your Life.

Before parting ways with GMA, Christian was the show’s weatherman, occasional reporter and guest anchor from 1986 to 1998.

“It’s never too late to change the direction of your life,” Christian said. “We all have problems. Even those of us who seem to be living the perfect life have problems.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2018
Police Seize Enough Fentanyl To Kill 26 Million People

The record-breaking seizure was one of the biggest fentanyl busts in US history.

Nebraska State Patrol managed to seize 118 pounds of fentanyl during a routine traffic stop.

According to estimates by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, this was enough fentanyl to kill 26 million people. This estimate is based on the fact, according to the DEA, that just two milligrams of the drug is enough to kill a person.

On April 26, state troopers became aware of a suspicious semi-truck driving on the shoulder of Interstate 80. After pulling the truck over, troopers searched the vehicle and found the record-breaking stash in a hidden compartment.

At first glance, the troopers thought they had found a formidable mound of what was probably mostly cocaine. Testing of the drug was delayed because of the “dangerous nature of the substance,” as some drugs, including fentanyl, are dangerous if touched and absorbed into the skin or accidentally breathed in.

It was fortunate they took such precautions, because testing revealed that all 118 pounds were fentanyl. This bust was the largest the state of Nebraska had ever seen, and is among the largest in the country, announced Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts.

The driver and passenger of the truck, 46-year-old Felipe Genao-Minaya and 52-year-old Nelson Nunez, were arrested for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. Authorities estimate the product they were hauling was worth more than $20 million.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is anywhere between 50 and 100 times stronger than morphine and 30 to 50 times stronger than heroin.

The drug has exacerbated the opioid crisis and has been involved in a few high-profile deaths, including Prince and Tom Petty. Petty was found unconscious in his home and was rushed to the hospital in full cardiac arrest. An autopsy revealed that among the drugs in his system, fentanyl featured prominently.

In Prince’s case, neither he nor those close to him knew he was taking fentanyl. Everyone involved thought the pills were Vicodin, but they were actually fentanyl-laced counterfeits, according to an investigation.

Kellyanne Conway, who was entrusted by the Trump administration with the task of tackling the opioid crisis, suggested that fentanyl addiction and deaths could be avoided if people opted for junk food as their vice instead.

“I guess my short advice is, as somebody double your age, eat the ice cream, have the french fry, don’t buy the street drug,” Conway said. “Believe me, it all works out.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2018
Guns N’ Roses Drummer: I’ve Never Been Happier Than I Am Sober

“After, like, the ninth month of not drinking, my whole life did a 180. Everything changed. I became happy again. I love life again.”

Steven Adler, the former drummer for Guns N’ Roses, who left the rock band because his drug use was becoming too much, says that he has never been more happy than he is living life in recovery.

“My health is fabulous. Actually, tomorrow I will have four years and four months of no drinking. And I haven’t done drugs since 2008. So I’ve never been happier,” Adler recently told a journalist, according to Blabbermouth.

While the initial period of recovery was difficult, Adler said that he began to notice positive changes in his life the longer he stayed away from drugs and alcohol.

“After, like, the ninth month of not drinking, my whole life did a 180,” he said. “Everything changed. I became happy again. I love life again. I enjoy the sunsets. I enjoy the sunrise. It’s beautiful.”

Guns N’ Roses paused recording during the late ‘80s and early ’90s to give Adler a chance to get his heroin addiction under control. However, Adler wasn’t able to stay sober, so he was kicked out of the band in 1990.

Since he has been sober, Adler has joined the band on some tour dates, and has also started his own Guns N’ Roses tribute band. In order to keep touring with that band, Adler maintains a strict routine that helps him stay sober, he said.

“I wake up,” he said. “The first thing I do is I read The Four Agreements. It’s a book from Don Miguel Ruiz. [The book’s mantra is] be impeccable with your word; don’t take things personal; don’t make assumptions; and always do your best—no more no less,” Adler said.

“I read a little of that, I have my decaf tea, I go on the treadmill and I do a little jogging to stay in shape, and then I practice. It’s all mind, body and soul. So I read the book for my mind, I do the treadmill for my body, and I play the drums for my soul. And then the rest of the time, I sit round and watch Family Guy with my dogs.”

Adler’s mother, Deanna Adler, recently spoke about watching her son struggle for so many years.

“[It] was very hard to see my son hurt like that and have a disease like that, because I’ve never drank or smoked or done drugs—I’m just a normal person,” she said. “But to see your son in such pain like that and knowing that you can’t do anything—I thought I could do something to help him, but in reality you can’t.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2018
CDC Warns of Blood-Thinning Synthetic Marijuana Strain

The strain can lead to “unexplained bleeding such as coughing up blood, blood in the urine, bloody nose and bleeding gums.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning about the dangers of a certain strain of synthetic marijuana.

The synthetic marijuana, the CDC says, is covered in a powder form of rodenticide called brodifacoum.

“It’s like what you buy at the store to kill rats underneath your house,” Katie Seely of the Arkansas Department of Health Public Health Lab told THV11.

According to the CDC, the strain can lead to “unexplained bleeding such as coughing up blood, blood in the urine, bloody nose and bleeding gums.”

When ingested by humans, brodifacoum will thin the blood. “We have seen teenagers with heart attacks. We’ve seen coma, we’ve seen death. We’ve seen renal failure. So it runs the gambit,” Seely told THV11.

Seely also said that even calling the synthetic strain marijuana is misleading. “The synthetic cannabinoids are a lot more potent and a lot more dangerous in general than the marijuana is,” Seely said.

While brodifacoum is the same type of drug sometimes prescribed by doctors, it’s dangerous when taken if not needed. “Brodifacoum is the same type of drug as warfarin and coumadin, which a lot of people take as blood thinners if they’ve had some heart conditions,” Seely said. “But that is monitored by a physician and it has to be monitored very closely.”

The Arkansas Department of Health states that if a person has ingested this strain of synthetic marijuana and then gets in some type of accident, their blood may not coagulate correctly, which can be fatal.

“We don’t ever want to scare parents,” Seely said. “The synthetic cannabinoids have been around for a while, and unfortunately, they’re not going to go away. It’s one of those things, just know what your kids are up to.”

This strain of synthetic marijuana isn’t the only one to be aware of.

On May 19, more than a dozen people in Brooklyn, New York were taken to the hospital after taking what authorities believe to be a toxic batch of the synthetic drug “Spice” or “K2” which is made to imitate (poorly) the effects of THC in marijuana.

According to the New York Times, a witness says the effects were immediate.

“They would take two puffs and bam, they’d drop right there,” she said. “People just started falling to the ground. Right here, there were three strewn on the sidewalk. Over there, two more. The medics were here working until 9 pm.”

Despite some being found unconscious and having difficulty breathing, all those hospitalized are expected to survive. They were all treated with the opioid overdose antidote naloxone.

While synthetic cannabinoids are banned in nearly all U.S. states, the New York Times notes, it is still a struggle to eradicate them, as what they are made up of is always changing.

“These are synthetic drugs that are manufactured with remarkable creativity such that lawmakers are facing challenges in keeping ahead,” Eugene O’Donnell, a former NYPD police officer and professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told the Times. “Restricting access to one ingredient touches off a search for a replacement. If you can whip up an intoxicating or stimulating substance readily and legally available, you can avoid prosecution.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2018
Congress "Scared" To Take On American Medical Association Over Opioids

A senator recently called out Congress for not standing up to the AMA for stalling progress on anti-opioid abuse regulations.

A powerful physicians lobby is blocking efforts in Congress to regulate the way certain medications like opioid painkillers are prescribed, according to a new report.

According to the Daily Beast, the American Medical Association has actively lobbied against certain measures that seek to limit the way that doctors give opioid prescriptions. And according to some members of Congress, fellow lawmakers are “too scared” to go up against the massive organization.

This may have to do with the fact that in 2017, the AMA was the seventh highest lobbying spender ($21.5 million), and in 2016 gave nearly $2 million to members of Congress.

The AMA has been forthright in its opposition to measures included in the Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act 2.0 (a proposed update to the 2016 law by the same name) that would limit opioid prescriptions to a three-day supply, according to Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, a co-sponsor of the bill.

The AMA also opposes mandatory opioid education for doctors, as well as the required use of prescription drug databases to check a patient’s history with certain drugs before prescribing a new medication.

Members of Congress are “too scared to take on the AMA,” thus stalling progress on anti-opioid abuse regulation, said Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Many of the measures that the AMA is against appear on a list of guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2016.

The guidelines—which do not apply to palliative care, end-of-life care, or cancer treatment—encourage physicians to “start low and go slow” when prescribing opioid painkillers for chronic pain, and to “prescribe no more than needed.”

The CDC also advises physicians to discuss the risk factors of using opioid medication with all patients, and to review each patient’s prescription drug history via the prescription drug monitoring database before prescribing.

But the AMA does not see a solution in mandating these reforms through legislation.

“Limits and one-size-fits-all approaches will not end this epidemic,” the organization said in a statement. “The AMA has urged Congress, statehouses, and payers to cover evidence-based treatment that works. Most patients with opioid use disorder have trouble accessing care as payers and others put up obstacle.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2018
Philadelphia Grapples With Closing Heroin Camps

The city has promised to move people who are currently encamped in the area into drug treatment and permanent housing.

City officials and charitable groups in Philadelphia are grappling with how best to help people as the city moves to dismantle tent cities that are overrun with opioid abuse.

City officials hope to have four encampments closed by the end of May, and are giving camp residents priority access to housing and drug treatment.

“What I predict is going to happen? This bridge will be cleaned out, Tulip [encampment] will be cleaned out, they’ll go to the other bridges, they’ll go in abandoned buildings,” Nicole Bixler, a social worker, said earlier this month. “The community will be broken up, and they’ll die alone, and no one will know until we smell them in the summertime.”

The camps are home to about 180 people, many of whom inject opioids. Last year, Philadelphia cleaned out its largest heroin encampment, which had become so well-known that it was featured on an episode of The Dr. Oz Show. The camp was home to people with addiction, many of whom moved on to other areas of the city when the camp was cleared out.

This time, the city has promised to move people who are currently encamped in the Kensington area of the city into drug treatment and permanent housing. Each day, city workers visit the camps to try to get people into area shelters or into treatment. In the past two weeks 39 people have entered treatment, more than in the past six months, according to the Philly Inquirer.

“Everybody wants it to work,” said City Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez, whose district has three of the encampments and two shelters that people are being relocated to. “This is the closest we’ve gotten to breaking down barriers on access to housing and treatment. It shouldn’t have taken this long, but we’re there.”

Still, some residents of the camp are frustrated that it took so long for the city to come up with a viable solution to the housing and drug crisis.

“Why wait until now to do this?” said Ryan Forrest, 28, who has lived in one of the camps for seven months. “Why did they let so many people get frostbite during the winter?”

Forrest wasn’t sure what he was going to do when the camps were cleared, until he realized that he was on the city’s list of camp residents who were being prioritized for treatment and housing.

“I was going to stay until the end. I didn’t really have a plan,” he said. “But they were pushing me to the shelter, and they told me I was on the list, and I went up there.”

People who work closely with the homeless population that lives in the camps are cautiously optimistic that reluctant residents like Forrest may get help with the new programming.

“I’m scared for what may happen,” said Tim Sheahan, an outreach worker with the city’s Department of Behavioral and Intellectual Disability Services. “We’ve gotten as close to treatment on demand as possible.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2018
Latin America Should Consider Legalizing Drugs, United Nations Official Says

The head of a UN economic commission for Latin America says “illegality is killing people.”

A United Nations official argued that Latin American should seriously consider legalizing drugs in order to save lives, Newsweek reported. Alicia Bárcena, the head of a UN economic commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, says that the region needs to take a fresh look at the impact of the drug trade.

Especially in Mexico, thousands of people die annually in connection to narcotics. In fact, 2017 was the worst year yet for drug-related murders.

According to Time, Mexico had nearly 30,000 murders last year (the Interior Department reported 29,168 homicides), which is “more than 2011 at the peak of Mexico’s drug cartel-stoked violence.”

What’s worse is that Mexico’s death toll is the highest ever since the government began keeping homicide records in 1997.

Bárcena says the time has come to overhaul Latin America’s drug strategy: “I’m going to be very provocative,” she acknowledged at a forum in Paris. “Who would drug legalization be good for? Latin America and the Caribbean, for God’s sake. Because the illegality is what’s killing people,” she said.

Peru, Bolivia and Colombia are among the world’s top producers of coca leaves, which are used to make cocaine. Mexico is the primary hub through which cocaine is smuggled from those South American countries to the United States. (The U.S. is among the world’s largest markets for cocaine.)

Cocaine, however, isn’t the only drug that’s spurred the record number of murders throughout Latin America: the precipitous rise of Mexico’s crystal meth and heroin markets in recent years is also to blame. U.S. News & World Report observed that those drugs have hugely disrupted drug trafficking in Latin America.

“Cartel fragmentation is a big part of the story of why violence is increasing,” said Alejandro Hope, a former Mexican federal intelligence official. “This has really accelerated in the last couple of years. It’s the changing nature of the game.”

Given the complicated attitudes toward drug legalization in the world, especially with the United States’ increasingly relaxed stance on marijuana, there are many who believe Bárcena’s proposal isn’t so much controversial as it is forward-thinking.

As Bradley Tusk wrote in a Chicago Sun-Times op-ed, Mexicans are dying over drugs that aren’t even intended for Mexican consumers. Tusk, a former deputy governor of Illinois, considered what the landscape would look like if the Mexican government decided to throw up its hands and say the U.S. could deal with drug problems at its border.

“Almost immediately, many of the problems plaguing Mexico start to diminish. If there’s no attempted enforcement of drug laws, there’s no more opportunity for corruption. Who are you going to bribe when drugs are already legal?” Tusk asked. “And if there’s no attempt to stop the movement of drugs—if it can be done openly and freely—there’s no need for most of the violence consuming cities like Juarez.”

While cartels would still initially be at war with one another, he conceded, that too would drop off. “When bloodshed and violence is no longer necessary, it’s also no longer seen as an appropriate cost of doing business,” he said.

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2018
How Online Dating Affects Mental Health

A new study revealed that online dating can impact mental health in a variety of ways and may even lead to tech addiction.

These days finding someone to date should be easier than ever. After all, dating apps can tell you who is near by, what they’re after in a partner, and even what they look like.

However, experts warn that online dating can be tied to lower self-esteem, tech addiction and depression.

A study published in 2016 polled 1,044 woman and 273 men (mostly college-aged) about their social habits. About 10% of them were using Tinder.

“We found that being actively involved with Tinder, regardless of the user’s gender, was associated with body dissatisfaction, body shame, body monitoring, internalization of societal expectations of beauty, comparing oneself physically to others, and reliance on media for information on appearance and attractiveness,” said Jessica Strübel, PhD, of the University of North Texas, who co-authored the study with Trent Petrie, PhD.

“Tinder users reported having lower levels of satisfaction with their faces and bodies and having lower levels of self-worth than the men and women who did not use Tinder,” she added.

Researchers were primarily interested in how online dating affected women, but they were surprised to see that using the dating and hookup app had a real effect on men, too.

“Although current body image interventions primarily have been directed toward women, our findings suggest that men are equally and negatively affected by their involvement in social media,” said Strübel.

The pain of being rejected in online dating scenarios can also sting. A study published in 2011 found that being socially rejected activates the same parts of the brain that physical pain does. That means that opening oneself up on dating apps—where you can be rejected faster than ever—can have a real impact on well-being.

In addition, being involved with online dating might lead to tech addiction. Last year, Match.com did a survey that found that 15% of singles felt addicted to the process of finding a date online, CNN Health reported.

Millennials were most likely to say that they felt addicted to online dating, while 54% of women using the dating service said that they felt burned out by the process.

While there is still debate over the merits of tech addiction, one study published in 2016 linked technology addiction with depression and anxiety. People who spent more time online (perhaps looking for a date) were more severely affected.

“People who self-described as having really addictive-style behaviors toward the Internet and cellphones scored much higher on depression and anxiety scales,” said Alejandro Lleras, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois who co-authored this study.

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2018
Cryptocurrency Addiction Treatment Program Launches In Scotland

The announcement has sparked debate about the validity of digital currency addiction.

A hospital in the south of Scotland is offering what is described as the first residential treatment for dependency on cryptocurrency.

Therapists at Castle Craig Hospital in Peeblesshire, which provides treatment programs for drugs and alcohol, will apply methods used to treat gambling addiction to assist individuals who have become dependent on trading digital currencies like Bitcoin.

Though no scientific studies have been conducted to confirm whether dependency to cryptocurrency trading is an actual condition, medical professionals have concurred that the nature of bitcoin trading—which can yield or lose thousands of dollars at a moment’s notice—might cause some individuals to exhibit dependency-driven behavior when using it.

In its coverage of Castle Craig’s bitcoin program, Metro UK quoted Chris Burn, a gambling therapist at the facility, who drew a connection between gambling dependency and similar behaviors linked to cryptocurrency.

“The high risk, fluctuating cryptocurrency market appeals to the problem gambler,” he noted. “It provides excitement and an escape from reality. Bitcoin, for example, has been heavily traded and huge gains and losses were made.”

His sentiments were echoed by therapist Tony Marini, whose struggles with gambling and cocaine dependency made him an ideal choice to lead some treatment sessions at Castle Craig.

“I see cryptocurrency trading as a way for people to escape from themselves into another world, because they don’t like the world they’re in,” he stated. “The first stage of treatment is to join other addicts in group therapy and share their life stories. It helps them identify with each other and realize they’re not alone.”

The notion of Bitcoin and other digital currencies as dependency-forming is not relegated to the staff at Castle Craig. The Austin, Texas-based Daily Dot referenced a 2014 online discussion on Reddit which, while largely humorous, did indicate that some users felt that Bitcoin was “like a drug” as one individual wrote.

For Dr. Timothy Fong, an associate professor of psychiatry at UCLA, the assessment has some merit. “You could replace the words ‘digital currency’ with ‘crack cocaine,’ ‘methamphetamine, ‘marijuana,’ or ‘gambling,’ and you’ll see some of those same kind of ways people talk about it,” he noted.

But he is hesitant to refer to dependency issues regarding bitcoin as an actual condition. “There is truth to that,” he said to the Dot. “But it’s a funny statement because you could say the same thing about sex, sports, handbags, a freshly-cut lawn, an ocean view—all those things are naturally rewarding, and they activate the portion of our brain that’s rewarding.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2018
Owning My Space as a Woman in 12-Step Programs

I am totally within my rights if I say no, you may not sit there, and no, I don’t want a hug and I don’t want a cup of coffee and just back the fuck off because I have mace in my purse.

Several days after I took my last drink, I was detoxing at home (note: this is not a good idea) when my mother came over to check on me.

“You should go to AA,” she said, not judgmentally but kindly, from her perch on the sofa in our playroom. I was sweating, sprawled on the other couch, ignoring the toys strewn around me, and her suggestion hit me like a crack of lightning. I sat upright.

“Absolutely NOT,” I replied. “I’m not going to sit in a room full of people who have problems.”

I laugh about it now, looking back. Alcoholics Anonymous is exactly where I belonged then, and it’s where I belong today, but finding the courage to take that first step is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. I was terrified, physically and emotionally sick, and as vulnerable as a baby animal left in the woods. Truthfully, I belonged in rehab, but our insurance would require us to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket if we chose that route, and we simply could not afford it.

People fresh out of the mire of addiction or alcoholism, are, in a word, weak. I waffled between wanting to die and experiencing bursts of euphoria. I had moments where I would have done any drug offered to me, just to make the unfamiliar experience of feeling raw emotions stop. I was fortunate enough to have a fortress of strong friends and family around me to hold me accountable and keep me on track long enough for sobriety to really take hold, but I can honestly say that I’ve never been as vulnerable as I was in early recovery.

And that is why I am so pissed off at the men who tried, unsuccessfully, to take advantage of my weakened state.

I don’t hate men; I think they’re pretty great. Men have, in general, always treated me well. I have two sons, an amazing husband, a wonderful dad, and multiple examples of loving, emotionally healthy male figures in my life. My life experiences have shown me that men are not only perfectly capable of treating women like human beings, but also that they should be expected to do so. Maybe I’m naïve, or sheltered, or simply have out of whack expectations, but when I began attending 12-step programs, I was quickly reminded that not all men are decent, and it PISSED ME OFF.

I’m not going to bore you with descriptions of how some of the dirty old-timers treat me before they realize I don’t play the 13^th stepper game. Some of these people are very slow learners, and others may never get it. If I had not been pushed, encouraged, and sometimes accompanied by my badass girlfriends, the energy it took to ward off the creeps would have been enough to allow me to talk myself into just staying home. It was the perfect excuse, really – telling myself that it wasn’t worth the trouble, or that a women’s only meeting wasn’t until tomorrow, so I could just skip out for today.

Fuck that.

“There will always be assholes,” my sponsor said at the time. “You can’t let that stop you from staying sober.” That was the day I decided not to allow someone else’s sickness interfere with my own recovery.

Fuck that.

I had no idea that I am terrible with boundaries until I started practicing saying “no” when a creeper tried to hold my hand or sit next to me. I learned that nothing terrible happens when I stand up in the middle of a meeting and switch seats, or if I say “this seat is taken,” even when it’s not. I learned that I can simply say no without offering an explanation. I am totally within my rights if I say no, you may not sit there, and no, I don’t want a hug and I don’t want a cup of coffee and just back the fuck off because I have mace in my purse.

Fuck that.

When a known predator walked right up to me and tried to give me a kiss, I stepped away and said “NOPE” as loudly as I could. As time went on and the fogginess of early sobriety began to clear, I forced myself to speak up in meetings, even with multiple pairs of eyes boring into me, mouthing words to me, and generally making me uncomfortable.

Fuck that.

My husband suggested that I start looking rough on purpose; at the beginning, I didn’t have to try. I looked like shit 24/7. But honestly, I don’t think it matters. Creepers gonna creep, no matter what a newcomer looks like.

I refuse to be crowded out of the only place I can go to for safety. I am in a happy marriage, I’m not looking for a sugar daddy or a fuck buddy or even a friend. I can get my own coffee and throw away my own garbage and get my own chair, and don’t you dare follow me to my car. I am in the rooms because I’m sick and I want to get better, and when I watch the newer newcomer get preyed upon like they tried to do to me, it fills me with a quiet rage. All I can do is give her my phone number and encourage her to find her boundaries and more importantly, her voice.

So now, nearly 18 months in, I force myself to look the men loitering around outside of the meeting in the eye; I don’t scurry by, allowing them to stare without any acknowledgement from me. I’m here, I’m taking up space, and I don’t owe you anything – not even a smile, not unless I fucking feel like it.

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2018