Category: Addiction News

Relapsing While Famous: Demi Lovato, Stigma, and Compassion

“We would typically not blame a patient with a chronic medical condition for their problem; nor imbue the patient with shame over their offending organ—why do we seem to do this with addiction?”

The news that Demi Lovato was hospitalized of a suspected drug overdose has sent her celebrity friends and fans into overdrive; they are full of praise and well wishes for the singer.

The support offered has been a beautiful response to witness, and this outpouring of encouragement is the exact caring that Lovato needs right now.

This overwhelmingly positive response is a very different reaction than we normally associate with people falling off the wagon. Our society has painted the ordinary (non-celebrity) person with an addiction—whether it be to drugs, alcohol, sex or some other negatively perceived behavior—who loses their sobriety as a monster, as someone who cannot fix themselves, as a loser, as an undisciplined and unhealable soul.

How many Internet memes have been generated that show the unforgiving and unflattering face of addiction? How many ill-conceived jokes about addicts relapsing have you heard? How often do you see mockery of those who have lost their fight? Or a sense of them being not strong enough to withstand the urges we all face?

But the reality is that relapses are oftentimes part of the process, even for those who have spoken about their recovery. Just because someone has stood up and celebrated their recovery does not mean they will never possibly have a setback.

Demi Lovato has been open about sharing her struggles through addiction, eating disorders and bipolar disorder. In her music (her song “Sober” details her ongoing struggle with sobriety), her interviews and social media accounts, Lovato has never shied away from speaking her truth. She is proud to be a mental health advocate and has spoken about how she knows her music has helped other young women struggling with some of the same issues that she has.

Lovato’s openness in sharing her fight and the help her art has provided for others is all the more remarkable considering she was on the Disney Channel when she first entered rehab. There were many pressures and expectations upon her young shoulders and no one would have blamed her for wanting to keep that part of her life private.

But admitting that the struggle continues after a setback can be the hardest part. Often, as a culture, we are not gung ho on offering people second chances, and especially not third or fourth chances.

What’s that famous saying? Hurt me once, shame on you. Hurt me twice, shame on me.

As a society, we can be unforgiving when it comes to people relapsing, but we seem to be much more sympathetic and forgiving with celebrities who struggle with addiction than we are with our ordinary peers.

There is an unwritten social contract that we follow with celebrities that allows them to loom larger in our minds than normal, everyday people. We see them as larger than life while at the same time feeling intimately connected to them, as though they are family. We feel we know them.

And we do know them when they share their personal demons with us. We recognize our own struggles and feel buoyed up by their example of openness and honesty.

Could Lovato’s suspected relapse be an opening for a new understanding of the addiction cycle and conversation about the role of relapse in recovery? Perhaps her experience can shine a light on why no one deserves to be stigmatized for their illness.

Of course, this goes for all mental health conditions, whether the diagnosis is addiction, bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia or others. Historically, our culture has stigmatized people with mental illness so that they feel embarrassed or that they need to hide their condition. It is only in recent decades that more individuals have been brave enough to come forward and speak about their struggles.

Lovato’s overdose can serve as an example and a beacon to help people understand that addiction and other mental health issues are illnesses which aren’t always cured on the first, second or even third try.

The fact that wealthy celebrities, who often have the best treatments and practitioners at their fingertips, still suffer relapses shows us how devastating mental health conditions can be. How can we expect our neighbors—who have those same diagnoses but may be struggling to make ends meet—to fare any better than our most celebrated and privileged?

Many individuals prefer to suffer in silence rather than seek help because of this prejudice. They would rather live with often debilitating diseases rather than expose themselves to the potential stigma that comes with admitting they need help.

What can we do to help alleviate the suffering of those around us?

We can read and learn more about addiction and how difficult the road is to recovery and we can work to understand that the road is not always without bends and turns and sometimes brief exits.

“Research has consistently shown addiction to be a chronic/relapsing disease, where multiple treatment episodes are often necessary, and that recovery may be a cumulative and progressive (non-linear) process,” says Dr. David Greenfield, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at University of Connecticut Medical School and a specialist in addiction medicine. “We would typically not blame a patient with a chronic medical condition for their problem; nor imbue the patient with shame over their offending organ—why do we seem to do this with addiction?”

We can have compassion for those who struggle and sometimes fall in their recovery, which will help alleviate their feelings of shame. For those closest to us, we can be supportive without enabling them or being codependent. The celebrity outpouring of love and caring through social media is an example of how compassion can be expressed through this modern tool.

But Lovato’s friends are not the only ones sharing the love; her fans are sending messages of support, too.

How Demi Lovato speaks to the public about her reported relapse can have real consequences for the greater conversation society needs to have. Hopefully, she will use her celebrity status to continue the dialogue with her fans about addiction; at the same time, she may express a need for privacy and time for reflection.

The real opportunity for change will occur around the water coolers at work or on our social media feeds. When we can openly discuss mental health conditions—not as signs of weak moral character or evidence of being less than or incapable—but as true illnesses which require assistance from all corners—financial, family and friends, and sociocultural—we will then be truly supporting not only the celebrities amongst us, but our neighbors and ourselves as well.

View the original article at thefix.com

27 July 2018
DEA Agents Who Helped Bring Down Escobar To Tackle Opioids In New Series

The docu-series will reportedly give viewers unprecedented access to how the DEA plans and executes drug busts.

Steve Murphy and Javier Peña are the former DEA agents who brought down cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar. The Netflix show Narcos is based on their true experiences fighting the drug trade.

Now Murphy and Peña are behind a new show about the opioid crisis and the DEA’s efforts to fight it.

As The Wrap reports, this new docu-series will cover several different angles of the current drug war including what happened to the international drug cartels after the fall of Escobar.

The show hopes to capture “controlled busts,” where smaller dealers can still continue their deliveries in exchange for giving up bigger dealers.

The show will also feature doctors getting arrested for overprescribing opioids and pharmacists who are making fentanyl with their own pill presses.

Murphy and Peña plan to film in China, where you can buy opioids off the web and get them delivered through U.S. mail. Murphy and Peña also plan to travel with DEA agents through Europe on drug busts.

“What we want to do is show people what’s being done and what could be done,” Murphy says. “[The opioid epidemic] is now the leading cause of overdose deaths in the country.”

Murphy says the DEA is “onboard” with this series, and it promises to give viewers unprecedented access to how the DEA plans and executes drug busts.

“The DEA sees the seriousness of this epidemic,” says Murphy. “One of the things they agreed to do is take us to their Chinese counterparts and show us where fentanyl comes from, how it’s produced and how the pill press works.”

The timing couldn’t be better for a series that will tackle the opioid crisis head on.

Murphy told Fox Business, “The one thing that we’re finding out is that these new traffickers, like the ones we chased in the 1980s 1990s, are getting smarter at hiding their drugs. Now, most of them are coming through as counterfeit medications, and they are getting people sick, and they are dying.”

Peña added, “Today’s [drug crisis] is worse than it was in the 1980s because of how smart these drug dealers are getting in smuggling these drugs into the country in the most modern and efficient ways possible.”

The new Murphy and Peña show is currently being shopped around by powerhouse talent agency UTA.

View the original article at thefix.com

27 July 2018
Vets Turn To Medical Pot, Despite The VA's Policy

The VA remains focused on studying the drug’s “problems of use” instead of its “therapeutic potential.”

Once a month, the veterans’ hall in Santa Cruz, California, is home to an unlikely meeting, where dozens of former service members line up to receive a voucher for free cannabis products from local distributors.

“I never touched the stuff in Vietnam,” William Horne, 76, a retired firefighter, told The New York Times. “It was only a few years ago I realized how useful it could be.”

The VA medical system does not allow providers to discuss or prescribe medical marijuana, since the drug remained banned under federal law, which governs the VA.

However, up to a million veterans who get healthcare through the system have taken matters into their own hands, using marijuana to relieve symptoms of PTSD, pain and other medical condition associated with combat.

“We have a disconnect in care,” said Marcel Bonn-Miller, a psychologist who worked for years at the veterans hospital in Palo Alto, California, and now teaches at the University of Pennsylvania medical school. “The VA has funded lots of marijuana studies, but not of therapeutic potential. All the work has been related to problems of use.”

This means that veterans like those in Santa Cruz can end up self-medicating with cannabis without any medical oversight.

A bill proposed this spring would mandate that the VA study cannabis for treating PTSD and chronic pain.

“I talk to so many vets who claim they get benefits, but we need research,” said Representative Tim Walz, a Democrat from Minnesota, who introduced the bill along with Phil Roe, a doctor and Republican from Tennessee. “You may be a big advocate of medical marijuana, you may feel it has no value. Either way, you should want the evidence to prove it, and there is no better system to do that research than the VA.”

Still, VA spokesperson Curt Cashour said the bill is not enough to change the department’s policies.

“The opportunities for VA to conduct marijuana research are limited because of the restrictions imposed by federal law,” he said. “If Congress wants to facilitate more federal research into Schedule 1 controlled substances such as marijuana, it can always choose to eliminate these restrictions.”

Former Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs David J. Shulkin said that it’s time the system looked into the potential benefits of cannabis.

“We have an opioid crisis, a mental health crisis, and we have limited options with how to address them, so we should be looking at everything possible,” he said. Although two small studies are currently being done at the VA, Shulkin would like to see more.

“In a system as big as ours, that’s not much, certainly not enough,” he said.

View the original article at thefix.com

26 July 2018
How Processed Meats May Affect Mental Health

A new study examined whether the nitrates used to cure meat played a role in manic episodes.

Nitrates, a chemical relied on to cure meat, is believed to be linked to mania, a symptom of mental illness, Newsweek reports.

According to Psych Central, manic episodes are “a mood state characterized by period of at least one week where an elevated, expansive, or unusually irritable mood exists.”

Those having manic episodes are often energized beyond their normal and may describe it as being “on top of the world.”

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine studied data on 1,101 people with and without mental illnesses between 2007 and 2017. The information in the data included health, dietary and demographic information about those who participated. Of those who participated, about 55% were female, 55% were Caucasian and 36% were African American.

Researchers initially intended to determine whether being exposed to certain infections made individuals more likely to have a mental illness.

However, the researchers discovered that individuals who had been hospitalized for mania were 3.5 times more likely to have consumed processed meat before their hospitalization in comparison to a group without mental illnesses.

To test their theory, the researchers fed rats nitrates. In doing so, they discovered that those rats were more likely to exhibit hyperactivity and irregular sleep patterns when compared to rats on a normal diet.

They also found that the rats that consumed nitrates had a different bacteria makeup in their digestive systems and exhibited differences in their brain’s molecular pathways linked to bipolar disorder.

Dr. Robert Yolken, lead author of the study and professor of neurovirology in pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, released a statement acknowledging the prominence of processed meat in the diets of those with manic episodes.

“We looked at a number of different dietary exposures and cured meat really stood out,” he stated, according to Newsweek. “It wasn’t just that people with mania have an abnormal diet.”

Previously, Yolken and his team conducted another study that implied that probiotics could decrease the likelihood that someone with mania would be re-hospitalized in the six months following hospitalization.

“There’s growing evidence that germs in the intestines can influence the brain,” he said. “And this work on nitrates opens the door for future studies on how that may be happening.”

Seva Khambadkone is an M.D. and Ph.D. student at Johns Hopkins who participated in the study. According to Newsweek, he says genetic and environmental factors play a role in mental illness.

“It’s clear that mania is a complex neuropsychiatric state, and that both genetic vulnerabilities and environmental factors are likely involved in the emergence and severity of bipolar disorder and associated manic episodes,” he stated. “Our results suggest that nitrated cured meat could be one environmental player in mediating mania.”

View the original article at thefix.com

26 July 2018
Could Anti-Anxiety Meds Be The Next Prescription Drug Epidemic?

“We have this whole infrastructure set up to prevent overprescribing of opioids and address the need for addiction treatment. We need to start making benzos part of that.”

An increase in the number of drug overdose deaths among individuals who used benzodiazepines has some state and local health officials concerned that the drugs could be at the center of a new prescription drug crisis.

Benzodiazepines, which include such medications as Xanax, Valium and Klonopin, are commonly prescribed for anxiety or insomnia, and in the past two decades-plus, the number of prescriptions written for these medications has risen from 8 million to 14 million adults in the United States. But when taken in combination with prescription or illicit opioids, the likelihood of death can increase as much as tenfold, prompting medical and government officials alike to propose greater attention to their use.

According to an article in LiveWellNebraska, a joint publication by BlueCross BlueShield Nebraska and the Omaha World-Herald, the number of adults nationwide filling a prescription for benzodiazepines has increased two-thirds between 1996 and 2013—a period of time which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), also saw the sales of prescription opioids quadruple in the U.S.

LiveWellNebraska also noted that while prescriptions for benzodiazepines appear to have leveled or declined slightly in the years—and opioid prescriptions have dropped by a fifth since 2013—the level of prescribing for benzodiazepines still remains higher than rates in the mid-1990s.

Taken on their own or in combination with painkillers, the drugs carry health risks that range from debilitating withdrawal to possible fatality. Research from the CDC found that 23% of individuals who died from an opioid overdose also tested positive for benzodiazepine.

Reaction from the medical community has been divided between support for benzodiazepines, which have shown to be effective at relieving serious cases of anxiety and insomnia.

The International Task Force on Benzodiazepines, which counts scientists, researchers and pharmacologists in its number, has formed in response to what has been perceived as backlash against the drugs, despite their potential for positive impact.

But other health officials and medical professionals have stated that increased focus on the potential health concerns from benzodiazepines may possibly prevent a widespread epidemic like the opioid crisis.

“We have this whole infrastructure set up now to prevent overprescribing of opioids and address the need for addiction treatment,” said Dr. Anna Lembke, a researcher and addiction specialist at Stanford University. “We need to start making benzos part of that. What we’re seeing is just like what happened with opioids in the 1990s. It really does begin with overprescribing.”

View the original article at thefix.com

26 July 2018
International Conference of Secular AA Coming To Toronto In August

All members of AA are welcome to attend the conference, which takes place August 24-26 in Toronto, ON.

The third biennial conference of Secular AA (ICSAA 2018), with a theme of inclusion and diversity, will take place in Toronto, ON from August 24th through August 26th later this summer.

The conference will take place at the Marriott Downtown Toronto Eaton Centre Hotel at Bay and Dundas Street. During the conference we will be fellowshipping, discussing recovery and workshopping on carrying our message that “enduring recovery from alcoholism can be found by agnostic, atheist, and non-religious people, within AA.”

The first gathering of secular AA members was in Santa Monica, California in November of 2014 with some 300 folks in attendance. All were welcome to participate in the business meeting, where we discussed how we would organize ourselves going forward.

At that meeting, Austin, Texas was chosen for the second conference, held in November of 2016, which was attended by over 400 persons. Toronto was selected at the Austin business meeting to host this year’s conference.

The location of the 2020 International Conference of Secular AA will be determined by those attending the Sunday morning Business Meeting in Toronto. AA members of any community that can accommodate attendance of up to 500 persons can bid to host a biennial conference. Those interested in bidding for the 2020 conference can get more information by emailing Vice Chair Martin D.

A plethora of information about the 2018 Toronto Conference, including registration information, information about visiting Toronto and the conference schedule can be found here.

Joe C. recently published this article on AA Agnostica about the conference, which includes a treasure trove of information about visiting Toronto.

The conference theme of inclusion and diversity will feature numerous workshops and panels that will demonstrate how secular AA members (mostly agnostics, atheists and freethinkers, but which also includes some believers) experience enduring, quality recovery from alcoholism within traditional AA. The current conference program can be found here.

All members of AA are welcome to attend the conference.

The three keynote speakers, each one who is a secular member of AA, are below with the title of their talks:

• Dr. Vera T., Lunch Speaker on August 25th, will talk on “More was my Higher Power.”

• Deirdre S., 5 pm on August 25th, will talk on “The Cross-Addicted Mind: How Obsessive Use of Substances and Behaviors Fuels Alcoholism.”

• Dr. Ray B., 11 am on August 26th, will talk on “Recovery in AA: do we need God to make it work? A medical-scientific analysis.”

At the Sunday morning Business Breakfast Meeting, the Secular AA fellowship will elect new members of the Board of Directors and determine the location for the 2020 Conference.

New bylaws have recently been approved by the Board and according to the previous bylaws are subject to ratification by the Secular AA membership.

A workshop on these bylaws, entitled “About the ByLaws,” has been scheduled for 11:00 am on Saturday morning of the Conference.

In addition, the Secular AA fellowship will approve both the new:

1. Mission Statement

Our mission is to assure suffering alcoholics that they can find sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous without having to accept anyone else’s beliefs or deny their own. Secular AA does not endorse or oppose any particular form of religion or belief system and operates in accordance with the Third Tradition of the Alcoholics Anonymous program: “The Only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.”

2. Vision Statement:

Secular AA recognizes and honors the immeasurable contributions that Alcoholics Anonymous has made to assist individuals to recover from alcoholism. We seek to ensure that AA remains an effective, relevant and inclusive program of recovery in an increasingly secular society. The foundation of Secular AA is grounded in the belief that anyone—regardless of their spiritual beliefs or lack thereof—can recover in the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Secular AA exists to serve the community of secularly-minded alcoholics by supporting worldwide access to secularly formatted AA meetings and fostering mutual support within a growing population of secularly-minded alcoholics.

Those who have not registered should do so prior to July 24th to take advantage of a reduced registration price of $125 CAD. As of July 25th, registration will cost $150 CAD. Included in both registration prices is lunch on Saturday and breakfast for the Sunday morning business meeting.

Further information can be requested from Thomas B., Outreach Chair.

View the original article at thefix.com

26 July 2018
Ultra Marathoner Charlie Engle Runs 26 Hours To Celebrate 26 Years Sober

Charlie Engle has been sober since 1992.

Supporters cheered on ultramarathon runner Charlie Engle on Sunday, as he ran for 26 hours to celebrate 26 years of sobriety.

“It’s an unusual way to celebrate but for me, running was a lifesaver,” said Engle, according to ABC 11 News. He said he’s running to “show those people that are still out there struggling that there is another way.”

The 55-year-old adventurer and author of Running Man ran more than 100 miles in Dix Park in Raleigh, North Carolina, to spotlight Healing Transitions, a local recovery center. “We’re doing this three-mile loop out here around Healing Transitions, which is this amazing center here in Raleigh,” he said.

Engle says running changed his life, and it’s easy to start. “Just go for an hour long walk, 30 minutes out and 30 minutes back. If you make that a habit two or three days a week, it’s amazing how quickly your life will transform,” he said.

The ultramarathoner has been sober since July 23, 1992, according to his official website. Since then, he’s conquered all kinds of adventures. “I’ve run across deserts, summited ice-covered volcanoes, swam with crocodiles and served a stint in federal prison. But my greatest challenge is the one I take on every single day—sobriety,” according to his bio.

He’s also able to combine his love of running with his passion for recovery.

“While my daily urge to drink and use drugs has waned over the years, I still struggle with the addict that lives inside of me. It took me a long time to figure out that I cannot, and should not, kill my addictive nature,” he said. “Instead, my challenge has been finding a way to use the addict within me for positive, purpose-driven pursuits.”

In 2016, he participated in a 3,100-mile relay across the United States called the Icebreaker Run, to bring awareness to the need for better access to mental health treatment. He ran alongside five other runners who were all in recovery in some way.

Engle isn’t slowing down any time soon; he already has big plans for 2019. “I’m gonna go from the lowest place on the planet, which is the Dead Sea in Jordan, all the way to the top of Mount Everest—as a metaphor for addiction recovery. It literally is going from the lowest place to the highest. That’s my next big project.”

View the original article at thefix.com

26 July 2018
Demi Lovato's Fans Pay Tribute To Her Mental Health & Recovery Advocacy

Fans created the hashtag #HowDemiHasHelpedMe to tell the world how the pop star’s advocacy work has positively affected their lives.

Pop star Demi Lovato has made a name for herself as a champion of mental health and recovery support—having herself battled problem drug use, bipolar disorder, and self-harm.

The impact of her advocacy is real. Fans are paying tribute to the pop singer, who was hospitalized for a suspected overdose on Tuesday in Los Angeles, with a new hashtag: #HowDemiHasHelpedMe. The singer is reportedly “awake and talking,” according to People.

People on social media described how songs like “Warrior,” “Skyscraper,” and “Confident” helped them get through the worst times—through suicide attempts, bullying, and depression.

Her songs and her story helped me stay strong through the years I was bullied. She taught me that I shouldn’t be ashamed of my mental illnesses or eating disorders. She taught me that getting help is not a sign of weakness but strength. @kkaaylana

Her music helped me realize that it was okay to be broken. Her being honest about her problems helped me see I could be something other than a mental illness. @princessofsinss

She showed me it takes a strong person to ask for help. @hydxan

She gives me so much light and happiness. But beyond the excitement and joy she gives me, she is on a journey with me. We are both figuring out life, and she inspires me to grow as she does. I completely love her and don’t know what I’d do without her here. @ddlxpeace

She is very outspoken about mental illnesses, especially anxiety & depression… It makes me feel like I shouldn’t be ashamed of my journey & my struggles. That I am human. @mercifuldreamer

Though the exact cause of her hospitalization is yet unknown, Lovato is suspected to have suffered a drug overdose. According to reports, the singer was treated with Narcan in her Hollywood Hills home.

Lovato has been active and vocal in her recovery. This past March, she celebrated six years of sobriety. In June, she released a song called “Sober,” revealing a recent relapse: “To the ones who never left me we’ve been down this road before. I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore.”

The “Sorry Not Sorry” singer has been recognized as a champion of mental health and recovery support, and a fighter against stigma and shame. “Every day is a battle,” she said while accepting the Spirit of Sobriety award at a fundraising event last October.

“You just have to take it one day at a time, some days are easier than others and some days you forget about drinking and using, but for me, I work on my physical health, which is important, but my mental health as well.”

View the original article at thefix.com

26 July 2018
"I Wish Daddy Didn't Drink So Much": Judith Vigna’s Misguided Bibliotherapy

Vigna seems convinced that a few watercolor washes can make the world a better place, but her idealism is misguided; stories of the horrible undercurrent of the real world are more likely to scare children.

Although the following review is not positive, I empathize with what Judith Vigna tried to accomplish. In the late 1980’s, she took on a topic that few writers of children’s books would choose to address: how to explain family difficulties brought on by alcoholism and addiction. Beyond the intimate connection of a parent or trusted family member talking directly to a child, raising this issue on a public platform is like walking through a minefield. It’s so easy to make a single misstep that blows the project straight to heck. Not to hell, mind you, we’re talking about children’s books.

I Wish Daddy Didn’t Drink So Much (1988) and My Big Sister Takes Drugs (1990) were published by Albert Whitman & Company as fictional self-help stories to educate kids about alcoholism and substance use disorder. With these books, Vigna invents a kind of misguided bibliotherapy designed for children in preschool to grade 3. The books do a belly flop, and it’s hard to imagine that either would successfully educate or console a young child, although that is their goal. Moreover, both books are culturally biased since they focus on white characters in either suburban America or a strange rural environment where isolated houses exist in the middle of nowhere for no good reason.

Is such grim reality needed in children’s picture books? In the context of both of these efforts, there is a sense that something precious has been hijacked to accomplish a worthy educational goal. Children’s storybooks and picture books are a beloved part of childhood, combining the visual imagination with language. The innocence of the genre is a key element to the lasting success of so many outstanding children’s books from Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are and Dr. Seuss’s The Cat In The Hat to Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree and Margaret Wise’s Goodnight Moon.

Although each of these stories teaches a life lesson about good behavior and decency, they don’t cross the line by subverting the fantasy to morality. Indeed, the fantasy bolsters the moral message, taking it to the next level by presenting the ideas in an artistic context that provides access for a child. When I recall first reading books as a little boy, I remember the fun I experienced and the thrill of turning the pages. In Judith Vigna’s stories, the fun is replaced by a dull melancholy ruptured here and there by a disturbing undercurrent of anxiety and fear. Even when hope is presented in the end and partial solutions proffered, the ugliness remains, like the father’s undeterred alcoholism in I Wish Daddy Didn’t Drink So Much.

The best example of this replacement happens in I Wish Daddy Didn’t Drink So Much, aimed at kids in pre-school to grade 2. The night before Christmas is disturbed when young Lisa’s drunken father stumbles into her bedroom dressed as Santa Claus. On the very first page of text in the book, Lisa explains that the costume did not fool her for a second. She says, “I knew it was only Daddy in a Santa Claus suit because he bumped into my bed twice and spilled beer on the rug. I didn’t like that. When Daddy drinks a lot of beer, he acts funny.”

In other words, even a child knows that Santa Claus doesn’t show up drunk. Still, Lisa is excited because her father is going to take her sledding the next day. Santa even leaves a note taped to her new sled that says her daddy promised him that they would go sledding and try out the present after breakfast. Unfortunately, Daddy is too hungover to go sledding. Lisa asks later in the day if they can go, but Dad is drinking beer while watching television, focused solely on the hair of the dog that bit him the night before.

Lisa’s father ignores her request, and she gets mad, telling him that he promised. The face of the little girl is drawn with such sadness and disappointment. Reacting to her feelings, her father lashes out and yells at Lisa. She ends up playing with her sled in the house, imagining that she’s in the clouds but feeling sad and scared.

Although there is no direct physical violence in the book, beyond loud fights between the mother and father, the threat looms. The bad times continue and culminate with an intoxicated failed attempt to go sledding. Later, Lisa mopes outside as her mother and father have a big screaming match inside the house with sounds of breaking glass.

The story ends when Lisa and her mother escape her father’s drunken anger by going over to Mrs. Field’s house. They have a nice Christmas dinner with this old lady, and Lisa opens up about how her father’s drinking destroyed Christmas. Mrs. Field tells Lisa that she used to drink too much before she got help. One day, her father might be ready to get help as well. Until then, she advises this little girl, “you can learn to be happier. You can try to do one of your favorite things every day.”

And that’s about it. There’s a closing bit where Lisa returns home and her father promises to take her sledding on Sunday. But nothing changes, and Lisa remains in a crappy situation with little learned and less relieved. Telling a child to do one of her favorite things every day as a response to alcoholism in the family is like telling a cancer patient to go to Disneyland every weekend. It profoundly fails to address the primary problem.

Vigna seems convinced that a few watercolor washes can make the world a better place, but her idealism is misguided; stories of the horrible undercurrent of the real world are more likely to scare children. Story time is not when the dark issues of humanity should be raised with children. Going out and doing a favorite thing is not an effective approach to dealing with an alcoholic parent.

In complex.com’s list of The 25 Most Ridiculous Holiday Children’s Books, Vigna’s book comes in at number one. It’s an impressive accomplishment because the competition is stiff, ranging from How Santa Lost His Pants and How Santa Lost His Job to Santa Cow Island and The Flying Canoe: A Christmas Story.

My Big Sister Takes Drugs is Judith Vigna’s second attempt at the bibliotherapy children’s picture book genre. Designed for Grades 2 through 3, a slightly older crowd from seven to nine years old, the book tells the story of little Paul who is dealing with the fact that his teenage sister, Tina, is using drugs. The drugs profoundly change Tina in a negative way. Rather than play games with Paul, she offers him prescription pills. Later, after being busted by the cops for smoking crack in the park with her delinquent friends, Tina is shipped off to rehab. Tina’s drug use causes Paul to lose friends because other parents don’t want their kids around his older sister. Also, once Tina goes to rehab, there is no money left to send him to soccer camp.

As part of a Vigna’s desperate drug education and awareness program, this dank children’s picture book only succeeds in stigmatizing substance use disorder. Okay, Tina has become a mean big sister and hangs out with mean kids. Paul feels threatened in his own home. However, these scare tactics of losing friends and opportunities because of drug usage are counterproductive to any real understanding of addiction as a disease in general and a family disease in particular.

The story is poorly told and not believable. For example, there is a weird section where Tina tries to get her brother high on New Year’s Eve, offering him prescription medication while she reclines on her bed. Paul declines and Tina calls him a chicken. When Paul inevitably tells his parents about the incident, Tina is grounded for a week.

Such a sequence makes little or no sense. Why would a teenage sister want to give her little brother drugs? Why would she be home on New Year’s Eve with her little brother and not out with her friends? Does Vigna understand drug culture and teens at all? Tina is way too open about what she is doing with both her parents and Paul. The generally secretive nature of adolescent drug use is replaced with typical adolescent rebellion, a replacement which does not do justice to the truly insidious nature of drug abuse and addiction. I wondered why Judith Vigna did not do more first-hand research before writing a book designed to educate children on such a crucial issue.

At the same time, at this very moment, I feel a bit guilty about being so hard on Judith Vigna. Although her idealism might be misdirected, it comes from a loving instinct to do good in the world and help other people. At the end of I Wish Daddy Didn’t Drink So Much, she includes A Note to Grown-ups. In this note, Vigna writes about the challenge of alcoholism as a family disease: “The children tend to blame themselves, and without adequate support, may feel ashamed, confused, and alone… Parents and other caring adults can help by reassuring children that they are not responsible for the drinking.”

But despite such good intentions, Vigna’s attempt to offer such reassurance and educate children about substance use disorder, a worthy and necessary goal, falls flat.

View the original article at thefix.com

26 July 2018
Recovery Advocates Respond To Trump's Opioid PSAs With New Video

Two recovery advocates made a personal video about their addiction struggles in hopes of getting a meeting with the president to discuss opioid policies.

The Trump Administration’s quartet of “Know the Truth” public service announcements about the dangers of opioid use and abuse have garnered mixed reviews from the recovery community for their shocking tone.

They have also spurred a response from an Ohio-based recovery advocate, who has created his own video that details a more personal take on dependency and recovery.

Richie Webber, who recovered from heroin dependency to found Fight for Recovery, and his friend Chanda Lynn, of Jamestown, New York, talk openly about their struggles with dependency in the video in hopes of not only encouraging viewers to do the same, but also garnering a meeting with President Trump to discuss more compassionate opioid policies. The video has been submitted to a White House site for review.

Webber has been sober for four years from a dependency on heroin that he developed in high school after suffering a sports injury. He currently operates Fight for Recovery, which offers support for those with dependency issues and their families and friends. He said that he was encouraged by Trump’s initial statements about dependency, which hinged on his brother, Fred, who struggled with alcoholism before his death in 1981.

But when he saw the “Know the Truth” videos, Webber said, “Wow, this isn’t going to work.” The strident tone reminded him of previous efforts, which he viewed as failed attempts. “We did the DARE commercials in the ’80s, and that clearly didn’t work,” he said.

So with Lynn, whose previous videos about recovery have generated more than 8 million views, and Zach Yoney of Sandusky, Ohio, he created a message that talked directly to viewers—and Trump—about their paths to recovery.

In the video, Webber discusses his “all-American” teen years, when he was a track star at Clyde High School, as well as the multiple overdoses, jail time and friends he lost to dependency. The piece concludes with a direct address to Trump: “Let us help you help America.”

Since its release on Facebook in early July 2018, the video has been viewed more than 163,000 times. Webber and Lynn have plans to release additional videos, and hope to start filming a new effort in September 2018.

He also remains active with Ohio-area events to raise awareness about dependency and recovery. “We’re just trying to cover as many bases as possible,” said Webber.

View the original article at thefix.com

26 July 2018