Answer Addiction

Tag: david konow

  • How Tattoos Have Empowered Those With Mental Health Issues

    How Tattoos Have Empowered Those With Mental Health Issues

    In recent years, tattoos have come to serve as a reminder to keep fighting for people with mental health issues.

    Tattoos aren’t just an art form, they’re also a form of personal expression for many who get them. And as a report in Well + Good explains, for some people, tattoos are an important part of maintaining mental health as well.

    When one woman, Annie Jacobson, got a tattoo on her arm that reads “Be Here Now,” she was looking back on a time when her anxiety caused a mental meltdown.

    “Almost exactly a year prior to getting the tattoo, my anxiety had reached an all-time high, and it had spiraled out of control in a way that my therapist could no longer give me the help I needed.”

    Jacobson did eventually recover, but when she finally got the tattoo, “I knew it wasn’t over – my struggle will never be over – but I wanted a way to remember how much had changed in a year. I wanted something to look at to remind me to be present and live in the moment.”

    Demi & Selena

    As this report explains, people getting tattoos as mental health reminders has become more popular in recent years. Demi Lovato, who has been very open about her mental health struggles, has the words “stay” and “strong” tattooed on her wrists.

    Recently, Selena Gomez also got semicolon tattoos with Tommy Dorman and Alisha Boe from 13 Reasons Why. The semicolon tattoo represents empowerment for those with mental health and addiction issues.

    As one mental health professional explains, “For the person who chooses to get a tattoo, many times it’s a much deeper process of reflection. What’s the point of getting a tattoo, what purpose will this serve, what’s the symbolism – a tattoo serves something deeper for that individual involved. For example, a star might mean something deeper, like a life lost.”

    A tattoo artist in Brooklyn named Joice Wang is also offering free tattoos to help people cover up their self-harm scars, as long as they donate money to a mental health charity. As Wang says, “This way I’m able to tackle two issues: funding the necessary resources for people who are going through anything traumatic or need assistance in any way, and also covering up scars.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Brandon Lee, Former TV Anchor, Details Surviving Addiction

    Brandon Lee, Former TV Anchor, Details Surviving Addiction

    “My parents never drank, I never saw my parents use drugs. So the question I got was, how did someone like you end up using drugs?” Lee said.

    Brandon Lee is a two-time Emmy-winning news anchor who has been in recovery for nearly a decade. He has bravely come forward about his addiction and surviving sexual abuse in his memoir Mascara Boy, and in a CNN interview, Lee spoke out about why he went public about his addictions and trauma, and how he hopes it can help others.

    Lee was a TV anchor in Phoenix, New York and Atlanta. He grew up in the affluent community of Orange County, raised by teatotaling parents. Lee told AZ Central, “From the outside world, it looked like I had everything. My parents never drank, I never saw my parents use drugs. So the question I got was, how did someone like you end up using drugs?”

    It took many years for Lee to deal with it in therapy, but he was sexually abused for years by both his piano teacher and his soccer coach. “That trauma untreated came out sideways,” he told CNN. “There was a lot of early childhood trauma I needed to address.”

    Escaping With Cocaine

    Lee started using cocaine at the age of 15, and he explains, “When I was given the opportunity to try a drug like cocaine to escape, I kept chasing that feeling. I kept chasing that escape.”

    Once he became an adult, Lee became a successful TV reporter, and he hid his addictions well from the public. “When I was a reporter here in Los Angeles, I was living that double life. I wanted the public to see me as this Emmy-winning news reporter doing a professional job. When the 10 o’clock news was over with that’s when I went to the slums of LA and started using hardcore drugs.”

    Lee’s drug abuse finally culminated in an overdose, and the person he was partying with called 911. He wound up on life support, and a kind nurse gave him 10 dollars to take a cab to go to an AA meeting. Lee made the meeting, “and I have been sober ever since that day on February 22, 2010.”

    After Lee got sober, he did a documentary on the opioid crisis in Arizona “to try and break the stereotype of what the public perception of a drug addict is.”

    Lee then saw the internet troll comments in response to his report, and it broke his heart. He got on the phone to his sponsor, and said, “I’m eight years sober and it’s time for me to break my anonymity.”

    “I needed to let the viewers know that the people that they were ripping in my documentary, that I used to be that junkie about a decade ago,” Lee told CNN. “Do they think of me that way? Do they think of me as trash and scum? The most important message we can get out there is that addiction does not discriminate.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Sophie Turner Praises Move To Give Students Mental Health Days In School

    Sophie Turner Praises Move To Give Students Mental Health Days In School

    Turner recently shared a story about a group of high schoolers who helped pass a state law to allow mental health days in school.

    Sophie Turner from Game of Thrones is an outspoken advocate for mental health, and she’s one of many celebrities who has come forward in the public eye about her personal mental health struggles.

    Turner recently took a break from social media after marrying Joe Jonas, but logged on to share a story about teen advocates pushing for mental health days in schools, and how their efforts have passed a new law in Oregon.

    New Law

    A group of four Oregon high schoolers helped pass a law that will allow students to take mental health days when needed. (When Turner retweeted the story, she topped it off with high-five emojis.)

    One of the advocates, Hailey Hardcastle, told Today, “I took on this cause for a personal reason first off because so many of my close friends in high school struggled with depression, and there were times when I saw them at school when they really shouldn’t have been there, would have been much better for them to take a day off.”

    This new law will take effect this fall. Students will be allowed to take five mental health days every three months as needed.

    This is a clearly a major milestone for mental health treatment. Hardcastle continued, “We were inspired by Parkland in the sense that it showed us that young people can totally change the political conversation. Just like those movements, this bill is something completely coming from the youth.”

    Lately more attention is being given to the mental health needs of Americans. As a recent report revealed, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for people ages 10 to 34 in the U.S.

    Turner recently appeared on Dr. Phil (Turner is a big fan of the TV therapist) and revealed that she is living with depression, and that it sometimes robs her of any motivation to get out of the house or do anything.

    She also recently talked about the importance of self-care to Marie Claire Australia. “Everyone needs a therapist… I think it’s necessary to have someone to talk to, and to help you through that.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • NFL To Focus On Treating Mental Health Issues, Offering Resources

    NFL To Focus On Treating Mental Health Issues, Offering Resources

    Doctors, trainers and directors gathered at a summit where the mental health needs of the league was a main focus. 

    The National Football League has decided to take a closer look at how it can treat mental health issues in the league, according to Sports Illustrated.

    Recently the NFL held a Player Health Summit, which was led by Nyaka NiiLampti, a psychologist who is now the vice president of wellness clinical services for the league.

    Physicians, trainers and directors of player engagement gathered at the summit with the goal of ensuring that the mental health needs of the 2,000 players in the NFL were being met.

    Resources

    In recent years there have been more mental health resources and regulations added to the NFL, but some players still aren’t aware of the help that’s available. Just as the NFL has emergency protocol set up in the event of player injuries, the goal is to have a strategy for mental health emergencies as well.

    While more mental health resources are available to players than ever before, there is still a stigma that keeps some players from seeking help.

    Stigma Lives On

    As Solomon Thomas of the San Francisco 49ers explains, “Some guys won’t sit at the same lunch table as our team therapist, because they are like, I don’t want anyone to think something is wrong with me… There’s a huge stigma about that. People are still afraid of therapists, still afraid of getting help.”

    Thomas lost his older sister to suicide, and has been an active supporter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “I realized what I can say can really help other people, or really help myself, or get a conversation started.”

    In the high-pressure world of professional sports, a lot of athletes are also terrified of being cut or traded. “Guys are fighting for their job every day,” Thomas said. “So they don’t want to have anything seen as a disadvantage or a reason to not be the one chosen. ‘Oh, both of them have the same amount of yards and TDs (touchdowns), but he has mental health problems.’ That’s scary to some guys, but it’s something that needs to change.”

    Thomas saw a big change in his performance once he started seeking help. “That’s all due to my head clearing up, or being able to freely live… If our brain’s not working, our bodies aren’t going to work.”

    Thomas is also hoping the stigma against seeking help will change. “If guys do it more openly, and the culture of mental health changes in the NFL, I think that is going to change a lot. Because it is a very masculine, tough sport. If we start that change, it will echo throughout the whole league and society as well.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • What Is Mental Health First Aid?

    What Is Mental Health First Aid?

    These classes offer participants useful knowledge that can be utilized in the event of a mental health emergency.

    Mental Health First Aid is a term that’s gained a lot of momentum lately, especially with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way foundation, which encourages people to learn about mental health.

    A report on CNN explains the importance of taking mental health first aid classes, and how mental health training can be incredibly beneficial.

    These classes began 12 years ago, and close to two million people have attended them since. In 2015, the government allotted $20 million for this program, and in most areas of the U.S. you can take this class for free.

    Inside The Program

    While an eight-hour seminar can’t take the place of seeing a therapist or mental health professional, the program has been likened to learning CPR to equip yourself with lifesaving skills.
     
    Betsy Schwartz, an executive at the Mental Health First Aid program, says, “We’re not training anyone to be a professional. We’re only teaching people how to be an empathetic friend, family member or coworker.”
     
    CNN had attended a Mental Health First Aid seminar in Ohio, a state that’s had to grapple with alarming rates of addiction and suicide.

    As one social worker explained, “Ohio, since 1999, has had a 30% increase in suicide deaths and is above the national average for suicide rates. So it’s really important that we’re getting information in people’s hands. They’re not easy conversations to have and oftentimes people shy away from that.”

    At this seminar, instructors explained the signs to look out for with depression and anxiety, and how to help calm a person in the midst of a panic attack.

    The acronym ALGEE was introduced and explained.

    A – Assess for risk of harm or suicide 

    L – Listen non-judgmentally 

    G – Give information and reassurance 

    E – Encourage professional help, if needed 

    E –  Encourage self-help

    Diving deeper into the final step, encourage self-help, one instructor explained, “It’s going to be very important to have some buy-in into [someone’s] own recovery. We all like to be able to say ‘I did this.’ Get them involved in those decision-making skills.”

    One person who attended the class had lost a brother from suicide and had mental illness in her family. “Everyday in life you forget to listen and be aware,” she said. “If you’re uncomfortable, taking this class will help you become more confident in reaching out to somebody.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Revisiting Buzz Aldrin's Journey To Sobriety For Moon Landing's 50th Anniversary

    Revisiting Buzz Aldrin's Journey To Sobriety For Moon Landing's 50th Anniversary

    The American hero has been sober for nearly 41 years.

    On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 made its incredible journey to the moon, and it was an indelible moment in history. 

    Going into space is an incredible experience that few people will ever get to experience. Yet as Buzz Aldrin learned the hard way, coming back down to earth wasn’t easy.

    In his 2009 memoir Magnificent Desolation, Aldrin recalled feeling exhausted when he came back to earth, and he had a hard time figuring out what to do with the rest of his life.

    “I wanted to resume my duties, but there were no duties to resume,” he recalled. “There was no goal, no sense of calling, no project worth pouring myself into.”

    Family Matters

    Aldrin hit the bottle, spent days in bed, and had an affair. When he finally landed a new job at Edwards Air Force Base, he felt anxiety and dread creeping up on him. Once he checked into a hospital, he got in touch with the deeper roots of his problem, which included family issues he never dealt with. Aldrin pushed himself to try and please his father, and there was also mental illness in the family. (His mother and grandfather both died by suicide.)

    Aldrin was still drinking, and he left his job at Edwards after he crashed several planes. Then Aldrin went public about his struggles to the Los Angeles Times in 1972.

    These days, celebrities opening up about mental health issues is commonplace, but it was bold for Aldrin to confess this to the public at the time. He also confronted his struggles in his 1973 memoir, aptly titled Return to Earth.

    One Huge Step For Aldrin

    Still, Aldrin’s drinking continued, and he finally entered AA in August 1975, but he didn’t full embrace sobriety until October 1978. Aldrin got into an angry, drunken argument with a girlfriend, and was arrested after he smashed in her apartment door. It was Aldrin’s bottom, and he committed to sobriety after that.

    Aldrin has been sober ever since, and he told The Fix, “There wasn’t a clear path in front of me with NASA… I had not cultivated a path that would help me accomplish what I really wanted to do with my life after NASA. I began to experience the inherited burden from my grandmother perhaps, from my mother and from my father. These negative tendencies involving both alcohol and mental challenges began to control my life more and more.”

    Aldrin added, “You have to deal with obtaining sobriety first before dealing with other situations that are disturbing you.” Despite the fact that Aldrin had a turbulent life, in hindsight, he realized, “I have gained so much by facing adversity. I had a shrink who said, ‘Buzz, you are so lucky that you had to change, to grow. You are a better person now.’”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Sum 41's Deryck Whibley Reflects On Sobriety

    Sum 41's Deryck Whibley Reflects On Sobriety

    The pop punk star opened up about getting sober and how GnR’s Duff McKagan inspired his sobriety.

    Deryck Whibley, the lead singer of Sum 41, had to get sober in 2014 if he wanted to continue living. Like many artists when they get clean, he’s had adjustments to make, but he’s found that the pros certainly outweigh the cons.

    Whibley found himself close to death when his liver and kidneys started collapsing from too many years of alcohol abuse. Being a musician was a dream come true for Whibley, but as he told Forbes, “Once all the partying and everything I had done caught up to me and I ended up in the hospital and I felt like I was about to lose it all, getting sober sort of re-solidified more than ever [that] all I care about is playing music. Once I felt like it was gonna be gone forever, I started respecting the fact I play music and it’s taking care of myself to play music.”

    It wasn’t just the hectic musician lifestyle that drove his addiction, Whibley was also dealing with a bad back.

    “I was self-medicating that pain with alcohol,” he explains. “So I started drinking a little bit more because of that on top of the partying. But then I would party that night too. So I was doubling it all up and that’s what got me into trouble.”

    Duff Inspires

    Whibley has looked up to Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses, who also got sober after many years of heavy drinking and a near-death experience where his pancreas exploded.

    “I always knew his story and obviously loved Guns N’ Roses when I was growing up,” Whibley says. “I knew he had gone through all that and gotten healthy and was doing really well. When I knew I was getting bad I would say to myself, ‘I’m gonna do the Duff thing. I’m gonna get healthy. I know I’m gonna get out of this.’”

    Whibley reached out to McKagan after he got out of the hospital. “I didn’t know him at the time. I’d run into him a few times, but not enough to know him. He gave me some advice and he was great.”

    Passion Returns

    Now that Whibley is sober, he feels “the passion for music is probably stronger now and also passion for the work that goes into it… I thought touring was so fun when we were all partying. It was just this rolling party wherever we went. And I thought, ‘Would it be that fun sober?’ And doing it now it’s way more fun.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Ed Sheeran Talks Anxiety: "It Creeps Up On You"

    Ed Sheeran Talks Anxiety: "It Creeps Up On You"

    Sheeran detailed his experience wih social anxiety in a recent interview.

    In a new interview with Breakfast Club radio host Charlamagne Tha God, pop singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran revealed that he had recently married his childhood friend Cherry Seaborn.

    “I wake up every day with Cherry and I’m like why the f*ck are you with me? You could be with whoever you wanted and you’ve chosen me.
    “I’m saying all the things that I think are wrong with me and you still want to be with me and I find that amazing,” the 28-year-old said.

    In the wide-ranging, candid interview Sheeran also opened up about living with anxiety and how it has impacted his professional and personal life.

    Sheeran confessed that he struggles with social anxiety. “It creeps up on you. I’ve been working on it for eight years and I closed off from reality.”

    Circle Of Trust

    He told Charlamagne how he has trimmed his social circle down to just a handful of his closest friends to feel safe.

    “Whether it’s getting rid of our phone or only looking at emails twice a day,” Sheeran says. “Or cutting down my friendship group to the bare minimum just so I can trust everyone. I let people in from a, ‘Let’s hang out place.’ There is letting in and then there is letting in.

    “I have social anxiety. I don’t like large groups of people, which is ironic given I play shows to thousands of people…I have no problem with talking to people. But it’s when people film me and stare at me. It makes me feel like I’m not human,” he said.

    The Grammy winner said that after the chart-topping popularity of his hit single “Shape Of You” living a private life became nearly impossible and he made the decision to move to the country in an effort to retreat from the spotlight that followed him while he lived in central London. 

    “I lost the ability to go to a supermarket and buy a loaf of bread about three years ago. People around here treat me pretty normally, but in London it’s different,” Sheeran explained.

    While Sheeran lives with daily anxiety, he also knows he’s very lucky to have his career and a great significant other in his privileged life. “I don’t mean to be complain-y, because I have a very cool life and job, but if I can avoid it [the scrutiny] I will.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Texas College Aims To Help Every Student With Mental Health, Trauma

    Texas College Aims To Help Every Student With Mental Health, Trauma

    Paul Quinn College is taking a progressive approach to mental health that leaves no student behind. 

    With stress, anxiety and depression a common struggle among college students, there is more focus now on mental health in higher education than ever before. Now Paul Quinn College in Texas is working hard to make sure that their students have their mental health needs covered.

    As Dallas News reports, every student who comes into Paul Quinn College is encouraged to meet with a counselor for a mental health assessment, and the school has a free mental health clinic that students can visit as well.

    Dr. Stacia Alexander is the director of Paul Quinn’s mental health clinic, and she tells new students at the school, “We’re here for you. For whatever feelings you struggle with—with whatever you hide from everybody else that you think means nothing, that you think makes you out of your mind. We are here to talk to you about these feelings.”

    Setting Students Up For Success

    Paul Quinn College often takes in a lot of students who come from underprivileged backgrounds and are trying to find their place in the world. Several years back, the school’s president, Michael Sorrell, tried to figure out why the school’s graduation rate was so low. “It took us a while to understand that that was a product of trauma,” Sorrell says.

    The first years of college can be especially stressful. You’re on your own for the first time, you want to succeed, and it can be hard to balance your scholastic, professional and personal workload.

    Dr. Jessica Moore, a mental health professional who works at Paul Quinn, recalled that the subject of mental health didn’t come up much when she was in college. But today, “the students are good at letting us know the things that they need. They are quick to say, ‘OK, we need to talk about trauma or peer relationships or stress management.’ And then we all work on an event or program to address that.”

    Dr. Alexander has freely given out her cell phone number for students to reach out and contact her, and with this new openness about mental health at Paul Quinn, her phone has been buzzing frequently from students looking for help.

    “The thing we’re trying to get students to understand is that [their] traumas are real. And they do impair or affect how you process daily information. And if you continue to ignore that, you’re going to continue to be impaired and not reach your full potential.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Lily Allen Talks Addiction, Mental Health Treatment

    Lily Allen Talks Addiction, Mental Health Treatment

    Allen recently revealed she spent time in a psychiatric ward. 

    British singer Lily Allen has been very open with the public about her struggles with addiction and mental health, and she’s now speaking out to The Guardian about her time in a psychiatric ward.

    Allen acknowledged that the music industry isn’t the best environment to maintain your mental health. “I’m surprised I’m not dead,” she says today. “The music industry was a hedonistic place in the noughties. It was all about having fun and getting fucked up. People who indulge don’t generally come out the other side. Having children trigged responsibilities.”

    Last year she told People, “I think it was age. Waking up on a tour bus, really hungover with makeup running—it’s not a good look when you’re 30. It’s okay when you’re 19!”

    Allen also told The Guardian, “I chose sex over heroin. I didn’t realize [it] at the time. Addiction can manifest itself in all manners of ways. You use substances or sex to put a plaster over something else, like pain or fear. There are all manner of destructive things you can get up to.”

    Allen Reveals That She’s Living With Bipolar Disorder, PTSD

    In 2017, Allen went public about living with bipolar disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after she had a stillborn child.

    Allen also revealed that she spent three months in a psychiatric ward, which she says “wasn’t a positive experience at the time, but I came out of it slightly healthier than when I went in. I’d been trying to harm myself so I was under close supervision. One thing I learned while there was about the formative years and attachment parenting. Both my parents were busy when I was young so I try to make myself less busy for my children now.”

    As Allen’s children get older, she’s concerned about how they will deal with social media, which is a psychological hazard many parents have to navigate today.

    “I worry about Instagram for my daughters, because it makes young, impressionable girls feel their whole value is based on their looks. When the surefire way to increase your followers and likes is by taking your clothes off and piling on makeup, that’s what you’ll do because you want validation, just like every teenager.”

    Lily In A Parallel Dimension

    Acknowledging she’s had a messy life, the singer quipped, “I hope the other Lily Allen in a parallel dimension is doing well. I think she lives in Cornwall, works as a florist supplying flowers to boutique shops in London, and lives in a lovely house with her children.”

    View the original article at thefix.com