Answer Addiction

Tag: mental health issues

  • Benzo Death Rates Among Women Skyrocket

    Benzo Death Rates Among Women Skyrocket

    A new report also shows the number of benzodiazepine prescriptions has sharply risen over an 18-year timeframe.

    New statistics suggest that the overdose death rates involving the prescription drugs known as benzodiazepines have risen dramatically over the past decade, and approach statistics for heroin – and synthetic opioid-related overdose deaths.

    A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that between 1999 and 2017, the number of women between the ages of 30 and 64 who died from an drug overdose involving benzodiazepines – a family of drugs used for anxiety – rose 830% during that time period.

    The CDC also found that prescriptions for benzodiazepines rose by 67% during the approximate same time period.

    Benzodiazepines, which include such medications as Xanax, Valium and Klonopin, can prove effective in treating conditions like anxiety or insomnia if taken on an intermittent basis over a period of a few weeks. But with long-term use, they also carry an increased risk for overdose if taken with opioids.

    Their ability to calm or sedate the user through an increase in the neurotransmitter GABA in the brain, which can be dangerous if taken with drugs that slow breathing like opioids or even alcohol. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported in 2018 that 30% of opioid-related overdoses also involved benzodiazepines.

    The overall impact of benzodiazepine on overdose mortality rates paints a more alarming picture when observed over the time period covered in the CDC’s report. According to their research, overdose deaths involving benzodiazepines among women in the aforementioned target age group rose from 0.54 per 100,000 in 1997 to 5.02 per 100,000 in 2017 – a jump of 830%. 

    The number of benzodiazepine prescriptions also saw a startling increase during the study time frame, rising from 8.1 million adults in the United States who filled a prescription for the medication in 1996 to 13.5 million in 2013.

    Prescriptions began to drop or level off after 2013, but overdose deaths maintained their steady climb: in 2016 alone, there were 10,685 overdose deaths attributed to the drug, while in 1999, the US total as just 1,135.

    Commentary in the February 2018 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that education about the dangers of the drug and alternatives should be paired with national efforts to fight the opioid crisis.

    Informing doctors and patients alike about their dangers, and the effectiveness of alternative treatments for anxiety and insomnia, could help to bring the numbers reported by the CDC down.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Inmates With Mental Health Issues Kept After Release Dates, Lawsuit Alleges

    Inmates With Mental Health Issues Kept After Release Dates, Lawsuit Alleges

    “Our clients are told, often on the day they expect to be released from prison, that they will not be leaving and must stay until community housing is located,” said the executive director of Disability Rights New York.

    In theory, MG is not in prison. His release date was in May 2017.

    And yet, every day he wakes up in a windowless cell in the Auburn Correctional Facility. He wears green prison clothes, stands for count and identifies himself by the seven-digit number emblazoned on his shirt.  

    That’s because MG is mentally ill and bound for community-based mental health housing—but there’s no space. So instead, the New York prison system has kept him, locking him up even after his sentence has technically ended. 

    But MG isn’t the only prisoner held long past the expiration of his sentence. That’s why the Legal Aid Society and Disability Rights New York last week filed a class action lawsuit against the state’s prison system, the New York State Office of Mental Health, the prison system and Governor Andrew Cuomo, claiming violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and demanding that the state come up with better mental health housing options.  

    “Our clients are told, often on the day they expect to be released from prison, that they will not be leaving and must stay until community housing is located,” said Timothy Clune, executive director of Disability Rights New York. “Further, documents produced by the Defendants show that New York State is well aware of the shortage of mental health housing for this population. Instead of addressing this shortage the State has been ignoring the problem and our clients.”

    The six prisoners at the center of the new federal lawsuit are all mentally ill and at risk of homelessness, so the state decided they should be sent to supportive housing. But right now there isn’t enough, and when that happens, officials instead transfer prisoners like MG to one of 13 “residential treatment facilities”—all of which are in medium and maximum security prisons.

    In effect, according to the lawsuit, the prison system is lengthening their sentences because they’re mentally ill, in the process “undermining the most basic principle undergirding the criminal justice system: that a criminal sentence, once imposed by a judge, means what it says.”

    The state hasn’t responded in court to the legal claim just yet, and an Office of Mental Health official said they hadn’t been formally notified when reporters first started asking for comment.

    “This lawsuit was served to the media before it was served to us, so we can’t comment on its details,” spokeswoman Jessica Riley told The Albany Times-Union. “However, New York funds one of the most robust supportive housing networks in the nation for individuals with mental illness.”

    The state pours nearly $500 million a year into community-based housing for people with serious mental illness. Currently, that funds around 44,000 housing units statewide, and there’s plans to have 6,000 more online by 2021. 

    The other men in the lawsuit have stories similar to MG’s. 

    CJ, who has bipolar disorder, was supposed to get out of prison in September 2017—but he’s still locked up in the Green Haven unit in Stormville, according to the legal filing. He got a GED and vocational certificate during his time behind bars, and had hoped to get a job and rebuild a life for himself near his family in Orange County. Instead, he’s spent the past year-and-a-half in and out of barren psychiatric observation cells where he’s been put on suicide watch after repeatedly telling prison staff he’d rather die than stay in prison.

    MJ, who also has bipolar disorder, expected to get out in June 2018, according to court papers. Instead, he too was sent to Green Haven, where he’s been put in solitary twice for rules infractions—even though he shouldn’t be in prison to begin with.

    JR has depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress. He’s repeatedly attempted to harm himself, and he should already be out of prison—but he’s still at the Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon. Prison staff have already asked him to sign release papers and told him he’s considered a parolee instead of an inmate, even though he’s still in prison, the suit claims.

    DR, who has bipolar disorder, was slated for release in December 2017.

    Yet, he’s still being held at the Fishkill facility, the suit alleges. He proposed living with his aunt, but officials denied him and insisted that he must wait for community-based mental health housing to open up, according to the federal claim.

    It’s stories like these that prompted the legal advocates to file suit. They’re asking for class status; an order declaring the state’s actions unconstitutional; money for lawyers’ fees; and a permanent injunction forcing the state to make sufficient housing available and to come up with a better plan for mentally ill inmates in the future. 

    It’s not part of their requested relief but, as the suit notes: “Plaintiffs want to be free from prison.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Glenn Close Discusses Mental Health Stigma

    Glenn Close Discusses Mental Health Stigma

    The “Damages” actress spoke about the stigma surrounding those with mental health issues during a recent lecture. 

    Golden Globe winner and vocal mental health advocate Glenn Close took another opportunity to speak on the dangers of stigma against mental illness during a recent lecture in central Ohio.

    The renowned actress was invited to speak as part of the Jefferson Series, described as “a collection of stimulating forums featuring some of the world’s most compelling and esteemed thinkers” that takes place in New Albany, Ohio each year.

    During her lecture, Close talked about mental illness in her family and about her book Resilience: Two Sisters and a Story of Mental Illness. Her sister, Jessie Close, has bipolar disorder and Glenn Close herself has dealt with depression at times throughout her life.

    However, due largely to stigma against mental illness and a silence around the issue within their family, Jessie remained undiagnosed until the age of 50.

    According to a CBS interview from March 2018, Glenn Close was alarmed to discover how often those with bipolar disorder die by suicide and realized that she could have easily lost her sister.

    According to an analysis published in the US National Library of Medicine, researchers have found that anywhere from 25 to 60% of people with bipolar disorder have a history of attempting suicide. In the general adult population in the US, the rate of attempted suicide is 0.5%.

    These revelations led the two Close sisters to establish the anti-stigma foundation Bring Change 2 Mind in 2010. Glenn Close has since used her fame to speak out against the stigma surrounding mental illness that kept her family quiet on the issue for so long.

    “I come from a family that had no vocabulary for mental illness,” Close wrote in 2016. “Toxic stigma and the social mores of the time made any conversation about possible mental health issues taboo. The lack of conversation was very costly.”

    In addition to the sisters’ illnesses, Jessie Close’s son, Calen, has schizophrenia and spent two years in a hospital for those with mental health issues.

    In her recent lecture, Close encouraged people to examine their own attitudes around mental illness that might be preventing them from seeking help or offering help to a struggling family member.

    “You have to examine yourself to see whether you have any kind of stigma that’s just been inadvertently fed into you and then realize your family member can lead a viable life,” she said. “You can have a life, but you have to get help. And the sooner you get help, the better your life will be.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How Results-Driven School Culture Affects Teachers’ Mental Health

    How Results-Driven School Culture Affects Teachers’ Mental Health

    Researchers talked to teachers on long-term sick leave as a result of struggling with mental health for a new study.

    More and more UK teachers are beginning to struggle with their mental health as a result of changing expectations in the profession. 

    This information comes from a new study, Forbes reports. Researchers have determined that the results-driven culture in schools, as well as a heavy workload, changing policies and lack of support from higher-ups, is leading teachers to be more prone to stress, anxiety and depression and is also causing a decrease in their self-esteem.

    The authors of the study have referred to the results-driven culture as “managerialist.” The authors explained that it has led to teachers not being able to encourage “active learning,” leading them to feel as if they are failing their students and themselves.  

    “The result is teachers feeling they are being driven out of the classroom, and in some cases attempting suicide, due to the pressure of work,” Forbes states. 

    In their research, study authors talked to teachers on long-term sick leave as a result of struggling with mental health. They also spoke to leaders in schools who had dealt with mental health struggles among staff members. 

    According to Forbes, many of those interviewed stated that the focus on results and targets has changed the position of teachers and has altered their ability to form relationships with students. 

    Many also noted that increasing amounts of paperwork have added to their workloads and that they felt they were always under pressure to reach unrealistic expectations while also not being allowed to participate in the decision-making process about expectations. 

    One teacher, according to Forbes, stated that a new leader at the school had “immediately set about changing everything, didn’t take advice from anybody.”

    Another teacher stated that teachers have lost the ability to respond to students’ needs, saying “there seems to be a loss of spontaneity that teachers used to have” and adding that “it’s all confirming to syllabus and rigor of that syllabus rather than responding to the children.”

    According to Gerry Leavey, the director of the Bamford Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing at Ulster University and principal investigator on the study, a decrease in self-esteem and teaching effectiveness was commonly brought up in interviews.  

    “This tension is often internalized and impacts on teachers’ identity,” he said. “It often pits taking care of themselves and the non-academic needs of pupils against management duties and targets. Too often, this leads to stress and mental health problems.” 

    Lead author Dr. Barbara Skinner told Forbes that when it comes to policy changes, the mental health of teachers must be considered. 

    “Educational reforms, and the rigidly prescribed organizational and management structures that accompany them should be weighed against their impacts on professional identity and personal well-being,” she said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Doctors At High Risk For Depression & Suicide, Survey Says

    Doctors At High Risk For Depression & Suicide, Survey Says

    About 15% of physicians are depressed, and 44% say they are burned out, according to a recent survey.

    Physicians are tasked with taking care of others, but a new study suggests that their own health often suffers due to the pace and demands of their profession, putting them at high risk for burnout and even death by suicide. 

    According to Reuters, doctors are more likely than people in any other profession to die by suicide. About 15% of physicians are depressed, and 44% say they are burned out, according to a recent survey by Medscape. On average, a doctor dies by suicide more than once a day. 

    “There is a passionate argument surrounding the data and discourse about who’s to blame for this situation.” Dr. Carter Lebares, director of the Center for Mindfulness in Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco said that there are many factors contributing to this epidemic. 

    “Quotes from respondents in the Medscape survey capture this very poignantly: anger over a broken system, loss of time with patients, being asked to sacrifice dwindling personal time to ‘fix ourselves,’ and demoralization that the only way out is to quit or severely curtail our work,” she said. 

    The survey showed that administrative duties were the biggest cause of stress, with 59% of physicians feeling taxed by them. The other top stressors were spending too much time at work, not being paid enough or fretting over electronic records — about one-third of doctors said they were affected by each of these. 20% of respondents said they felt “like just a cog in a wheel.”

    Lebares said that doctors need to be taught to manage their stress in healthier ways. 

    “The approach we promote and champion in our research and programming for surgeons includes cognitive training for stress reduction through mindful meditation training; learning skills for advocacy; and engaging the institution to address broader change,” she said. 

    However, many physicians use unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with the stress of the job. 21% of female and 23% of male doctors said that they drink alcohol to cope, while 38% of females and 27% of males turn to junk food. 

    Some have healthier habits for stress management: 52% of females and 37% of males say they talk to family and friends, while 51% of males and 43% of females exercise to alleviate burnout. 

    Lebares said that the medical system needs a cultural change, particularly with more doctors retiring, which may contribute to a physician shortage. 

    “Data are coming to suggest that an institutionally supported network of choices for wellbeing will be the answer — some combination of things like limited [electronic records] time, increased ratio of patient time, better food choices at work and home, room for personal health (like exercise breaks), tailored mindfulness-based interventions, financial planning services or untraditionally structured jobs,” she said.

    In the meantime, patients could be affected by physician burnout: Doctors reported making errors, expressing frustrations and not taking careful notes because of their exhaustion. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Paul Manafort Is Depressed in Jail, Lawyers Say

    Paul Manafort Is Depressed in Jail, Lawyers Say

    Manafort has been in jail for more than six months, after a judge revoked his bail in June.

    Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, is not faring well in jail, where he is being held while he awaits his sentencing in February on charges of financial fraud and conspiracy, according to his lawyers. 

    “He . . . suffers from depression and anxiety and, due to the facility’s visitation regulations, has had very little contact with his family,” Manafort’s lawyers wrote in court filings that were reported by The New York Post. Because he is so high profile, Manafort is being held in solitary confinement, which has “taken a toll on his physical and mental health,” his lawyers said. 

    In addition to depression and anxiety, Manafort is also battling gout, an arthritic inflammation of the joints that is usually associated with a heavy diet that includes red meats, seafood and alcohol. 

    “For several months Mr. Manafort has suffered from severe gout, at times confining him to a wheelchair,” the lawyers wrote. In October, Manafort appeared at a court date in a wheelchair, with his foot bandaged.

    His lawyer, Kevin Downing, asked the judge to sentence Manafort quickly, so he could be moved from a detention center to a federal prison. Downing told the judge that Manafort has “significant” health issues that were made worse by the “terms of his confinement.”

    Manafort has been in jail for more than six months, after a judge revoked his bail in June. He could face years in federal prison from his convictions. 

    In July, a judge ordered that Manafort be moved from one facility that was reportedly giving him special treatment to a city jail in Alexandria, Virginia. 

    “On the monitored prison phone calls, Manafort has mentioned that he is being treated like a ‘VIP,’” a court filing by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team alleged. “Among the unique privileges Manafort enjoys at the jail are a private, self-contained living unit, which is larger than other inmates’ units, his own bathroom and shower facility, his own personal telephone and his own workspace to prepare for trial. Manafort is also not required to wear a prison uniform.”

    Manafort was even able to send emails from the facility. 

    “In order to exchange emails, he reads and composes emails on a second laptop that is shuttled in and out of the facility by his team. When the team takes the laptop from the jail, it re-connects to the internet and Manafort’s emails are transmitted,” court documents showed. 

    Manafort was in the news again this week after his lawyers accidentally released paperwork that appears to show he met with a Russian spy when he was working on the Trump campaign. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Are Young People Who Self-Harm More Likely To Commit Violent Crimes?

    Are Young People Who Self-Harm More Likely To Commit Violent Crimes?

    A new study examined whether adolescents who self-harm have a higher risk of hurting others. 

    New research has determined that a predilection for self-harm in adolescence and early adulthood may also foretell a risk for harming others. Data culled from a long-term study on twins from preschool age until their early 20s suggested that individuals who reported harming themselves were three times more likely to commit violent crimes than those that did not.

    Negative experiences during childhood, including mistreatment and low self-control, appeared to increase the odds of a self-harmer becoming a “dual harmer,” as the study labeled such individuals, as well as developing a dependency on alcohol and/or drugs.

    “We know that some individuals who self-harm also inflict harm on others,” said study author Leah Richmond-Rakerd of Duke University. “What has not been clear is whether there are early-life characteristics or experiences that increase the risk of violent offending among individuals who self-harm.” 

    The results of the study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, examined data compiled on more than 2,200 twins born in the United Kingdom between 1994 and 1995 who took part in the Environmental (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, which examined childhood behavior disorders in its subjects between the ages of five and 18.

    Beginning at age 18, the E-Risk study asked participants to report any experience with self-harm since the age of 12 as well as violent behaviors and any criminal records accrued between the ages of 10 and 22. Additional childhood experiences, including family psychiatry, maltreatment and low self-control, were also reviewed for the study.

    Of the 2,049 participants in the study, 13.4% met the criteria for self-harm, while 19.4% matched criteria for violent crime. Among the individuals who presented as dual harmers, there were higher incidents of low self-control and maltreatment; as US News and World Report noted, genetics and family history did not appear to impact the likelihood of self-harm or dual harm.

    “Our study suggests that dual-harming adolescents have experienced self-control difficulties and been victims of violence from a young age,” said Richmond-Rakerd. Other clinical characteristics exhibited by dual harmers included “higher lethality behaviors,” such as hanging or drowning, and acts of self-aggression, such as hitting themselves with objects or banging their heads against a wall and aggression towards others. Self-harmers, by comparison, appeared to engage in lower-lethality methods like cutting.

    Dual harmers also appeared to have a greater chance of exhibiting psychotic symptoms and meeting criteria for drug or alcohol dependency. As Richmond-Rakerd noted, early determination of the chance of dual harm behavior among self-harming young people through a “treatment-oriented, rather than punishment-oriented approach” could “guide interventions that prevent and reduce interpersonal violence.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Depression Changes How We Use Language

    Depression Changes How We Use Language

    Researchers studied an online forum for mental health issues to examine how people with symptoms of depression used language.

    Depression can change both the content and style of the language that people use, according to a study published in the journal of Clinical Psychological Science. 

    The study compared the use of language in online forums dedicated to addressing depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation. It found that absolutist words — like never, always, completely and nothing — were 50% more frequent in forums dealing with depression than in control forums. In groups for people with suicidal ideation, absolutist language was 80% higher than in control groups, according to JSTOR Daily. 

    “Absolutist thinking is considered a cognitive distortion by most cognitive therapies for anxiety and depression,” study authors wrote. 

    However, the increased use of absolutist language wasn’t limited to people who are currently clinically depressed. 

    “We found elevated levels of absolutist words in depression recovery forums. This suggests that absolutist thinking may be a vulnerability factor,” study authors wrote. 

    The use of absolutist words was more closely connected to depression than the use of negative words like “sad,” “frustrated” or “upset.” However, people in the depression forums did use these negative words more frequently than people in the control forums, according to JSTOR. 

    Another interesting finding, which had been previously identified, is that people with depression were more likely to use first-person singular pronouns and less likely to use third-person pronouns. This could suggest that people with depression are isolated or focused on themselves. Which pronouns someone uses can predict the presence of depression more reliably than negative words, according to one study. 

    “We know that rumination (dwelling on personal problems) and social isolation are common features of depression,” Mohammed Al-Mosaiwi wrote for JSTOR. “However, we don’t know whether these findings reflect differences in attention or thinking style. Does depression cause people to focus on themselves, or do people who focus on themselves get symptoms of depression?”

    Last year, researchers developed an algorithm that could predict depression by evaluating a person’s speech or texts. 

    Tuka Alhanai, first author of the paper outlining the technology, told MIT News that in the future it could be an important diagnostic tool.

    “We call it ‘context-free’ because you’re not putting any constraints into the types of questions you’re looking for and the type of responses to those questions,” Alhanai said. “If you want to deploy [depression-detection] models in a scalable way … you want to minimize the amount of constraints you have on the data you’re using. You want to deploy it in any regular conversation and have the model pick up, from the natural interaction, the state of the individual.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Firefighters Open Treatment Center For Their Own

    Firefighters Open Treatment Center For Their Own

    The center provides beds for 60 firefighters to get treatment for substance use disorder, mental illness or other behavioral health conditions.

    The opioid epidemic has touched people from all walks of life, including first responders, who often find it hard to reach out for help in a work culture that involves putting others first and brushing vulnerabilities aside. That’s why a new treatment center has opened, aimed specifically at helping firefighters who need support with addiction and mental health issues. 

    The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) opened the Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health Treatment and Recovery last year just outside Washington, DC. It is set up similarly to a firehouse and provides beds for 60 firefighters to get treatment for substance use disorder, mental illness or other behavioral health conditions, whether they are associated with work or not. 

    “It’s really a state-of-the-art facility for our membership,” Ray Maione, a captain in the Phoenix Fire Department and vice president of member services for the United Phoenix Firefighters, Local 493, told Arizona Family. “To see it come to fruition is really pretty impressive; a lot of work went into this.”

    Maione said that the services are much needed for firefighters who are hesitant to seek help. 

    “We’re problem solvers, I mean we run into burning buildings when they’re on fire, so people think, and we think, we’re invincible,” he said. “And sometimes it just builds up. . . . When a firefighter reaches out I know they’ve already exhausted every option they have and they’re in crisis.”

    On-the-job injuries can expose firefighters to potent painkillers, and traumatic events can erode firefighters’ mental health, he said. 

    “We started to notice a big increase in suicides, a big increase in opioid addiction,” Maione said.

    Tyler Ramsey, a firefighter, first started using opioids for a back injury but noticed with time that he was becoming dependent on the pills. 

    “You get a prescription for an opiate or a pain medication, and at the start it’s need-based,” said Ramsey. “. . . Once it gets a hold of you, you use that as a crutch.”

    He told himself that because a doctor prescribed the pills they weren’t dangerous. 

    “I guess it gives you a false sense of security, almost, that it’s prescribed by a medical professional,” Ramsey said. “But being a fireman, I thought, ‘Oh I can control this. I don’t need to ask for help. I can manage this.’”

    However, when thoughts of opioids began taking over his day-to-day life, he realized he had a substance use problem. 

    “It’s the last thing you think about before you close your eyes at night and the first thing when you open your eyes in the morning, which is a pretty terrible place to be,” he said. When Ramsey reached out to colleagues, they got him into rehab that day, and they help him stay sober. 

    “I’m happy, upright, breathing and living a normal life again,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been afforded a second chance.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Stephen A. Smith Spouts Stigmatizing Rant About Josh Gordon's Addiction

    Stephen A. Smith Spouts Stigmatizing Rant About Josh Gordon's Addiction

    The controversial host ranted about the Patriots wide receiver battle with addiction and mental health issues on ESPN.

    Perennial hot-take artist and ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith delivered a baffling on-air diatribe last week, drawing harsh criticism from the Twitterverse for his stigmatizing rant on addiction and mental health issues. 

    Describing drug addiction as “self-inflicted” and refusing to view it as a disease, Smith laid into Patriots Wide Receiver Josh Gordon on Thursday following the announcement that Gordon planned to step away from the game to take care of his mental health. 

    “I’m disgusted,” the First Take host said on the air afterward. “I’m sick and tired of this guy getting chances.” 

    Smith continued on and on, in a seemingly interminable stream of vitriol, calling out the 27-year-old for taking Xanax in middle school and offering baffling gems like: “I understand it’s sad that he’s an addict, but it appears he’s an addict. That’s what this comes down to.” 

    In a separate, shorter clip from Thursday’s ESPN, Smith said he didn’t want to seem “unsympathetic” before questioning whether addiction is a disease and seemingly blaming Gordon for becoming addicted. 

    “I don’t want to come across as harsh or unsympathetic to Josh Gordon,” Smith said. “But let’s be very, very clear here. You’ve got a whole bunch of people out there talking about ‘It’s a disease, it’s a disease’ because it’s an addiction.

    “Well, I’m not going to debunk or eliminate the notion that it’s a disease, but how did it become one? Because you can’t get addicted to something you never try. This isn’t cancer. This isn’t Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or something like that. This is self-inflicted.”

    The video clip circulated online, where it was not at all popular, as social media users and other sports analysts thoroughly dragged Smith for his hottest of takes.

    “This is a HORRIBLE take from Stephen A Smith on mental illness and addiction,” tweeted CBS Sports writer Will Brinson. “I’m absolutely appalled this aired on television.”

    Armen Keteyian concurred. “So now he’s a mental health expert,” tweeted the executive producer for The Athletic. “I happen to know something about this situation and this is Completely irresponsible.” 

    Following a series of suspensions, Gordon was indefinitely suspended from the NFL on Thursday for repeated drug violations. Announcement of the suspension came hours after he announced his departure on Twitter.

    “I take my mental health very seriously at this point to ensure I remain able to perform at the highest level,” he tweeted. “I have recently felt like I could have a better grasp on things mentally. With that said, I will be stepping away from the football field for a bit to focus on my mental health.”

    View the original article at thefix.com