Tag: News

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
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
Man Sets Out On Legal Mission After Seeing Opioids Destroy His Hometown

A West Virginia lawyer is working to hold major opioid manufacturers legally responsible for their role in the epidemic that has ravaged his home state.

With record-high rates of overdose deaths and babies born with opioid dependence, Huntington, West Virginia is at the heart of the nation’s overdose crisis.

It’s also home to Paul Farrell, a lawyer working to sue major opioid manufacturers, who doesn’t want his town to be grouped into the usual picture of downtrodden rural America.

“People have been underestimating me for a very long time,” Farrell told MSN. “I’m accustomed to being stereotyped as the Appalachia, redneck hillbilly.”

Farrell is leading the lawsuits for many West Virginia towns, who are suing big names like Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Teva, and drug distributors.

He says that he has personally seen the toll that opioids have taken on the region. “I have people my age that I know that are addicted to opioids,” Farrell said. “I know people that have children in their early 20s that they have lost.”

And yet Farrell isn’t overly sentimental about the crisis—he’s out for revenge. “We eat what we kill,” Farrell said. “I’m stalking. I’m stalking the herd.”

Many of Farrell’s lawsuits hang on public nuisance laws, with his argument essentially being that drug manufacturers and distributors created a massive and costly public nuisance throughout the state.

“If you drop a nuclear bomb right there—boom!—this is the fallout,” Farrell said of the region.

Paul Hanly, a lawyer who has sued Big Tobacco and is working with Farrell on his suits, said that Farrell is tenacious in defending his region.

“He’s a gladiator,” Hanly said. “He feels he’s on a mission to correct some wrongs that have adversely affected his state worse than any other state in the nation.”

Farrell is also unapologetic about the potential money that he could make from the lawsuits. The firms filing the suits stand to make up to 25% of their client’s portions of any settlement. With settlements that could reach $50 billion, the payout for lawyers could be significant.

“Sometimes it’s a feast. Sometimes it’s a famine,” Farrell said.

Farrell started his career in family law, before moving on to the more lucrative role of a plaintiff’s attorney, representing people who had been harmed. “I was writing very large checks to dumbass lawyers, and I thought to myself, ‘I’d like to be one of those dumbasses that gets one of these checks,’” Farrell said.

This time, he’s aiming for a significant payout for the communities that have been impacted. Farrell believes that past settlements between West Virginia and opioid manufacturers have been too small.

“It pissed me off that we got handled like that,” he said.

View the original article at thefix.com

25 July 2018
New Jersey Marijuana Cases Temporarily Halted By Attorney General

The AG’s announcement, which will affect thousands, comes at a turning point for marijuana policy in New Jersey.

On Tuesday, New Jersey’s attorney general ordered the immediate adjournment of all municipal marijuana cases until September or later.

In a letter to prosecutors, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal wrote, “In the interim, I ask that all municipal prosecutors in New Jersey seek an adjournment until September 4, 2018, or later, of any matter involving a marijuana-related offense pending in municipal court. The adjournment will give my office sufficient time to develop appropriate guidance for prosecutors.”

The announcement, which according to Politico will affect thousands, comes at a turning point for marijuana policy in New Jersey.

Jersey City, the state’s second-most-populous city, was on track to decriminalize marijuana until Grewal voided the attempt last Friday.

Mayor Steve Fulop argued that the city had the right to “amend or dismiss charges as they see fit and decriminalization is the right thing to do as we shouldn’t continue a policy of creating records and ruining a person’s future over small quantities of marijuana.”

But Grewal disagreed, saying the city did not have “the legal authority” to decriminalize marijuana “or otherwise refuse to criminally prosecute all marijuana-related offenses in the municipal courts of Jersey City.”

But despite Grewal’s opposition to Jersey City’s effort, his decision to suspend municipal marijuana cases is regarded as a step toward decriminalization in the long run, according to Politico.

Governor Phil Murphy, who is known for his support of marijuana legalization, said while decriminalization is “intoxicating,” there are more benefits to full legalization. “You think it’s a step in the right direction [but] it actually leaves the business in the hands of the bad guys,” said the governor. “Your kids are exposed, it’s not regulated, it’s not taxed. So I’ll leave the specifics of that to the attorney general, but that’s a conceptual answer.”

On Monday, Senate President Steve Sweeney said he would add on efforts to legalize marijuana for adult use to efforts to expand New Jersey’s medical marijuana program, according to Politico.

After meeting with Jersey City officials on Monday, Grewal announced that he will establish a working group to develop guidance for prosecutors by September on how they should proceed with marijuana cases.

View the original article at thefix.com

25 July 2018
Robin Williams' Daughter Zelda Pens Tribute For His Birthday

In her Instagram tribute, Zelda encouraged fans of her father to volunteer at homeless shelters and spread kindness in his memory.

July 21st marked what would have been the 67th birthday of comedy icon Robin Williams. His daughter Zelda Williams took to Instagram to pay tribute to her late father.

Shortly before the actor’s birthday, Zelda wrote, “It’s that time of year again. Everyone who has dealt with loss knows the pain of certain anniversaries, moments full of memory that come around like clockwork and usurp all others, no matter how hard you may try to prepare for or avoid them.”

When her father’s birthday comes around, Zelda revealed that she takes a break from social media because the outpouring of memories and sympathy on the net makes her father’s death harder to deal with.

“These weeks are the hardest for me, and thus, you’ll see me a lot less, if at all,” she continued. “For all the internet’s good intentions in expressing to me their fondness for dad, it’s very overwhelming to have strangers need me to know how much they cared for him right now. It’s harder still to be expected to reach back. So while I’ve got the strength, consider this my one open armed response, before I go take my yearly me time to celebrate his and my birthdays in peace.”

Zelda encouraged fans of her father to volunteer at homeless shelters in her father’s memory. “Look up how to make homeless aid backpacks. Give one in his name. He’d have loved that. Mostly, try to spread some laughter and kindness around. And creatively swear a lot. Every time you do, somewhere out there in our vast weird universe, he’s giggling with you… or giving a particularly fat bumblebee its wings.”

Zelda ended her post by writing, “Miss you every day, but especially these ones.”

The Hook actor died by suicide on August 11, 2014 at the age of 63.

In the wake of her father’s passing, Zelda has said she’s become an “accidental advocate” for mental health.

She told Women’s Health magazine, “Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not ruining someone’s life. There’s a realization that everyone is fighting a different battle and you can’t fight it for someone else, but you can try to understand. Part of the first step forward, even before acceptance, but just toward understanding, is actually listening and learning.”

View the original article at thefix.com

25 July 2018
Elizabeth Warren Questions Trump's Response To Opioid Crisis

“You pledged that ‘we will be spending the most money ever on the opioid crisis.’ Yet your claim appears to have no basis in reality.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren is not impressed with President Donald Trump’s lack of action when it comes to the opioid crisis—and she is making that known.

According to Vox, the senator (D-MA) wrote a letter to Trump recently, expressing her concern.

“Experts and observers have concluded that your efforts to address the opioid crisis are ‘pathetic’ and ‘ambiguous promises’ that are ‘falling far short of what is needed’ and are ‘not… addressing the epidemic with the urgency it demands,’” she wrote. “I agree, and I urge you to move quickly to address these problems.”

In her letter, Warren highlights the fact that while campaigning and while in office, Trump has made promises to take action. In October, he declared the opioid epidemic a national public health emergency—a declaration that has been renewed twice since, according to Vox.

Next week, it’s due to be renewed for a third time.

“Six months after you first declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency, you pledged that ‘we will be spending the most money ever on the opioid crisis,’” Warren wrote. “Yet your claim appears to have no basis in reality. While the U.S. Senate reached a budget agreement earlier this year to spend an additional $6 billion over two years to address the opioid crisis, your Administration’s own proposals to address the opioid crisis, including your most recent opioid initiative policies released on March 19th, lack commitments of federal funds.”

Warren goes on to ask Trump to expand on how his administration is taking action and whether the public health emergency declaration will be extended.

“Despite multiple calls to action from public health advocates and families whose loved ones have been devastated by the ongoing opioid crisis, your Administration is failing to implement aggressive and necessary measures to combat this epidemic,” she wrote. “Efforts by state and local governments and communities to address this crisis require support, meaningful action, and resources from the federal government.”

Warren concluded by asking Trump to respond to her letter, as well as a number of questions, by July 23, 2018.

Warren isn’t the only one taking action and voicing concern, Vox notes. In fact, Warren teamed up with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) to introduce a bill that would allocate $100 billion to the opioid epidemic over the next decade.

Other senators are also questioning the president’s lack of action. In January, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and other democrats in the senate requested a Government Accountability Office investigation into Trump’s actions when it comes to the crisis.

In April, they sent an additional letter.

According to Vox, Warren says her letter and questions have not yet been addressed.

View the original article at thefix.com

25 July 2018
Dennis Quaid Revisits "White Light" Moment That Spurred His Recovery

“I was basically doing cocaine pretty much on a daily basis during the ‘80s.”

Since kicking off his acting career in the ’70s, former Hollywood “bad boy” Dennis Quaid has come out on the other side of cocaine addiction—“my greatest mistake.” Quaid, now 64, revisited the height of his cocaine use and the turning point that made him want to quit, during a recent interview.

“I grew up in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and there was a completely different attitude about it then. Even in some movie budgets. I kept roaring on,” he told Megyn Kelly.

“I was basically doing cocaine pretty much on a daily basis during the ‘80s. I spent many, many a night screaming at God to please take this away from me, I’ll never do it again because I’ve only got an hour before I have to be at work.”

But by the afternoon, the young actor would change his mind, and the cycle would continue.

By the time he was filming The Big Easy (1986), he’d sleep for just one hour a night. “Doing blow just contributed to me not being able to handle the fame, which, at the time, I guess I felt I didn’t deserve,” he wrote in a 2011 Newsweek essay. “I was doing my best imitation of an asshole there for a little while, trying to pretend everything was okay.

“Meanwhile my life was falling apart, and I noticed myself, but I was hoping everyone else didn’t.”

Quaid struggled to quit until the late ’80s, when he finally sought help. “I had a white light experience where I saw myself either dead or losing everything that meant anything to me,” he told Kelly.

He provided more detail about his moment of clarity in his Newsweek essay: “I had a band then, called The Eclectics. One night we played a show at the China Club in LA, and the band broke up… because it all got too crazy. I had one of those white light experiences that night where I kind of realized I was going to be dead in five years if I didn’t change my ways. The next day I was in rehab.”

But even after rehab, Quaid recalled that things got worse before they got better.

“It was one of those times when you think, ‘Well, if I do the right thing and clean up my life, it’ll get better.’ No, it got worse! In 1990 I did Wilder Napalm, which came out and went down the tubes. But that time in my life—those years in the ‘90s recovering—actually chiseled me into a person. It gave me the resolve and a resilience to persevere in life,” he wrote. “If I hadn’t gone through that period, I don’t know if I’d still be acting. In the end, it taught me humility. I really learn to appreciate what I have in this life.”

View the original article at thefix.com

25 July 2018
Could A Scientific Study Have Slowed The Opioid Crisis?

Researchers suggest that a recent pragmatic trial could have played a key role in curbing the crisis.

While opioids are effective for acute pain relief, the widespread addiction and dependence that have swept up the country have showed that the powerful pills have unintended consequences, even as studies suggest that opioids are less effective for long-term pain than over-the-counter options.

Most medications are approved after undergoing a randomized controlled trial, but a different type of scientific study could have showed the real-world problems with using opioids for chronic pain relief, according to Aaron E. Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine who blogs on health research and policy at The Incidental Economist.

“These different kinds of studies actually exist. They are called pragmatic trials, and a recent one might have helped serve as a brake as the opioid epidemic accelerated,” Carroll writes in an essay for The New York Times.

Whereas randomized controlled studies evaluate whether a drug is effective in ideal circumstances, pragmatic studies measure a drug’s effectiveness in the real world.

“A pragmatic trial seeks to determine if, and how, an intervention might work in practice, where decisions are more complicated than in a strictly controlled clinical trial,” Carroll writes.

A randomized controlled study of opioids, for example, would compare whether people taking opioids get more pain relief than those taking a placebo. This is challenging, however, because people who are being treated for pain are desperate for relief, and often change treatments hoping to find one that will work.

“Under these conditions, it’s hard to get patients to participate, and the same with doctors,” Carroll writes.

The Strategies for Prescribing Analgesics Comparative Effectiveness study took a more pragmatic approach to analyzing the effectiveness of pain relief medications, comparing opioids to non-opioid treatment.

Whether a patient was receiving opioid or non-opioid treatment there were options to progress to stronger pain relief options, which helped people stick with the study long-term, rather than dropping out to try other pain relief. Doctors could also change doses and medications within the same class, tailoring treatment to the individual patients.

“That’s how actual care occurs,” Carroll writes. “This way, you can measure how treating someone with opioids might compare with treating someone without opioids for a sustained period.”

The study eventually showed that adverse symptoms were lower for patients treated without opioids, and those patients were also less likely to become dependent.

Although studies like this are important, Carroll writes that they’re unlikely to become mainstream because of their intricacies and expense.

“Although drug companies are willing and ready to pay for randomized controlled trials to prove efficacy, it’s not clear who is going to finance studies like these,” Carroll writes. “They use lots of different drugs—which is what happens in the real world—and no company wants to foot the bill for other companies’ products to be evaluated. Certainly no opioid-related companies would want to pay for this trial.”

View the original article at thefix.com

25 July 2018
Demi Lovato Hospitalized For Apparent Overdose

Paramedics reportedly revived Lovato with Narcan before transporting the singer to the hospital for further treatment.

Demi Lovato has been hospitalized after an alleged heroin overdose, according to numerous reports Tuesday afternoon.

According to TMZ, which broke the news, the singer and actress, 25, was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital shortly before noon on Tuesday, July 24.

Paramedics were called to the singer’s Hollywood Hills home where she was found unconscious. The first responders reportedly revived the singer with Narcan before transporting her to the hospital, according to TMZ.

Law enforcement tells TMZ that the hospitalization was due to a heroin overdose and Lovato is being treated. Currently, her condition is not known.

Lovato has a history of substance use disorder, bipolar disorder and has also battled bulimia. On March 15, 2018, she celebrated six years of sobriety. However, in June, Lovato released a new song called “Sober,” which led listeners to believe she was no longer abstaining from substance use.

The chorus of the song is as follows:

“Momma, I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore/And daddy, please forgive me for the drinks spilled on the floor/To the ones who never left me/We’ve been down this road before/I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore.”

In October 2017, Lovato released a YouTube documentary called Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated, in which she discussed her alcohol and cocaine use.

Last October, Lovato also spoke out about her recovery when receiving the Spirit of Sobriety award at a Brent Shapiro Foundation fundraising event.

“Every day is a battle,” she said. “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.”

She added that when it comes to her recovery, she puts in the work like anyone else. “I see a therapist twice a week,” she said. “I make sure I stay on my medications. I go to AA meetings. I do what I can physically in the gym. I make it a priority.”

In the aftermath of her apparent overdose, other celebrities reached out, offering their prayers.

“My friend @ddlovato is one of the kindest, most talented people I’ve ever met,” tweeted country singer Brad Paisley. “Praying for her right now, addiction is a terrifying disease. There is no one more honest or brave than this woman.”

Ellen DeGeneres also offered her support.

“I love @DDLovato so much,” she wrote on Twitter. “It breaks my heart that she is going through this. She is a light in this world, and I am sending my love to her and her family.”

View the original article at thefix.com

24 July 2018