Tag: News

Zachary Quinto Speaks Out About Getting Sober

Quinto recently went on Instagram to celebrate his sober milestone.

Actor Zachary Quinto, known for playing Spock in the Star Trek reebot, opened up about his sobriety on Instagram and says he hopes that his honesty will encourage others to stay the course as well.

Quinto announced on Instagram on May 24 that he has hit his three-year sober landmark. “I guess I wrote the right jumper for the occasion, when I think about how far I’ve come and how much I’ve grown and how much more I love myself…I’m really blown away.”

Quinto, who is currently starring in the horror series NOS4A2, continued that he’s “very far from perfect – but perfectly flawed. And Working every day to honor and realize my full potential. Three years ago I had lost a connection to gratitude almost entirely. Today I am brimming with it. For this touchstone. For life’s abundance. For true friends. For support. For the sweet freedom of this journey. May it continue with compassion – curiosity – honesty and above all…LOVE.”

As Quinto said on The Today Show, “I felt like there was… I was very proud of that accomplishment for myself. To share my experience and to encourage other people who are interested in that journey for themselves is something that I have a real privilege to be able to do. I felt like it was a moment where I wanted to take that opportunity, and just acknowledge that my experience in life is entirely different now than it was three years ago, and I couldn’t be more grateful and happier for that.”

This year Quinto also appeared at a Q&A for the Rubin Museum with Dr. Judith Grisel called “The Power of Addiction.” Quinto lost his father when he was seven, but he had a fairly stable upbringing all things considered.

“I didn’t have my first drink until I was 17 or 18,” he said. “And I didn’t smoke pot until I was around the same age… It wasn’t until I achieved a certain level of success that I began to drink problematically. Into my thirties, the things I had been fighting for, I got. I was at events with open bars all the time, drinking became a socially accepted way to navigate those rooms.”

Quinto said, “I was just so miserable. I looked around at my life and said, ‘There’s no reason for me to be this unhappy.’ The most glaring component that was missing from my life was gratitude. I couldn’t be grateful, and I had so much for which to be grateful. I didn’t lose everything, I didn’t ruin relationships, I had what I think people refer to as a high bottom. There was one day when I was like, I can’t do this anymore.”

View the original article at thefix.com

3 June 2019
Researchers Create Psych Test For Gaming Addiction

The test allows users to compare their results with others to see how their gaming habits line up to the greater population.

Now that video game addiction is a recognized mental disorder, a new test aims to help people determine if they suffer from it.

Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially recognized video game addiction as a mental disorder. Now, academic researchers from the UK, Germany, China and Australia have banded together to create a test to help people determine if they have it.

Like many types of addiction, simply engaging in gaming is not in itself a mental disorder. However, gaming addiction does become a mental disorder of a person plays so excessively that they begin to experience detrimental effects on other aspects of their life for a time span of more than a year.

The researchers have publicly released the test online in the form of a five to 10 minute quiz. In its current form the quiz rates its takers on a scale with a maximum score of 20, with a higher score indicating a greater tendency towards gaming addiction.

However, there is no definitive score that defines addiction, with the test instead comparing your results with everyone else’s to allow you to see how your gaming habits line up to the greater population. The test also determines your personal motivations for gaming, be it to kill time, compete with others, or to cope with negative emotions.

Of 550 gamers tested in the UK and China, 36 of them meet the WHO’s criteria for video gaming addiction, defined as “impaired control over gaming” as well as gaming taking “precedence over other interests and daily activities” with a continued pattern of such behavior even after repeated negative consequences.

At the end of May, the WHO announced that gaming addiction would be officially recognized in their newest revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11), which is due at the beginning of the year 2022. The move gained a lot of attention from critics, including video gaming media outlets.

The Entertainment Software Association blasted the move, stating that it “recklessly trivializes real mental health issues like depression and social anxiety disorder.”

The announcement also drew ire from heath experts.

“It’s really a junk diagnosis,” said Christopher J. Ferguson, PhD, a mental health provider who co-wrote a journal article saying that the WHO’s diagnosis provided “little clarity… regarding diagnostic criteria and appropriate symptoms.”

View the original article at thefix.com

3 June 2019
Depression Rates Increase, Especially Among Young Workers

Depression rates among employed Americans rose 18% from 2014-2018.

Rates of depression have increased greatly over the past four years, with young workers seeing the largest surge, according to a recent study.

The study, conducted by wellness technology company Happify Health, found that depression rates among employed Americans rose 18% from 2014-2018. Among 18- to 24-year-olds the rate of depression increased 39%. Women in that group saw their depression rates increase 44%.

Ran Zilca, the chief data scientist at Happify Health, told SHRM that entering the workforce can be a vulnerable time for young people.

“Young adulthood is a transitional time when we’re often just entering the workforce, figuring out who we are and what we want to do with our lives, which can be very challenging and, for some, can cause very negative psychological reactions while not having yet developed the skills to combat those feelings,” Zilca said. “While this analysis doesn’t tell us if the causes are internal or external to their employment, we know from prior Happify research that younger adults tend to be more stressed and worried about job-related matters than older workers.”

In fact, the oldest workers surveyed (ages 55-64) saw an improvement in their mental health during the time studied.

Acacia Parks, chief scientist at Happify Health, said that young people can sometimes feel overwhelmed by all the options they have available to them.

“[People] going to college now face so many more options in terms of where to go to school, what to major in and what job to aim for. They have access to so much information via the Internet—a universe where the possibilities are endless—which can be both exciting and overwhelming,” Parks said.

Some young people also feel daunted by how the workforce is changing, and the uncertainty that brings to their professional and financial lives.

“Because technology has upped the pace of everything, college students are preparing for jobs that do not yet exist but will by the time they graduate,” Parks said. “Young adults in previous generations may have easily chosen a profession as they finished high school. Nowadays, preparing for a job is like trying to sail to an island that’s moving. Being a young adult in 2019 means accepting a greater amount of uncertainty than young adults of previous generations, and intolerance of uncertainty is linked to numerous psychological difficulties.”

Dan Schawbel, author of Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation, said that no one factor can explain such a dramatic increase in depression.

“It’s never one thing; it’s the combination of many things happening at once,” he said, pointing out that student loan debt, social media and financial concerns can all burden young workers, who don’t always have the interpersonal capital to ask for help.

“If you’re lacking relationships, you feel isolated and lonely, which leads to depression,” he said.

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2019
More Than 200 Bags Of Cocaine Found In Body Of Man Who Died On Plane

The man reportedly suffered seizures and died mid-flight.

A man flying out of Mexico never made it to his destination after dying mid-flight from a botched drug-smuggling scheme.

The 42-year-old, identified as Udo N., was a man of Japanese origin who began his journey in Bogotá, Colombia. He transferred in Mexico City to a flight destined for Narita International Airport in Japan.

However, he began suffering seizures during the flight and the plane made an emergency landing in Hermosillo, a city in Sonora, Mexico.

“Crew noticed a person suffering convulsions and requested to make an emergency landing in Hermosillo, Sonora,” read a statement from the Sonora attorney general’s office.

Upon landing, paramedics boarded the plane and pronounced the man dead.

The official cause of death was determined to be cerebral edema (swelling in the brain) caused by a drug overdose. The man had ingested 246 plastic bags filled with cocaine, measuring 1 by 2.5 cm each, that were discovered in his stomach and intestines.

As the producer of about 90% of cocaine destined for the United States, it’s no surprise that Udo N. was traveling from Colombia. Drug mules coming from the country are routinely busted for drugs—but that’s not all they are packing.

A 2018 bust at the international airport in the capital city of Bogotá, Colombia, yielded smugglers attempting to bring cash into Colombia from Mexico—a payment from drug traffickers to Colombian gangs for cocaine. The smugglers had ingested the money amounting to big sums.

The Guardian reported, “Authorities said that mules often swallowed up to 120 pellets of cash, with five $100 bills in each latex capsule. A typical ingestion would conceal and move $40,000 a person, though investigators said they previously caught someone with $75,000 in their system.”

An especially heinous case involved a Colombian veterinarian who was caught surgically implanting live puppies with liquid heroin to smuggle the drugs for a South American cartel. In February, Andres Lopez Elorez was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court to six years in prison for his crimes dating back to 2004.

“I have made mistakes,” Elorez told the judge, according to the New York Times. “I know I cannot justify my actions.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 June 2019
New York Launches Fentanyl Education Campaign

The campaign will target neighborhoods that have been hit hardest by the opioid epidemic and will promote the carrying and use of naloxone.

The New York Health Department launched a public information campaign Tuesday designed to prevent overdose deaths by educating opioid users on safe use and especially on the dangers of fentanyl.

The campaign will target neighborhoods that have been hit hardest by the opioid epidemic and will promote the carrying and use of naloxone, a medication that blocks opioid receptors in the brain and can stop a dangerous overdose.

According to New York Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot, fentanyl – the synthetic opioid that’s up to 50 times more potent than heroin – is “driving the overdose epidemic in New York City.”

“People who use drugs should know there are ways to reduce their risk of overdose,” said Barbot in a statement. “If you use drugs, don’t use them by yourself; if you overdose, someone else will need to call 911. This information can save lives.”

Campaign posters and ads on subways, bus shelters, billboards, and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, to name a just a few spots, will warn drug users that fentanyl can be found in illicit batches of heroin, cocaine, crack, and other common street drugs. Its tasteless and odorless, making detection impossible without special kits, and can easily cause rapid and deadly overdose. Other advice includes never using alone, avoiding mixing drugs, and carrying naloxone whenever possible.

For $730,000, a small bill for a city of this size, HealingNYC estimates that up to 400 lives could be saved before 2022. City Council Health Committee Chair Mark Levine stressed that saving as many lives as possible needs to be the goal, regardless of whether the drugs involved are legal.

“Every New Yorker should know that if you use drugs, there are things you can do to mitigate the chances of a deadly overdose,” said Levine. “We need to be open and honest about drug use in New Your City and make the use of drugs, even if illegal, as safe as possible. This program will save lives.”

A related public awareness campaign to provide free fentanyl testing kits to the public has seen a fair amount of success. According to Junior Bazile, Director Of Programs for New York Harm Reduction Educators, the organization has seen “considerable increase in the uptake of those testing kits.”

Nationally, synthetic opioids (mostly fentanyl) were involved in 19,413 of the 42,249 opioid overdose deaths in 2016, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

In New York City alone, there were 1,487 overdose deaths in 2017, with 57% of them involving fentanyl. Information campaigns and efforts to distribute and train people in the use of naloxone seem to be helping, but nothing will be certain until more recent numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are published.

View the original article at thefix.com

31 May 2019
Overdose Death Rates Skyrocket Among Middle-Aged Women

Overdose death rates among women aged 30 to 64 years rose by 260% between 1999 and 2017.

A recent news story from KNXV-TV adds a human perspective to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about a demographic on the rise for national drug overdose deaths.

The Phoenix, Arizona-based ABC affiliate profiled several area women who developed dependencies on drugs or alcohol between the ages of 40 and 64.

Addiction treatment centers in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area reported an increase in admission for women in that age group, which coincides with the CDC’s report that overdose death rates among women aged 30 to 64 years rose by 260% between 1999 and 2017.

To determine this statistic, the CDC reported in January 2019 that it had examined overdose death rates for this age group during the aforementioned time period, and categorized these fatalities according to drug subcategories, including antidepressants, cocaine, heroin, prescription opioids and synthetic opioids (except methadone).

From this data, they determined that the unadjusted drug overdose death rate increased from 6.7 deaths per 100,000 population (or 4,314 total drug overdose deaths) in 1999 to 24.3 (or 18,110 deaths) in 2017.

The rate of overdose deaths involving any opioid increased 492% during this time period, while nearly all subcategories of drugs saw increases in deaths, save for cocaine, which decreased significantly between 2006 and 2009. The highest death rate increases involved synthetic opioids (1,643%), heroin (915%) and benzodiazepines (830%).

Those figures reflect the experiences of the women profiled in the KNXV piece. Pamela Aguilu became dependent on prescription opioids after undergoing spinal surgeries. “I would say that I got addicted right away,” she said. “I was taking massive amounts of oxycodone.”

Aguilu expressed gratitude that she had not become one of the overdose statistics cited by the CDC. But she certainly came close. After confronting a police officer who had been sent by her landlord, Aguilu said, “The last thing I remember is the ER physician saying we need the Narcan now, and then I was out. I was out for two days.”

KNXV also cited Cheryl Hawley, a clinical director at the Valley Hope alcohol and drug treatment center, who said that women between 30 and 64 often put their roles as mother, wife and homemaker ahead of their own health, and then refuse to share their struggles with their families.

Aguilu agrees. “You hit middle age, and you think you’ve got it all figured out,” she said. “We live in a society where we take pills for everything.”

View the original article at thefix.com

31 May 2019
Disturbed’s "A Reason To Fight" Video Puts Spotlight On Depression

The touching music video features fans of the band sharing their personal experiences with mental health issues and addiction.

Heavy metal group Disturbed recently released a music video for their single “A Reason To Fight” which addresses mental health and the stigma surrounding it.

According to Blabbermouth, guitarist Dan Donegan told Columbus, Ohio station 99.7 The Blitz that the tragic suicide of Robin Williams was one of the inspirations for the song.

“I think the first time it really hit me was when Robin Williams died, I used to always get angry and think that [suicide] is very selfish, and I’d get angry and think, ‘How could somebody do this?’ Then you look at somebody like Williams, and you’re, like, ‘This guys makes everybody in the world laugh. Everybody loves him. He has family, money, success.’ Then it dawned on me that this is a disease.”

Donegan talked to Disturbed’s lead singer David Draiman about what kinds of subjects they wanted to cover in their Evolution album. “I suggested to David, ‘I’d really like to try and find a song that can touch on depression and addiction because we’ve all had either family, friends, or people close to us that have had their struggles, or continue to struggle.”

Stigma was another major issue that Donegan wanted to tackle with the song.

“I thought it was important for us to try to address the issue to let people know that it’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s nothing to be embarrassed by. It’s a disease, and you’re not alone,” he said. “We’re not trying to claim that we’re saving the world—we’re just trying to shed light on a dark subject, and trying to encourage people that when you see the signs, jump in and do what you can to try to offer a hand.”

In the video for “A Reason to Fight,” a number of people speak out about their struggles with depression, and Draiman tells a sold-out arena, “We keep losing soldiers in this war, and I’m tired of losing so many people that are so talented, so many people that I care so deeply about to the demons of addiction and depression.”

The arena lights go up, and Draiman tells the audience, “To prove to you that this is not an affliction that is exclusive to the world of entertainment, by a show of hands, how many of you have dealt with the demons of depression yourselves, or know someone who has?” As countless people raise their hands, along with the members of Disturbed, Draiman says, “You are not alone. We’re in this together my brothers, my sisters, my blood.”

View the original article at thefix.com

31 May 2019
Kanye West Talks Mental Health With David Letterman

“It’s a health issue that has a strong stigma on it and people are allowed to say anything about it and discriminate in any way,” West told Letterman.

Kanye West is featured in the second season of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, where he discusses mental health in a wide-ranging interview.

The rapper and artist is no stranger to this subject. In the last three years, West has been hospitalized for “temporary psychosis,” battled painkiller abuse after cosmetic surgery and revealed a bipolar diagnosis—only to later walk back on his claim, saying he “wasn’t actually bipolar” but suffered from sleep deprivation. He also stunned many by suggesting that slavery was “a choice” and openly embracing Donald Trump.

In his new interview with David Letterman, which will be available on Netflix on May 31, West continues to share his views on mental health.

“It’s a health issue that has a strong stigma on it and people are allowed to say anything about it and discriminate in any way,” he said. “This is like a sprained brain, like having a sprained ankle. And if someone has a sprained ankle, you’re not going to push on him more.”

West said that because of the stigma surrounding mental health, it is treated differently from any other ailment, with little compassion. “With us, once our brain gets to a point of spraining, people do everything to make it worse. They do everything possible. They got us to that point and they do everything to make it worse.”

He described the moment he was handcuffed and brought to treatment. “They have this moment where they put you—they handcuff you, they drug you, they put you on the bed, and they separate you from everyone you know,” he said. “That’s something that I am so happy that I experienced myself so I can start by changing that moment.”

West said that maintaining a medication regimen keeps him from losing control. “If you don’t take medication every day to keep you at a certain state, you have a potential to ramp up and it can take you to a point where you can even end up in the hospital. And you start acting erratic, as TMZ would put it.”

He continued, “When you ramp up, it expresses your personality more. You can become almost adolescent in your expression. This is my specific experience that I’ve had over the past two years, because I’ve only been diagnosed for two years now.”

View the original article at thefix.com

31 May 2019
Purdue Pharma Accused Of “Corrupting” WHO To Sell More Opioids

Officials say the World Health Organization helped Purdue “traffic dangerous misinformation” about opioids.

Members of Congress released a report last week alleging that the World Health Organization (WHO) has been “corrupted” by the leaders of the opioid industry, particularly Purdue Pharma and Mundipharma International, both of which are owned by members of the Sackler family.

U.S. Representatives Katherine Clark and Hal Rogers accuse WHO of essentially replicating claims made by these companies’ marketing materials, some of which have been found in court to be inaccurate and misleading.

“The web of influence we uncovered paints a picture of a public health organization that has been corrupted by the opioid industry,” said Clark according to the Guardian. “The WHO appears to be lending the opioid industry its voice and credibility, and as a result, a trusted public health organization is trafficking dangerous misinformation that could lead to a global opioid epidemic.”

The report claims that current WHO guidelines, implemented several years ago, still “mirror Purdue’s marketing strategies to increase prescriptions and expand sales.” This includes statistics and statements that have been contradicted by multiple studies, such as the assertion that less than one percent of patients who are prescribed opioids develop a dependence on the drug.

Additionally, the WHO removed guidelines recommending that pain patients be started on a combination of low-dose opioids and non-opioid pain relievers to instead recommend that highly potent opioids, such as Purdue’s OxyContin, can be given immediately.

To make matters worse, the WHO did not change its pro-opioid guidelines even after several members of Congress sent a letter to the organization in 2017 warning that Purdue was attempting to take its business worldwide after allegedly causing or heavily contributing to the opioid epidemic in the U.S.

The WHO did not respond to the letter, which led Clark and Rogers to launch their investigation.

In addition to mirroring Purdue marketing materials, the report alleges that the WHO was influenced by “industry-funded” advocacy groups such as the American Pain Society and the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP).

The American Pain Society recently announced that it may cease operation due to legal costs related to accusations that the organization is little more than a front for opioid industry interests.

“While the findings in this report are tragic and alarming, they are unsurprising given this company’s unscrupulous history,” said Rogers. “The WHO must take action now to right the ship and protect patients around the world, especially children, from the dangers associated with chronic opioid use.”

Clark and Rogers are calling on the WHO to withdraw its current guidelines related to opioid prescription. The WHO has said it is currently studying the report, and as usual, Purdue Pharma issued a statement denying all allegations of wrongdoing.

View the original article at thefix.com

31 May 2019
Brazil To Pass Legislation To Allow Involuntary Commitment Of Drug Users

The law would allow the involuntary commitment of drug users by the recommendation of a relative or a public health official.

Brazil is on track to pass national legislation that would allow drug users to undergo forced rehabilitation, the Washington Post reports.

On May 15, after passing Brazil’s lower chamber of congress, the Chamber of Deputies, the legislation was approved in the Senate as well. It now requires the signature of President Jair Bolsonaro to become law. Bolsonaro has indicated his support for the legislation.

The law would allow the involuntary commitment of drug users by the recommendation of a relative or a public health official, according to the Post. The individual would need the approval of medical professionals if they are to be released.

Drug policy reformers say this provision of the legislation is especially concerning—calling it a “perfect example of how this government seeks to resolve complex issues with simple and wrong solutions.”

Approaches “of this kind have failed and damaged the credibility of health professionals, with drug users wanting to run away from them,” said Leon Ribeiro, a public health psychiatrist and former member of Brazil’s National Secretariat for Drug Policy. “They’re trying to use punishment and the loss of freedom as a solution for those who consume drugs.”

Brazil’s Supreme Court is expected to decide whether to decriminalize marijuana possession and consumption on June 5. The Post noted that the government is hoping to “influence” the ruling by passing the controversial legislation.

Similarly, in the United States, dozens of states allow the involuntary commitment of drug users. The Daily Beast reported in 2017 that in light of the opioid crisis, more states were considering allowing it or expanding existing policies.

At the time, the Daily Beast cited figures by the National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws, which counted 37 states with existing statutes allowing for “substance abusers who have not committed a crime to be briefly detained against their will.”

This year, NPR reported on Massachusetts’ unusually “aggressive” use of its involuntary commitment law.

In the last fiscal year, more than 6,500 residents were ordered to treatment via involuntary commitment. It is still legal for men who are committed to involuntary addiction treatment to be sent to prisons and jails. Understandably, this has the potential to yield tragic results. The practice was outlawed for women in 2016.

View the original article at thefix.com

31 May 2019