Answer Addiction

Tag: relapse

  • Iggy Azalea On Demi Lovato’s Relapse: "To Be Honest With The World Is Admirable"

    Iggy Azalea On Demi Lovato’s Relapse: "To Be Honest With The World Is Admirable"

    “I had known about it, as a close friend. So I had really wanted for her to be the one to tell people about that, and I worried a lot…”

    Australian rapper Iggy Azalea is proud of her friend and fellow artist Demi Lovato for the way she “owned up” to a relapse after six years of sobriety. 

    “I had known about it, as a close friend. So I had really wanted for her to be the one to tell people about that, and I worried a lot… that something was going to leak or somebody would take that and use it negatively against her, or to make her seem like she’s got a secret,” Azalea told Entertainment Tonight ahead of a July 22 show where the two artists will perform together at the California Mid-State Fair.

    Earlier this year, Azalea had said that Lovato’s tireless advocacy for mental health awareness had made her more open to receiving help at a time when she was “mentally exhausted.”

    Lovato, who has shared every step of her recovery with the world for the last six years, released a candid confession via song last month called “Sober,” revealing that she had relapsed after six years.

    “I don’t know why I do it every time/ It’s only when I’m lonely/ Sometimes I just wanna cave/ And I don’t wanna fight,” she sings. “To the ones who never left me we’ve been down this road before/ I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore.”

    While worried for her friend, Azalea was pleasantly surprised by how Lovato handled the situation. “I didn’t know that she was recording that song,” she told ET. “I was just really proud of her that she was honest, because it’s really hard to be honest with yourself. So, to be honest with the whole world, [to share] something that you struggled with very publicly, it’s something that is very admirable.”

    In some recovery communities, a relapse is no longer a mark of shame or failure, but rather, a part of the process of recovery and growth. Lovato herself has been a tireless advocate for mental health and recovery support, working to erase the shame and stigma surrounding mental illness and substance abuse.

    She’s shared every part of her recovery including her rock bottom and her struggle with bipolar disorder, and admits when she’s feeling vulnerable.

    Her recent confession is just another part of her journey.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Kelly Osbourne Gets Candid About Sobriety, Relapse & Mental Health

    Kelly Osbourne Gets Candid About Sobriety, Relapse & Mental Health

    “What I’ve learnt is that no amount of therapy or medication is going to work unless you want it to.”

    Fighting off stigma and advocating for self-care, Kelly Osbourne opened up to a British tabloid about her ongoing reliance on weekly therapy to help her battle with addiction. 

    “I believe everybody should have therapy,” the 33-year-old told The Sun. “Your mind, body and soul are the full package. I try and go once a week.”

    The former reality star also spoke of her seven trips to rehab and two mental hospital stays, and what was different the last time, the thing that finally got her sober. “What I’ve learnt is that no amount of therapy or medication is going to work unless you want it to,” she said. “Until you want to be a good person, you will never be one.”

    Osbourne—whose father, rock legend Ozzy Osbourne, has also had very public struggles with addiction—also touched on public perceptions around mental health care. “There’s still a huge stigma, especially in this country,” she said. “You work out to keep your body good so you go to therapy to keep your mind good.”

    This isn’t the first time the perpetually purple-haired celeb has dished on her history of treatment and institutionalization; last year, she laid it all out in a book.

    The TV star first got into drugs as a teen, when she started taking Vicodin after having her tonsils removed. “I found, when I take this, people like me,” she later told People. “I’m having fun, I’m not getting picked on. It became a confidence thing.”

    Over the years, her drug use ballooned into a broader problem. “The only way I could even face my life was by opening that pill bottle, shaking out a few pills—or a handful—into my palm, and throwing them down my throat,” she wrote in her 2017 memoir, There is No F*cking Secret: Letters from a Badass Bitch.

    After multiple trips to rehab, she sobered up once—then relapsed while living in Los Angeles. “Every day, I was taking more and more pills, hoping that I wouldn’t wake up,” she wrote.

    But she pulled through it and got off drugs again, eventually going on to pen her book about it all.

    “Now, I manage pain through creativity, friendship and self-care,” she wrote in a final chapter titled, “Dear Rehab.” “The crazier my life gets, the more focused I become on the things that make me feel good.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Rapper Vic Mensa Deals With Addiction, Mental Health In New Song

    Rapper Vic Mensa Deals With Addiction, Mental Health In New Song

    The 25-year-old rapper gets candid about relapsing, recovery and mental health in his new song “10K Problems.”

    Chicago rapper Vic Mensa just dropped his second single in a month called “10K Problems.” The song tackles addiction, his struggles with his mental health and dealing with family tragedy.

    “10K Problems” immediately received strong reviews upon its release, and while the song is a little over two minutes, its impact hits hard from the beginning: “Niggas asking where I been at, I gotta recap it/Relapsing d-r-u-g habits/Tryin’ to move forward, depression been holding me backwards/Recovery ain’t a straight line.”

    Then as Mensa raps on, he deals with his father becoming paralyzed after surgery. “It’s a painful process watching your parents die/And niggas look at my life and think I’m in paradise.”

    Like the Fugees classic “Ready or Not,” Vic Mensa rapped “10K Problems” over the same Enya song, “Boadicea.” In the brief time the single has been out on SoundCloud, Rolling Stone has called it “cathartic,” and HotNewHipHop writes that “when Vic Mensa is his vulnerable self, he is able to weave a story with the best of ‘em.”

    Continuing in the same self-confessional vein, Mensa also promised Business Insider that his next album will be “powerful, aggressive, beautiful, sad, all those things… Whenever I get into making an album, it’s always like a really self-reflective, self-expressive journey. And I’m learning about myself in real time.”

    Mensa had previously tackled addiction in the single “Rollin’ Like a Stoner.” In the song, Mensa rapped, “I am a disaster, I don’t need a recipe/Tried to be sober, that didn’t work for me.”

    Mensa told High Times, “I really was writing that song about a point in time in my life, for the most part. I was fucking with a lot of drugs. I went sober and then I’d do hard drugs some time ago.

    But I still bounce back sometimes,” hence the lyrics in “10K Problems” where he raps, “Recovery ain’t a straight line.” (As a Mensa profile in Billboard reports, Mensa’s favorite drugs included mushrooms, acid, Molly, and Adderall.)

    Mensa added that artists should be open about drugs and alcohol, as well as their mental health struggles. “I do think that shedding some honest light on drug use is important… A lot of youngins growing up in the hood, they witness death and despair firsthand… and we’re trying to deal with trauma often through external substances.”

    Mensa admitted he sees a therapist, and practices meditation as well, and he “100%” feels that “the stigma is lessening” around mental health, “but it still needs to be introduced in a major way.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Demi Lovato Reveals She Relapsed In New Song "Sober"

    Demi Lovato Reveals She Relapsed In New Song "Sober"

    “To the ones who never left me we’ve been down this road before, I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore,” the pop star sings in her new song.

    Pop star Demi Lovato is forthright about not only about the positive side of her recovery, but also her struggles along the way. The singer-songwriter’s new single “Sober” is a candid confession about a recent relapse after six years of sobriety.

    “I don’t know why I do it every time/ It’s only when I’m lonely/ Sometimes I just wanna cave/ And I don’t wanna fight,” she sings. “Mama 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.”

    Lovato goes on to apologize to fans, as well as herself: “I’m sorry that I’m here again/ I promise I’ll get help/ It wasn’t my intention/ I’m sorry to myself.”

     

    Lovato is a champion of mental health and recovery support. She herself celebrated six years of sobriety back in March, marking the occasion on social media—“Just officially turned 6 years sober. So grateful for another year of joy, health and happiness. It IS possible”—as she does every March.

    She even brings “therapy sessions” to fans before her concerts. “We have speakers from all over and we’re also helping out with different charities from around the country, so it’ll be incredible and a very moving and inspiring experience,” she said.

    The goal of the mobile therapy sessions is to shed the stigma of struggling with mental health or asking for help.

    “Shame’s just such a lousy feeling,” she said. “There’s nothing positive that comes out of shame.”

    Last October, while accepting the Spirit of Sobriety award at a fundraising event hosted by the Brent Shapiro Foundation, the pop star described the consistent work that goes into her recovery.

    “Every day is a battle. 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 said.

    Her recovery relies on a multi-faceted approach, like anyone else’s. “I see a therapist twice a week. 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,” she said.

    Rapper Iggy Azalea—who once credited Demi with inspiring her to be more open about receiving therapy at a time when she was “mentally exhausted”—tweeted her support for the “Sorry Not Sorry” singer.

    “All of us who love you only want to see you happy and healthy,” she wrote. “I’m proud of you for having the guts to reveal your truth to the world again… I pray you’ll choose recovery again.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Potential Treatment To Prevent Relapse Shows Promise

    Potential Treatment To Prevent Relapse Shows Promise

    Researchers only tested the treatment mechanism out on morphine though they are interested in seeing if it works on other drugs.

    The journal Addiction Biology published research from scientists at the University of Bath which offers a new mechanism for preventing drug-addiction relapses.

    According to Medical Xpress, the Bath scientists collaborated with colleagues from RenaSci and University of Surrey to use an animal model in order to study specific behaviors of rats and mice that sought out morphine after being exposed to environmental cues associated with the drug.

    The scientists then withheld morphine from the rats and mice and then reintroduced the environmental cues. The rodents then lapsed into drug-seeking behaviors. The premise set, the scientists then tested the effect of a brain neurotransmitter blocker called acetylcholine.

    Acetylcholine is crucial to the memory process. Using the blocker on a specific acetylcholine receptor on the rats and mice, the researchers observed that the blocker drug, called methyllycaconitine, or MLA, did not block the rodents from searching for morphine, but did prevent them from ingesting it.

    Moving forward with that information, the researchers honed in on a part of the brain vital for memory, the ventral hippocampus. The venal hippocampus is linked with emotional memory, crucial in the functions of addiction and relapse.

    Relapse is a pervasive reality for those with an addiction to drugs or alcohol. While studies present differing statistics on relapse rates, Science Daily reports that “the majority of addicts return to drug-taking within 12 months of quitting.”

    Triggers for relapse are numerous and range from physical cues such as drug paraphernalia to emotional cues such as a painful setback. The study shows that MLA—at least in animal models—works to prevent relapsing even when exposed to those environmental cues.

    Medical Xpress quotes Professor Sue Wonnacott, from the University of Bath’s Department of Biology & Biochemistry, as saying, “More work needs to be done to uncover the brain mechanisms involved, but it raises the prospect of erasing long-term drug-associated memories that underpin addiction and the propensity to relapse.”

    Dr. Chris Bailey from the University of Bath’s Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology looked forward to more research which could reveal if MLA blocks relapse for other drug addictions besides morphine.

    He said, “We already have evidence, in the same animal model, that it is effective against the more potent opioid, heroin. If MLA has similar effects against other drugs of abuse such as cocaine it would be even more encouraging.”

    Research is being done on relapse prevention using other methods for other drugs, as well.

    This year, a promising study published in Neuropsychopharmapsychology (also done on animals), found that they were able to reduce relapse rates with a drug used to treat diabetes and obesity, called extendin-4. No adverse reactions were found, and research continues to move forward.

    View the original article at thefix.com