Bill White has a new paper on Recovery and Harm Reduction in Philadelphia. Here's a quote he offered in a blog post introducing the paper: Traditional harm reduction programs have pioneered low threshold services, but they have often also been characterized by low expectations. Our vision is to expand low threshold services that at the same … Continue reading Recovery and Harm Reduction
Month: October 2013
Sentences to ponder
If your loved one is suffering from addiction or mental health issues, it means you’re suffering right along with them. You don’t have to struggle alone. ... We can make it together. We Made It Together | Love First - Intervention for alcoholism and addiction
“The Situation” with PHARMA
Here are two sentence fragments (not taken out of context) from After Party Chat that show just how broken the pharmaceutical industry is: ...in 2012 Big Pharma spent 19 times as much on marketing as they did on research. ...Jersey Shore’s Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino is now shilling for Suboxone. It's hard to know where to start with … Continue reading “The Situation” with PHARMA
A chronic illness?
Bill White responds to a recent article that has gotten a lot of attention by Gene Heyman, a disease model critic. Heyman (and a couple of other recent articles) question whether it's accurate to call addiction a chronic illness. If there is anything that the full scope of modern research on the resolution of AOD problems is … Continue reading A chronic illness?
Tribes of the recovering community
I remember getting sober and learning about the Sober Riders and Fifth Chapter. This recovery stuff was a whole new world, and I never imagined there'd be tribes like them. There are sober MCs (motorcycle clubs) all over the country. Our local Sober Riders describe the MC this way: The Sober Riders is a fellowship … Continue reading Tribes of the recovering community
Finding Not-God-ness
After Party Chat posts a letter written by Joshua Leonard to his brother who was still active in his addiction. Joshua reflects on his struggle with surrender: I spent years (well into my early recovery) painting elaborate stories in my brain about why “I was right.” I would have hours of conversations with people inside … Continue reading Finding Not-God-ness
Binge drinking and rape
Slate has a point/counterpoint on the issue of alcohol and rape on college campuses that has gotten a lot of attention. Emily Yoffe, while placing blame on the rapists, points to binge drinking as an important risk factor for being raped. I don’t believe any of these statistics will move in the right direction until … Continue reading Binge drinking and rape
Two Lives Lost to Heroin
From LIFE magazine: In February 1965, LIFE magazine published an extraordinary photo essay on two heroin addicts, John and Karen, in New York City. Photographed by Bill Eppridge, the photographs — and the accompanying article, reported and written by LIFE associate editor James Mills — were part of a two-part series on narcotics in the United States. A sensitive, … Continue reading Two Lives Lost to Heroin
Mother’s little helper
Ann Dowsett Johnston says that alcohol is the new mother's little helper: But those Mad Men years took their toll. My mother wasn’t the only one self-medicating with a combination of alcohol and a benzodiazepine called Valium. By the end of the sixties, two-thirds of the users of psychoactive drugs—Valium, Librium—were women. In fact, between … Continue reading Mother’s little helper
Voices of Recovery
Vermont Public Radio highlights, The Hungry Heart, a documentary on addiction and recovery in Vermont. The audio clips are really great.
Recovery Review 