I teach at a local university and some years I teach on Saint Patrick's day. It's bad. Green beer starts flowing early, there are very drunk people wandering around all day, people passed out on the sidewalk, etc. Worst of all, it's the default thing to do if you're a young college student on St. … Continue reading Sober fun on St. Patty’s day
Category: Advocacy
Hope, empowerment, capability, connection and purpose
Hopeworks Community recently listed his core beliefs related to his recovery from mental illness: The idea was simple. There are a few core beliefs about recovery that make a difference. To the extent you are able to live them your recovery will be positively impacted. My list of core beliefs was simple: Life can get better. … Continue reading Hope, empowerment, capability, connection and purpose
It will kill people as soon as it’s released
The upcoming release of Zohydro has been getting a lot of attention: The hydrocodone-based drug is the latest in a long line of painkillers called opioid analgesics. The FDA approved the medication last fall to treat chronic pain, and it is set to become available to patients in March. The drug was approved against the advice … Continue reading It will kill people as soon as it’s released
Recovery vs. Treatment
Hopeworks Community's blog speaks from the perspective of a mental health care patient advocate. He draws some important distinctions between recovery and treatment: Is treatment a necessary or a sufficient condition for recovery?? The answer is clearly on both counts no. Mental health professionals have stolen the notion of recovery and defined it as the result of … Continue reading Recovery vs. Treatment
Recovery is Contagious
Bill White on the infectious nature of recovery: "We all have the potential to be recovery carriers. Becoming a recovery carrier requires several things. It requires that we protect our recoveries at all cost--Recovery by any means necessary under any circumstances. It requires that we help our families recover. It requires the courage to reach … Continue reading Recovery is Contagious
“looking past these behaviors”
This article got me thinking about the bigotry of low expectations and the importance of continuing to assert that every addict should be offered treatment services that provide a path to full recovery, not just symptom or harm reduction. If it's not suicide or drug overdoses doing the killing in psychiatric patients after all, how … Continue reading “looking past these behaviors”
Why FULL recovery should ALWAYS be our goal
Yesterday, we shared Bill White's views on the dangers of under-treating addiction. Today, we have Viktor Frankl on the importance of high expectations and addressing the need for meaning and purpose in the lives of people we're helping. If we overestimate man...we promote him to what he really can be. ... We have to be … Continue reading Why FULL recovery should ALWAYS be our goal
Sentences to ponder
"If alcohol policies were a newly discovered gene, pill or vaccine, we'd be investing billions of dollars to bring them to market," - Dr. Tim Naimi
Drug Overdose Deaths Are Increasing Pretty Much Everywhere
These images speak for themselves. Here are a couple of important sentences: Between 1999 and 2009, drug poisoning deaths grew by 394 percent in rural areas and 279 percent for large metropolitan areas, according to the CDC’s county-level look at the data. According to the CDC, roughly 60 percent of all OD deaths in 2010 … Continue reading Drug Overdose Deaths Are Increasing Pretty Much Everywhere
…let us work together
"If you have come here to help me, then you are wasting your time… But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." - Lila Watson Obviously, I've been thinking a lot about the buprenorphine maintenance, the NY Times series and the reactions since it was published. … Continue reading …let us work together
Recovery Review 