“Kids are experiencing symptoms of dependence with really low exposures to cigarettes, and beginning to experience this difficulty of quitting very, very early on,” said Jennifer O’Loughlin, lead author of the study published online Wednesday in the American Journal of Public Health. “For kids, there’s no window of opportunity that you can kind of experiment with cigarettes and get away with it.”
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5ijuv6DpLJ3Sr5CYlBSgbHiO3uuHQ
About 18 or so years ago, the author Lawrence Block wrote a novel called Random Walk, about a young man who begins a journey eastward from Oregon on foot, on what he imagines is a whim. Along the way he picks up followers, including a murderous character whose coming to terms with his past makes up a powerful subplot.
The book is clearly a parable for the recovery process, as well as a New Age venture into mysticism. Like all Block’s novels, it is tight and well-crafted. Unfortunately it fell flat on its face and is now out of print. Nonetheless, it’s a great read if you can find a copy at your local library or as a used book.
By Bill
The three attributes, the Steps, Traditions and Concepts, are the foundations of any program: Unity, Service and Recovery. Just as a triangle can’t support itself without all three sides, a 12-Step Group couldn’t survive without all three “sides” of its structure. With its sides intact, on the other hand, a triangle (or pyramid) is the most stable structure there is.
We have to:
* Stick together and support each other;
* Make sure that we — and newcomers — have a place to come to;
* Progress physically, spirutually and emotionally so that we can get better ourselves and then help others to recover.The home group is the basis of all three things.
FDA Requests Black Box on Antibiotics Warning about Tendon Ruptures
Makers of fluoroquinolone antibiotics are strongly requested
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to add a black box warning patients about
the risks of tendon ruptures. ……The risk of tendon ruptures is “especially increased” in patients older than 60, and those with kidney, heart or lung transplants.
The fluoroquinolone antibiotics targeted by the black box request include ciprofloxacin sold by Bayer A.G. under the brand names Cipro, Ciproxin and Ciprobay, which is effective against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The same class involves levofloxacin sold by Ortho-McNeil under the trade name Levaquin. The drug is usually used in respiratory infections….
Doctors urged to take a harder look at heavy drinking | Summer House
Washington Post – When it comes to treatment, the experts think alcoholism needs to catch up to depression.
Dr David Moore and Bill Manville publish a weekly column on addiction that is widely syndicated. Here is their take on celebrity addiction “reality” shows. They’re not impressed.
Bill: Did you see Dr. Drew Pinsky’s special on VH1 this week – the interview with porn star Mary Carey?Dr. Dave: The theme seemed to be, “Ooh, the crazy things I did when I was high.”
Bill: What I did not like was that those “crazy things” were made to sound sexy and attractive. Even worse were Dr. Drew’s efforts to justify the show by announcing that “today, in the celebrity world, we’re seeing an addiction epidemic.” My reaction was, Oh, really? Stupid me; I thought you were putting a porn star on camera for the ratings.
Dr. Dave: Bill, let me put on my clinician’s hat for a moment. Do I detect an overly personal note in your objections to Dr. Drew’s show?
Bill: What you hear is an angry note. Recovery saved my life….
Fellow WordPress bloggers who have slow connections need to go to the Dashboard and click the “Turbo” link in the upper right corner. Follow the directions and download Google Gears, then install it and continue with following the directions.
Gears, when combined with WordPress, downloads and stores substantial amounts of data from the servers on your hard drive. Access to the various blog pages, etc. is speeded up substantially. It’s even noticeable on my 6Mb DSL connection at home, and the sorry-ass dialup here at work now operates as if it had been — well — turbo-charged. The whole process takes about ten minutes, and then things will run slowly on a slow connection for a bit until Gears caches the up with the data.
Warning: do not install Gears on a shared or public computer. A lot of the data from your blog will be stored on the hard drive. Keep the content of your blogs and comments in mind. The data won’t be accessed by Google (who provide the Gears applet) but will be available to anyone who has physical access to your machine.
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This is a pretty realistic look at the issue, but overlooks the fact that there is no government will to facilitate recovery. With 20% of the customers purchasing 80% of the alcoholic beverages, we won’t see much change in overall policy — regardless of how many institutes of this and that are hand-wringing and gnashing their teeth — until the treatment industry can afford to spend more than the brewers, distillers and distributors (who are dead set against any programs that will significantly reduce their customer base, despite their slightly pious “drink responsibly” crap).
Don’t hold your breath.
Drug, alcohol abuse study measures the high cost of under-treated addiction – Los Angeles Times
DRUG AND alcohol abuse sets people on a path toward heart disease, cancer and other chronic illnesses. A study in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment reports that hospital costs for this medical fallout can be substantial — and could be avoided with more drug and alcohol treatment.
From the lab to the legislature, the push is on to recognize and treat addiction as a mental illness. Getting hooked on alcohol or drugs is not the result of bad behaviour or a weak character, researchers say; rather, it’s caused by genes and by biochemical disruptions in the brain that distort mood, clear thinking and compulsion control. It’s all rooted in the ‘reward pathway,’ a looped circuit deep in the human brain. Carolyn Abraham and Tonia Cowan report…
globeandmail.com: Addiction: The express route to mental illness
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Curtis says her addiction was so bad that she even stole pills from her
sister, who, at the time, was recovering at the actress’ house from a
broken bone.
Jamie Lee Curtis opens up about past painkiller addiction
I‘ve not lived in my home town for 10 years and now for six of those I’ve been sober and drug free, so my life has changed considerably. But when I walk back into that area my good head does not go with me.
Step One – I am powerless over my family | My Alcoholism & Recovery
Are you the happiest person you know? Not necessarily the luckiest, richest, or most successful, just the happiest?
If not, why not?
How Happy Are You?
Hi, Fearless Readers…
Hope you like the new look. I just got tired of the other one…it was so bland. I’ll be tweaking this one a bit and if we don’t like it, we can always revert.
During the Christmas holiday in 2004 we had a lot to be grateful for. All three of our young adult sons were in recovery. We had survived Hilary’s mother’s death and my sister Mary’s death. Edward and Nicholas had come harrowingly close to death and Jeff had found sobriety as well.
Recovery And Addiction » Blog Archive » We spend Christmas without Edward and Nicholas
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Mozilla has announced that June 17 is the official date of the much-anticipated Firefox 3 release. Developers and open source software enthusiasts are planning parties all over the world to celebrate the occasion.
Mozilla prepares for Firefox 3 release and plans for 3.1
