Feb17 issue

FEBRUARY 2017 | VOLUME 6 | ISSUE 2

AN AWARD WINNING NATIONAL MAGAZINE

THE RISE OF THE PINK ELEPHANT Running for Awareness

By Dr. Alison Tarlow

+ How Addiction Impacts The Family

By Richard Velleman, FBPsS, FRSS, Ph.D., M.Sc., C.Psychol

+ The Loss of a Generation

By Andrew Rothermel

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A LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER Dear Readers, I welcome you to The Sober World magazine. The Sober World is an informative award winning national magazine that’s designed to help parents and families who have loved ones struggling with addiction.

We are a FREE printed publication, as well as an online e-magazine reaching people globally in their search for information about Drug and Alcohol Abuse.

We directly mail our printed magazine each month to whoever has been arrested for drugs or alcohol as well as distributing to schools, colleges, drug court, coffee houses, meeting halls, doctor offices and more .We directly mail to treatment centers, parent groups and different initiatives throughout the country and have a presence at conferences nationally.

Our monthly magazine is available for free on our website at www.thesoberworld.com.

If you would like to receive an E-version monthly of the magazine, please send your e-mail address to patricia@thesoberworld.com Drug addiction has reached epidemic proportions throughout the country and is steadily increasing. It is being described as “the biggest manmade epidemic” in the United States. More people are dying from drug overdoses than from any other cause of injury death, including traffic accidents, falls or guns.

Many Petty thefts are drug related, as the addicts need for drugs causes them to take desperate measures in order to have the ability to buy their drugs. The availability of prescription narcotics is overwhelming; as parents our hands are tied.

Purdue Pharma, the company that manufactures Oxycontin generated $3.1 BILLION in revenue in 2010? Scary isn’t it?

Addiction is a disease but there is a terrible stigma attached to it. As family members affected by this disease, we are often too ashamed to speak to anyone about our loved ones addiction, feeling that we will be judged. We try to pass it off as a passing phase in their lives, and some people hide their head in the sand until it becomes very apparent such as through an arrest, getting thrown out of school or even worse an overdose, that we realize the true extent of their addiction.

If you are experiencing any of the above, this may be your opportunity to save your child or loved one’s life. They are more apt to listen to you now than they were before, when whatever you said may have fallen on deaf ears. This is the point where you know your loved one needs help, but you don’t know where to begin.

I have compiled this informative magazine to try to take that fear and anxiety away from you and let you know there are many options to choose from.

There are Psychologists and Psychiatrists that specialize in treating people with addictions. There are Education Consultants that will work with you to figure out what your loved ones needs are and come up with the best plan for them. There are Interventionists who will hold an intervention and try to convince your loved one that they need help. There are detox centers that provide medical supervision to help them through the withdrawal process, There are Transport Services that will scoop up your resistant loved one (under the age of 18 yrs. old) and bring them to the facility you have To Advertise, Call 561-910-1943

chosen. There are long term Residential Programs (sometimes a year and longer) as well as short term programs (30-90 days), there are Therapeutic Boarding Schools, Wilderness programs, Extended Living and there are Sober Living Housing where they can work, go to meetings and be accountable for staying clean.

Many times a Criminal Attorney will try to work out a deal with the court to allow your child or loved one to seek treatment as an alternative to jail.

I know how overwhelming this period can be for you and I urge every parent or relative of an addict to get some help for yourself. There are many groups that can help you. There is Al-Anon, Alateen (for teenagers), Families Anonymous, Nar-Anon and more. This is a disease that affects the whole family, not just the parents.

Addiction knows no race or religion; it affects the wealthy as well as the poor, the highly educated, old, young-IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE. This magazine is dedicated to my son Steven who graduated with top honors from University of Central Florida. He graduated with a degree in Psychology, and was going for his Masters in Applied Behavioral Therapy.

He was a highly intelligent, sensitive young man who helped many people get their lives on the right course. He could have accomplished whatever he set his mind out to do. Unfortunately, after graduating from college he tried a drug that was offered to him not realizing how addictive it was and the power it would have over him.

My son was 7 months clean when he relapsed and died of a drug overdose. I hope this magazine helps you find the right treatment for your loved one. They have a disease and like all diseases, you try to find the best care suited for their needs. They need help.

Deaths from prescription drug overdose have been called the “silent epidemic” for years. There is approximately one American dying every 17 minutes from an accidental prescription drug overdose. Please don’t allow your loved one to become a statistic. I hope you have found this magazine helpful. You may also visit us on the web at www.thesoberworld.com.

The Sober World wishes everyone a Happy Valentines Day !

We are on Face Book at www.facebook.com/pages/TheSober- World/445857548800036 or www.facebook.com/steven. soberworld, Twitter at www.twitter.com/thesoberworld, and LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=6694001 Sincerely,

Patricia

Publisher Patricia@TheSoberWorld.com

For Advertising opportunities in our magazine, on our website or to submit articles, please contact Patricia at 561-910-1943 or patricia@thesoberworld.com.

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THE RISE OF THE PINK ELEPHANT- RUNNING FOR AWARENESS

By Dr. Alison Tarlow

In April 2016, Maureen “Reenie” Dugan, Kathy Taylor, and Sylvia Dugan, three women whose lives have been indelibly impacted by the struggle of addiction, came together to create awareness, support, and change in their communities in and around lower north-east Philadelphia. Kensington, Fishtown, and Port Richmond are three connected neighborhoods riddled with addiction, and a few of the many towns that have experienced extraordinary suffering and loss from the heroin problem that has now grown to epidemic proportions around the country. According to Reenie Dugan, families have been losing sons, daughters and spouses, at alarming rates. But, beyond the tragic loss of life, families are needed to come together to help raise children and grandchildren. So many people are dealing with the pain and loss that goes hand-in-hand with opiate addiction, but nobody wants to talk about their grief, or that their suffering has been at the hands of heroin. It is indeed the pink elephant in the room, as well as so many living rooms in the neighborhoods of Philadelphia and across the country. Too many families have been devastated by the losses incurred from heroin addiction, but rarely do they come together; to share, to help, and to support.

And so, borne out of a strong desire to bring the suffering communities together and make a difference, The Pink Elephant was born.

With a plan for a 5k race, the three women approached their local councilmen, community zoning representatives, and surrounding businesses. They secured a 5k route, political support, and sponsorship for their event. The women believed that organizing runners to race through the streets of the very neighborhoods affected by addiction would be the most powerful way to bring attention to the problem. Cione Playground would be the starting and ending points of the race. Corporate sponsors came forward to take booths and provide refreshments as well as informational booths on treatment. A Facebook Page went up and people began to sign up for the race. The interest climbed dramatically and by race day over 400 runners had signed up. The Pink Elephant offered grieving families an opportunity to make a photo poster of their dearly departed, together with their biography. Within days of the race, Reenie Dugan was flooded with last minute calls from family members who wanted a chance to memorialize their loved one at this event.

Saturday October 1st, 2016 arrived, and the air was chilly at about 57 degrees. It was cloudy, but thankfully it was not raining. Seasoned runners might argue that the conditions were perfect for a race day.

As 9 am approached, Cione Playground began to fill with people of all ages. Before the race began, some emotional words were spoken by a selected few, including Pink Elephant founder, Reenie Dugan, and a mother of a daughter who had died only a few months earlier from an overdose. The atmosphere was somber; the audience was silent. The national anthem was sung, and then the race was underway.

As a passionate advocate for recovery, as well as a psychologist specializing in addiction treatment, not to mention, an aspiring runner, I made my way from South Florida to Philadelphia to support the two Dugan’s and Kathy Taylor at their inaugural event. I had the requisite pink running shirt on and did the obligatory pre-race stretching before the race began, and when the race buzzer sounded, off I went. I couldn’t help but smile at the choice of music being played as I was cheered on by the crowd at the starting line; the theme from Rocky. It could not have been more perfect. As someone who grew up in the 80s, and as a Londoner, Rocky movies were part of my childhood, and the stuff of Hollywood storylines. To run through the streets of Fishtown and Kensington, was like running through the movie set of Rocky. It was surreal.

But the movie-fantasy of the underdog Rocky beating the evil opponent quickly faded for me. Compared to the reality of trying to beat the monster of addiction, happy Hollywood movie-endings made the moment even more overwhelming. It was hard to hold back tears of emotion as I ran. The streets of Kensington were populated with homeless men and women, dressed in shabby clothing and hunched over on the stoops outside the storefronts. The carefully

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chosen music on my MP3 player haunted me as I ran under the El overpass. I wanted to experience the power and the importance of this run. George Michael’s “Like Jesus to a Child” echoed through my ears, haunting me. How could we make a difference? How could a small grassroots organization get the attention of the people? Most of mainstream America does not know about this problem. It can’t just be the people directly impacted. More has to be done.

Just as I had been told by Reenie and my clients, the grassy swales on the sides of the road were littered with orange needle caps, and “rigs,” as they are called. As I ran through the streets, the police officers of the 26th district held the traffic while the runners crossed busy intersections. Volunteers from nearby halfway houses helped guide the runners on the mapped-out route. Turning off Kensington Ave, I found myself running past a quaint row of houses in Fishtown, already decorated in anticipation of Halloween. Residents were poking their heads out of front doors, cheering us, as we sprinted by. At that moment, it occurred to me- some families might be unaware of who we were, or why we were running, so we were bringing attention to our cause. Who and what was the Pink Elephant? If people didn’t know, they might care enough to inquire, if only for the sake of curiosity. But that was how we could spread our word. We are The Pink Elephant.

We represent hope in the face of pain and suffering of families who are battling, or have lost the battle with opiate addiction.

We are a place to call for support, information, and to remove the stigma of the “junkie.” We will educate you that opiate addiction rarely starts with a needle and a bag of dope. Addiction can start in all sorts of unintended ways; with pain pills prescribed after wisdom teeth are removed, or knee surgery after a hopeful high school athlete tears his meniscus, or a woman experiencing a complicated childbirth that results in cesarean section. It is not just the kid who started smoking weed in middle school, wound up taking pills by high school, and shooting dope before dropping out of academia in 11th grade- although it happens that way too. Addiction cuts across all ages, race, and economic barriers. Addiction has a genetic component, it does not discriminate and it takes no prisoners.

And so, by the end of the race-day event, The Pink Elephant had achieved all that had been hoped for and so much more. Over 500 people attended the event and a significant amount of money was raised. As a result of the monies raised, Dugan and Taylor were able to provide money to many families who have taken on the role of caregiver to children as a result of losing a parent to addiction. This afforded them a Christmas filled with joy in the face of grief and adversity.

Since its launch in April 2016, and the inaugural race in October, the Pink Elephant has far exceeded the expectations Dugan and Taylor imagined. In fact, the cause was so powerful, and so impactful, that the Pink Elephant gave birth to The Pink Elephant Too, a not-for-profit Florida Continued on page 38

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THE INSANITY STEERING OUR MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM

By John Giordano, Doctor of Humane Letters, MAC, CAP

In 1963 President Kennedy sent Congress the first ever Presidential special message on mental health issues. In his missive, Kennedy pointed out that “mental illness and mental retardation are among our most critical health problems. They occur more frequently, affect more people, require more prolonged treatment, cause more suffering by the families of the afflicted, waste more of our human resources, and constitute more financial drain upon both the public treasury and the personal finances of the individual families than any other single condition.’

“10 times the number of severely mentally ill patients in the U.S. are warehoused in jails and prisons rather than under a doctor’s care in psychiatric hospitals!”

Based firmly in his experiences with his little sister Rosie who had a developmental disability, Kennedy believed mental illness was best treated close to home. He felt it was a disservice for both the patient and the family to separate the two. It was his vision to have local clinics in every city where people could be treated as an outpatient in the communities that they lived and worked as an alternative to institutionalization that was in place.

Congress quickly approved Kennedy’s Community Mental Health Act of 1963 (CMHA), a measure that provided federal grants to states for local community based mental health clinics.

Although well intended, CMHA was flawed and certainly did not have the desired effect Kennedy envisioned. At best, the CMHA is considered to be a mixed success.

About half of the proposed clinics were ever opened. The federal grants provided funds for building of local centers, but not the operating capital the centers needed to keep their doors open.

Many fiscal conservatives in states with large investments in mental institutions viewed CMHA as a way to cut costs. These states closed the doors to their most expensive hospitals and released patients en masse back to their community for local care without spending money on the community-based initiative. Other states quickly followed suit.

Billions of mental health care dollars simply evaporated.

Patients did not do well as a result. What the fiscal conservatives missed in their calculations leading to releasing thousands upon thousands of schizophrenics and others with psychotic disorders back into their communities was the impact they’d have on society.

The lucky ones ended up untreated with their families and in adult homes. The less fortunate were victimized and murdered while others went homeless begging on the streets for money without the medicine and supervision they so desperately needed. Many were – and continued to be – arrested and even killed by police for psychotic behavior viewed as criminal. Courts – that are inherently inadequately prepared to determine the sanity of a defendant – have had no options other than jail for the mentally ill.

The unacceptable results were seen immediately; but did little to slow deinstitutionalization. In fact, it had an opposite effect. With the passage of Medicaid in 1965, deinstitutionalization accelerated. At its peak in 1955 and with a total US population of 165,900,000 million people, there were 558,239 public (state and county) psychiatric beds. Today there are 37,679 beds for a population of nearly double that of 1955- 324,000,000 million Americans. But even this number is erroneous. The vast majority of the psychiatric beds today are reserved for long-term care (most are court-ordered) and not available for the admission of acutely psychotic patients.

93% of the psychiatric beds available for mentally ill Americans have vanished over the last sixty-years while the number of people with severe mental illness and the need for beds has been on the rise.

One could easily argue that deinstitutionalization never really occurred; but instead a shift in how America warehouses their mentally ill. There is a direct correlation between the closing of mental institutions across the country and the rise in prison populations. Places like Rikers Island in New York and the LA county Jail have evolved into the largest institutions for mentally ill people in the U.S. According to the Washington Post, “American prisons and jails housed an estimated 356,268 inmates with severe mental illness in 2012—on par with the population of Trenton, New Jersey.”

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The situation is so severe in Chicago that the sheriff appointed a clinical psychologist to be head of Chicago’s Cook County Jail, the nation’s second-largest jail where a third of the inmates are mentally ill. Nneka Jones Tapia is the first and only mental health professional to be appointed to head a large jail.

John Snook, Executive Director of Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC), a nonprofit working to improve treatment for severe mental illness says; “the loss of those beds has left ‘the sickest of the sick’ without treatment.” 15 experts on psychiatric care in the United States were surveyed by ATC and nearly all agreed that 50 public psychiatric beds per 100,000 population were necessary for the hospitalization of individuals with serious psychiatric disorders.

Currently there are approximately 12 beds per 100,000 or only 24% of the needed psychiatric beds.

In 2014 there were an estimated 9.8 million adults aged 18 or older in the United States with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) or 4.2% of all U.S. adults. Source: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) According to Psychology Today Magazine, the major psychiatric illnesses are strongly influenced by genetic components; which means they are unlikely to change much in frequency over the years. Make no mistake, the mere fact that our population is growing indicates mental illness is on the rise and the lack of psychiatric beds and trained doctors and staff tells us we’re woefully ill equipped to effectively deal with the crisis at hand.

Moreover, the longer mental health issues go ignored, the more severe they become. Mental health advocates say the failure to treat severe mental illness can result in worsening symptoms and increase the likelihood that inpatient services will be needed.

There are some that believe the advancements in pharmaceuticals offset the need for some psychiatric beds. They believe that many of yesterday’s mental ill inpatients can be effectively treated as outpatients with antipsychotic drugs. There is some merit to their beliefs in cases of less severe mental illness. But that same person also needs supervision, psychological therapy and social supports to improve- which they simply are not getting mostly because of budget shortfalls. Consequently, many less severe mental ill patients are left on antipsychotic drugs far longer than needed if they were treated properly leading to greater susceptibility to sideeffects, disease and dying long before their time.

Continued on page 38

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11/2/15 11:21 AM

THE LOSS OF A GENERATION

By Andrew Rothermel, Origins Behavioral HealthCare, LLC SUD TALKS VISIONARY SPONSOR Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the US and the number one cause of deaths for young adults. The opiate epidemic has devastated entire family systems, crippled lifelong friendships, and dramatically impacted the framework of our society. In 2015, an estimated 21,000 adolescents had used heroin in the past year, and an estimated 5,000 were current heroin users. With breathtaking speed, addiction is destroying an entire generation of young men and women.

As a result of the prevalence of addiction in young adults, we have seen a decrease of young professionals in the workforce. With 5-8% of adolescents becoming affected by substance abuse during their education years, a workforce that already lacks skilled workers is now working with an even smaller pool of candidates. If we cannot meet the vital needs of each and every young adult entering treatment, we cannot hope to have an impact on these startling numbers.

Furthermore, young adults face an entirely different set of problems today than ever before. The effects of the digital age coupled with the widespread availability of lethal drugs has impacted how young people experience addiction. With the median age of addicted persons decreasing, we run the risk of losing a significant portion of a generation to the scourge of addiction. The time to act is now.

In order to act effectively, we are all called to use leading-edge practices to treat every patient who seeks treatment, understanding that we treat human beings with unique barriers to recovery. What may work for a 50 year-old addicted to pain medication may not work for a 19 year-old addicted to heroin who faces the horror of illegal drugs crafted on the streets. To increase effectiveness in the treatment of addiction, we must continue to learn more about these differences and how to better individualize treatment to help people overcome their unique barriers.

As leaders on the firing line of the addiction treatment industry, we hear horror stories of addiction from parents every day. As our nation struggles to meet the need of our patients, it has become all the more clear that change must begin to take place in the treatment industry.

Opioids have never had the hold on society as they do today. In accordance with this, we must continue to look for cutting-edge ways to approach the epidemic by marrying outcome informed practices with classic modalities that have proven success.

caring professionals to be first responders in crisis situations is of the highest importance since these individuals are the gatekeepers of the recovery process. Providing compassionate care that is also outcomes informed is crucial to long term success.

Today, many are demonstrating strong commitment to helping families recover and continue to apply all that we are learning on an ongoing basis. Together, we can be a part of the important discussions taking place as we face the disease of addiction and shape a comprehensive national treatment strategy. Florida’s Palm Beach County Sober Homes Task Force and the Delray Beach Drug Task Force are good examples of efforts that could be adopted nationally with wide-reaching effects. Quality resources to provide the care, continuing care, and funding to social services for life skill rehabilitation - which is of paramount importance as we address the young adults struggling with addiction - must be established.

We cannot allow an entire generation to struggle by ignoring the differences in every client, and we cannot remain silent as the opioid epidemic continues to ravage war on our nation. As an industry, we must hold ourselves to the highest standards of health care and work with scientifically-proven expertise. We must be dedicated to leading the industry in clinical and operational best practices. We must partner with professional associations who also place a high value on quality care and access to care. Ultimately, we must address addiction as we address every other disease: through research, with multiagency teamwork, and demanding high ethical standards.

Together, we can change the discussion on addiction in this country and become the catalysts for desperately needed change. We will not let a generation be lost to addiction.

Drew Rothermel is President and CEO of Origins Behavioral Healthcare.

He is an unabashed advocate of delivering innovative quality treatment based on the 12-Step program of recovery to patients and their families.

Through the collection of real-time outcome data, we know that though an approach may be “evidence-based”, not all evidenced-based approaches work for every population. As health care professionals, it must be our goal to meet the need of the overwhelming addiction epidemic through the delivery of real-time, quality treatment systems that are tailored to young adults, as well as older patients. By staying closely involved on a state and national level, treatment professionals can collaborate with community partners to help educate decision makers, political leaders, and corporate influencers on what outcomedriven, successful treatment looks like. When professional care is informed and data driven throughout the entire continuum of care, long-term health flourishes for individuals, families and communities.

Resources must be continually assessed with diligence by utilizing checks and balances that are updated and enhanced to ensure that best-practice standards are maintained and constantly improved.

With the far reaching effects of addiction in young adults, it is imperative that scientific, academic, governmental, and behavioral health care organizations work conscientiously to share what they are learning with all those impacted by addiction. Collecting and sharing real-time data and statistical information, partnering between organizations to develop research initiatives, and sharing expertise through inter agency and interdisciplinary training are a few important examples of actionable steps that can, and are being taken. This dedication to cooperation is critical to assessing the direct impact on individuals and their family members as well as their neighbors and co-workers. Educating and training qualified,

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A LETTER FROM MY PAST

By Michael DeLeon

Sometimes, a destiny imagined can become your truth.

Sobriety has given me many things, but to be able to reflect on my journey from the person I was, promising myself to become the person I am, is truly a gift. It’s very rewarding when someone hands you an essay you wrote 12 Years earlier, but it’s truly Amazing when it was written from prison, nearly two years before getting released. How often do we get to reflect on the thought process we had years earlier?

How often do we get to reflect on a period in our lives that we would rather forget? It’s incredible how I can look back on the goals I had then and match them to the goals I encourage for other people today.

This was an essay I wrote as a prison inmate for a criminal justice magazine about how I felt a prisoner’s mindset should look upon their release from prison.

Erecting Barriers to Re-Entry

Sometimes, the main obstacle that stands in our way, is ourselves.

Of all the men and women that go to prison; only 10% will die there after serving life sentences. Re-entering society is inevitable for 90% of all people who enter prison. Yet, few prisoners seriously prepare for re-entry. In fact, few prisoners prepare for reentry at all! To me, preparing for reentry is not an option. To me, reentry should begin at entry.

social skills, low self-esteem, misdirected focus, mental health and physical health issues, and of course substance abuse problems. I call these barriers to reentry Causal Factors of Recidivism.

marketable job-skills, financial illiteracy, lack of a support network, poor ability to become self-supportive, scarce

Michael DeLeon August 31, 2005

I believe these factors affect each ex-offender differently and I’m convinced that they can each be overcome if the As soon as one is sentenced to prison, one should begin offender just commits to it. But he must have more than preparing for the day that they are released. This opinion simple desire; he must have a plan. He must analyze the might be lost on those serving lengthy sentences, but what path that took him to prison in the first place and develop a prisoner does with all that time they serve will have a a strategic plan to not only find another path, but also direct influence on their life afterwards. A prisoner must travel that path. And he must not only seek out the help design a strategy for his exit from prison. He must do this and resources available to help him to overcome these on his own volition and with the help of the plethora of barriers, he must make these resources the foundation resources that are available to him. This will enable him to of his life-plan. By not analyzing the path that led you to be prepared for release. More importantly, this will enable prison (or, for that matter, to anywhere you do not desire him to remain free. The design of this strategy is critical. to be), you run the doomed risk to repeat traveling that In fact, the devil is in the Exit Strategy. same path again. The same path will obviously lead to the same destination. So, if you wish to find a new destination, Coming out of prison gives you a certain drive, but where you must first find a new path. Failing to find a new path is that drive takes you determines where you end up.

Without preparing for his release, an ex-offender will likely by proxy self-erecting these barriers to reentry. not remain free. Clearly, release is inevitable for 90% of The ultimate goal for the ex-offender is continued and those in prison. But to stay continually free is determined sustained freedom. The offender must break down upon the successful reintegration into society as well barriers to reentry that stand in the way of that goal - first as the maintenance of a crime-free, drug-free, balanced analytically and then physically with a plan. It must be lifestyle. The prison wall is not the only barrier to that part of every prisoner’s exit strategy, and this plan needs person’s reentry. There are many other barriers that must to begin while in prison – long before the prison gates open be overcome. up upon release. At that point, when freedom is at your feet, it might then be too late to choose a new path.

These include lack of affordable housing, absence of

As I read this essay nearly 12 years later, I can’t believe the irony in how it applies to the field I am in today. The same goals a prisoner must embrace prior to release from prison, an addict must embrace upon entering treatment. When we look at successful sobriety after treatment for addiction, we don’t often point to the addict themselves as building their own recovery barriers. I rarely hear people talk about how the client themselves set their relapse in motion while in and even before entering treatment. It’s always, “treatment didn’t work”. I often hear, “treatment is broken”, “there’s no continuum of care”, “treatment wasn’t long enough”. While all that reasoning might be contributable, I believe at the core of all of those causal factors is the motivation of the addict. Why in a system where we teach a client that a new path will bring a new life, do we not teach them that the most important ingredient in their recovery is their very own responsibility? Recovery is a multi-faceted

12

opportunity. Personal engagement and personal commitment to that opportunity is the key to opening the door of recovery.

We don’t need to build our own barriers to recovery. Where you’ve been is not a prophecy of where you’re going. Where you’ve been can prepare you for where you’re going if you don’t get in your own way.

Michael DeLeon is the Director and Producer of the films” Kids Are Dying” and “An American Epidemic” He has released his third documentary, “MarijuanaX” which looks at the legalization of marijuana in America. His fourth documentary will be released in February, 2017 called, “Higher Power”. Michael is the founder of Steered Straight Inc., a motivational outreach program for youth and young adults. He is also the National Marketing Director for Banyan Treatment Center.

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HOW ADDICTION IMPACTS THE FAMILY

By Richard Velleman, FBPsS, FRSS, Ph.D., M.Sc., C. Psychol

Addiction problems (which include problems with substances such as alcohol and drugs, and also ‘behavioural addictions such as gambling) are highly prevalent in society, across the world1.

Although often thought of as a ‘first world’ set of problems, the World Health Organization lists addiction problems as amongst the most serious issues affecting all low and middle income countries.

But addiction problems do not occur in isolation: these problems develop and then are maintained in people who live in a social context, and the most important aspect of that social context is the family.

The family, then, can play a major role in both prevention and treatment; but it is more complicated than that, as individual family members are also very frequently badly affected by living with a relative with an addiction problem, and the family unit as a whole is also often badly disrupted. As well as the stress of living with someone with an addiction problem, alcohol, drug and gambling consumption are all strongly linked to other problems such as domestic violence, homelessness and crime. As a result of all of these problems, a significant number of close family members of people with alcohol and drug problems are at risk themselves of experiencing a great deal of stress. I term such people Affected Family Members (AFMs). It is important for society as a whole, and for services that exist to help people in distress, to consider AFMs, for two important and related reasons: first, family members in these circumstances show symptoms of stress that merit help in their own right; and second, involvement of family members in the treatment of their relatives with addiction problems can enhance positive outcomes for the person with the addiction problem.

How big is the problem?

It is impossible to estimate the numbers of AFMs other than by simply applying a multiplier to the estimated prevalence of addiction problems. The WHO has estimated that more than 100 million people worldwide suffer from addiction problems (and many people consider this a gross under-estimate). If it is assumed, very cautiously, that on average each case of addiction has a detrimental or adverse effect on only one adult, and on average each case has a detrimental or adverse effect on only one child, then the number of AFMs worldwide would be in the region of 200 million (100 million adults, 100 million children). But even though these are colossal numbers, AFMs remain largely unknown and uncounted by governments across the world, and they mostly suffer in silence. This is partly because AFMs are not a group of people who themselves suffer from a single diagnosable illness – although they are at heightened risk for a wide variety of stress-related conditions – or who constitute an obvious threat to public health or order. Nor do they generally wield collective power for social change. So they are largely marginalised and invisible.

The impact that substance misuse can have on the family There is a very solid evidence base for the claim that substance misuse has negative effects on the family: especially with spouses and parents, and with children.

Adults Early research into the impact of substance misuse on spouses was conducted in the 1960s and 1970s, and subsequent research has extended the work to look at the impact on a wide range of family members, examining the differential impact of alcohol versus drugs, and the differential impact of being a parent, a partner, or another family member. Research has also examined this area from a cross-cultural perspective, comparing the impact on family life in relatively economically advantaged urban and rural areas of the world (UK, USA, Europe), with the impact in largely economically deprived populations with issues of poverty, overcrowded accommodation, and environmental pollution (such as with urban slum dwellers in Mexico City, or poor family members in South

14

India, or indigenous Aboriginal inhabitants in Australia.

All of this research has demonstrated that adult AFMs experience considerable stress. One major area is ‘worry’: worry for the relative is often at the forefront; including worry about the relative’s physical and mental health, self-care, educational, work or other performance, finances, the company the relative is keeping, and his/her future. But it usually also includes concern about the functioning of the whole family, the maintenance of good quality relationships both within the family and with others and concern about the ability of the family to function well, now and in the future, for the sake of all its members. The greatest weight of worry is often about possible effects on children: concern at the possibility of violence or neglect, more general worry about interference with good upbringing of the children, or concern that children might repeat the relative’s behaviour. Another major area is concern about the more ‘actively disruptive behaviour’ of the relative with the addiction problem. People are concerned about a decline in the quality of family relationships, at how (at the very least) good communication is diminished; and how the sort of behaviour expected of a partner, or a now-adult child, or a parent or some other family member, is to some degree neglected. Usually there is some element of open conflict and very often there is aggressiveness and physical violence.

AFMs also often talk of their feelings of ‘loss’ of the good quality relationships they once had with their now-addicted children, partners, parents or siblings, along with altered feelings towards these substance misusing relatives. Such feelings usually contain negative elements such as feelings of hurt, bitterness, being let down, anger or hatred, but in total are almost invariably highly ambivalent, containing positive references to good qualities the relative showed in the past, or which are on display when substances are not being used, or positive hopes for the future.

Children In addition, there is a solid evidence base for the impact of addiction problems on children, both as children and when adults. There are a very large number of studies that demonstrate negative effects on children whilst they are still young and in early adolescence.

These studies show that many of these children experience negative childhoods: including high levels of violence and inconsistency from one or both parents. Children may also have to adopt responsible or parenting roles at an early age. These studies also show that many of these children subsequently demonstrate negative effects of these experiences, such as higher levels of behavioural disturbance, antisocial behaviour or conduct disorder, emotional difficulties, school problems, ‘precocious maturity’, and a more difficult transition from childhood through adolescence, than children who have not had this upbringing. One review on the impact of parental substance misuse on children suggested that these children’s lives were affected by Continued on page 36

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THE STRESS-ADDICTION-RELAPSE CONNECTION AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT!

By Paul Huljich

My story is a bit different from the ones you hear from most other addicts, but there are strongly connected parallels nonetheless.

Many have suggested I was addicted to my business. Upon reflection, I suppose that may be true. I’m the co-founder of a publicly traded, pioneering organic foods company once valued at over $100,000,000 dollars. My own personal ambitions and the need to please those close to me at any cost caused a lot of stress in my life.

It eventually led to my anxiety which proved to be a precursor to a full-blown mental breakdown. On that day, I lost all of my rights as a New Zealand citizen and was placed in control of the state.

The horror, misery and struggle brought on by my condition combined with losing my citizen rights was a very humbling experience for me to say the least. But on a more positive and productive note, it was the beginning of my new journey into the pathology of my condition brought on by stress and ultimately finding a cure. Unlike most addicts, I had the financial resources at the time of my breakdown to afford the best psychologists in the world. I spent quite a bit of time at the Mayo Clinic followed by an extended visit at the Menninger Clinic. I was told by eleven of the best minds in the world on the subject that I had incurable type 1 bipolar disorder that would require medication for the rest of my life.

That was nearly nineteen-years ago. In the last seventeen I have been completely free of any psychotropic drugs including sleeping pills. I’ve had no need for a psychiatrist or therapist and have experienced no relapses whatsoever of bipolar disorder, depression or any other psychological imbalance. Today I enjoy the best years of well-being I’ve ever experienced despite the warnings from doctors that a serious relapse of bipolar disorder was immanent. Moreover, I was able to help others free themselves from the bindings of their disorders and achieve the same high-level of well-being.

It’s with us from our first to last breath and everyone deals with it in their own unique way. Stress is our perception, appraisal and visceral response to some form of stimulus that threatens or challenges our well-being. These stressors trigger our fight/ flight mechanism. Acute stress is often associated with novelty and unpredictability. It can be good in the way it gets you going and keeps you sharp. Conversely, there are no positive attributes associated with chronic stress. This type of stress is the result of continued constant exposure to situations that trigger the release of stress hormones. Left unchecked, chronic stress most often leads to both physical and mental breakdowns that can be very severe and even lead to early death.

In my extensive research to find a cure for my bipolar disorder, I found that stress is one of the leading causes of addiction and relapse; there is a direct connection between the two. Many people turn to drugs and alcohol as short-term relief from the unpleasant emotions caused by stress. What scientists have discovered is that stress affects many of the same neuro-chemicals as drugs and alcohol in the same areas of the brain, but in opposite ways – stress being an unpleasant negative stimulus while alcohol and addictive drugs have a pleasurable effect, at least initially.

These same researchers also found that stress alone can induce changes in addiction related brain cells similar to those caused by drugs. This raises the strong possibility of a “priming mechanism” that could make someone who has or is experiencing stress much more vulnerable to addiction and/or relapse after treatment.

It is also believed that hypersensitivity to stress can lead to a susceptibility to addiction and increase the chances of relapse.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA); “the nervous system of an addict is hypersensitive to chemically induced stress, which suggests that the nervous system also may be hypersensitive to emotional stress. The fact that addicts often relapse apparently in response to what most people would consider mild stressors suggests that addicts may be more sensitive than non-addicts to stress.”

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NIDA also reported; “stress is one of the most powerful triggers for relapse in addicted individuals, even after long periods of abstinence.”

What I find perplexing is, with all of the scientific data available that has been validated by extensive research performed by leading scientists and researchers, why is addiction treatment a 30 day program? I know from interactions with my colleagues that everyone responds to addiction treatment much like how they deal with stress, in their own unique way. People who walk into a treatment center are not equal. There are a lot of variables to their condition, such as, what they were abusing and for how long, their physical condition, environment and so on.

Come to find out the 30 day model was simply pulled out of thin air! 28 days was merely the length of time the developers of the Minnesota Model chose for their program back in the 50s.

Insurance companies adopted the model as a measure for what they were willing to pay for treatment.

The challenges we face today with addiction are far greater in size and scope than the developers of the Minnesota Model could have ever anticipated. First of all, the Minnesota Model was designed primarily for alcoholics. Today we’re in the middle of a nationwide opiate/opioid epidemic that is showing no signs of easing up.

Treatment for opiate/opioids can differ from alcohol treatment and often takes longer. For example, it takes weeks after detox before an addict’s cognition can achieve a state where treatment can begin to take hold, yet the treatment model is still 30 days. It’s just not enough time to be thorough and effective.

The aforementioned is all the more reason why anyone and everyone in treatment needs to seek out a reputable wellness program for after their stay at a facility. The current state of affairs of addiction and its treatment has made the care you receive after treatment more important to your recovery than ever before.

Look for a wellness facility that focuses on treating the whole body.

One that blends the core values of addiction treatment such as 12 step meetings and therapy appointments with alternative medicine such as exercise, vitamin therapy, nutrition programs, meditation and yoga. There are many co-contributors to addiction that these therapies can relieve.

You also want to find a program that teaches the skills you’ll need to enjoy a full and complete recovery. One of the primary keys to recovery is creating a new life for yourself where it is easier to avoid the stressors that caused you to abuse drugs and/or alcohol in the first place. This requires skills and planning. A good wellness program designed for addicts after treatment will include programs that teach these skills and coping techniques that will initially put your feet on stable ground and prove invaluable in your recovery.

Most importantly, no matter where you are, no matter what your situation may be, no matter what challenges you are facing, never allow your flame of hope to be extinguished. Don’t ever give up. As long as you have the desire to live fully, alcohol, drug and stress free, you have all the power you need.

New Zealander Paul Huljich is considered one of America’s top Stress Experts. He is a stress management and lifeREstyle coach in the United States and a member of the American Institute of Stress. Paul’s Continued on page 38

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17

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? HOW YOUR THOUGHTS AFFECT YOUR RECOVERY FROM ADDICTION

By Candace Plattor

Have you ever wondered about the impact of your thoughts?

By now, most people have either seen the movie The Secret or have heard about it. By showing a number of different situations and how people respond to them, The Secret teaches us that we are creating our lives with every thought we have, every second of the day.

What an amazing idea!

What We Put Out Comes Back to Us The Secret addresses the idea of the Law of Attraction, which you may already be familiar with. This “Law” simply states that what we attract into our lives is a direct result of what we think about. It teaches that whatever we put out, we get back. Although this is a very simple concept and makes sense to a lot of people, it can be quite difficult for many to actually put into practice in their lives.

Could it really be this straightforward? Is it possible that if we can change the way we think, we can also change the quality of our lives?

If so, could this affect the quality of recovery from addictive behaviors?

Whether or not you are a firm believer in the Law of Attraction, you have probably had experiences where you found that the more negative you’re thinking is, the more you have in your life to feel negative about. The reverse is also true: when you’re having a good day and thinking pleasant thoughts, things just keep getting better – at least for a while until your negative thoughts take over again.

Negative Thoughts and Recovery from Addiction In 12-Step programs, these negative thought processes are called “Stinking Thinking” and they include outward behaviors like complaining, being judgmental, blaming others, and gossiping.

As people work the Steps, they are encouraged to become more aware of both their negative and positive thought patterns to see how their thinking is influencing their quality of recovery.

But you don’t have to be part of a 12-Step program to reap the benefits of changing your own stinking thinking. We all have negative thoughts from time to time, it’s part of being human.

Teaching yourself to recognize yours when they arise and changing them into something more positive can boost your emotional wellbeing, which will have a direct affect on the rest of your life.

For example, if you are actively using an addictive behavior such as alcohol, drugs, disordered eating, gambling, internet addiction, compulsive overspending or co-dependency in your relationships, you may well be experiencing times of anxiety, depression, and self-pity. These emotional states are reflected in your thoughts and in your negative self-talk.

It is difficult to continue engaging in an addiction, especially if you already know it is ruining the quality of your life and eroding your self-respect. Once your eyes are open to this truth, it will be difficult for you to close them again, because you instinctively understand that at some point in time you will have to stop hiding in that addictive behavior and start dealing with your life tasks. Until you do that on some level, you are aware that you can’t look in the mirror and be okay with yourself.

Instead of continuing that unhealthy self-talk (which is fuelled by your stinking thinking), perhaps you could learn to use positive affirmations and visualizations, focusing on how good your life can be once you stop the addiction and deal with your issues. Rather than telling yourself what a “loser” you are or how “stupid” you have been for becoming addicted to the behaviour in the first place (does that kind of self-talk sound familiar?), you could begin to imagine having the courage to change the things you are able to change about yourself.

Or maybe you are already in recovery from addiction but things don’t seem to be going as well as you’d like. Once again, it will

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be important to check your thinking ~ are your thoughts coming mostly from a fear-based place that has its roots in your old history?

Could you be telling yourself that you don’t deserve a better life, or thinking that recovery will always be a struggle? If so, it will be necessary for you to bring your thinking into present time. When things seem difficult for me, I find the affirmation “Just for today, my needs are met” to be very helpful. Can you think of other tools you could use to give yourself some serenity and positive thoughts?

Developing an Attitude of Gratitude One way to begin is to become more grateful for what you have in your life. The idea of gratitude is often the chosen topic in recovery meetings and is a very important and useful tool in getting our lives back on track. Learning to see your life’s challenges as opportunities for positive growth, as opposed to punishments for being a “bad” person, will completely change your outlook on a great many situations.

If you wish, you could keep a Gratitude Journal. There are two ways to do this: in the evenings, make a list of 5-10 things you were grateful for that day. On some days, the items on your lists might be the same and on other days they might be different but it doesn’t matter as long as you’re honest about what you write. If you know you will need to come up with 5-10 positive things about your day, you will begin looking for them and focusing on the good things that happened to you instead of consistently dwelling on the negative.

The second way is to keep your journal by your bedside and write your list first thing in the morning upon awakening. Doing this helps put a positive spin on the day from the very beginning, which can set the tone for the entire day. Either way is fine, and of course you could decide to combine the two lists if you’d like to give yourself an even bigger hit of optimism!

If your tendency is toward negativity, complaining, and your own personal brand of stinking thinking, becoming aware of your thoughts and making the conscious decision to adjust them could be the very tool you’ve been seeking. Try it for a few days and see if any changes happen for the better in your life.

I wish all of you the best in making your recovery from addiction more enjoyable, one day at a time.

Candace’s award winning books Loving an Addict, Loving Yourself: The Top 10 Survival Tips for Loving Someone with an Addiction and Loving an Addict, Loving Yourself: The Workbook are both available worldwide on amazon, and in bookstores throughout Canada and the US. Please visit her website for more information: www.candaceplattor.com

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CHANGES ARE ON THE HORIZON

WITH JEFFREY C. LYNNE, ESQ.

Florida continues to be the Recovery Capital of the United States and is embarking on an effort to raise the bar of regulation to ensure that people, who come to the state for these services, can be assured that the care and housing they are provided is on par with the state’s excellent reputation for medical healthcare. With that understood, what changes are on the horizon in 2017?

Marketing: The single largest source of confusion for providers is the legal acquisition of patients. For parents and loved ones, the ability to identify ethical and appropriate providers has been riddled by an unregulated landscape. Proposed for 2017 is a series of laws to create transparency in treatment and housing marketing. Call centers will be required to identify who their clients are and would-be “marketers” will have to be licensed, and hopefully, achieve a level of professional education so they can best place patients with matching treatment centers.

The oversight on these changes will be key to ensure predatory marketing is not allowed to fester.

Teeth in Regulation: Like other states, Florida has assigned oversight of this multi-billion dollar industry to the social service agency, Department of Children and Families (DCF). When the state turned off the funding to DCF, a lifetime ago, and created a very permissive licensing structure for treatment providers, coupled with the largest drug abuse epidemic in our nation’s history, the conditions were perfect for abuse. While this is all set to change in 2017, again, regulation requires regulators, which requires funding, something that our federal government and state government have been slow to recognize, until now.

Robust Law Enforcement: While the phrase “patient brokering” has become synonymous with the obvious failures within the present treatment and housing industry in Florida, it has finally been recognized by the Palm Beach County Grand Jury as well as the legislativelyfunded Sober Home Task Force that on a more basic level, many providers simply do not have the education, background, or resources to be operating a treatment program. Still, there is no prohibition from them doing so. Therefore, in concert with licensing regulators, law enforcement will be taking a more robust role in 2017, coming on the heels on many high profile arrests in November and December of 2016.

Sober Home Regulation: Cities and counties continue to demand regulation of sober living residences, but for all the wrong reasons.

They continue to articulate that these “businesses” have no business being in a residential neighborhood. While the Congressional Record leading to the adoption of the original Fair Housing Act; the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988; and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, all tell a story of a population hostile to anyone who wasn’t deemed “normal” by the masses, we have also come to understand and learn that not all sober living residences are created equal.

Some homes have proven to be mere fronts for persons housing people in active addiction, in order to be sold or bartered to the nexxt treatment center with demand.

This is expected to come to an abrupt halt in 2017 as “Recovery Residence” regulation continues to gain acceptance from the recovery community itself, in order to weed out the unscrupulous from the true healers and caregivers. The Florida Association of Recovery Residences (FARR) has been the agency assigned with such regulation, but given an unfunded mandate. This too appears to be on the horizon of change.

Florida maintains only a “part-time” Legislature, which meets for a mere 60 days in the Spring. While the anticipated legislative proposals come directly from a request of the Legislature itself, and would therefore seem to be a statewide priority, there has been a political history of “punting” the ball until there is a collective sense of absolute crisis. We appear to be in that situation now and for that reason believe immediate change is on the horizon. If you have questions on how these changes could potentially impact your organization, contact Beighley, Myrick, Udell & Lynne, P.A. today.

ETHICAL REPRESENTATION. PROVEN RESULTS. To learn more about Jeffrey Lynne or Beighley, Myrick, Udell & Lynne, P.A. contact him at Tel 561.549.9036 or via email jlynne@bmulaw.com

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BREAKING THE MOTHER-SON DYNAMIC: RESETTING THE PATTERNS OF A MAN’S LIFE AND LOVES

By John Lee, MA - Keynote Speaker at the It Happens to Boys Conference

Thomas Wolfe says, “You can never go home again.” However, to go forward, I have to go backward from time to time. I return to the places where the dreams began: my hometown and the small college where I did my undergraduate work. That’s where I’m sitting right now, writing these pages. Through the windows I see the amphitheater where I used to sit on hard green benches daydreaming of being a writer. I try looking outward for any part of me that might still be sitting on one of these benches or walking among the eternally young, hoping that an outward sight will trigger an inner version of myself. Today I need to see a familiar face from my past, someone who knew me when I hid my face behind beer cans, marijuana smoke, and Southern stoicism. Although I spot people I think I recognize, they simply resemble someone I used to know. The “me” I imagine I see is not the “me” I am now. But who am I, now separate from the mother who birthed me and merged with me? I’ve always been looking for clues that could help shed some light on the blacked-out memory of my childhood. Now at this point it seems even more necessary. So I wander back to my childhood home and play the role of a Southern Sherlock Holmes, trying to discover my true identity. What I come up with is an identity made up of a patchwork of many former selves: the murderer of time, the thief of hearts, the depressed preacher, the drinker of cheap wine and beer, the perpetual worrier and wanderer, the would-be writer, the likable guy who almost never uttered the word no to his mother or anyone else except myself.

I know and feel at some level that the Mother is the matrix of our existence. Matrix, in fact, means “womb.” Our biological mothers are the entrance to the Great Mystery in all its different forms and guises. It is the Mother who makes Oedipus first a son, then a lover and husband, and finally a blind man. It is the Mother who makes Parsifal a hero, yet who keeps him from taking a wife. (I’ll have more to say about Parsifal and his search for the Holy Grail later.)

It is the Mother who keeps some men from fully giving themselves over to women they love.

Men must acknowledge these facts if they hope to separate from their mothers. They must recognize, too, how they turn women into mothers and how they often play mother to others as a way of increasing their sense of self-worth. I choose my childhood home, my mother’s country home, because the Great Return is back to the mother from whom we came.

Today I am visiting my hometown of Tuscumbia, Alabama. During lunch in a small cafe, I hear a good example of how the mother stays with a man no matter how old he is. A waiter, whom I judged to be in his early thirties, was talking to three women. It was after the lunch crowd had left, so he could relax and enjoy the everybody-knows-everybody-and-nobody’s-in-a-rush way of a small town. I listened a bit to their conversation, amused that even though I hadn’t lived here in thirty years, I still knew a lot about some of the people and places they were discussing.

At one point my ears perked up. The young man said that he had recently played a role in a local production of a Neil Simon play.

“I had to curse several times in the play,” he said. “When my mother was in the audience, I was terrified. She’d never heard me talk like that.”

I dropped out of their talk for a moment to place my order. When I tuned in again I heard him say: “I’m a big Monty Python fan. They did a great take-off on Christianity in The Life of Brian, and they were wonderfully sacrilegious in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

My mother wouldn’t allow me to see either one when they first came out. To this day I don’t dare tell her they’re some of my favorites—I can’t tell her I’ve even seen these movies.”

As I sipped my coffee, I began to wonder. Was this young man showing respect for his mother? Did the women listening to him admire and respect him for being such a good son, a “good little boy”?

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I hear adult sons say all the time that they’d like to tell their mothers all kinds of things. When asked why they don’t, they reply: “It wouldn’t do any good.” “It would upset her too much.” “It would just kill her.” The son who was raised solely or mostly by the mother comes to believe that the power she has over him is immense and also has an exaggerated sense of power to impact—for better or for worse—her life. He is always editing, censoring, and hiding parts of Continued on page 36

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MAKING NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS IN RECOVERY – BE CAUTIOUS!

By Thomas G. Kimball, Ph.D., LMFT

Making New Year’s resolutions has become a tradition in our society. Some trace its origins to the ancient Babylonians, while others refer to Rome and Julius Caesar as important influencers in establishing today’s practice. There is also evidence that early Christians used the demarcation of a new year to repent sins and commit to a new way of life free from transgressions.

Today, the culture, and often jokes, surrounding New Year’s resolutions has evolved to be a tradition not only of making resolutions, but also breaking them. As comedian Jim Gaffigan articulated, “My New Year’s resolution for 20_ _ _? I will be less lazy.” We can all relate to this scenario; it is only human for us to resist change even when we commit strongly to it. But, for those in recovery, there needs to be a more measured approach to making resolutions.

Below are considerations and cautions for your New Year’s Resolutions in Recovery: Considerations 1. Consider Where You Are in the Process of Your Recovery Where you are on your journey in recovery should directly inform the type of resolution you are ready to make and keep. In the early stages of recovery, resolutions may take the form of just getting through the day without using or ensuring you are engaging in good self-care (e.g., making your bed, showering, hydrating, etc.). Over time and with effort in your recovery, you can accomplish more meaningful and more difficult things. No matter where you are in the journey, nor how “small” the accomplishment may seem, take time to honor your achievements and get a full sense of what it means to make progress.

2. Consider Breaking Down Your Resolutions Into Steps When we make resolutions, it is common for us to set lofty goals and to shoot for the stars. Having this kind of vision is good, but it may also be unrealistic for what can be accomplished in the coming year. Breaking down your resolutions into meaningful steps becomes incredibly important. For example, you may make a resolution to go back to school to get a college education. This is great, but going back to school has a number of critical steps.

These include: researching schools that provide specific recovery support, contacting schools of interest to inquire about admission criteria and application process, securing necessary documents and information for the application and applying to school by filling out all necessary materials. Breaking down resolutions into steps helps us not to feel so overwhelmed and allows us to see our progress toward the loftier goal.

3. Consider How Resolutions Match Your Abilities and Gifts It is important to know yourself so you can make resolutions that are attainable and reasonable. For example, I love basketball. I have played my whole life. Much to some people’s surprise, I am very good at it. However, I am also 5’10” and now 46 years old. So, if I make a New Year’s resolution to play professional basketball, I will be sorely disappointed in my ability to accomplish this goal.

It is not going to happen regardless of how much time and energy I put into it. But, I can make a resolution to keep playing, to keep exercising and to be the best I can be for my 5’10”, 46-year old self.

This is reasonable and attainable.

Cautions 1. Be Cautious About the Number of New Year’s Resolutions You Make Sometimes in our enthusiasm, we may set too many goals for the coming year. I would suggest identifying 1 to 3 goals that are relevant for your current journey in recovery and life. Keeping one

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resolution is always better than making a long list and then not following through with them.

2. Be Cautious and Make Resolutions that Fit Within the Purpose and Meaning of Your Life We are all searching for our own purpose and meaning. I met a powerful woman once who truly understood herself and seemed to have her priorities in full order. I asked her how she did it. She shared with me that she had pondered and meditated over the areas of her life into which she felt called to put her energy. Through this process she listed five passions in descending order of priority. She told me that when people asked her to be a part of a cause or to give of her time and resources, she would simply consult her list. If the cause presented to her fit within her five top priorities, she said yes. If they didn’t fit within her purposes, she said no. In this way, she was able to have enough energy to fulfill her goals and also to have a mechanism of organizing and prioritizing her passions.

3. Be Cautious About the Impact of Resolutions on Your Identity and Confidence Research on New Year’s resolutions is clear that many people who make resolutions do not keep them. In one study, 77% of people monitored kept their “primary resolution” for one week, 55% had kept it at one month and 40% at six months. All studies on resolution making mirror this kind of decline in percentages over time. More recent data suggests that only 8% of people who make resolutions achieve them. That is a discouraging figure.

A variety of factors go into explaining why it is difficult for us to follow through with our determination to meet our goals. The most powerful is our readiness to change and self-efficacy or feelings of self-worth. Failure to keep resolutions may lead the person in recovery to feelings of failure, impacting positive identify, self-worth and the ability to make meaningful change in the future. Frivolously making resolutions and not following through has the potential to impact a person’s confidence and may decrease the probability of making goals and accomplishing them in the future.

I hope you have a sense of what an accomplishment it is to be in recovery and the impact you have on yourself, your families and your community. May 2017 be full of achievements that help you continue down your path to wellness.

References Provided upon Request Dr. Kimball serves as the Director of the Center for Collegiate Recovery Community and holds the George C. Miller Family Regents Professorship at Texas Tech University. He is co-author of the book, Six Essentials to Achieve Lasting Recovery, Hazelden Press. He is also a Clinical Director with MAP.

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As a Level 4 facility Sunset House is appropriate for persons who have completed other levels of residential treatment, particularly levels 2 and 3. This includes clients who have demonstrated problems in applying recovery skills, a lack of personal responsibility, or a lack of connection to the world of work, education, or family life. Although clinical services are provided, the main emphasis is on services that are low-intensity and typically emphasize a supportive environment. This would include services that would focus on recovery skills, preventing relapse, improving emotional functioning, promoting personal responsibility and reintegrating the individual into the world of work, education, and family life.

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25

ELIMINATING “STIGMA” FROM THE INSIDE OUT

By Michael Weiner, Ph.D., MCAP

We seem to be constantly trying to change the public’s perception of substance use disorders and of people with substance use disorders. At best, progress is slow. The terms “stigma” and “shame” have a lot in common. “Stigma” may be what is inflicted upon us by others. “Shame” is what we carry. We’ve been trying to change the world and that’s hard to do. It’s easier to “have the courage to change the things we can.” Is it possible that we create at least some of the “shame” that feeds the stigma? It’s possible that we do.

Let’s take a look: What we do is treat a chronic disease (substance use disorders) with a series of episodic interventions (an acute care model) and we can’t understand why people feel like failures (shame) when the symptoms of the disease become active. We leave our patients with the belief that the only measure of success is lifelong abstinence, so, when a relapse (another word that conjures up shame) occurs, they need to start all over. This leaves people with a drawer full of white chips and several “walks of shame.” This is also the image that we present to the public. Maybe we have to change.

Chronic diseases require monitoring over the course of a lifetime.

It is recognized that symptoms may become active at any point in time and shame is not attached to the reoccurrence of symptoms.

People with hypertension are not shamed when their blood pressure becomes unstable. The word “relapse” is not applied to the recovery process for any other chronic disease. “Relapse” is a word that is shrouded in shame.

“The lapse/relapse language within this phrase is historically rooted in morality and religion, not health and medicine, and comes with considerable historical baggage. The lapse/ relapse language in the alcohol and drug problems arena emerged during the temperance movement and was linked in the public mind to lying, deceit, and low moral character—a product of sin rather than sickness (Bill White blog, 2016).”

We treat patients with substance use disorders intensely for about a month and then they graduate. They often become members of an Alumni Association.

Let’s say that we treat patients with an average age of 30 to 35 years old. They can generally expect to live another 30 to 35 years. The only measure of success that we give them is lifespan abstinence. So we set up an expectation that a person with a chronic disease will be symptom free for the next 30 to 35 years, and that they will spend it in recovery. Does that even make sense?

And when symptoms do reoccur, we start the process all over again, only this time we have a patient with even more shame. We treat another acute episode. This is another way that we create failure.

Episodic care leads patients to say things like “I’ve been to treatment three times.” Doesn’t that sound like “I’ve failed three times?” Yes, it does. I’ve stopped asking “how many times have you been in treatment?” I simply ask for a history.

The messages we send/ the messages we allow: We continuously send messages. Sometimes they convey that you better get well fast and in the way we want you to do it. We have made statements like “come back when you’re ready,” or “you need to do more research.” These messages imply things like “you’re not worth my time right now.” Similarly, I’ve often heard the expression,” I’m not going to work harder on your recovery than you are.” On the other hand, we generally expect a patient to be in denial and ambivalent about recovery. Yet, we expect a patient who is in denial of their disease and probably doesn’t really want to be in treatment in the first place to work hard? We can’t have it both ways.

We also allow patients to diminish themselves. Ever heard people

26

in treatment or recovery refer to themselves as “convicts” or “inmates?” I have, and too many times. I’ve just ignored it.

The disease beats them down. We don’t have to help it. Today, I intervene in the conversation.

Are labels necessary?

Are we developing the quality of humility or creating more shame?

It’s a tough call. There may be a fine line between being humble and feeling shame. Does a person have to surrender and say, “my name is……., I’m an ………?”

Using labels may depend upon the mutual support group that a person prefers. Labels are more regularly used in 12-step recovery meetings than at SMART meetings (if unfamiliar with SMART go to:www.smartrecovery.org) There is flexibility at both. I suggest giving patients the option.

Do we believe that treatment works?

A lot of people, including professionals who work very hard to help others, perceive that treatment for substance use disorders is not very effective. The same can be said for people in recovery.

It seems like failure is expected. It may be argued that minimizing stigma and shame will result in better outcomes. Well, there we go again. Chronic diseases do not have outcomes. Treatments for acute conditions have outcomes. Treating a cold makes it go away.

It’s over. Chronic diseases hang around. When we measure the effectiveness of treatment by looking at the status of the disease over time, we measure up very well.

How did we get here and how do we fix it?

Maybe we got here because we are all a part of the culture that shaped our thinking. Are we over the temperance movement hangover yet? We may have accepted the stigma and shame far too easily. On the surface, the changes we need to make do not seem that difficult, but changing how we’ve been shaped takes time, effort, and practice.

Stigma and shame keeps people from coming to treatment and it keeps people from coming back if they need to. I suspect that there will be people who read this and say something like “we can’t help people until they are willing to change”. A better question may be “are we willing to change?” Do we have “the courage to change the things we can?”

Michael Weiner, Ph.D., MCAP is the Director of Alumni Services at Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches/Seaside. He has been a Director, Trainer, and Researcher for Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches since 1999.

Dr. Weiner has regularly published in professional journals and presented at professional conferences.

www.thesoberworld.com

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GOLF AND ADDICTION RECOVERY? South Florida is known globally for golf courses and addiction treatment resources. You would be amazed to know that the same strategies used in your golf game can help in addiction recovery, whether you are a scratch golfer or a beginner.

Emotional mastery and composure, identifying things that you can manage, what you cannot control and being present in the moment are prime examples of techniques that can improve your game and life.

Defining oneself not by performance, setting goals that are possible and believing in self can be learned.

If the substance abuser is motivated internally to enter treatment instead of at the urging of loved ones, friends and colleagues, their chance of recovery is so much better. For that reason, addiction programs are dual purpose now. They are designed to engage potential people looking for recovery. Holistic amenities may attract woman, wilderness adventures for young adults or golf swing instruction and play for sports minded boomers and seniors. These added activities make addiction treatment more relevant. For instance, if one was able to improve their golf swing as well as learn to enjoy life sober, one may consider participating.

Of course, solid medical and physiological services are still the basis of treatment. But to some, the addition of golf makes the process feel more like a positive experience than a punishment.

Golf alone is not enough for successful long term recovery, but lessons learned during play can make a big difference in the course of life.

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LIVING BEYOND

A Monthly Column By Dr. Asa Don Brown

SUPPORTING THE ADDICT “Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine, or idealism.” ~ Carl G. Jung As a clinician, I have worked with addicts, the addict’s partners, children, and immediate family members. I have also worked with the victims of addicts and those who were directly and indirectly affected by the addiction.

As a society, we seldom consider the vicarious effects of addiction, but the effects of addiction have a long reaching effect. While the addict is the immediate person being affected, the addict’s lifestyle and the addictive habit itself have a profound effect upon every single person with which the addict has a relationship. The relationship does not even have to be a personable or an intimate relationship to have a profound effect upon the lives of others. Unlike many physiological and psychological conditions, addiction can drudge up emotions scarring an entire community of people.

The scars left by addiction have an ability to reach well beyond the life of the addict. Not unlike cancer, addiction has no allies nor friends. The victims of addiction are not only those inflicted by the substance, thing, or activity, but those who actively are a part of the life of the addict.

As a clinician, I have been hired by a variety of judicial and legal systems; child and family organizations; and sobriety and rehab centers; and while I can attest that there is not one single remedy that will heal all forms of addiction; there are specific symptomological signs that may be rooted in the addict’s earliest stages of development. Unfortunately, each addictive habit comes with his or her own individualized formula and deciphering the individual formula takes time, patience, diligence, and perseverance. Addictions are not only made of biological and physiological predispositions, but there is often a link with a psychological history or predisposition.

While the causation of addiction drastically varies, the pathways to healing are very similar. First-and-foremost, the addict needs unconditional support, guidance, and love. When we are offering anything unconditional, we are placing no limits or restrictions, borders or guidelines; rather we are offering our whole person without any stipulations.

DEFINING SUPPORT AND ENABLING In our society, alcohol is a socially accepted form of entertainment. While it is a regular form of entertainment, those who have struggled with addiction are often found in challenging environments which may include the consumption of alcohol by others. In my early 20’s, I had a family friend who chose to give up alcohol. While the friend of the family had defined himself as an alcoholic, he did not cast a shadow over everyone that was partaking in the consumption. Furthermore, he had learned to become comfortable with environments that included alcoholic beverages. Understandably, those who have struggled with various forms addiction are not always comfortable with environments that may include their preferred addictive habit.

In a recent episode of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s New Celebrity Apprentice; Boy George of Culture Club was in a recording studio with Vince Neil of Motley Crue. The two became entangled in an argument over the consumption of alcohol while recording a song. As a recovering addict, Boy George expressed his frustrations and concerns with Vince Neil’s partaking of a glass of wine. “I do not need to be in a room

28

with someone drinking alcohol; it’s just not a good look for me.”

Of course, Vince Neil countered with “It’s just a couple of glasses of wine and you cannot put your sobriety on everybody else. If you choose not to drink, don’t drink.” While this is a reality television show and we all know that it’s about the ratings; the reality is that for many recovering addicts, being in an environment of alcohol or other substances can naturally and understandably prove a source of discomf ort. Addicts need to become comfortable with themselves and environments that may present challenging.

MOVING BEYOND THE ADDICTION “I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason.

It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe As a clinician, I unequivocally believe that at the heart of a majority of addictive habits are psychological histories. While nature has undoubtedly a direct link to addiction, nurturing and environment is an equal player on the field of addiction. For most addicts that I have encountered, the addiction is not the core problem; rather the core issue is linked to his or her psychological past and history. The addiction is a coping mechanism helping the individual to manage the affairs of his or her life.

Of course, addictions are not all created under one umbrella and they come in many forms and with many backgrounds. For those who are trying to move beyond the addiction, they will continue to struggle with the addictive habit until the core issue is settled.

As a clinician, I firmly believe that addicts have a psychological history that opens the doorway to his or her chosen addiction.

Interestingly enough, we seldom think of eating disorders, pornographic disorders, gambling addictions or a host of other addictive habits as arriving from a similar place, but for most addicts, the habit is less the issue, than the psychological history that leads the addict to the addiction.

For those struggling to move beyond the addiction, the healing of the psychological self must be at the root of the healing process.

When an addict informs me that he or she is feeling uncomfortable in a particular environment; I ask them to consider what is it about the environment that has caused them to feel uncomfortable. Are they feeling uncomfortable by the alcohol being served? Are they concerned about their own sobriety? If so, what is it about the addictive habit that is causing them to feel uneasy?

Ultimately, the addict will thrive if they are in supportive environments without prejudice or judgement; in relationships that are unconditional, encouraging, and honest; and if they are encouraged to maintain their individual sobriety while coping with their individual psychological histories.

May you begin living beyond.

Author: Dr. Asa Don Brown, Ph.D., C.C.C., D.N.C.C.M., F.A.A.E.T.S. Website: www.asadonbrown.com References Provided Upon Request

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1-800-233-4287 1-800 Addicts is a sponsored, nationwide, treatment helpline. Callers acknowledge that by calling this number they will be transferred to a participating addiction treatment facility. Treatment providers participating in this program may vary in size, location, and programs offered, among other variables that should beconsidered when choosing any healthcare provider. There are no promises or warranties whatsoever offered by calling this number.

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29

From The Hearts of Moms THE LOSS OF A CHILD TO ADDICTION

By Suzy Wachtel, LCSW

My son died in February 2014 at the age of 27 from an accidental overdose of heroin. There it is in black and white. And that’s how I became a member of the community of the bereaved—a parents’ biggest nightmare. As it turned out, I had lost my mother and had to put down my 14-year-old golden lab only weeks prior.

So many people are losing a loved one to this enormous epidemic.

As a mother, I was so hurt, angry and ashamed. Death is so permanent. How do you wrap your head around the fact that your child used drugs that killed him? He would have argued that I was crazy and that nothing could happen to him.

I happen to be a licensed clinical social worker with a specialty in grief counseling, but who would ever have imagined that this could happen to me? Through the years my son struggled with addiction on a variety of levels, and as his mother I traveled the road with him through his hurdles and became an expert on addiction as well. What I was able to learn from working in an addiction center running empowerment groups and relapse prevention was the incredible pain and helplessness an addict experiences. As though his or her common sense and soul gets lost in the drugs.

To cope with the loss of this amazing young man and the others in my life, I developed a spiritual approach to handle the pain. Death is so final and we never talk about it. There are so many beautiful, healing ways to process and accept death. Looking for signs (e.g. coins, butterflies), dreaming about them, keeping their memory alive by talking about them and celebrating their life—and not the way they passed—are great ways to cope with death.

In my book, “Losing a Loved One, From Grief to Joy” I teach how to cope and heal and love again. I was determined not to let his experience cement my identity. I chose to live better, love stronger and enjoy every moment of my life. I learned not to take anything for granted ever. Life can end at any time, but creating connections, memories and moments are what really matter.

9. The pain you feel when someone dies never leaves you, but suffering is a choice.

10. Smile when you see a sign that reminds you of your loved one 11. People are truly gone when they are forgotten.

12. What brings you hope? The love in your heart never fades, ever.

13. Mediums can help give closure and answer questions.

14. If someone connected to you with love, they become your guardian angels.

15. Dreams are true visits when we are blessed to receive them.

16. Celebrate life. Not one moment of death.

17. Death is a natural cycle in each life, embrace it.

18. There are no rules in grief, only strategies to help healing.

19. Healing is really important. It’s the only way to move from grief to joy.

20. Death is permanent.

Suzanne Wachtel is a seasoned, licensed Clinical Social Worker who is a no-nonsense life coach, psychotherapist and healer.

She is the author of “Losing a Loved One” which is available on Amazon. Suzanne arms us with a bag of tools to help us heal and recover from the deep wounds of loss. She has loved and lost as many of us have, and through her positive strategies and her kindness and gentle approach, she has helped many recover and heal. Suzanne has been in private practice for 15 years both in New York and Boca Raton, Fla. She runs workshops on grief nationwide to help others recover and find the answers and closure they need to move on. Suzanne takes loss and puts a spin on it which lets you feel uplifted and whole. “Life is not what happens…it’s how you handle it that matters.” www.therapy-boca.com

I will love my son forever and I am sorry that his choices ended his life early, but I will never forget the smile on his face or the warm, loving hugs and the pleasure that he brought our family and me for 27 years. For that, I am grateful and I choose to honor him and live better because of him. I am proud of that.

It is coming up on 3 years since I lost my son and I think of him each and every day. These are some of the many tools including therapy that have helped me cope with this tragedy. I can’t promise that these suggestions will make your pain go away, but I can say that they have helped me through one of the most painful times in my life.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

You deserve a happy heart.

Life is here today, gone tomorrow.

Enjoy the moment - make memories.

Don’t let anything take away your joy.

We can’t change the direction of the wind, but we can change the direction of our sails.

6. Just because you are handed a cactus, does not mean you have to sit on it.

7. Don’t let loss define your identity. Live life fuller.

8. One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy.

30

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IMPORTANT HELPLINE NUMBERS

A New Path www.newpath.org Addiction Haven www.addictionhaven.com Bryan’s Hope www.bryanshope.org CAN- Change Addiction Now www.addictionnow.org Changes www.changesaddictionsupport.org City of Angels www.cityofangelsnj.org FAN- Families Against Narcotics www.familiesagainstnarcotics.org Learn to Cope www.learn2cope.org The Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence www.licadd.org Magnolia New Beginnings www.magnolianewbeginnings.org Missouri Network for Opiate Reform and Recovery www.monetwork.org New Hope facebook.com/New-Hope-Family-Addiction-Support-1682693525326550/ Parent Support Group New Jersey, Inc. www.psgnjhomestead.com P.I.C.K Awareness www.pickawareness.com Roots to Addiction www.facebook.com/groups/rootstoaddiction/ Save a Star www.SAVEASTAR.org TAP- The Addicts Parents United www.tapunited.org

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ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WWW.AA.ORG AL-ANON WWW.AL-ANON.ORG 888-425-2666 NAR-ANON WWW.NAR-ANON.ORG 800-477-6291 CO-DEPENDENTS ANONYMOUS WWW.CODA.ORG 602-277-7991 COCAINE ANONYMOUS WWW.CA.ORG 310-559-5833 MARIJUANA ANONYMOUS WWW.MARIJUANA-ANONYMOUS.ORG 800-766-6779 NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS WWW.NA.ORG

818-773-9999 EXT- 771 OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS WWW.OA.ORG 505-891-2664 NATIONAL COUNCIL ON PROBLEM GAMBLING WWW.NCPGAMBLING.ORG

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800- RUNAWAY (786-2929) CALL 2-1-1 WWW.211.ORG ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH FAMILY AND CHILDRENS AGENCIES WWW.AJFCA.ORG 410-843-7461 MENTAL HEALTH WWW.NAMI.ORG 800-950-6264 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE WWW.THEHOTLINE.ORG 800-799-7233 HIV HOTLINE WWW.PROJECTFORM.ORG 877-435-7443 CRIME STOPPERS USA WWW.CRIMESTOPPERSUSA.ORG

800-222-TIPS (8477) CRIME LINE WWW.CRIMELINE.ORG

800-423-TIPS (8477) LAWYER ASSISTANCE WWW.AMERICANBAR.ORG 312-988-5761 PALM BEACH COUNTY MEETING HALLS CLUB OASIS 561- 694-1949 CENTRAL HOUSE 561-276-4581 CROSSROADS WWW.THECROSSROADSCLUB.COM

561- 278-8004 EASY DOES IT 561- 433-9971 THE TRIANGLE CLUB WWW.TRIANGLECLUBPBC.ORG 561-832-1110 LAMBDA NORTH WWW.LAMBDANORTH.NET BROWARD COUNTY MEETING HALLS 101 CLUB 954-573-0050 LAMBDA SOUTH CLUB 954-761-9072 WWW.LAMBDASOUTH.COM PRIDE CENTER WWW.PRIDECENTERFLORIDA.ORG

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THE HAPPINESS OF EATING WELL

By Maxim W. Furek, MA, CADC, ICADC

America is suffering a decades-long health crisis that is steadily killing us, and in cruel ways we have never seen before.

Obesity rates in the United States are among the highest in the world. Two out of every three Americans are considered to be overweight or obese. In 2013 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that 27.6% of American citizens were obese, estimating that 3/4 of the American population will likely be overweight or obese by 2020. The U.S. has the highest rate of obesity within the OECD grouping of large trading economies, a ranking that has steadily and alarmingly increased.

Obesity is a complex disorder involving an excessive amount of body fat. Obesity increases your risk of health problems, such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and certain types of cancer.

Being extremely obese means you are especially likely to have health problems related to your weight. This health crisis has led to over 120,000 preventable deaths each year in the U.S. An obese person in America incurs an average of $1,429 more in medical expenses annually and approximately $147 billion in direct (preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services related to weight) and indirect (absenteeism, loss of future earnings due to premature death) costs.

You are what you eat Nutritionist Victor Lindlahr, who developed the Catabolic Diet (later called The Negative Calorie Diet), published his research in the 1942 book, You Are What You Eat: how to win and keep health with diet.

Lindlahr was a strong believer in the idea that food controls health and a pioneer in what would begat the philosophy of weight loss and “clean eating.” In our modern age of fast-paced life styles, fueled by inexpensive, calorie-laden, fast food, it is more difficult to practice clean eating. Still, along with the Catabolic diet, there are positive dietary options that should be considered.

The Mediterranean Diet The Mediterranean diet incorporates the basics of healthy eating — plus a splash of flavorful olive oil and perhaps a glass of red wine — among other components characterizing the traditional cooking style of countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Research has shown that the traditional Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of heart disease. The diet has been associated with a lower level of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol — the “bad” cholesterol that’s more likely to build up deposits in your arteries.

The Mediterranean diet is also associated with a reduced incidence of cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Women who eat a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil and mixed nuts may have a reduced risk of breast cancer.

Key components of the Mediterranean Diet include eating primarily plant-based foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts; replacing butter with healthy fats such as olive oil and canola oil; using herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor foods and limiting red meat to no more than a few times per week.

The Paleo Diet The Paleo Diet, also called the Caveman Diet or the Stone Age Diet, is a plan based on foods similar to what might have been eaten during the Paleolithic era, approximately 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago. These are earlier foods obtained by hunting and gathering. The belief is that our bodies are better suited to that type of diet, rather than to the modern diet that emerged with farming.

Loren Cordain, PhD, author of The Paleo Diet, claims that by eating like our prehistoric ancestors, we’ll be leaner and less likely to get diabetes, heart disease, cancer, or experience other health problems.

The Paleo Diet is basically a high-protein, high-fiber eating plan that promises weight loss without cutting calories. On this Caveman Diet, one can eat lots of fresh lean meats and fish, especially those rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, mackerel and albacore

32

tuna. Other foods that are permitted are fruits, vegetables and healthier fats, eggs, nuts and seeds and healthier oils, including olive oil, walnut oil and coconut oil.

Coconut Oil is one of the healthiest oils for cooking because it has a higher smoking point. It is heart healthy and cancer preventative.

It contains high amounts of lauric acid and is considered antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic and anti-viral. Like all first cold pressed oils, they are healthiest used raw. Although coconut oil is high in saturated fat, studies demonstrate that consuming coconut regularly can help you lose weight.

Overall, a diet rich in lean protein and plant-based foods can help you lose weight. This dietary stratagem makes you feel full by controlling blood sugar levels, which help control appetite cravings.

Clinical trials show a Paleo diet can lower the risk of heart disease, blood pressure, and inflammation, reduce acne, and promote optimum health and athletic performance.

Equally imperative A healthy diet must be well balanced and holistic to be effective.

Three remaining dietary approaches are equally imperative for a healthy program of “clean eating,” and need to be considered.

Limit your sugar intake, especially in sugar-rich sodas and beverages. The American Heart Association recommends limiting sugar intake to no more than half of your daily discretionary caloric allowance: No more than 100 calories per day for women (about 6 teaspoons) and no more than 150 calories per day for men (9 teaspoons). The consumption of added sugars — also called “empty calories” since they confer few or no nutrients — has been linked to chronic illnesses from diabetes to heart disease.

Hydration - Water is essential to the body for health and survival, and is critical to the balance of all the body’s systems. This helps with fat-burning, detoxing and muscle-building, as well as, brain and organ function. Water is the most important nutrient for life and has many important functions including regulating temperature, lubricating joints and transporting nutrients and waste throughout the body. Water is also the single most critical nutrient for health, growth, and development.

Grazing - a dietary strategy popular with competitive runners and bodybuilders, suggests consuming multiple small meals every two-three hours. This stokes the metabolism, decreases appetite cravings and maintains high energy levels. A study conducted at the University of Cambridge found that eating more frequently lowered levels of artery-clogging LDL cholesterol.

Not every diet is appropriate for everyone. Do your homework and then decide what’s best for you, but also remember that moderation, portion control and common sense are equally important components to healthy living and eating clean.

Bon Appétit!

Maxim W. Furek, MA, CADC, ICADC is passionately researching the essence of happiness. His rich background includes aspects of psychology, addictions, mental health and music journalism.

His book Sheppton: The Myth, Miracle & Music explores the psychological horror and eventual survival experienced by two entombed coal miners. Learn more at shepptonmyth.com

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Hackensack Municipal Alliance Presents OUR ANNUAL TOWN HALL MEETING March 14, 2017 Dinner will be provided 6:30 pm—7:00 pm The meeting will start at 7:00 pm Hackensack High School Media Center, First & Beech Streets, Hackensack, NJ *Childcare will be provided for children 3 years of age and older*

Keynote Speaker: Michael DeLeon

the Founder and Powerhouse behind

Steered Straight

with his mission to educate the youth to stay in the right direction when it comes to serious life issues, especially drugs.

For further information please e-mail: andee.post@gmail.com

A D V E R T I S I N G

O P P O R T U N I T I E S

To reach thousands of families and treatment providers call us today to advertise in our magazine.

FOR ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES PLEASE CALL US AT 561-910-1943.

Look for your FREE issue of The Sober World in your bag at the following conferences: AXIS- Addiction Executives Industry Summit- January 28- Feb 1, 2017- Naples, FL FMHCA Annual Conference- February 2-4, 2017- Lake Mary, FL SUDS Talks- March 4, 2017- Crest Theater- Delray Beach, FL Alliance for Eating Disorders Walk- March 4, 2017- Coconut Creek, FL It Happens to Boys- March 24, 2017- Austin, TX Innovations in Recovery- April 3-6, 2017- San Diego, CA NAATP -National Addiction Leadership Conference- May 21-23, 2017- Austin, TX West Coast Symposium on Addictive Disorders- June 1-4, 2017- La Quinta, CA C.O.R.E- Clinical Overview of the Recovery Experience- July 16-19, 2017- Amelia Island, FL Moments of Change- October 2-5-Palm Beach, FL Cape Cod Symposium- September 14-17, 2017- Hyannis, MA

For more information contact Patricia at patricia@thesoberworld.com www.thesoberworld.com 34

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The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness proudly presents

celebrating everyBODY The 6th Annual Walk for Eating Disorders Awareness

Join us for a morning of hope, inspiration, and recovery!

Date: Saturday, March 4, 2017 Time: 9:00 am Location: Tradewinds Park Coconut Creek, Florida

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Why: Raise awareness eating disorders, and spread the message of hope and recovery.

Announcing Guest Speaker Jenni Schaefer!

Network with industry professionals while learning about the latest in behavioral healthcare.

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35

HOW ADDICTION IMPACTS THE FAMILY

By Richard Velleman, FBPsS, FRSS, Ph.D., M.Sc., C. Psychol

Continued from page 14

six overarching themes: denial, distortion and secrecy; attachment, separation and loss; family functioning, conflict and breakdown; violence, abuse and living with fear; role reversal, role confusion and child as carer; and what the children said they needed.

There are also increasing amounts of research that have demonstrated longer-term impact on these children. The children of those with addiction problems are more likely to themselves develop problems with substances, often linked to earlier onset of use, and therefore can be at greater risk of developing problems in other areas of life. Again, family factors seem to predominate, and adults who were the children of problem drinkers reported more problems, both when they were children and upon reaching adulthood, as a result of family dysfunction and disharmony than from the drinking itself.

On the other hand, there is also growing evidence that not all children are adversely affected, either as children or adults; some children are resilient and do not develop significant problems. This has important implications for prevention and intervention.

Conclusion It seems clear from all of this research that individuals who develop a serious problem with their use of alcohol or drugs or gambling, etc, can and often do behave in ways that have a significantly negative impact on family life in general, and on other individual members of the family. The addiction problems can impact negatively on a range of family systems and processes, including family rituals, roles within the family, family routines, communication structures and systems, family social life, and family finances. The addiction can also often impact negatively on other individuals within the family, as well as on family systems: problems such as domestic and other types of violence, child abuse, individuals

driving whilst intoxicated, or disappearing for days on end, are all typical of the types of behaviour which people have described as stressful and with which they have to cope. The results of these and other uncertainties are that family members commonly develop problems in their own right, often manifested in high levels of physical and psychological symptoms.

In conclusion, family members suffer bio-psycho-social stresses as a result of living in this environment, which may impact on physical and mental well-being and lead to the development of problems both for themselves and other family members. This is a world-wide phenomenon. These family members need help, both for themselves, and in relation to dealing with their addicted relative. And many of them ask for help – for example, many phone helplines report a high volume of calls from AFMs, asking for help. It is about time that AFMs, both children and adults, received the help that they need.

1 All statements in this article can be corroborated with research findings and are available upon request.

Professor Richard Velleman is a leading authority on substance misuse. He is a leading member of the new International Network, AFINet, concerned with Addiction and the Family and of the UK component: AFINet UK (formerly the UK Alcohol, Drugs and the Family research network); a Senior Research Fellow in India where he is developing and researching the use of community lay health workers to deliver psychological interventions to people with severe depression or serious alcohol problems, and to their affected family members. He is Vice-President of ENCARE, an EU-wide network which he co-founded, concerned with developing resources to assist professionals across the EU to improve the help they offer to children in families affected by substance misuse.

BREAKING THE MOTHER-SON DYNAMIC: RESETTING THE PATTERNS OF A MAN’S LIFE AND LOVES

By John Lee, MA - Keynote Speaker at the It Happens to Boys Conference

Continued from page 22

himself out of fear of what he thinks she’ll think.

The reluctance to show our real selves to our mothers is reflected in a popular TV commercial. A thirty-something man has just poured himself a bowl of cereal when his mom calls him on the phone. He’s afraid of two things: one, his cereal is going to get soggy (it won’t—that’s the point of the commercial); and, two, he’ll have to tell his mother he can’t talk to her right then. He goes through all kinds of physical contortions trying to eat his cereal, never quite succeeding. Finally, it hits him: he pulls the table over to the phone and hooks the phone to the table, mouthpiece up.

Delighting in his ingenuity—and his crisp cereal—he continues eating, occasionally muttering, “Yeah, Ma, uh-huh . . .” into the phone, without hearing a word she says.

by Newsweek, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and dozens of other national magazines and radio talk shows.

Published by Health Communications Inc. Aug. 2015 www.johnleebooks.com John Lee is a teacher, trainer and life coach – he is a pioneer in the fields of self-help, anger, co-dependency, creativity, recovery, relationships and men’s issues. In the mental health field, he is considered the therapist’s therapist and regularly trains and mentors therapists on how to work with clients and how to work on themselves. He has taught his techniques and theories to thousands of individuals, couples, families, groups, corporations, and therapists all over the world.

His contributions have put him in the national spotlight for over 30 years, and he has been featured on Oprah, 20/20, Barbara Walters’ “The View,” CNN, PBS, and NPR and been interviewed

36

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The Four Spiritual Activities Surrender, Sharing, Amends and Guidance Take the Steps the way they were taken by Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the “first one hundred” before the “Big Book” was written.

With Wally P. (Tucson, AZ) A.A. Archivist and Historian

Saturday—Sunday, March 4-5, 2017

SonCoast Community Church 7500 E. Country Club Drive Boca Raton, FL 33487

All Fellowships Welcome $25.00 includes: The two day seminar, 24+ pages of handouts, and Saturday lunch.

Scholarship donations (for those who otherwise cannot afford to attend) are appreciated!

To order tickets by PayPal, go to https://www.ticketriver.com/ event/21936 For more information, call Herb: (561) 504-6418

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37

THE INSANITY STEERING OUR MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM

By John Giordano, Doctor of Humane Letters, MAC, CAP

Additionally, the efficacy of antipsychotic drugs is often punctuated with a bold question mark. Highly respected author Robert Whitaker, a medical writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist, wrote in his book; ‘Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill’ that when the World Health Organization (WHO) compared schizophrenics’ recovery rates in the U.S and in nations too poor to afford the latest psychopharmaceuticals, it found that a Third World patient was exponentially likelier than an American one to regain sanity.

Whitaker also points out in his book that dosages of antipsychotic drugs in the United States are higher than necessary. After visiting several mental hospitals, I can assure you his observations are spot on.

It’s been 55 years since President Kennedy’s historic Mental Illness presentation to Congress. Are we better off today that we were back then? Today we have a system that is steered by the pharmaceutical industry that is solely interested in profits. Consequently, we have novel new treatments that I refer to as ‘lobotomy in a bottle,’ Americans are over-prescribed, 520,560 psychiatric beds have vanished, the criminal justice system has become the de facto mental health system, more mentally ill people are being shot and killed by police than ever before for psychotic behavior interpreted as criminal, a Third World patient is more likely than an American to regain sanity and we have an estimated 9.8 million adults with severe mental illness walking up and down our streets. What could possibly go wrong?! Personally, I don’t think the former president would even recognize what we have today as being remotely close to what he’d envisioned – in fact, I believe he’d view it as completely opposite.

Enough is enough already. It’s long past time to modernize how we treat people with mental illness in this country. We can no longer depend on our research hospitals and universities for answers as they’re owned by the pharmaceutical industry whose intentions are to pump out even more toxic pills so they can make more money. Instead we must turn to the advancements being made in alternative medicine if we are to give people with mental illness the help and dignity that every human being deserves.

Technological advancements have led to an exciting new area of neuroscience that is changing the way we think about the pathology of mental illness and how to effectively treat it. In our gut are microbes that colonize and form microbiome. World renowned scientists and researchers claim microbiome is the new frontier in neuroscience.

Recent studies have given scientists a more complete understanding of

THE STRESS-ADDICTION-RELAPSE CONNECTION AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT!

By Paul Huljich

Continued from page 16

latest book, ‘Stress Pandemic – 9 Natural Steps To Survive, Master Stress and Live Well’ was written for the growing number of people wishing to free themselves of mild, moderate, or severe stress. The book outlines a practical, effective and proven approach to achieving longevity and complete wellness. ‘Stress Pandemic’ has won two gold medals in the USA Best Book Awards for new non-fiction and selfhelp, became an Amazon bestseller and is a winner in the IndieFab Awards 2014 for health and self-help. Huljich is a frequent speaker at wellness conferences, universities hosted by the National Alliance of Mental Illness. He also conducts motivational liferestyle seminars and workshops, including at the Omega Institute in New York, and in Hawaii.

With John Giordano, DHL and Dr. Hyla Cass, Huljich has opened the ‘LifeREstyle’ Wellness Center in Redondo Beach, Cal. where they implement his nine-step overall wellness plan in combination with Giordano’s and Cass’s integrative medicine approach.

38

Continued from page 8

the relationship between the brain in our heads and second brain in our gut which is home to our immune system. These new studies that are available confirm what we’ve suspected all along. They reveal how our environment, stress, the foods we eat and other lifestyle choices impact the health of our gut; and as a consequence, influence our mental health and behavior with far greater ramifications than previously thought.

Every day the microbiome colony in our second brain is bombarded with potentially hundreds of harmful toxins that wreak havoc on our health. Add to that the declining nutrition in our foods and you have a recipe for an unhealthy gut. Simple changes in diet and adding exercise can have a big impact on our state of mind. New studies have shown that increasing the amount of “good” bacteria in the gut can relieve symptoms of depression and anxiety, lower stress reactivity, improve memory, and even lessen neuroticism and social anxiety.

Dr. Philip Burnet, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford stated in an article for Huffington Post that: “Anything that exerts a psychological effect, mediated by the microbiome, is potentially a psychobiotic. We wanted to increase awareness of the potential involvement of gut bacteria in the modulation of brain function, because the growth and perpetuation of microbial communities in our gut are influenced by so many factors in our lives. The concept of a psychobiotic will encourage us to make life choices that could ultimately reduce the incidence of mental disorders, and/or help boost the efficacy of current medication.”

If you or a loved one is suffering from some form or mental illness, I’d strongly recommend that you reach out to a reputable integrative medicine doctor. There are a lot of cutting-edge modalities based in these new findings that a reputable integrative medicine doctor will be aware of and can help you get on a better path.

John Giordano, Doctor of Humane Letters, MAC, CAP, is the President and Founder of the National Institute For Holistic Addiction Studies, Chaplain of the North Miami Police Department and is the Second Vice President of the Greater North Miami Chamber of Commerce. He is on the editorial board of the highly respected scientific Journal of Reward Deficiency Syndrome (JRDS) and has contributed to over 65 papers published in peer-reviewed scientific and medical journals. For the latest development in cutting-edge addiction treatment check out his website: www.holisticaddictioninfo.com

THE RISE OF THE PINK ELEPHANTRUNNING FOR AWARENESS

By Dr. Alison Tarlow

Continued from page 6

organization that brings advocacy, awareness, support and education to families in South Florida who have also been devastated by opiate addiction. With Reenie Dugan and Kathy Taylor on the advisory board, it seemed the logical next step was to create an opportunity to bring families together, to support one another, and to educate the community-at-large of the opiate crisis that has grown to epidemic proportions.

We are losing hundreds of lives every day to opiate addiction. No family is immune and all are susceptible to this destructive disease.

The more we know, the better equipped we will be to address the problems inherent in addiction. And maybe, just maybe, we can make a difference in saving some individuals and families before their addiction reaches a point of no return.

Dr. Alison Tarlow is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Certified Addictions Professional in the State of Florida. She is also a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator, and Qualified Parent Coordinator. Currently the Clinical Director of Holistix by The Sea, she is also President of Pink Elephant Too, a Florida Non-Profit Organization to raise awareness for opiate addiction, and has a private practice in Boca Raton, Florida.

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University Partnership Program Retreat Premier Addiction Treatment Centers specializes in helping University students nd recovery. Using comprehensive rehabilitation programs, which include: medical detoxiication, residential care, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient programs, we assist students in navigating through early recovery while continuing to pursue their academic goals.

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P.O. BOX 880175 BOCA RATON, FLORIDA 33488-0175 www.thesoberworld.com

The contents of this book may not be reproduced either in whole or in part without consent of publisher. Every effort has been made to include accurate data, however the publisher cannot be held liable for material content or errors. This publication offers Therapeutic Services, Drug & Alcohol Rehabilitative services, and other related support systems. You should not rely on the information as a substitute for, nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult with a physician or other health-care professional. Do not disregard, avoid or delay obtaining medical or health related advice from your health care professional because of something you may have read in this publication. The Sober World LLC and its publisher do not recommend nor endorse any advertisers in this magazine and accepts no responsibility for services advertised herein. Content published herein is submitted by advertisers with the sole purpose to aid and educate families that are faced with drug/alcohol and other addiction issues and to help families make informed decisions about preserving quality of life.

I AM SUCCESS. Thanks to Destination Hope, I’m here for her first steps.

I will be here for her graduation.

I will dance at her wedding.

Destination Hope and the Sylvia Brafman Mental Health Center help individuals triumph over mental illness and addiction through research-based treatment.

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