Tuesday, October 7, 2014


MTV's Out-There Teen Mom Star Now Talks Sober
Amber Portwood is returning to Teen Mom at two years sober and after prison — and looking to open her own rehab. She's a lesson in growing up and moving forward.

Photo via



09/26/14





For four seasons, Amber Portwood was one of the most controversial characters on the highly polarizing MTV reality show Teen Mom. A September 2010 episode showed her hitting and kicking ex-fiancΓ©, Gary Shirley, while their young daughter stood at her feet, prompting an investigation from Child Protective Services. She was charged with three counts of domestic violence and sentenced to probation, but it eventually became clear that part of her erratic behavior was due to a severe opioid addiction.

The year 2011 proved to be a tough one for Portwood: she suffered the trauma of a suicide attempt, a stint in rehab, and losing custody of her daughter. She was arrested that December for violating her probation, but a plea deal allowed her to dodge a five-year sentence by completing court-ordered rehab. However, she made headlines in May 2012 by admitting to a judge that she had used drugs in rehab and asked to go to prison instead.

But Portwood made the most of her rock bottom moment by completing drug rehab in prison and furthering her education, and was eventually released on parole in November 2013, after serving just sixteen months behind bars. She has largely kept a low profile ever since, but will co-star on a new season of Teen Mom that premieres next year.

Portwood spoke exclusively with The Fix about the role her daughter has played in her sobriety, her struggle to overcome sex addiction, and why she’ll never return to prison.

Where are you now in your sobriety?

I’m over two years sober now. One of the main things I learned in prison and in AA meetings is that in order to stay sober, you have to change your people, places and things. That’s exactly what I did. I don’t hang around the same people that I used to. I moved away from Anderson (Indiana). It’s hard work, but I take my sobriety seriously and doing that was absolutely necessary.

How big of a role has your daughter (five-year-old Leah) played in you staying sober?

She’s my everything. She was the main motivator to better myself and get out of prison and she’s the main motivator for me to continue staying sober. She makes my days better. I look at her and just start smiling. It just reminds me of why I’ve worked so hard these last few years.

It was hard at first because I only saw her three times when I was in prison and she had grown up so much during that time, so I had to relearn a lot of things about her. We’re at a great place in our relationship now, though.

When did your drug use first begin?

My addiction started before I was ever approached by Teen Mom. My dad was an alcoholic, so I grew up around addiction. I did a lot of partying as a teenager and did things like pills and drinking. But it was when I discovered prescription medication that things started to get out of hand. 

My drug of choice was opiates. I had a love affair with opiates. I was eating Fentanyl patches while I was in rehab, on house arrest and in drug court. It took over my life. 

I think a lot of people were surprised to read in the book that you also struggled with sex addiction.

I’m still trying to figure out where it came from and that’s been a work in progress, but obviously the main component is that you want to feel loved. I also just have an addictive personality, in general.

I’d like to start dating again eventually, but it’s also hard for me to get into a relationship with someone or fall in love. I get bored easily. And I’m sure part of that hesitance has to do with the eight years I spent with Gary (Shirley, the father of her child). I need to learn how to fall in love again and trust again.

You received a lot of criticism initially for choosing prison over remaining in court-ordered rehab. Did that bother you at all?

It was frustrating and annoying because people didn’t understand why I chose to go to prison and they made their own assumptions. But I knew why I did that and so did my family. They supported my decision. And ultimately, I had to do what was best for me. I can’t live my life making choices based on what other people think. 

It seems like that decision served you well in the end.

You’re surrounded by hell in prison, but you can choose to live in it or work to get out of it. I chose to get out of it and worked so hard to do that. I completed drug rehab in prison, completed parenting classes, got my GED. I became the administrator of the CLIFF (Clean Lifestyle is Freedom Forever) program, which helps prisoners get sober. Once I got myself clean, I wanted to spend time helping others do the same. I found that my purpose is to help others.

I wasn’t going to just give up on myself. And if I got in there and just lived the prison life, it would have defeated the whole purpose of leaving court-ordered rehab. It was important to make the choice to get something out of that experience.

The other women in there would always tell me that I had to get out. And I promised my friends in there that I would help other people when I got out. They taught me to never give up and that it’s never too late to change. It’s hard work to do that, but it’s possible if you want it enough.

You’ve been open about your faith in other interviews, so how much has that played a role in your sobriety?

I’ve always believed in a higher power, but I wasn’t aware of it as much, until I got into the program. I’ve been through so much for only being 25 and thought there had to be a reason for that. I don’t go to church or necessarily speak about my beliefs, but I do consider myself to be spiritual.

Besides the upcoming season of Teen Mom, what are your plans for the future?

I want to open up a rehab eventually, but I’m just figuring out the first steps to doing that now and know it’s going to take a long time. But I want to have at least one rehab open by the time I’m 30 and want these facilities to be going long after I die. I also want to move more into public speaking and sharing my story. I just want to continue to be a good mom and keep being of service to others. 

McCarton Ackerman has been a regular contributor to The Fix since 2011. He last wrote about Bad Grandpas and Jessica Kirson.

Insurers Balk at Funding Addiction Treatment
Taxpayers fund the lion's share of addiction treatment—79.2%, or $22.2 billion—but private insurers avoid helping with the tab, often using denial tactics.

Shutterstock



09/22/14





Taxpayers fund the lion's share of addiction treatment – 79.2%, or $22.2 billion – through government-sponsored insurance programs and grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to subsidize uninsured patients.

In other healthcare fields, the situation is reversed, with private insurers picking up more than half of healthcare costs. But when it comes to covering addiction treatment, they balk, either failing to offer any addiction-related coverage or rejecting insurance claims.

The Affordable Care Act promised to close the coverage gap for addiction and mental health claims in several ways: by mandating the creation of medical homes that integrate behavioral health into their delivery system, by expanding overall funding for care and by increasing the variety of services available to patients. The ACA also included provisions requiring more plans to comply with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Act requiring group health insurers to extend mental health benefits that are no more restrictive than those they offer for other care. 

But whether addiction treatment providers will see true parity in coverage for their services remains to be seen. 

“There's a potential over time for seismic change in the way we are funded due to the ACA,” says Ed Higgins, CEO of JSAS HealthCare, Inc., an outpatient addiction services provider in New Jersey. Higgins, a 40-year-veteran in the addiction treatment industry, calls himself a “born optimist” and says his organization is just beginning to hear from insurance providers about potential changes in coverage.

Right now, taxpayers and patients themselves are much more likely to foot the bill than private insurers – even those whose policies say they cover addiction care. 

Medicaid picking up the tab – but for how much longer?

In 2010, private payers were responsible for 55.6% of medical expenditures in the U.S., but only 20.8% of addiction treatment spending, according to CASA Columbia's 2012 report, Addiction Medicine: Closing the Gap Between Science and Practice. That is, private insurers covered $5.8 billion of the $28 billion total spent on addiction treatment that year. The majority of people who went to rehab in 2010 – 65% – reported using Medicaid or other, non-Medicare public funds such as military insurance, and 27% used Medicare. (Patients could report more than one source of funding, and 23% said they'd received financial help from family members.)

That's despite the fact that most rehab facilities are privately run: in Inside Rehab (2013), journalist Anne Fletcher notes that as of 2004, about 58% of rehabs were organized as private nonprofit corporations, with just under a third operating as for-profit facilities. The remaining 12% were public programs run by local, state, federal or tribal governments. 

And while Medicaid foots the bill for most addiction treatment, accessing care can be tricky for patients who have it. Some private rehab facilities won't take clients with public insurance. Those that do, often place a cap on the number they do take. 

“In New Jersey, we have waiting lists (for Medicaid patients) because if you take too many Medicaid patients, it kills your budget,” Higgins says. As in other medical settings, patients with private insurance or those who pay out-of-pocket have to subsidize to cover the gap left by low Medicaid reimbursement rates. 

Another source of public funds for addiction treatment: substance abuse and mental health block grants administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which fund priority treatment for uninsured people, as well as prevention and services not covered by public insurance. Grant funding is noncompetitive and governments have some flexibility in determining how they'll spend them – which means they can be subject to political whim.

That Medicaid shoulders such a large portion of all reimbursements for addiction treatment, and that 25 states chose to opt out of the ACA's mandate to expand Medicaid funding, raises a couple of significant questions about how funding will trend in the coming years. (One question: is the number of uninsured in those states expected to increase?) According to a study published in Health Affairs, opt-out states are likely to see an 18.1% decrease in the number of uninsured people, versus 48.9% in states opting in. It also looked at likely health outcomes among low-income people and projected worse health outcomes and higher likelihood of medical financial catastrophe, as well as increased mortality. The study didn't look specifically at outcomes relating to drug abuse – though among the handful of metrics it considered were catastrophic medical costs and diagnoses of depression, both of which frequently accompany substance abuse. It also notes that the ACA cut funding for safety-net hospitals, reducing the resources available to those who will remain uninsured in the coming years.

Given that Medicaid pays such a high percentage of reimbursements for funding, it will be interesting to see who picks up the tab for low-income people in treatment over the next few years. Will opt-out states rely more heavily on SAMHSA funds for care – or will rehabs be able to count on private insurers to pick up the slack?

Another factor that should move treatment-funding numbers in the next few years: the push to legalize marijuana. According to numbers released by SAMHSA, in 2007 37.5% of all rehab patients were referred by the court system due to a drug- or alcohol-related offense. Fifty-seven percent of rehab patients listing marijuana as their drug of choice were referred by the court system – accounting for a sizeable chunk of rehabs' revenues. With two states having legalized pot, two more kicking around legalization initiatives and others mulling medical marijuana, revenues from court-referred patients should trend downward, though it's hard to say now how much. So far, the state of Colorado doesn't have data on the number of court-referred patients in rehab for marijuana use post-legalization; public health officials in Washington didn't respond to The Fix's inquiry.

"I can't tell you how many people have died in this process"

The CASA report succinctly pinpoints the reason Medicaid pays so much more for substance abuse treatment, despite the fact that when it comes to health care in general, the situation is reversed: “The concentration of spending for addiction treatment in public programs suggests that insurance across the board does not adequately cover costs of intervention and treatment, resulting in costly health and social consequences that stem from untreated addiction and that fall disproportionately to government programs. National data indicates that individuals with private insurance are three to six times less likely than those with public insurance to receive specialty addiction treatment.” 

Anthony Rizzuto, provider relations representative for the Seafield Center, an inpatient/outpatient drug treatment provider in Westhampton Beach, New York, paints a bleak picture.

When a family comes in to have one member assessed for treatment, he says, he does a bio-psychosocial assessment to determine the best course of treatment. He'll make a recommendation – in the case where a patient is withdrawing from heroin use, he typically recommends titrating methadone and a few days of inpatient treatment – and calls the family's insurance provider. 

Often, private insurers will reject the claim, saying that since withdrawal from heroin isn't lethal, suboxone and outpatient treatment should be adequate.

It's discriminatory, he says: “If you break your arm, that's not lethal either. But not to treat it would be inhumane.”

Once the claim is rejected, families will try a number of things. If they have the means, they'll pay for treatment out-of-pocket. Or they'll call friends for ideas, sometimes dropping a child from insurance so they can become eligible for Medicaid and therefore be covered. 

“People are calling the police on their kids to get a protective order, so then they get 28 days of rehab,” Rizzuto says. “People are actually giving alcohol or Xanax so it will show up on the UA. Those withdrawals are lethal, so they can get treatment.”

On the flip side, says Mark Parrino, director of the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, some insurance companies may reject a claim based on a failed urinalysis. Or commercial insurers will cover methadone for a pregnant woman in jail, but not for a man – a discrepancy he says is motivated more by liability fears than care standards. 

“They say, 'We'll deny claims if there's a positive toxicology report because it means the treatment is not successful.' How do we know it's not successful? Is that the only yardstick of success? Is the patient not dying, a yardstick of success?”

The slippery definition of "medical necessity"

Critical-care nurse, Nora Milligan, nearly lost her adult son to two heroin overdoses, both reversed by emergency medical technicians. He detoxed painfully in jail – and only after his second arrest was he approved to get into a long-term treatment program, she says, adding he's been clean and sober and living in sober housing for several months. Her insurance company, Fidelis, has yet to pay for any part of his care.

“Each insurance company can make up their own medical necessity, and they don't have to tell you what it is,” Milligan told the New York State Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opiate Addiction.

Milligan worked in concert with Rizzuto to urge the passage of S4623, which would require group insurance plans to cover drug and alcohol treatment recommended by a certified health professional – and, critically, requires a standard definition of “medical necessity” to prevent discrepancies like those that left her son in a holding pattern for years. 

That passed in June, as part of a bipartisan deal that would also crack down on illegal sales of pharmaceuticals. (The state will now be allowed to monitor the phone calls of physicians suspected of selling pharmaceuticals illegally, and penalties will be tougher for doctors and pharmacists who do.)

Milligan wants addiction taken out of the criminal justice system and understood as a medical condition. 

“NY has really taken the lead. It's finally getting it,” Milligan says. 

Christen McCurdy is a freelance writer in Portland, Oregon. Her work has appeared in Pacific Standard, The Oregonian, Bitch, The Lund Report and a host of small newspapers and trades.

The Increasing Importance of Ibogaine's Role in Recovery
We talk ibogaine with Dimitri Mugianis, a man who used the psychedelic root to cure himself of a 20-year heroin and cocaine habit and now is using it to treat others in Costa Rica.

via the author



10/03/14





“Ibogaine has the potential to be a bomb; that’s what interests me - bringing a real challenge to health care in this country.”

In 2002, Dimitri Mugianis cured a 20-year heroin and cocaine addiction by taking a drug called Ibogaine – a potent psychedelic that cures opiate withdrawal. He has been treating drug users with the same drug ever since. It is a Schedule 1 prohibited substance in the United States. 

After the DEA busted his operation in 2011, he moved his practice to Costa Rica where Ibogaine is legal. He is currently suing the US government for the right to practice his adopted religion of Bwiti – an African faith where Ibogaine is sacred. 

Ibogaine comes from the root of the Iboga bush, native to Gabon in Africa. Legend says that thousands of years ago, a tribal chief found a porcupine chewing on the root. He speared it. Later, when his wife ate its meat, she began seeing visions. After locating the porcupine’s root, the tribe began to use its visions for healing. Contemporary use has grown out of these indigenous practices. 

Ibogaine painlessly detoxes the most damaged dope fiends, though no studies have yet been done to find out how it does this. Due to the underground nature of Ibogaine treatments, there have been deaths. It is likely these people died due to unknown interactions between different drugs rather than any toxicity in the Ibogaine itself. 

**



You said a few years ago that you are an “Ibogaine Provider” is that still how you see yourself? 

All identity is pain; that’s what the Buddha said, right? I’ve been initiated into the healing tradition of Bwiti so I am a “ganga” or healer.

Were your legal problems the reason you took Ibogaine treatments to Costa Rica?

Yes, I originally did 500 ceremonies in New York, but in order to continue without harassment we had to move to Costa Rica. Right after we got our confiscated passports back.

What do your treatments look like today?

We set up Iboga Life in Costa Rica, which is a treatment facility that combines the best allopathic medicine with Ibogaine ceremonies. We draw from traditions including Qi Gong, acupuncture, and gong therapy. We wanted to go to a place where we could use Ibogaine in a safe atmosphere with the aid of medical professionals

You work with drug users on the street. Are they able to access the center in Costa Rica?

“To each according to his need, from each according to their abilities,” as a great shaman once said. Our goal is to be inclusive as possible, but it’s an expensive proposition. 

So what do you offer the street people instead?

I was blessed to get a job with New York Harm Reduction Educators. I’m like their healer in residence. We do weekly Bwiti ceremonies for folks who are homeless, drug users and formerly incarcerated people. We don’t use Ibogaine, but we have drumming and dancing.

What healing effect does that have?

It builds community among marginalized groups, which is far more effective than whatever label the shrink is going to put on them. I’m less and less interested in “treating addiction” than creating community and love. Folks need to be heard and they need to dance with each other – Bwiti ceremonies provide that. 

You took Ibogaine in 2002, was that your first spiritual awakening?

Crack and heroin were part of a spiritual process that helped me become the healer I am today. All through my drug use I was aware of something going on - the dope houses of Detroit were spiritual places.

Do you see any similarity between the life of Bill W and your life? For instance, you’re both drug users, you take a substance that gives you a spiritual experience and suddenly you devote your life to saving others…

Good question (laughs). If we look at addiction as a symptom of a materialistic society and the antidote is spiritual then, yes, I see a lot of parallels. Bill W founded an anti-materialist, spiritual collective that is unparalleled in modern times. I have a lot of admiration for him. The difference between me and the 12 steps is they’re still involved in consumerism. They’re still going for a product at the end - this thing called “sobriety." Success for me is seeing marginalized people come to find their personhood. 

Bwiti is a foreign religion so why not adapt it to a psychotherapeutic setting which is more accessible to people in the west?

We’re not out to convert people to Bwiti, but we use their ceremonies because they are proven to work with Ibogaine. African traditions are plastic so they mold to new circumstance really well. We do offer secular treatments but 95% opt for the ceremony. Why? Because it’s an appropriate setting. 

Psychotherapy and psychiatry are comparatively young healing arts – they have only been around for 100 years or so whereas Bwiti has a history going back thousands of years. While psychiatry has some great ideas there is the arrogance of adolescence present there and an unwillingness to listen to older and wiser traditions.

You can’t detach the ceremony from the drug— it’s like it’s present in its molecules. For example, one guy we treated was a Sicilian immigrant and when he awoke from his trance he described perfectly a Bwiti ceremony in Africa. When I returned to the village the tribe told me that they had seen him too – in their visions. 

How does Bwiti view the nature of addiction?

The Bwiti would think of addiction as witchcraft or a spell and that metaphor informs the way I work with people. Addiction behaves like a spell because it is passed on ancestrally or through some kind of violation. For example, witchcraft could be sexual abuse or anything that crushes your spirit; for the Bwiti, if that happens, the solution is always plant medicine. 

What other aspects are there to your treatment?

Firstly, we have nurses on hand to monitor their reactions to the drug. Then we help the drug user go through the experience - we talk to them, feed them and shower them with love. It’s not an easy process; it’s not all sunshine and light, but Ibogaine is like a parent. It’s going to be hard sometimes, but ultimately it’s about love.

People do still relapse after Ibogaine treatment though... 

Of course, but we still don’t know what addiction really is. So to say that this treatment or that treatment is going to save your life is to do a disservice to people. All we can do is help as best we can.

So Ibogaine interrupts the withdrawal symptoms associated with opiates, apart from that, isn’t it just an interesting trip?

No, it’s a life changing experience. The visions impart insights and teachings that will go on for the rest of your life. It’s not just something to do on a Friday night.

What kind of effects would those insights have on someone’s life?

All kinds. I’ve seen sexual or gender issues resolved - interestingly enough, there’s never been a gay person who came out straight but the other way around has happened many times. I treated one woman and a few weeks later we had lunch together— it was the first time she ate in front of a man since she was 12 years old. I’ve seen people write a letter to their father who molested them. One guy had a problem with black people and after the healing he started to work with African American communities. I could go on.

You see junkies as emissaries of Ibogaine into western culture. Can you explain that belief?

It’s like the story of Christ healing the leper. Why did Jesus pick this highly politicized body with this obvious condition? Because lepers were feared and marginalized. 

Likewise, I believe Ibogaine picked junkies because they are also politicized, marginalized and a public health issue. And the healing is just as dramatic. You take a junky and give him Ibogaine on Monday and on Tuesday he’s no longer physically dependent. 

So is the Christ story about leprosy? Is the Iboga story about addiction? No, it’s about using the lowest of the low to carry a message 

You have a high profile role in the Ibogaine community, do you worry that you might be doing more harm than good – like some people say that Leary’s work in the 1960s led to LSD being banned and research into its benefits stopped.

Yes (laughs).

So why do it then?

There are people working to bring Ibogaine into the existing medical structure, but I look at the so-called mental health system in this country and it scares the shit out of me. I see its results every day on 125th and Lexington and it’s not pretty. I’m not interested in getting Ibogaine accepted any more; I want to practice my religion and be left in peace.

The risk of continuing underground treatments is that if there was a high-profile death then the prohibition would become more draconian and no one would get treated.

Well that’s true, but you only need to look at the list of side effects for all medicines to see that they too, have the potential to harm. People have died in the Ibogaine underground, but the most dangerous place for a drug user to be is in mainstream society where they die from shame and stigma. 

What would have to change in the world for Ibogaine to be offered to people more readily?

There’s not a lot of money to be made off Ibogaine compared to maintenance therapy, like methadone. And if you free people spiritually then you can’t control them any more. So the for-profit medical and pharmaceutical industry would have to change and people at large would have to open up their minds to the possibility of psychedelic drugs being a force for good in the world.
 
  TAKE ACTION: Stop IT’SUGAR From
   Glamorizing Rx Drug Abuse
October 3, 2014  
    
 
To our Join Together subscribers,

IT’SUGAR, the national retail candy store popular with kids and teens, is currently selling shot glasses and flasks made to look like prescription pill bottles. What's worse is that these products are glamorizing prescription drug abuse, and are being sold right alongside "Hello Kitty," "Frozen" and other merchandise being marketed to kids.
Combined with alcohol, the abuse of prescription medications can be deadly, making the IT’SUGAR drinkware line even more disturbing.

Help us save more lives and prevent teen prescription drug abuse. Please join us in demanding that IT’SUGAR stops selling these irresponsible products immediately. Sign our petition on Facebook Causes and share it with your friends. 


Your support makes a difference. Together, we can #endmedicineabuse.

Marcia Lee Taylor
Senior Vice President, Government Affairs
Partnership for Drug-Free Kids
    
For Families Dealing with Grief.....
Beginning this week, COA will host a new meeting for people who have lost a loved one due to substance abuse.

 
The Hamilton Township NJ GRASP (Grief Recovery After Substance Passing) Chapter
will be located at The Raymond Dwier Center, 392 Church Street, Hamilton Township, NJ  08620. Meetings will be held the 2nd Thursday of every month beginning this Thursday, October 9th, from7:00pm until 9:00pm.  Anyone who would like to attend has to pre-register by calling Laurie Latham at 609-575-5477 or Sue Fares at 609-203-2950.  This is a support group for those coping with the loss of a loved one due to drugs.

Listen to Dave Hentosh, of GRASP Bucks County, talk about grief in two special shows on COA Recovery Radio. To listen to Part I, click here; for Part II, click here.
Merchandise Donations Wanted!

Would you like to donate to a worthy cause but not able to give cash? City of Angels NJ, Inc. now accepts donations of merchandise!

We are looking for high-value items we can re-sell to fund our operations and provide treatment scholarships to individuals without other resources. 

So far, we've successfully sold exercise and sporting equipment, electronics, watches and more.....

If you have an item you would like to donate, please contactCityofAngelsNJ@hotmail.com
On COARR 
Let's Talk About Recovery!

With 10 original shows, COARR plays Recovery Talk 24/7/365....past shows are available online atwww.coaradio.com/pastshows.html and in each show's online archive. 

Tune in thru the smartphone app (free in the iphone/droid stores) or on www.coaradio.com to hear what's playing now.....

Coming in mid October: "Solutions" with Michael DeLeon! Mike is the producer of "Kids Are Dying", a powerful documentary about the drug epidemic in America; he is also the founder of Steered Straight, a non-profit organization that works to prevent drug abuse; and a tireless advocate for legislative reform. "Solutions" will focus on concrete actions that can be taken now to address this problem and feature key leaders & decision makers from across New Jersey and the Tri-State area.

 


NOW ON COARR!

Every Saturday night....a show dedicated to healing from childhood sexual abuse.

Lynn W. shares her powerful story, speaks with others who have been abused and have been affected by abuse, and begins the healing process. 

Tune into new shows atwww.coaradio.com. Listen to past shows at www.coaradio.com/pastshows.html.

To learn more about SFTP, click the image at right to watch a short video clip.
CJ Non Profit Stop Feeding the Predators
CJ Non Profit Stop Feeding the Predators
   
Listen to past COARR shows any time:

For "Women & Addiction" with Terri Thomas, click here.

For "Wellness in Recovery" with life coach Nancy Tilelli, click here.

For "Journey Thru the 12 Steps with the Life Recovery Bible," click here.

For "Share Your Scars" with Vicki, click here.

For "Wings Over Water: Creativity in Recovery" with recovery musician Kathy Moser, click here.

For "Laughter & Recovery" with stand up comic Wil B. Kleen, click here.

For "Relationships in Recovery" with Alexa, click here.

For "Saving Lives" with COA Director of Interventions Tom Redneck Clark, click here.



Greetings,

We have an exciting new group at the Philadelphia Recovery Community Center called Beating The Blues.


Everyday issues, stress and anxiety can build up until they take over your life.

PRO-ACT is proud to host Beating the Blues, a free 8-session program to teach you how to handle life’s bumps and stop them from before you fall flat on your face. AND if you’ve already fallen, you’ll learn how to get back up.

Beating the Blues is a computer-based program that will teach you, step-by-step, how to manage the big and little issues that seem to consume your life. You will also learn how to look at life in a more positive way that can only result in more positive actions. Sign up now.

Sometimes it all just seems to be too much.

It feels like every step forward is followed by two steps backwards.


Beating the Blues is brought to by the Mental Health Association of Southeastern PA—a leader in peer-driven services and made possible by funding from DBHIDS.


Class Information

Classes are every Monday beginning at 12:30PM and running to 2:00 PM. The first class is October 20th. The program is only 8 sessions. Please call 215-223-7700 to register or If you have any questions.


PRO-ACT Philadelphia Recovery Community Center

1701 W. Lehigh Ave., Unit 6, Philadelphia, PA 19119 215-223-7700

Monday, October 6, 2014




Daily Quote

"Every thought you have makes up some segment of the world you see. It is with your thoughts, then, that we must work, if your perception of the world is to be changed." - "A Course In Miracles"


Today's Online Meetings
AA Meeting - 8:00 pm CST: "Face to Face"






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Sunday, October 5, 2014

October 5 Chp 51 v 17 TWELVE STEPPING WITH STRENGTH FROM THE PSALM


The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.You will not reject a broken and repentant heart ,O God .


STEP 1 - We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable.


I have said it before and I will say it again. Addiction is the By-product of a broken heart and a very hard head . Many of our prayers go unanswered because we are too busy playing God .God cant fix your broken heart and remove the desire to use if your playing his part .In the Psalm God is giving you a promise that you will not be rejected if your step 1 is sincere from a broken heart .Getting the heart broken is one of the easiest things we do to ourselves. Denial and Pride are two of the most common heart breakers in the world. Throw in outside sources such as abusive addictive parents to your mix and you will wind up with a prideful self preserving person with a iron clad impenetrable heart .Surrender and brokenness are Gods key to removing your self medicating ways .The blinders are gonna have to come off and if your not willing to remove them God will do it for you through your foolishness. You are the greatest of all his creations.The gift of life he has freely given you is not to be lived defeated , addicted , and way below your potential. Intelligence is one of the gifts we have been given but your pride has strangled it into submission and left you stuck in self defeating ways. When your down and only then God will pick you back up again ,brush you off dry your tears and put you back together again.


Proverb 4: 23 Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
By Joseph Dickerson

Miley Cyrus' ‘Dirty Hippie’ Art Show Featured Illegal Drugs
The pop singer's display featured a bead-covered bong and tabs of LSD.

Miley's "art". Photo via



10/03/14





Miley Cyrus’ “Dirty Hippie” art show that premiered on Sept. 10 in Manhattan during New York Fashion Week was clearly designed to shock. 

During an interview with V Magazine, Miley Cyrus showed a number of the pieces that were part of the show that the magazine described as “a psychedelic jungle.” The question is why so many of the pieces actually include illegal drugs like pharmaceutical pills, tabs of acid, and blunts.

In the interview, Miley Cyrus explained her wild child approach to making art. “During that 4th of July party, I saw this party hat and I thought it might be fun to glue some shit onto it. I just made it for myself to wear. And then someone was like, Oh this is great, you should keep going… [Pointing] There are drugs in that, and then there’s a blunt.” 

As a self-proclaimed pothead and proponent of Molly in her songs, Miley glued some of the drugs to the sculptures. In the show, it was hard to see the specific drugs because they had been painted over and thrown into a chaotic array of stuff from the life of Cyrus. Nevertheless, nobody could mistake the five-foot bong standing proud in a corner as anything other than a five-foot bong.

Cyrus often posts pictures of her colorful artwork on Instagram, and the five-foot bong covered in beads and knick-knacks has been included as well. The premier of the small exhibit took place in conjunction with Jeremy Scott’s fashion show at the height of Fashion Week. The show can still be seen as it remains on display at the V Magazine office’s gallery in New York City.

Although Cyrus has claimed the show proves that she is more than just some “pop dumb dumb,” there is an argument to be made that including drugs in a show that will be seen by many of her underage fans is a stupid choice. Although the therapeutic impact of the work is undeniable, is it necessary for Cyrus to take such artistic therapy to the point of being a dangerous influence?