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Friday, October 10, 2014
  
Tonight Thursday October 9th at 7:00pm EST The Addict's Mom will host a very special Live Video Online Meeting on In the Rooms www.intherooms.com.
We will speak to Addict's Dads who will bravely "Share Without Shame."...
Will you join us and support them by coming on the The Addict's Mom Live Online Video Meeting tonight on In the Rooms?
Sign up for f.ree, please note when signing into in the rooms you must use Google Chrome or Firefox. After you sign in join the Addict's Mom group at http://www.intherooms.com/group/view?gid=1806
Of course, nobody knows what an addict's dad feels as much as an addict's mom.
If you are an Addict's Dad and would like to join in and help us "Break the Stigma" and "Shatter the Shame" there is still time.
Please call me ASAP at 954 309-0992.
Please remember all participants of this show can remain anonymous.
Thank you
Barbara Theodosiou
Proud Founder of the Addict's Mom and the Addict's Dad
Visit The Addict's Mom at: http://addictsmom.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
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Thursday, October 9, 2014
Hi Everyone,
Please join us at our "Christ centered" Addictions Seminar - All are Welcome!
Location: Davisville Church, 325 Street Rd – Southampton, PA 18966
Time: (8am-Noon)
> The Heart of Addiction - Pastor Glen Marshall
(co-author of Reclaiming God's Original Intent for the Church) NavPress
> Sexual Brokenness - Andy & Liz Moore, Shame to Hope Ministry
Refreshments Included - (flyer attached).
Please RSVP ASAP and help get the word out.
Thanks,
Dan Gavin Sr
Commentary: Parental Engagement Isn’t Rocket Science
October 8th, 2014/
As a parent, you have the greatest power to influence your children – even your teenage children. You have more power than any law; any peer pressure; any teacher or coach; any religious leader; any music, film, or website; movie star, or athlete – even more than any sister, brother, aunt, or uncle.
Parental engagement isn’t rocket science. It’s hands-on parenting. It’s relaxing with your kids, having frequent family dinners, supervising them, setting boundaries, instilling values, and establishing standards of behavior (and consequences for failure to meet those standards). It’s showing interest in their school, friends, and social activities; loving and disciplining them; and being a good role model.
You can empower your children to make sensible, healthy choices throughout their teen years. The key to “parent power” is being engaged in your children’s lives. Children of hands-on parents are far less likely to smoke, drink or use drugs – and those who reach age 21 without using are almost certain never to do so.
It is not necessarily easy to guide your child down the path of healthy decision making. This is especially true in today’s world, which seems to glamorize teen substance use and risky behaviors, in large part, through the recent explosion of technology and social media.
With doing homework assignments on laptops, text messaging friends, watching videos online and talking on cell phones, today’s teens grow up in a world of technology that you may never have experienced when you were their age. Virtually every tween and teen is “connected,” and more than a third have smartphones that provide instant, on-the-go access to the Internet.
Of course, such technology tools can provide teens with information you could only have dreamt of having when you were a teen. But just as positive and appropriate content is available online to your child, so too is negative and inappropriate information about drugs and alcohol. In fact, by the age of 14, half of kids on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have been exposed to pictures or videos of kids their age drinking, using drugs, or passed out.
Teaching your young child appropriate online behavior should be no different than instilling other values in them, like telling the truth, being fair and not cheating on tests or in games.
When we surveyed teens across the country they were asked who has the biggest influence on what they consider appropriate or inappropriate behavior when going online or using a cell phone, 58 percent said their parents and only 18 percent said their friends. So what you may lack in tech savvy, you can more than make up for in “parent power.”
That’s the best way to insure that your child will use technology responsibly – even as she becomes more proficient on a cell phone or iPad. There’s a lot of dangerous stuff on the Internet, so just as you would warn your child about steering clear of a dangerous neighborhood, make sure they’re staying away from the dangerous areas online, too.
Parenting is an art, not a science. Being engaged in your children’s lives doesn’t require being a supermom or superdad. It simply means using your strengths and taking advantage of opportunities, both on the computer and away from it, to be a good parent.
Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
Author of the revised and updated book, How to Raise a Drug Free Kid: The Straight Dope for Parents; Founder of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University; Former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
Treating Substance Abuse in People with Severe Mental Illness Can Reduce Violent Acts
October 8th, 2014/
Treating substance abuse issues in a person with severe mental illness will reduce the risk they will commit violent acts, a new study suggests. Health professionals have disagreed about whether to treat substance abuse or mental illness first in people who are dealing with both.
While most people with mental illness are not violent, those who have severe mental illness are more likely than those in the general population to commit violent acts, HealthDayreports.
“We were surprised to find that the severity of the patient’s psychiatric symptoms was not the primary factor in predicting later aggression. Rather, the patient’s substance abuse was the factor most closely associated with future aggression,” study co-author Clara Bradizza of the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions said in a university news release.
The study included 278 patients, who were followed for six months after enrolling in an outpatient treatment program for substance abuse and mental illness.
“Our findings suggest that treatment attendance is very important for these individuals and treatment programs should include interventions that are likely to decrease substance abuse, as this may provide the additional benefit of reducing the risk of later aggression among dual-diagnosis patients,” Bradizza said.
The findings appear in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.
FDA Officials: Zohydro Approval Warranted
October 8th, 2014/
After a group of activists called on the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to quit over the approval of the painkiller Zohydro, three FDA officials say the drug’s approval was warranted.
The officials say it is misguided to advocate for restricting the use of one opioid, instead of addressing the underlying issue of widespread abuse and inappropriate prescribing, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Last month, a coalition called FedUp! called on FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg to quit. The coalition, comprised of doctors, addiction specialists and family members who have lost loved ones to prescription drug overdoses, criticized Hamburg’s defense of the FDA’s decision to approve Zohydro ER, a pure hydrocodone drug. Zohydro was approved for patients with pain that requires daily, around-the-clock, long-term treatment that cannot be treated with other drugs. In December 2012, a panel of experts assembled by the FDA voted against recommending approval of Zohydro ER. The panel cited concerns over the potential for addiction.
The FDA officials wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “The problem of opioid overdose demands well-informed policies. The actions taken by FDA may help to reverse the epidemic…Policies that focus on a single drug can divert focus from broader, further-reaching interventions… The concerns over Zohydro ER should be seen in the greater context of the opioid epidemic. Singling out one drug for restrictions is not likely to be successful.”
In the opinion piece, the FDA officials say the agency has taken steps to address the need for painkillers with tamper-resistant features. They note that “although this is an appealing policy solution, the science of abuse deterrence is uncertain and evolving… No marketed opioid with purported abuse-deterrence technologies has been shown to deter oral abuse – the most common route – or to reduce addiction or death.”
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Wednesday, October 8, 2014
October 8 Chp 10 v 17 TWELVE STEPPING WITH STRENGTH FROM THE PSALMS
Lord , you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.(Gods Big Book NLT)
STEP 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Are you there yet ? Do you still think in your own perspective ? Are you still denying God ?
If you answered no , yes , and yes then you gotta a problem with pride ! If that's the case then you will remain addicted l;lost and helpless. Good news though , God knows what you hope for and dream about . Once you believe you have to trust and that is gonna be tough especially if your still struggling with active addiction. If you cant give trust then have blind faith and believe God can and will help you get sober. Faith comes by hearing Gods word found in His Big book . Purchase a Tyndale Life Recovery Bible and read a Psalm a day then talk to God and meditate . Like a boxer you have to go into training physical , spiritual , and mental if you want lifetime sobriety . God is in your corner ,Its time to get to work.
1 Timothy 4 :8 For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (Gods Big Book NLV)
By Joseph Dickerson
Heroin Deaths Rise Sharply in Many States: Study
October 7th, 2014/
The death rate from heroin overdoses doubled from 2010 to 2012, according to a new studyfrom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Years of over-prescribing of painkillers led to the increase in heroin deaths, the CDC said.
Deaths from heroin rose from 1 to 2.1 deaths per 100,000 people during that period. Deaths from prescription opioid painkillers declined, from 6 to 5.6 deaths per 100,000, Reutersreports. “The rapid rise in heroin overdose deaths follows nearly two decades of increasing drug overdose deaths in the United States, primarily driven by (prescription painkiller) drug overdoses,” the CDC researchers wrote.
They found 75 percent of heroin users in treatment programs who started using heroin after 2000 said they first abused prescription opioids. They switched to heroin because it was easier to get, less expensive and more potent than painkillers. In contrast, more than 80 percent of people who began using heroin in the 1960s said they didn’t start abusing another drug first.
The largest increase in heroin overdose deaths occurred in the Northeast, followed by the South.
“Reducing inappropriate opioid prescribing remains a crucial public health strategy to address both prescription opioid and heroin overdoses,” CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, said in a news release. “Addressing prescription opioid abuse by changing prescribing is likely to prevent heroin use in the long term.”
The CDC is calling for improving access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction and increased use of the opioid overdose antidote naloxone.
Many Who Abuse Prescription Opioids Don’t Know How to Respond to Overdose
October 7th, 2014/
Many young adults who abuse prescription opioids are not prepared to deal with an overdose, a new study finds. They tend to think prescription medications are less dangerous than heroin, the researchers say.
“What we found is that when it comes to how to handle an overdose, prescription opioid users who weren’t using drugs for official medical reasons were less savvy than, say, more traditional heroin-using populations,” study author David Frank of the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City told HealthDay. “In fact, they tend to have a pretty severe lack of knowledge and a lot of confusion about it, despite the fact that most have experienced overdoses within their drug-using network.”
Young people who abuse opioids think of themselves as being very different from people who use heroin, Frank said. He conducted in-depth interviews with 46 young adult New Yorkers, ages 18 to 32, who abused prescription painkillers. Almost three-quarters of the participants were white, and half had at least some college education.
The participants tended to see prescription painkillers as relatively harmless medication that was less addictive than heroin, and less likely to cause an overdose. Yet almost all the study participants said they knew someone who had overdosed on painkillers, or had overdosed themselves. The majority did not know about overdose prevention or response options, including the opioid overdose antidote naloxone.
In most cases, participants said when faced with an overdose, they used potentially ineffective methods such as slapping the person or placing them in a cold shower to revive them. Among those who had heard of naloxone, many thought it was expensive or difficult to obtain. In New York state, naloxone is distributed freely, along with training, at most official harm reduction or needle-exchange programs, the researchers noted. Many participants said these programs place too much emphasis on heroin use.
The study appears in the International Journal of Drug Policy.
Substance Abuse a Growing Problem Among the Elderly
October 7th, 2014/
A growing number of older adults are struggling with drug and alcohol abuse, experts tellThe New York Times. Alcohol abuse is the biggest problem among older adults, but the rate of illicit drug use among adults ages 50 to 64 is also on the rise.
“As we get older, it takes longer for our bodies to metabolize alcohol and drugs,” D. John Dyben, the Director of Older Adult Treatment Services for the Hanley Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, told the newspaper. “Someone might say, ‘I could have two or three glasses of wine and I was fine, and now that I’m in my late 60s, it’s becoming a problem.’ That’s because the body can’t handle it.”
Many older adults who drink are retired, the article notes. They may have lost a spouse, as well as their career, and feel they have no purpose. They may be lonely and depressed.
It can be difficult for doctors to differentiate between signs of chemical dependence, such as memory loss and disorientation, and normal signs of aging. Doctors often are not trained to discuss substance abuse with their older patients, or they don’t have the time to conduct a thorough screening.
“There’s this lore, this belief, that as people get older they become less treatable,” said Paul Sacco, Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, who researches aging and addiction. “But there’s a large body of literature saying that the outcomes are as good with older adults. They’re not hopeless. This may be just the time to get them treatment.”
A report issued by the Institute of Medicine in 2012 concluded substance abuse is a growing problem among older Americans, and the nation’s health care system is not prepared to adequately address the need. Up to one-fifth of Americans over age 65 have substance abuse or mental health conditions, according to the report.
Ecstasy Most Popular Illicit Drug on Black Market Websites
October 7th, 2014/
A year after the black market website Silk Road was shuttered by the FBI, many new sites selling illegal drugs have appeared. Ecstasy (MDMA) is the most widely sold illicit drug on these sites, according to a survey.
Almost twice as much MDMA is being sold online as marijuana, the second-most popular illicit drug. LSD, cocaine and amphetamines were the other top-five drugs sold on these sites, according to The Washington Post.
Dozens of black market sites have emerged in the past year, the article notes. Silk Road and three similar sites had about 18,000 drug items listed for sale last fall. In April 2014, there were 10 such sites, listing 32,000 drug items. By this August, there were 18 sites listing 47,000 drug items, according to the Digital Citizens Alliance.
Daryl Lau, a programmer, analyzed drug sales on these sites, concentrating on the nine illegal drugs the National Institute on Drug Abuse says are most commonly used: cocaine, heroin, opium, amphetamines, MDMA, ketamine, mescaline, LSD and marijuana. These drugs account for about 28 percent of all drugs listed on one of the new websites, Silk Road 2.0. Much of the remainder are prescription drugs, or synthetic drugs such as “2C” or “NBOMe.”
The black market websites allow users to rate their purchases. Because MDMA bought on the street is often laced with potentially dangerous ingredients, users may prefer to buy it online from a vendor who receives a high rating from other users, according to the newspaper.
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recreational drugs in recognition of the millions of people who are struggling with addiction, as well as the millions of people living in long term recovery. 
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