Category: Addiction/Substance Misuse

Dreams and goals

by Tony Jackson

We all have dreams and goals. Reflecting on my childhood, I can still remember the dreams I had as a kid. I wanted to be a police officer and a fireman. Even aspired to enlist in the Armed Forces.

Eventually I did grow up. A reality that seemed so distant and unattainable to my childlike self at the time, had arrived and become a reality for me. As did another reality. Being a drug addict.

Gone was any connection to who I once dreamed and aspired to be as a kid.  Taking its place instead, was a … Read more...

People are finding guest posts through Google

What you see on this page are screen shots of my statistics that show people’s searches from google and on which guest post they landed. If you are using a mobile phone you might have to turn your phone landscape to see them.

These stats illustrate how important your stories are and that they help others when they are hurting or looking for answers. The one above is someone searching for God after a child died. Where was God when my child died?

Someone came from Google and landed on Jill Cichowicz’ story about her twin brother, Scott Neal Zeobrowski, … Read more...

How Can Hypnotherapy Help with Depression?

by Adina Silvestri, EdD LPC

Adina Sylvestri

Depression, as you know is a serious mental illness. According to the  National Survey on Drug Use & Health (NSDUH) depression affects 17.3 million people.

Now you may be wondering, what does hypnotherapy have to do with depression? And can something as simple as hypnotherapy really offer relief for depression? To answer these questions, let’s dive a little deeper into the subconscious mind.

Depression & The Subconscious: Mind The Simplified Version

Many of our beliefs, emotions, and memories are held in the subconscious mind. And everything we experience gets filtered through this … Read more...

Is your mailman a drug dealer?

Typically your mail carrier is not a drug dealer by choice.

Comic genius, Mitch Hedberg had a joke in his set about how his UPS guy was unknowingly a drug dealer. Mitch died from a drug-related death the night I went to go see his show in Richmond, VA at the Funny Bone. They had a substitute on stage that night who had been inserted last minute and it wasn’t until the next day we found out Hedberg had died that day. It was the first time I had heard that you could order illegal drugs from the internet.

When … Read more...

Withdrawal triggers thoughts of suicide

how to hang yourself, how to hang myself, best place to hang myself

I’m writing this because I didn’t know it and remember telling someone in recovery who said, “We talk about that in our groups all the time. I thought this was common knowledge.”

I didn’t know it. And while I’m not trying to panic parents who have a child in active addiction going into recovery, it wasn’t on my radar and here’s why it should be on yours.

We get sucked into phrases like “rock bottom” and “tough love” but no one ever defines them. They are all left up to our own interpretation. Tough love for one family might mean … Read more...

How can I fix it?

He wouldn’t stop.

I had taken away car keys, had discussions with Charles, got an alarm to keep him in instead of an alarm to keep criminals out. I bargained, begged, prayed, researched, drug tested, bought a safe, installed spyware, went to counselors for advice, and did a family outpatient program. Once we ran out of resources here in Virginia, we sent our son away to a wilderness program and then a therapeutic boarding school.

Why couldn’t he just stop? Why was he doing this to us? Didn’t he know he could die doing all the drugs he was … Read more...

I inspire people to break up with mental health stigma

That starts with education through storytelling. With suicide being the number two cause of death on college campuses, I’m going to start there.

So in the fall, I will be targeting colleges, mostly Virginia and North Carolina to start. However, if any of you have a college connection outside of that area, I’m open to it. If any of you have connections locally, please send it. Here is my contact form. That doesn’t mean I am not going to do conferences or other offers that come my way.

Most colleges have a student activities fund or something similar to … Read more...

Looking for a school speaking sponsor

A number of schools have reached out for me to speak. The ones out of town often can’t afford to even fly me to the location much less pay any kind of fee. I would love to say yes, especially to the ones where a teen reaches out to me to speak to their school. Then sometimes it’s a school counselor who is already so overworked, they don’t have the manpower or the hours to search for a sponsor.

Because I like to eat and sleep indoors, and these offers are now competing with paid offers, I thought I’d try … Read more...

#MythBustingMondays -People who can’t stop doing drugs lack willpower

It’s a common misconception and I know so many who wanted recovery more than anything and struggled to stay there.

Drug addiction is a complex disease, and quitting usually takes more than good intentions or a strong will because drugs change the structure of the brain in ways that make quitting difficult, even for the most determined.

As with other chronic health conditions, addiction requires ongoing treatment that should be adjusted based on how the person responds. Many in recovery still go to support groups like AA, NA or SMART Recovery years after they’ve maintained sobriety because it is a … Read more...

Speaking at Millwood School this Thurs, March 21

:54 second Invitation!

Getting Comfortable with an Uncomfortable Conversation- Breaking the silence on mental illness and suicide

Thursday, March 21, 2019 from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)

Millwood School – Robinson Hall 
15100 Millwood School Lane 
Midlothian, VA 23112

Register

This is a community event! This presentation is about my journey to healing by dragging an unpopular topic into the spotlight, how parents can discern normal teen behavior from mental illness, the transitions that can cause problems for teens, and strategies for helping children build resilience.

Takeaways:
• What are the signs of suicide and how does someone … Read more...

Breaking free of opiate pain medication

by Kimberly

I had brain surgery in 1999 for a brain stem tumor at Johns Hopkins and was in the hospital for a month. The doctors prescribed only Tylenol because they did not want my brain affected. I had to have my liver tested monthly because of how toxic Tylenol codeine is.

My doctor then switched me to Oxycodone and after a short time, I asked to be taken off that and the doctor prescribed Neurontin 600mg for nerve pain, which worked for a little while.

I had to keep increasing dosage to get the same effect and in two … Read more...

Not staying quiet on addiction

by Stephani Morris

stephani

I am a 31-year-old single mother to a beautiful 8-year-old boy.

In 2016, I worked at a gym, competed in fitness competitions, was working to get my nursing degree, had experience working at Georgetown Medical School, worked in a local hospital as well as a doctor’s office. To top off my own successes, which I soon learned meant nothing, my son was diagnosed in 2015 with high-functioning Autism.

With the help of my family, I helped him get the therapy he needed, volunteered at his school, coached his sports, volunteered on his field trips, lobbied for rights … Read more...

Bonding with others who’ve lost is therapy

Anne Moss Rogers; Jill Cichowicz; Omar Abubaker, DMD, PhD
Anne Moss Rogers; Jill Cichowicz; Omar Abubaker, DMD, PhD

So recently my friend, Jill Cichowicz, whose twin brother died from Substance Use Disorder, arranged a meeting with me and Omar Abubaker, DMD, PhD who lost his son to addiction as well. We talked about pushing forward our agenda on substance abuse education and how, we, as people who have lost someone precious to this drug epidemic can make a difference and educate people on this disease–starting with presenting it as a disease.

Dr. Abubaker is a seasoned speaker. As head of the VCU Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, … Read more...

If my loved one stops doing X and starts doing Y, all will be well

by Teresa McBean

#MythBustingMondays – Watching someone die a slow death as a result of an unremitting and cruel condition like untreated Substance Use Disorder is the WORST.  It is frustrating, frightening, and trauma inducing. 

All sorts of pro-addictive and anti-recovery thoughts will enter into the mind of loved ones. This is normal and expected but it cannot go unaddressed without serious consequences for all involved.

“If only she/he would stop using!” is an example of pro-addictive thinking that creates a certain mythology around how to deal with the disease.  The myth is this:  If my loved one stops doing … Read more...