I am deeply conscious of my stubborn will - this hard core to my addiction - and my resistance to live in Grace, as it would wisen my mind, make tender my heart, and sensitize my spirit. Not for my addiction - I would yield myself to thee. I would give over into Thy custody the things that disturb me - frighten me - fill my days with uneasiness and my nights with the kind of gloom and foreboding that challenges my sleep - so I stay awake in misery. This I want to do no more but I can not stop - my mind battles - my addiction holds. Besides, I am never sure I can be trusted to close my eyes for fear I would only awake the same - addicted. To be rid of this fear - to expose myself in ways that would destroy this sick balance is my prayer of prayers. This small seed of your Grace is all that keeps me from leaping in to the void of death.

I wait!

I wait now for Thy Presence with the silent hope that something may transpire within me and over come this hold of addiction. - would it but tip me in ways to make for peace - a full nights sleep. While I wait I search my mind for that memory of those whose lives are a part of me in ways that are direct and sure. I would include them in this waiting moment, but there again, our Father, I am not sure that is what I really want to do. I wait, that my spirit may be clarified and my willingness may be at the disposal of that seed of Grace you placed in my heart.

I wait!

With all arrogances put side, with all weaknesses laid bare, with all my deep-lying hungers exposed, I wait. I wait for the baptism of Thy Spirit. My continuing to wait gives me inspiration that Grace has not abandon me. My waiting shows me again that Thy seed grows stronger in my heart. I wait - for if this be Thy will, it is enough, O God.

I wait as you teach me resilience.

This show's theme is to request "guidance so we would not look stupid!!"

The Addict's Prayer for Guidance

This show suffered some technical difficulties - we were unable to engage any phone visitors. It forced me to demonstrate my ability to function under the stress of looking stupid!! Ironically I take away the lesson that our show - life - goes on even if we suffer technical difficulties. Listen to the show archive to see how well I bore up under the stress.

HBO companion Booklet

NIDA Releases Companion Guide to HBO's 'Addiction' Series
February 14, 2007 The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has released a layman's guide to alcohol and other drug addiction to complement the new HBO documentary series "Addiction ," which premieres in Washington, D.C., this week.

"Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction" is a 30-page booklet that provides an overview of the science supporting the concept of addiction as a brain disease. Information on prevention and treatment also is included.

"Thanks to science, our views and our responses to drug abuse have changed dramatically, but many people today still do not understand why people become addicted to drugs or how drugs change the brain to foster compulsive drug abuse," said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow. "This booklet aims to fill that knowledge gap by providing scientific information about the disease of drug addiction in language that is easily understandable to the public."

An online version of the booklet is posted at the NIDA website; PDF and print copies also are available.

Quote for Today

Stupidity does not stand in the way of wisdom, for the disguise of the wise is to avow unknowing

Looking Stupid or what?

The Bush administration's new National Drug Control Strategy ranks prescription-drug misuse right below marijuana use as the nation's biggest drug problem and sets a goal of cutting abuse of prescription medications by 15 percent in the next three years, the New York Times reported Feb. 10.

The document, released by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) late last week, calls on states to adopt prescription-drug monitoring programs to combat abuse.

Drug czar John Walters touted a 23-percent decline in illicit-drug use since 2001 but also called for increased drug-testing in schools, saying the U.S. would "look stupid in five or ten years if we don't do this."

Critics responded that the raw number of drug users was less important than whether the overall harm from drug use and prohibition declined -- which they say has not.

Marijuana cost us how much

An analysis of data from the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) indicates that it is costing American taxpayers about $1 billion annually to incarcerate people for marijuana offenses, AlterNet reported Feb. 10.

DOJ's Bureau of Justice Statistics said in a new report ("Drug Use and Dependence, State and Federal Prisoners, 2004") that 12.7 percent of state inmates and 12.4 percent of federal inmates locked up for drug crimes are marijuana offenders, amounting to about 33,655 state inmates and 10,785 federal inmates. When correlated with DOJ prison spending data, the totals show that the price tag for incarcerating marijuana offenders tops $1 billion annually.

The report said that the non-prison costs of marijuana prosecution in the U.S. amounts to another $8 billion. The FBI recently reported that 786,545 people were arrested on marijuana charges in 2005; about 88 percent were charged only with possession. The FBI figures were an all-time high even though reports say that marijuana consumption in the U.S. is declining.

Drug Dealers in whose neighborhood

Drug traffickers are buying suburban homes -- often in new neighborhoods that offer the cloak of anonymity -- and setting up indoor marijuana-growing operations to avoid detection by police, USA Today reported Feb. 7.

Elaborate hydroponic growing systems have been discovered in dozens of suburban homes in the Sacramento, Calif., area. An organized-crime group based in San Francisco's Chinatown is suspected of running the grow operation. "They're purchasing homes and plunking down marijuana factories smack dab in the middle of our residential neighborhoods," said Gordon Taylor, a DEA agent in Sacramento. "Our theory is they're picking newer neighborhoods because of the relative anonymity. They know the neighbors don't know each other as well as they would in established neighborhoods."

Similar suburban grow operations have been uncovered in Merrillville, Ind.; Westminster, Md.; Kankakee County, Ill., Derry, N.H., Bellevue, Wash., and St. Lucie County, Fla.

Criminal groups are paying up to $750,000 for suburban houses, usually with no money down. The homes are gutted, with all space used for growing marijuana. Utility meters are bypassed to avoid detection due to high utility usage. Some growers even put out trash cans regularly and hire gardeners to tend the property to keep nosy neighbors off the scent.

Responding to technical difficulties

Responding to technical difficulties I refocused the show. I proceeded to discuss my underlying beliefs and hopes for building community. The refocusing also included statements of out reach and invitation to those who are currently listening or will listen to the archive.

Echoing the Voice of Howard Thurman

Introduction to my intellectual and spiritual guide - Howard Thurman. Professor Thurman was the first dean of Rankin Memorial Chapel, Howard University and Professor at Boston University. What his contribution to my approach and sensibilities are is mystical interpretation of Christianity. In fact, all the prayers and meditations I compose are based in those same sensibilities.

Again and again we are overwhelmed by the littleness of our lives, the personal demand - our addiction. There is often no breathing moment that permits us to lift up our heads and take the long look and sense how this struggle can possibly add to an ultimate meaning our lives are involved. Thus we see the world of need and necessity and urgency through the greyness of our addiction; through the tussle and wrestling with very great anxieties. We admit that we do not know how to deal with that which awaits us tomorrow, and in our desperation and panic we find ourselves unable to center our spirit upon the meaning of this great and significant moment - we turn to your love for guidance.

Hence we are here, Grace, with all the other addicts of shades, voices and vices - Thy children, each with his or her own life and world of need. We lay gently upon Thy altar our life as it is, and we hold it there, waiting for Thy Spirit to invade our spirits so that we shall burst into the living of our lives with the passion our addiction has sapped - whatever may be the circumstances by which our next minute and the next until those minutes become tomorrow and tomorrow, may be consumed in thriving. For this, O God, we utter in the quietness our thanks and our praise.

I just learned that some how the title of the program was not displayed - so people had a difficult time tuning into the show

This show was about "Our Private Life".

It began by reading the intro to Together We Seek You

As my friend, I come to you, with my meditation, involving you in my far-flung needs - as we are both addicted. Some needs I recognize as part and parcel of the full or limited measure of my own responsibilities. Some needs seem far removed from where we are, they but underscore the littleness and impotence of our lives. You as my friend should know that the only reason I come to you is I trust your heart to be with me in this time of my predicament and my great striving to overcome my addiction.. So wilt you understand me and deal gently with our private life.

This show continues discussing some of the varied effects that lifestyle has on what is considered addiction. We will discuss Love, Family, Socal Standing and Work.

Employer Testing - Basic Discovery

More than four out of five U.S. employers now require pre-employment drug tests, and 39 percent conduct random drug testing of employees, the Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger reported Feb. 6.

The Society for Human Resource Management said in a 2006 report that 84 percent of private employers conduct pre-employment testing, 39 percent conduct random screening of employees, 73 percent conduct for-cause testing, and 58 percent require drug tests after on-the-job accidents. State and federal law also requires drug testing in many public-sector jobs.

The tests cost about $40 each. Some employers see it as money well-spent, but critics say the tests are intrusive and ineffective. Experts note, for example, that the tests are far more likely to detect marijuana, which stays in the body for up to a month, than harder drugs like cocaine and heroin, which are metabolized within one to three days. And few employers test for alcohol.

A Lepers List - Keep Them Away

A registry lets the community know that there's someone like this in their community, because the likelihood of them going back and doing it again is high," said Georgia state Rep. Mike Coan, who has proposed a meth-offender registry in his state. "It's no different, really, from the sex offender (registry). If there's one living near me, I want to know it."

Tennessee is one of four states with an online meth-offender registry, starting the first in the U.S. in 2005; it now includes the name of 400 offenders. Similar bills have been introduced in Oklahoma, Washington, Kentucky and West Virginia; Illinois and Minnesota are in the process of implementing meth registries.

The registries are seen as a public-safety weapon against meth-lab operators who open clandestine labs full of potentially lethal chemicals.

Are we going back to isolating the sick and normal away from each other by governmental policy?

Road Trips to Fla - Drug Runs

"Drug runs" to Florida from other states have become more popular as addicts and dealers take advantage of the state's weak prescription-drug monitoring program to illegally obtain potent pain pills, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Dec. 4.

Florida has become a haven for so-called "pill mills" -- doctors' offices that prescribe powerful prescription drugs to large numbers of patients with little oversight. That has prompted a rise in drug tourism -- people coming into the state to purchase drugs like hydrocodone, methadone, and oxycodone.

Florida has no system for tracking drug prescriptions despite a high number of overdose deaths from prescription-drug use. A U.S. Justice Department report noted that residents of the 23 states with such tracking systems in place "have in some cases turned to traveling to nearby states … to illegally obtain pharmaceuticals.

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-drugs4dec04,1,5060410.story

Love Addiction - Dopamine - Life As Pleasure

THE UNDERLYING CAUSE OF LOVE AND APPROVAL ADDICTION

Love and approval addiction is rooted in self-abandonment. Imagine the feeling part of you as a child - your inner child. When you are love or approval addicted, you have handed your inner child away for adoption. Instead of learning to take responsibility for your own happiness by loving and approving of yourself, you have handed your inner child away to others for love and approval - making others responsible for your feelings. This inner self-abandonment will always cause the deep pain of low self-worth, making you dependent upon others for your sense of worth.

Love Addiction Lyrics

All the chronic in the world couldn't even mess with you
You are the ultimate high ...
... Take my money,
My house and my cars
For one hit of you
You can have it all, baby
Cause makin' love
Every time we do
Girl, it's worse than drugs
Cause I'm an addict over you
- Jodeci, "Feenin"

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodeci

Why we Love - Helen Fisher

Dopamine.

God's little neurotransmitter. Better known by its street name, romantic love.

Also, norepinephrine. Street name, infatuation.

These chemicals are natural stimulants. You fall in love, a growing amount of research shows, and these chemicals and their cousins start pole-dancing around the neurons of your brain, hopping around the limbic system, setting off craving, obsessive thoughts, focused attention, the desire to commit possibly immoral acts with your beloved while at a stoplight in the 2100 block of K Street during lunch hour, and so on.

"Love is a drug," says Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University and author of "Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love." "The ventral tegmental area is a clump of cells that make dopamine, a natural stimulant, and sends it out to many brain regions" when one is in love. "It's the same region affected when you feel the rush of cocaine."

I want Those Shoes

Shoes are a social phenomenon and an absolute passion for women of all ages and from all walks of life. I Want Those Shoes! examines this passion with engaging anecdotes on footwear, celebrities, behind-the-scenes stories of unique and magical shoes, and most importantly, the influence of shoes on the lives of their owners. Discover why some women are fond of spool heels while others collect ballet slippers, why a pair of red shoes is something you should never ignore or underestimate, and many other secrets of a feminine world that uses its feet to bewitch.

This book treads fearlessly into one of the world's most fascinating mysteries: women's passion for shoes, from Cinderella to Sex and the City. I Want Those Shoes! reveals at long last why shoes have always been a woman's best friend.

With charming line-drawings throughout. Copublished with Bloomsbury in the UK, Scribner in the US, Text in Australia, and Random House in Germany.

Poem to a Shoe Lover

This book is dedicated to women, who understand.
And also to men who don't.
But who, in the end, grow to appreciate"Swiftly followed by this

"The madness of women
That need for shoes
That will hear no reason.
What do millions matter
When in exchange you have shoes"

Come to visit Friday we will up on more Addiction Talk.

Addiction is...

• Addiction is always knowing where my cigarettes are.
• Addiction is a clove cigarette and a Pepsi for breakfast.
• Addiction is showing up for a date high.
• Addiction is missing my mother’s birthday because I was high.
• Addiction is taking naps in the car in the company parking lot because I was so tired I couldn’t make it through the afternoon.
• Addiction is claiming that smoking is a social activity, but smoking alone anyway when all my smoking buddies are busy.
• Addiction is the tingling on both sides of my tongue, near the back, when I haven’t had a cigarette in 2 hours.
• Addiction is knowing that it’s 10:15, because my tongue is tingling again.
• Addiction is having sex high and not telling her.
• Addiction is cutting a date short so I can go home and get high.
• Addiction is not feeling myself until the third cup of coffee.
• Addiction is that involuntary fluttering that my eyelids do after a double espresso.
• Addiction is spending the afternoon running to the bathroom to piss out all the caffeine I had to drink in the morning to start my day.
• Addiction is lying about how many drinks I’ve had already.
• Addiction is drinking so much in the first 30 minutes of the party that I have to go lie down for an hour.
• Addiction is Rumplemintz, pizza, and throwing up out the window into the courtyard the night before parents' visiting day.
• Addiction is giving a dinner party and getting high before the guests come.
• Addiction is the very concept of an emergency joint.
• Addiction is cigarette burns in the carpet.
• Addiction is picking out burnt carpet fibers one by one before my parents come over.
• Addiction is rearranging the furniture to hide the cigarette burns.
• Addiction is a shirt, a bed sheet, and the afghan my mother made for me, now all with cigarette burns.
• Addiction is leaving the party thinking I’m sober enough to drive, backing up the car, and realizing that I’m not.
• Addiction is sneaking a cigarette before a date.
• Addiction is knowing that washing my hands with Listerine does a pretty good job of hiding the cigarette smell on my fingers.
• Addiction is a box in the back of my closet where I hid my cigarettes.
• Addiction is keeping track of that box when I moved into a new apartment.
• Addiction is the first cigarette on a Sunday night, after a sober weekend visiting my parents.
• Addiction is the sound of my ceiling fan, always on to help clear the smoke.
• Addiction is never having quiet, much less peace.
• Addiction is calling in sick because I was up until 6 AM getting high, sleeping until noon, and waking up and getting high again.
• Addiction is going to the office at midnight while high and fixing a bug, just to say that I had done it.
• Addiction is noticing that I use more global variables when I’m high.
• Addiction is finding comments like /* drunk, fix later */ and /* too high to make this work */.
• Addiction is getting drunk four times in one weekend.
• Addiction is passing out on the Sherman Bus on the way home from an away football game.
• Addiction is the burp in the morning that is one step away from throwing up.
• Addiction is $500 worth of liquor in one cabinet.
• Addiction is going to work and reading e-mails from myself from the night before that I don’t remember writing.
• Addiction is a permanent towel under the door to block the smell of smoke from escaping into the hallway.
• Addiction is being high when I heard that Princess Diana was in a car crash, and lighting up another joint later when she was confirmed dead.
• Addiction is coming home at 3 AM from a long evening of movies at a friend’s house and immediately getting high, then waking up at 8:30 AM and going to work.
• Addiction is the smell of smoke on all my clothes, sheets, towels, and furniture.
• Addiction is the taste of everything, always the same.
• Addiction is realizing that all of my friends at work are smokers too.
• Addiction is smoking for seven years through four girlfriends and never telling any of them.
• Addiction is realizing that I can never introduce my girlfriend to my friends at work, because they know I smoke and she doesn’t.
• Addiction is the tiredness I feel after the third joint when I’m coming down but am too exhausted to smoke any more tonight.
• Addiction is not having any programming projects for six years.
• Addiction is not reading any books for six years.
• Addiction is giving up playing a music instrument after playing it for eleven years.
• Addiction is ordering "Dancing With Cats". (This is why drugs and one-click shopping do not mix.)
• Addiction is taking a box that my parents gave me engraved with the words "graduate with honors" and using it to store pot, pipes, papers, cigarettes, rolling tobacco, and ashtrays.
• Addiction is the little crease I put in the paper before I put the pot and tobacco in to keep it from spilling out and getting long strands of tobacco stuck in my teeth.
• Addiction is spitting out strands.
• Addiction is a thousand little skills I wish I didn’t have.
• Addiction is getting high on my birthday.
• Addiction is the dog getting diarrhea, not on days that I get high, but on days that I don’t.
• Addiction is getting caller ID and dividing the world into two groups: people whose phone calls I could answer while high, and those I couldn’t.
• Addiction is not answering the door on Halloween because I’m high.
• Addiction is scraping the bowl and smoking the resin.
• Addiction is moist sticky tar on my fingers.
• Addiction is having a folder of bookmarks to drink mix web sites.
• Addiction is moving to the other side of the room to see if I’m higher over there.
• Addiction is losing track of how many brands of cigarettes I’ve smoked.
• Addiction is giving a friend a joint for her 30th birthday with an inscription that read, "Take years off your life while you still have them."
• Addiction is smoking while sick.
• Addiction is a persistent cough.
• Addiction is the taste of phlegm first thing in the morning.
• Addiction is the dry roughness on the top of my throat that no amount of water can quench.
• Addiction is the taste of Halls cough drops every day, despite the warning on the bag that said that they should not be taken for more than seven days or for persistent conditions such as smoker’s cough.
• Addiction is unrolling the butt of a clove into a bowl and smoking it because I’m out of cigarettes.
• Addiction is going to sleep high.
• Addiction is being too high to sleep.
• Addiction is learning to pace myself throughout the night so I could be sober enough to sleep.
• Addiction is a cold sweat.
• Addiction is a permanent stain on my pillow where my mouth rests.
• Addiction is not being able to sleep sober.
• Addiction is always dreaming of myself smoking.
• Addiction is waking up feeling like my eyes are sunk into the back of my head.
• Addiction is really messy shits.
• Addiction is my heart racing after a fat joint and not knowing if it’s a heart attack.
• Addiction is demons scratching on the inside of my skull.
• Addiction is still drinking mixed drinks when everyone else has switched to soda.
• Addiction is being recognized by all the clerks at the liquor store.
• Addiction is keeping track of who knows what.
• Addiction is a lot of lying to a lot of people.
• Addiction is not being able to account for all my time.
• Addiction is the constant fear of being discovered.
• Addiction is sleeping on my own couch for months.
• Addiction is waking up in the middle of the night to find that I had rearranged the furniture.
• Addiction is gaining 40 pounds because I just wasn’t paying any attention.
• Addiction is getting drunk on the weekends with my girlfriend because we couldn’t think of anything else to do.
• Addiction is waiting for the knock on the door that never comes.
• Addiction is the flashing of police sirens outside, and wondering if they’re coming for me, but they never do.
• Addiction is wondering when someone will please notice that I’m a fuckup and come take away my apartment, my dog, my high-paying job, my charmed life, but no one ever does.
• Addiction is smoking a joint and hearing a knock on the door, freaking out, looking through the peephole, seeing that it’s only my best friend, and then not letting him in until I smoke a cigarette to cover up some of the smell.
• Addiction is knowing how to refill a Zippo lighter.
• Addiction is the nod that means we’re all going to the back room to get high.
• Addiction is an ashtray in every room.
• Addiction is hiding the ashtrays before taking pictures of my new apartment to send to my parents.
• Addiction is hiding the ashtrays before going out, on the off chance that we’ll end up at my place tonight.
• Addiction is not being able to let my girlfriend into my apartment after she drove me home from a car accident because my ashtray was on my desk in plain sight.
• Addiction is thinking about all the things I could do, but never getting anything done.
• Addiction is thinking every year that this year will be different, then finding out it’s exactly the same.
• Addiction is figuring that I’ll quit "someday".
• Addiction is trying to quit, and lasting eight hours.
• Addiction is feeling like this is the only way life could ever be.
• Addiction is always near.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like this.
• Addiction is like that: the same thing repeated over and over until it drowns out everything

We were very fortunate to have Joe Thomas from SASI a Chicago methadone program. He is in the study for a Ph.D program and has been in the field for seven years. He described for us the program and who and how they assist their patients. He was very helpful by describing some of the bench marks his field requires as signs for success. The one point that had the strongest message for me was how some of his patients had been using drugs for over forty years.

This was so and its value for where I want for the show was introduced lifestyle in such a dramatic fashion.

We wished farewell to Joe and turned the show back to "Stories of the Day"

A Mother's plea - my son is addicted to economics

Dear Economist,
My son has become addicted to economics. The more diligently I confiscate his economics books, the more he steals from my purse. I'm determined that he should grow up to be normal, frequenting the pub like everyone else. What should I do? -- Stymied in Stratford

Dear Stymied,
You tell a sad story, but one that can be analyzed using the theory of rational addiction developed by economists such as George Stigler, Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy.


Addictive goods and activities have some interesting properties.

First, addictiveness itself: the pleasure produced by consumption is higher if past consumption has been high. In other words, the more heroin, alcohol or neoclassical growth theory the addict has consumed, the less bearable it will be to abstain now.

Second, past consumption will also have a direct bearing on the addict's happiness.

Typically, we think of negative addictions: past consumption of crack makes for a miserable junkie today.

But positive addictions are possible too. A progressive addiction to yoga or to reading may make for a happier and happier person. I am addicted to my wife - so far, with unambiguously positive results.

Your son's addiction is probably a positive one, which will make him ever more fulfilled. But even if it is a negative addiction, you must remember that rational addicts are utility maximizers. He may have been driven to addiction by circumstances - a desire to escape an over-controlling parent, for instance - but trying to frustrate his desires will make him more miserable...

Parental Drinking Stunts Brain Growth in Alcoholic Kids

Alcohol-dependent individuals with a family history of alcoholism or problem drinking exhibited reduced brain growth compared to alcohol-dependent people with no family history of alcohol problems, according to new research from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

Researchers said the findings showed that alcohol-related brain damage can be caused not only by heavy drinking but also genetics and environmental factors. "Our study is the first to demonstrate that brain size among alcohol-dependent individuals with a family history of alcoholism is reduced even before the onset of alcohol dependence," said study lead author Jodi Gilman of Brown University.

The NIAAA researchers used MRI scans to measure brain volume. They found that the average intracranial volume of adult alcoholic children of alcoholics was 4 percent lower than that of adult alcoholics with no family history of alcohol problems.

The study was published in the online edition of the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Reference:

Gilman, J.M., James M. Bjorka, J.M., Hommer, D.W. (2007) Parental Alcohol Use and Brain Volumes in Early- and Late-Onset Alcoholics. Biological Psychiatry, Article in Press; doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.10.029.

The long-term brain changes observed among cocaine and heroin users can also be found in the brains of smokers, researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) say.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported Feb. 21 that the changes to smokers' brains could be observed even years after they quit. Researchers led by NIDA's Bruce Hope found abnormally high levels of a pair of enzymes involved in the dopamine system.

Over the next several weeks I am supporting the HBO Addiction Conversation. This is coincides with my Brother Blur's Happiness Addiction second week on the air over the internet. To listen and pose question over the internet visit. The show begins @ 10am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We will conduct interviews and discuss the following subjects matter. If you are interested in connecting with the program follow the links below.

HBO Special on Addiction HBO, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), has produced a multi-platform campaign to educate Americans about advancements in the understanding of addiction and effective new treatments. Their campaign is built around a 90-minute show, Addiction that is part of a 14-part series that will air during a free HBO preview weekend, kicking off with a March 15 broadcast of Addiction at 9 p.m. ET.

HBO’s Addiction has six themes. One is insurance discrimination. Our nation is in dire need of a health care system that fully addresses the medical needs and social supports for people struggling with or newly in recovery from addiction. Insurance companies typically impose higher co-payments, deductibles and more restrictive visit limits for mental health and substance use/addiction coverage then they do for other healthcare, resulting in tragic losses of life. Faces & Voices of Recovery’s Addiction Recovery Equity Campaign seeks to change those restrictive policies

HBO is talking about addiction. How does that fit into your work?

• The HBO show portrays the reality of addiction and the hope of new pathways to recovery.
• I am here as an advocate for Changed Life Ltd to talk about what’s keeping too many of our friends and neighbors from achieving long-term recovery.
• Insurance discrimination, highlighted in the show, denies people with addiction the same insurance protection as people with other health issues.
• As a result of this discrimination, many are unable to get the treatment and recovery support services necessary to achieve long-term recovery.
• While there are many pathways to recovery, treatment and recovery support services should not be denied to those with addiction to drugs or alcohol.
• My hope is that individuals like those portrayed in the documentary will receive help to get better just like millions of Americans and realize the benefits of long-term recovery.

As a recovery advocate, we are talk show is going to highlight the themes stress by HBO - in the long run we hope that people will take away from the HBO the following

• Addiction is an honest and eye-opening portrayal of people who are affected by addiction. I hope people will come away from the documentary asking the question “What’s the next step and how can we help people with addiction get the help they need?”
• The next step is long-term recovery. I am in long-term recovery which means I have not used alcohol (or other drugs) for (number) years. There are millions of other Americans just like me who have done the same.
• If you are a family member: The next step is long-term recovery. My [son/daughter/husband/wife] is in long-term recovery which means that he/she has not used alcohol (or other drugs) for x number years. There are millions of other Americans just like them who have done the same.
• Everyone has a stake in making sure that when someone needs treatment, help and support that they can get it.

Our show will be raising a number of issues related to addiction and its treatment. How do you think we should solve these problems? Is one type of treatment better than another?

• Addiction and treatment are complicated issues and there are many pathways people can take to achieve long-term recovery.
• We must ensure that appropriate recovery support services and treatments are available to people who need them, when they need them.
• It is crucial, therefore, that we stop insurance discrimination, which denies people with addiction from getting the same protection as people with other health issues.
• I am living proof that people can recover from addiction and make a better life for themselves and their families, but I would not have been able to do it without help and support.

Please come and visit - your support is needed!

1. Show # 1 - Evidence Lifestyle
2. Show # 2 - Our Private Life
3. Show #3 - Guidance