Drug & Alcohol Intervention Help - We Get Them In to Treatment : NYC Intervention Specialists

It arrived yesterday by messenger from my publisher – a box. A cardboard box, with my name on the label, and a word written on the front in felt-tip pen: BOOKS.

My books. In hardcover. Like the ones that will hit the bookstore shelves in January and ship from online retailers December 22. It’s beautiful. I opened the box up and the fam huddled around the box. Scott, and Oliver, and Bandit. And the books. Was a pretty cool feeling I must say holding that pretty red book in my hands for the very first time. I ran up to have lunch with my friend Dean Sicoli and handed him one. “Send it to me! I want you to write something in it.”

Cool!

I gave the first inscribed copy of HOW TO CHANGE SOMEONE YOU LOVE to Cathay Che. At Cafe Grumpy. It was anything but.

So, cannot wait to hit the road, Jack, and inscribe one for you and yours.

Here’s to new chapters, and books and such. Powerful punch.

x
Brad

photo: simone martin

Here I am, at 43 years old. Wow. When my dad was 43 it seemed so old to my young eyes. “Gosh, but you’re old…” I can hear myself telling my pop.

So here I stand. Recovered and learning and helping and growing in life. What a blessed life it is. Hooked no more.

Since that day my friends said STOP – YOU NEED HELP, so much has changed. I’ve gained, and lost. I’ve struggled and triumphed. I’ve quit smoking. I’ve learned to eat right. I got my teeth fixed. I went back to school. Learned how to be an honest man; how to quit lying. Changed alot.

I became a Board-Registered Interventionist and built a vibrant private practice unlike any other in the world. I have helped folks get better and heal in my private and public life.

I got married! I have a blended family – with three pooches and lots of barking depending on the moment. I have worked with thousands of people, including some for The Dr. Oz Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show. My work has helped to begin a shift to the very paradigm of change, and how it happens.

Fine, fine, fine.

I have a book that comes out in a couple months now as a lead title from St. Martin’s Press. Amazing, all of it. Because, back during that summer of 2002 I had given up and given in to the fact that my addictions would kill me. I had tried to stop, but always restarted the things that were killing me day by day. Didn’t know when, but I knew I would not survive much longer on that path. The alcohol, meth, xanax and cigarettes. The rage and pain and blame and shame. Carrying it all around like a sack of dead chickens.

But then change began and life got better. In centimeters at times, progress was made. By yards at still other times, life got better and from the ashes of a broken, defeated, addicted life came wholeness and good.

So be encouraged. To moms, and dads and sisters and wives: Change begins. People recover. And you can help them get there.

Throw out the old lies about hitting bottom, toss away the myths that your loved one has to want to change. When you’re addicted, sometimes all you know is that you want the drug. There is strength in numbers as we step in to interrupt the behavior, the addiction, the chaos and offer a loving change plan.

This is my 2009 count down. It’s been a banner one. Really good. Great even. I’m not the lucky one – you are too. As you step out in faith to create change in your defeat and hopelessness, we’ll do this together.

Onward,
Brad

As important as the headline, is that this study is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse – a gov body that’s not interested in the stock price of anyone.

It’s good research and encouraging how Rx might help with cravings. Keep an eye out! – Brad

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CHICAGO (AP) —
Vaccine-like shots to keep cocaine abusers from getting high also helped them fight their addiction in the first successful rigorous study of this approach to treating illicit drug use

The shots didn’t work perfectly, but the researchers say their limited success is promising enough to suggest the intriguing vaccine approach could be widely used to treat addiction within several years.

“It is such an important study. It clearly demonstrates … that it is possible to generate vaccine that could interfere with cocaine actions in the brain,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the study.

The results come just days after that government agency announced plans for the first late-stage study of an experimental nicotine vaccine designed to help people quit smoking. The NicVAX vaccine has been fast-tracked by the Food and Drug Administration, and the research will be paid for with federal stimulus money.

The cocaine and nicotine vaccines both use the same approach, stimulating the immune system to produce antibodies that attach to molecules of the drugs and block them from reaching the brain.

In the new study, cocaine-fighting antibodies helped prevent users from getting a euphoric high and led nearly 40% of them to substantially cut back or stop cocaine use at least temporarily.

With more than 2 million cocaine abusers nationwide and no federally approved treatment, the results “are good enough — better than having nothing,” said lead author Dr. Thomas Kosten of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He developed the vaccine used in the study.

The study appears in October’s Archives of General Psychiatry, released Monday.

Volkow said the research exemplifies a “transformative” perspective on drug addiction.

“By targeting it as a medical disease as opposed to a moral dilemma, we’re likely to come up with solutions that have a much longer impact,” she said.

The research involved 115 cocaine abusers also addicted to heroin who sought methadone treatment at a New Haven, Connecticut clinic. Methadone treats heroin addiction, not cocaine, but it requires repeat clinic visits. That made it easier for the researchers to work with and track the cocaine abusers, Kosten said.

Over 12 weeks, nearly all participants got five shots of cocaine vaccine or a dummy substance. They were followed for an additional 12 weeks. All participants also attended weekly relapse-prevention therapy sessions, had their blood tested for antibodies and their urine tested for cocaine and heroin.

Overall, 21 vaccine patients — 38% — developed cocaine antibody levels high enough to prevent a cocaine high. In this group, 53% stopped using cocaine more than half the time during the study, versus 23% of those with lower antibody levels.

Despite the limited success, the results are exciting and show that the vaccine approach is a good one, said Dr. Kyle Kampman, a University of Pennsylvania addiction researcher who was not involved in the study.

I started smoking when I was fifteen years old. Couldn’t inhale regular without hacking, so tried clove cigarettes. Bing bing bing!

There’s a reason they’re flavored. The clove helps suppress the gag reflex. The taste helps attract young new smokers.

No more.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was introduced in the US Congress and signed into law by President Obama, giving the FDA significantly more regulatory power over tobacco; one of the provisions in the law includes a ban on the use of flavors in tobacco, other than menthol. As of today, flavored cigarettes are outlawed in the US.

A good step, but I believe we can all bring up the topic of health costs to our friends who still smoke. There’s no upside. Smoking kills. Shaves life off the body.

Change begins. – Brad

|diˈnīəl| (noun) The action of declaring something to be untrue : she shook her head in denial.
• the refusal of something requested or desired : the denial of insurance to people with certain medical conditions.
• Psychology failure to acknowledge an unacceptable truth or emotion or to admit it into consciousness, used as a defense mechanism : you’re living in denial.
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Friends,

If there is someone in your life who struggles with prescription meds dependency – reach out and share your story, or give me a ring to chat. The Oprah Winfrey Show is seeking to share the story of a family on their path to change and recovery:

https://www.oprah.com/plugform.jsp?plugId=2286029&referer=http://www.oprah.com/pluglist.jsp?teamTypeName=TOWS

Sad news coming out of LA this evening. A family loses a son, a brother, a dad. And a nation loses a performer who for all his strange quirks and oddities, spoke to people of all colors and got our toes to tapping.

This photo is from 1984. The year I graduated High School, and before his own personal fall along the lines of molestation and chaos. Also happens to be before the addiction which had already began in my own world got the best parts of me.

I remember this time. Things were still 99.9% good.

Whatever the cause of death is determined to be, families have power in the funk, the crisis, the darkness. That’s what we’re here for in so many instances – to shed light in the darkness. To make hope happen in the face of a loved one who spirals and is in pain.

So tonight I think of a family in pain. And a guy that seemed to be in pain for a long, long time.

Looking for the help to arrive like the cavalry seldom occurs. The change we seek begins right here, and now with a powerful loving invitation to make change begin  – not later, but now. Right now.

Onward, Brad

He drinks like me.

A lot. A real thirst there, to get into the zone, and out of his head. Four rehabs. Six years of effort. Three years clean. Two careers. Many friends. We’re getting worn out by it.

He’s ghosted again. Pete has.

Told his job that his “sister is on life support…”

Imagine that. I can pretty easily, as I said crap like that; lies to cover the addicted life spinning, spinning, spinning. I can picture him now. Holed up in his cramped studio apartment. Last time he was alive, but drunk and spaced on opiates when I banged loud enough for him to let me on in. The time before that he was on the floor when the NY Fire Department took the door off its’ hinges. They saved his life that time. Heart rate low. Breathing shallow.

So what the next few days hold, I’m not sure. I think he will likely lose his job this time, and with that his insurance. He has no family he is close with, and the friends in his life – his family of choice – are at the point where the relationships are deeply strained from the lying, scheming and relapse.

God, I am glad I am clean and sober today. Grateful that the obsession to get high has been lifted.

Change begins. x, Brad

I read the following in RecoveryToday online, and have edited for clarity to share here.

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On any given day in the United States, one million people are in treatment for alcoholism or drug addiction. It is not getting into treatment, however, that makes the difference. Instead, it is what a person gets out of treatment. The fact that many people do not find success in treatment on their first attempt is due in part to a lack of understanding about what makes effective treatment.

1. There is no treatment formula that will work for everyone.

Occasionally, people looking for treatment will come across other individuals who are already in recovery and who insist that the only path to recovery is whatever path the recovering individual has taken. This simply is not true. The ultimate success of each individual entering treatment depends on finding the right treatment setting and methods for the individual, and everyone’s needs are different.

2. Medically supervised withdrawal is only one step in addiction treatment; alone it will do little.

Frequently, it is necessary for addicts and alcoholics to go through a medically supervised withdrawal period before they can safely enter treatment. However, some people confuse this short 3 to 7 day period with treatment, which it is not. Some people cycle in and out of these withdrawal episodes convinced that they should be able to maintain abstinence afterwards, but never finding success. Seemingly tragic, this allows some addicts to continue in their addiction while giving the appearance that they are attempting to get healthy.

3. Length of treatment counts

The appropriate duration for an individual depends on his or her problems and needs. Research indicates that for most patients, significant improvement is reached at about 3 months. The research suggests that this may be residential, outpatient or a combination of both depending on the individual’s needs. After this initial period, additional treatment can produce further progress toward recovery.

4. Drug addiction is a multidimensional problem, and treatment needs to address all of an individual’s needs

Effective treatment must address the individual’s drug use, but also any associated medical, psychological, social, vocational, or legal problems.

5. Counseling (individual and/or group) is a critical part of effective addiction treatment.

Many alcoholics and addicts mistakenly believe that if they could just stop using for a week or two they could stop using forever. In reality, they need therapy. In therapy, addicts examine their motivation, build skills to resist drug use, replace drug-using activities with constructive and rewarding nondrug-using activities, and improve problem-solving abilities. Additionally, therapy helps individuals to rebuild and re-learn family and social living patterns.

6. Medications are an important part of treatment for many people. Medications such as suboxone, methadone and LAAM can all be effective in helping certain individuals stay away from illicit drugs. Some times frowned upon by some individuals in recovery the truth is that these medications allow millions of individuals to live normal, productive lives.

7. Drug testing during treatment is important.

Drugs are found everywhere, even in drug treatment. Whether treatment is offered on an outpatient, inpatient or in a jail drugs are available to individuals in treatment. This puts individuals in treatment at risk for reusing even while in treatment. It also means that every individual in treatment should be monitored for drug treatment on an ongoing basis. In this manner treatment, plans may be modified to increase the chance of ultimate success.

8. Alcoholics and addicts with mental health disorders should be treated for both at the same time.

An alcoholic or addict who also has a mental health disorder is said to have “co-occurring” disorders. In the past, the question has sometimes been should the person be treated for the mental health problem or the addiction first. People may be using drugs to deal with the mental health problem or they may have the mental health issue because of their drug use. The most effective way to deal with these two “co-occurring” disorders and deal with the addiction is to treat them at the same time.

9.Addiction Treatment works even for people who don’t choose it of their own free will.

It used to be believed that someone had to want to go into treatment before it could be effective. New research has shown that this is not the case. In fact, treatment is just as effective for individuals who are court ordered to do treatment as it is for people who figure out the need for it on their own. Families and employers can be just as effective at getting unwilling addicts into treatment. Stephen King, in his autobiography “On Writing,” tells about the intervention his wife and family performed on him. King did not want to go into treatment. He was seemingly happy doing coke and drinking mouthwash, but his wife Tabitha and his children were not happy with the situation and performed an intervention. Forced to choose between family and drugs, King made the right choice. Interventions are most successful when done correctly and with the help of a professional. For more information on interventions visit www.interventionresources.net

10. Don’t give up.

As with other chronic illnesses, relapses can occur during or after successful treatment episodes. Addicted individuals may need lengthy treatment and more than one time in treatment before they can enjoy long-term abstinence and full restoration to a drug free life. The period after treatment is just as important as being in treatment. Finding support and continuous work to stay drug free will be necessary. A slip or relapse is just an indicator that more work, and possibly more treatment, is necessary. Don’t give up.