| Fighting addiction is a struggle at any price
High-profile alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers seem like a home away from home for Hollywood celebs like Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie and Robert Downey Jr. Some charge nearly $50,000 a month. But since Lohan's arrest last week on charges of driving under the influence and possession of cocaine -- after several in-and-out stays at pricey rehab clinics -- one wonders what, if anything, works. Headlines about backsliding celebrities should not lead people to believe rehabilitation clinics are not worthwhile. However luxurious -- or Spartan -- the surroundings, however famous or workaday the patient, it's not unusual for people fighting addictions to fail often before they may finally succeed, say doctors and those who run rehab clinics.
Comedians Find Humor in Addiction and Recovery
The Comedy Addiction Tour is hitting the road after a debut in New Orleans, with a team of four comedians seeking the lighter side of addiction and recovery. The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported July 31 that the tour is fronted by Mark Lundholm, who sees it as an extension of his one-man show, "Addicted: A Comedy of Substance," which just completed a four-year run. Lundgren said humor "was a good tool to stop the beatings" he experienced as a child and "was a shield in jail or on the street." But his problems with marijuana, cocaine, heroin and alcohol contributed to his criminal background and led to a suicide attempt in 1988. "I put a gun in my mouth, pulled the trigger and it didn't go off. I felt truly unsuccessful. I was destroyed by that -- that I had to live another day," he said.
Former drug user gets help, now works to get her life and children back
A West Columbia mother laughs out loud as she watches her 2-year-old toddling about the house. She coos as the 3-month-old wakes up from his nap. Days like this make her feel good about turning her life around; she has been drug-free for eight months, two weeks and 13 days. "Every minute counts, especially when you have five kids you're worried about," she said. The 2-year-old is visiting — only the baby and a teenage daughter live with the woman, who asked that her name not be disclosed. But she is looking forward to the day she can have her other three children out of foster care and home again. It has been a long road back from cocaine addiction for someone who started using drugs almost eight years ago when she was 26. "That was the beginning of the end," she said.
Bands of America returns as Music for All
NORMAL -- If it's late June, it must be time for (insert loud drum corps roll here) the annual Bands of America Summer Symposium Concert Series at Illinois State University.Or: Four nights of great music, followed by a fifth night of spectacular drum and bugle corps competition.Except there's one fairly glaring difference this June: The Bands of America moniker, which has been in place for more than three decades, is out.In its stead: Music for All.Don't be alarmed, though. For all intents and purposes, it's the same symposium and series we've been accustomed to over the past 15 summers.According to Debbie Laferty Asbill, director of marketing and communication for the organization, Bands of America Inc. merged in September 2006 with the Music for All Foundation. Both are nonprofit organizations."We took the name and re-branded the parent organization as Music for All Inc.," says Asbill.
OPP get lesson on youth gambling
The Ontario Provincial Police received a lesson in a youth gambling Monday, bringing the lesser known addiction to light.
Through the YMCA's youth gambling program, more children and adults who work with children are learning about the dangers and frequency of children and youth becoming addicted to gambling away money and other items of value.
"We don't tell them gambling is bad, because it can be fun, just that there are ways to do it safely," said YMCA youth outreach worker Stacy Allaire. .
Tammy Faye Messner dies
Tammy Faye Messner, the former televangelist and Christian singer who battled drug addiction and later inoperable cancer, died Friday morning, CNN's Larry King said Saturday night. He said the family had asked him to make the delayed announcement. .
NY Seeks Smoking Ban at All Addiction Treatment Programs
Smoking would be banned at all addiction-treatment programs in New York State under proposed regulations from the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS), the New York Times reported July 24. The agency is proposing that by next July all treatment programs will be smoke free -- the ban would apply to staff as well as patients -- and have initiated programs to help clients quit. Programs would have to offer nicotine-addiction treatment to all patients, and provide free services to those who don't have insurance. Those programs that fail to comply could lose their state certification. If the plan is implemented, New York would be the first state to require addiction patients to get stop-smoking services, and only the second (after New Jersey) to ban smoking at residential treatment programs.
(AFX UK Focus) 2007-08-10 21:39 GMT: Life trumps art with Baltimore wedding
BALTIMORE (AP) - Loyal viewers of "The Wire" aren't accustomed to happy endings. But sometimes life is more sentimental than art. The inspiration for a character in "The Wire," David Simon's HBO series about crime and social ills in Baltimore, is getting married on Saturday. His bride: the real-life protagonist of "The Corner," Simon and Ed Burns' nonfiction book and HBO miniseries about a family's struggles with drug addiction. Donnie Andrews, 53, and Fran Boyd, 50, are survivors of the violent and drug-plagued West Baltimore streets, and their union is more than just a love match. It speaks to their shared commitment to helping young people to get out of gangs and escape the cycle of addiction. "A lot of people get out of `the life,'" said the Rev. Frank M. Reid III, pastor of Bethel AME Church, who will marry the couple.
|
