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A Better Life Recovery Blog

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO LAUNCH NEW EFFORT ON HEROIN CRISIS

  • 09/19/2016
  • A Better Life Recovery

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is preparing to launch a renewed strategy to address the unrelenting scourge of heroin and opioid addiction, in part by placing greater emphasis on identifying links between over-prescribing doctors and distribution networks across the country.

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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DRUG ABUSE

  • 04/07/2016
  • Joe Hisel

Southern California seems to have everything you could wish. Beautiful beaches, snowy mountains, plenty of industry, some of the country’s best universities and schools, gentle climate. So for most of the twentieth century, people flocked to Southern California from across the U.S., Asia, Mexico and other parts of the world. The result is an urban sprawl that holds more than ten million people. And because it’s just a few miles from the U.S.- Mexico border, this makes it ripe for the attention of international and domestic drug traffickers.

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7 THINGS I LEARNED IN MY FIRST YEAR OF RECOVERY

  • 04/07/2016
  • Nancy Carr

I didn’t get sober on purpose. I wasn’t crawling into an AA meeting saying I can’t stop drinking, my life is horrible, I can’t stop shaking and so on. However, I couldn’t stop drinking on my own and my life was horrible and I only got the shakes a few times during my drinking career. So there. It was after my 2nd DUI that my attorney suggested I get to an AA Meeting, so I went – like the good little solider I was because I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to me. Even though at this juncture in my life I was falling apart – mentally, emotionally and physically. I needed a band-aid quickly.

After my first AA meeting, it hit me like a tequila shot thrown in my face – I could get sober and have a good life – especially if all those other people in the meetings could. Maybe I should give this thing a try. I had no other options.

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THE PERFECT HIGH - A POEM BY SHEL SILVERSTEIN

  • 03/30/2016
  • Shel Silverstein

There once was a boy named Gimme-Some-Roy...He was nothin' like me or you, 'cause laying back and getting high was all he cared to do.
As a kid, he sat in the cellar....sniffing airplane glue. And then he smoked banana peels, when that was the thing to do. He tried aspirin in Coca-Cola, he breathed helium on the sly, and his life became an endless search to find the perfect high.
But grass just made him wanna lay back and eat chocolate-chip pizza all night, and the great things he wrote when he was stoned looked like shit in the morning light. Speed made him wanna rap all day, reds laid him too far back, cocaine-rose was sweet to his nose, but the price nearly broke his back.

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AS A NATION, ADDICTION IS DESTROYING OUR SOULS

  • 03/16/2016
  • Fred Menachem

A few weeks ago, Hager filed an amendment to the bill to authorize and fund a pilot program that would have national implications and that would be headed up by Dave Aronberg, Palm Beach County state attorney. The program would coordinate state and local agencies, law-enforcement entities and investigative units to finally regulate an industry that is incapable of policing itself.

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MY NAME IS JULIANA AND I AM AN ALCOHOLIC.

  • 03/09/2016
  • Juliana Grevesmuhl

My name is Juliana and I am an Alcoholic.
My story is not unlike many other Alcoholics, a few of the facts may vary but for the most part I am not as unique as I would like to think I am. I grew up in a loving home, where we were always financially stable and I wanted for nothing. My childhood was ideal. Puberty hit me like a truck though. Almost over night I went from a happy-go-lucky social butterfly to a gloomy little preteen with a head full of doubt and self-loathing. I watched a lot of movies as a kid and that gave me an idea or two about how to make my own life a little more interesting with drugs, alcohol, sex, self-harm and an eating disorder. I wanted to be Girl Interrupted and I got my wish. I mean right off the bat I was greeting life with an alcoholic’s mindset.

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DRUG REHAB IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

  • 03/02/2016
  • Joe Hisel

California, with its number one U.S. ranked population of more than 38 million, reports more than 40,000 drug-related emergency room visits annually and is the number one cause of premature death in CA.
 
California and Orange County in particular has become to be widely known as a national "Recovery Destination." The year round great weather and coastal facilities make this area an ideal setting for rest, recovery and treatment.  
 
 

OBAMA’S ENLIGHTENED RESPONSE TO THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC

  • 02/26/2016
  • John Lavitt

In the first 150 words of the 2016 State of the Union, President Obama highlighted the national toll being taken by the opioid epidemic. Reflecting on the actions that need to be implemented by the federal government to address this crisis, President Obama said, “I hope we can work together this year on some bipartisan priorities like… helping people who are battling prescription drug abuse and heroin abuse. So, who knows, we might surprise the cynics again" ... Continue after the link

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10 QUESTIONS NON-ALCOHOLIC PEOPLE DO NOT ASK THEMSELVES

  • 02/16/2016
  • Kelly Fitzgerald

For years I fought my disease. I played games with myself. I would calculate exactly how many drinks I could have before I needed to cut myself off, before I let myself get to the point of no return. On nights I did end up blacking out, I would think back to what I drank: OK vodka. No more vodka, just whiskey tonight. And so on.

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WHAT TO DO IF YOU THINK YOUR KID IS ON HEROIN

  • 02/15/2016
  • Seth Ferranti

With recovery and addiction there are no quick fixes, and usually the family suffers just as much as the addict.
 
Having a child addicted to drugs has to be the worst feeling in the world. The powerlessness and hopelessness, the lack of control and constant fear that something is going to happen. Staying up late at night and waiting for your child to come home, hoping that you won't get that phone call that spells catastrophe. It can be a nerve-wracking predicament, but one that many parents have been through.
 
The fact of the matter is, kids on drugs don’t care. They’ll disappear for days with no concern about their parents or families or anyone. They’ll steal money or belongings from the family home. Because when you’re in the throes of addiction, the only thing that matters is that next hit. With heroin being pumped into our country by the Mexican cartels at an unprecedented rate, more and more teenagers are experimenting with the drug and becoming addicted to it. Or even worse, overdosing and dying, throwing their families' very existences into turmoil.

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