This is an article that was posted on Orato.com, please check our Videos category to see an interview with Heath Ledger on the Ellen show.

By Ken Seeley , USA

Date Posted: 01/25/08

I think all of us were in denial that there was any kind of addiction problem with Heath Ledger. It’s very difficult to draw conclusions about what he really did die from before the autopsy toxicology tests come back. We can only speculate. For me personally, I saw an accidental overdose.

I don’t think Heath Ledger woke up in the morning thinking, “I’m going to kill myself today.”

Heath had stated before…

We just want to pass it on…

Update on Father Martin’s condition
Greetings!

Thank you for your thoughtful prayers and kind wishes for Father Martin’s continued recovery via e-mails, cards, etc. Father remains in the hospital and is undergoing physical therapy and dialysis. During our recent visit, he confirmed his ongoing belief in the power of prayer and is inspired by the outpouring of encouragement from his friends. So, his spirits are good but he does miss home. Please continue including Father in your prayers and we will provide periodic updates. E-mail address : fathermartin@fathermartin.com

Cards can be mailed to:
218 Fulford Ave
BelAir, MD 21014

…

January 30, 2008

Visiting a faith-based addiction treatment program in Baltimore, President George Bush referenced his own past drinking problems in telling program participants, “I understand addiction, and I understand how a changed heart can help you deal with addiction.”

The Associated Press reported Jan. 29 that Bush visited Baltimore’s Jericho Program, a project of Episcopal Family Services of Maryland, and spoke for the second time in as many months about his personal struggle with addiction.

“Addiction is hard to overcome. As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life,” Bush said. After asking two program participants how they…

Lee Stringer is a writer (Wow! Is he ever a writer), a lecturer, a teacher and a recovering crack addict. He is the author of 3 books, “Grand Central Winter”, “Sleepaway School”, and “Like Shaking Hands with God”, which will be presented one by one when I can find enough accolades to accommodate them. While you are waiting, sample this appetizer.

A Miracle on 14th Street

In may of 1997 I threw in the towel. After 12 years at it I’d had enough of sucking on a crack pipe, enough of hustling the streets, enough of the endless cyclical ellipse of blasting…

I’ve been sick with the crud for over a week now. It started as some kind of “bug” - you know - getting hot and sweaty and then getting the chills and encasing myself in anything thick and cozy to get warm. I spent several parts of many days in bed. I felt o.k. for an hour, thought I was over it, got up and tried to do something and then ended up back in bed, feeling too yucky to read or even watch t.v. I don’t know what I’d do if it weren’t for my 6 doggies snuggling with…

What’s new? I’m really, really, really busy at work. But, as this is my day to lift weights and prance atop the elliptical for 30 minutes, you know what I’m going to do right now?

Go to the gym, that’s what.

I came to the realization long ago that my head stays as sober as my body stays fit. May not be true for everyone, but it is only too true for me. Going to the gym on busy days such as this one is just another of the lengths I must go to to stay sober.

Time to stop blogging and start…

By William C. Moyers

It’s been 54 years since the American Medical Association (AMA) formally declared that alcoholism is a disease.

Since then, science has made important strides in explaining why one in 10 Americans who starts using alcohol eventually becomes addicted. For them, one beer or one glass of wine ends up being one too many. Their lives are disrupted by drunk driving, liver cirrhosis or other health problems, financial instability, shattered families and broken dreams.

Such consequences are a big reason why the public and policymakers still don’t accept the AMA’s view of this chronic illness. Unlike people with other diseases,…

Yesterday morning I was on the radio! I was interviewed by a syndicated radio show host, a famous writer (He wrote “American’s Mom: The Life, Lessons, and Legacy of Ann Landers“, and “Everybody Pays“, to mention only two, a journalist (writes for the Chicago Tribune), an editor (was actually Ann Landers’ editor) and a noted Chicago historian. He is also the guy, who, in the early 60’s, along with his best friend who happened to be my younger brother, used to grab my pony tail, nail me on the ground, knees pressing my shoulders into the gravel and let a big…

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, January 24, 2008
CONTACT:
Contact: Jennifer de Vallance, ONDCP, (202) 395–6648
Rosanna Maietta, Fleishman-Hillard, (202) 828–9706
ONDCP LAUNCHES FIRST MAJOR INITIATIVE TO COMBAT TEEN PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE
New Ad Campaign Debuts During Super Bowl

(Washington, D.C.)—The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is launching its first major Federal effort to educate parents about teen prescription drug abuse. This national public awareness campaign will begin with advertising during this year’s Super Bowl, and is ONDCP’s first paid TV advertising targeting parents in nearly two years. The effort includes broadcast, print, and online advertising, community outreach, and new print and online resources…

You know, weekends are easy for me. I hang out at home with Charlie, together we give the house its weekly cleaning, the two of us socialize a little with friends or do some relaxed shopping or maybe have a Sunday lunch date, I do my own writing and play with the cats. If there’s any stress involved, it comes only from my own propensity to manufacture it. And I’ve been sober long enough to recognize manufactured stress for what it is and give it the boot.

The problem with weekends is that they end. Now I love my job–really. I…

. . .not in the program, but a fellow writer. We had lunch, talked about writing and life, and I felt as comfortable in her company as I do in my own (which is, in itself, a gift of sobriety). One of the great wonders of sobriety to me is that I’m able to let myself simply like someone, without either making the relationship complicated or else worrying about what the other person might be thinking about me. In other words, I pretty much assume these days that if I like someone, the feeling is mutual.

My goodness, it feels good…

Trans World News
Sundance, Utah
January 15th 2008

We have seen it in the news, celebrities and high profile individuals in a struggle with alcohol or drug addiction. We have seen it in our own lives, a friend, a fellow employee, or even someone in our own house falling to the influence of alcohol and drugs. It is a struggle and a challenge, for many, without a resolution. However there is a way out of the abyss that is alcohol and drug addiction. All it takes is the right alcohol or drug rehab program. Cirque Lodge can help you or your loved one…

Middle East Online
Meysam Aqakhanlu – TEHRAN In an attempt to check the effects of strong new varieties of illicit drugs that are flooding the market, the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has revived some of the punitive methods seen in the early days of the Islamic Revolution. Yet neither punitive action nor the continued use of preventive strategies introduced in later years seem to be working.

Estimates of the number of Iranians who use drugs vary wildly. The commander of Iran’s law enforcement forces, General Esmail Ahmadi-Moqaddam, has said there are about 1.2 million addicts and another 700,000 who can be…

By William C. Moyers

In the words of people wiser than me, “Denial is not just a river in Egypt.” But like a river, it does roar, twist and turn through the lives of many people and families who struggle with addiction. I was reminded of this truth twice this week in queries from a Catholic seminary student and the wife of a rabbi.

Dear Mr. Moyers: You are coming to speak to our community later this spring. My husband is a leading member here in this community, a rabbi whose grandparents perished in the Holocaust. It’s a trauma that I am…

The Craving Brain
Ronald A. Ruden, M.D., Ph.D.
With Marcia Byalick

Reviewed by Ginger B.

Why is it that some people can nurse a glass of wine all night long, while others can’t stop until they become totally inebriated or even black out? Why can some people stop gambling after their allotted money is spent, while others continue until they’ve lost everything, over and over again? Is addiction physical or psychological? Is it inherited or learned? Is it a simple choice that one makes or is it a disease that affects countless numbers of people world-wide? These questions have plagued the planet since its…

I don’t know where you call home, but I’ve had enough gray and white and wet where I live. Not that it’s been a particularly bad winter, but, you know, the short days, the lack of color in nature’s usually brilliant plumage, the angle at which one tends to walk when out in the cold…that slight bending over of the torso, the clutch of the hands to either hold the scarf or protect the heart from freezing, the focus of the eyes on the ground rather than straight ahead…all that stuff is getting old. I do, however, love boots, sweaters…

Yesterday was a beautiful day for both one big, important professional reason and many small, cozy personal reasons. The big, important reason was that I had an essay published on the “Lives” page of The New York Times Magazine about which I allowed myself to be flat-out thrilled. The small reasons were that Charlie and I celebrated by eating a big, unhealthy breakfast at a diner, having an orgy of football watching, and baking bread. Oh, and my daughter called, and we had our usual lively weekly chat.

Here’s the deal for me about wonderful things that happen. When I was…

Check out this snippet from the Cocaine Cowboys documentary…

I just thought this was pretty amusing… hope you do too. I nabbed it from blogger Stop, Drop, Recover. Click here to check out his entry…

Kathy Lynn, writer for the blog Gospodi Pomiluj takes a look into therapy…

Monday, January 14, 2008
Therapy and Centering Prayer
Well the 2 things I am checking out this week.

Therapy: I appreciated the comments from Irish Friend and johno on this topic. I’m not pro or con, and I am not at a critical point as a result of my fourth step, not falling apart or anything. (well, except when distant priests say, whoa, heavy!) Not really sure what I’m looking for. I’ve seen a therapist once before. I was falling apart when I started taking care of my Mom. I went to a…

A great read, Of Ales and Margaritaville, from blogger, In Repair…

Thursday, January 17, 2008
of ales and margaritaville

recent dictionary.com word of the day: pertinacious \puhr-tin-AY-shuhs\, adjective:
1. Holding or adhering obstinately to any opinion, purpose, or design.
2. Stubbornly or perversely persistent.

i’ve been this. i am this. i am not proud of this, but i am working on changing things about myself that stubbornly cling to old ideas.

i had a thought swim through my head that could have given birth to something i am not desirous of doing and that is picking up. i heard a jimmy buffet song - margaritaville, probably - and the thought…

Catching back up with some bloggers we have not posted in a while… let’s see what Geisha Interupted has been up to.

January 3, 2008

Go Me

Truth be told, I’ve had a pretty depressing holiday season. It was the first time I spent the holidays as a sober alcoholic, and I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t totally suck. Maybe the holidays have always been this depressing, I’d just never noticed it so sharply before. And now that I like my family and don’t totally blame them for everything that’s ever gone wrong in my life, I have had to deal…

Sobriety Girl breaks down her dreams on drinking and being drunk…

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Dreams

The other night, I had one of the most vivid dreams about drinking. It was intense. I could taste the alcohol in my semi-conscious state and actually woke up thinking that I was intoxicated.

It was so very strange, considering I don’t necessarily remember what it feels like to be drunk. There were people around me and I was acting very much like I did as a drinking person.

So, I have been attempting to analyze WHY I was having such a vivid recollection of a time long gone and…

None. Nada. Zilch. Zip. Zero.

However, today it was not because I was avoiding it, but because other stories took priority. As a sober person, I have learned to prioritize, particularly when what I put first is more interesting.

You can’t hear tone of voice in posts, but hopefully you’ve realized that the above is delivered with my tongue firmly in my cheek. Sobriety has also made it so much easier to laugh at myself.

Another stellar entry from the Junky’s Wife. Check out her captivating blog here.

Monday, January 14, 2008
My Will Be Done.

I’ve been praying lately, a lot. Most of the time, my prayers are kind of trench prayers…”Help me. Help me. Help me,” but sometimes, I get a little more sophisticated:

“Help me. I am afraid. I am trapped, and I need guidance. Please help me to know what I am supposed to do. Please show me what you want for me.”

I realized this weekend in my step group while working on the Sixth Step that I might be standing firmly in the way…

I came into work this morning determined to focus on a story I’ve been neglecting, because it involves hours of tape transcription, and this, to me–Ms. Flibbertigibbe–qualifies it as the current Big Yuck! Then the phone started ringing, someone dropped by, a couple more interesting story possibilities reared their enticing heads, and here I am at 5 p.m. with not much done on the Big Yuck.

So, what does this have to do with sobriety. Progress, not perfection, that’s what! At least I’m willing and able to recognize my own journalistic shortcomings, instead of fooling around with the kind of stupid…

Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way, a History Channel special that explores the world of illegal drugs, meeting with pharmacologists and scientists to learn exactly what effect they have on us and exploring the social and legislative changes that have transformed (and, some would argue, created) the drug culture of the 20th century.

TIMES SQUARE RABBI
By Yehudah Fine
Reviewed by Ginger B.

Yehudah Fine is not your typical rabbi. After creating a school for children of migrant farm workers in California, Yehudah moved to Brooklyn, founded the Jewish Family Institute and, of course, began working with adolescents in crisis in the recesses of Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. Donning jeans and a New York Yankees baseball cap, the unconventional teacher would roam what he called “The Way Beyond” looking for kids whose lives have ended up as desolate as the streets on which they are found.

Yehudah’s spiritual message is based on the 8 steps of…

Where A Few Might Benefit Many

By Thomas G. Durham, PhD, LADC

There have been many changes in China over the last several decades and, not surprisingly, this has included an increase in alcohol consumption. China is on the verge of having one of the highest per-capita rates of addiction among major world economies.

Limited Help
Drug addiction is not new to China. At one time it was estimated that 27% of the male population was addicted to opium. However, this figure dropped significantly from its peak in 1906 to the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949. Changes in Chinese society in recent…