http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr A supportive environment for those recovering from alcoholism and drug addiction Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:11:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Diane is driving me mad. I cannot change Diane. Under a sheen of civility, her attitude is increasingly negative and adversarial. I know that on an even deeper level, she is motivated by fear. Fear that she'll look like ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/07/04/serenity-tonight/ Head to head articles for and against the acceptability of people taking methylphenidate to enhance performance. The against column offers an interesting ethical argument: Drug enhancements will be available disproportionately to those with financial means. If enhancements are helpful in getting ahead in a competitive world, then the haves ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/07/03/cognitive-performance-enahncement/ More on Portugal's decriminalization strategy:Some question aspects of the system, but what Portugal's controversial experiment has demonstrated is that, if you take the crime out of drug use, the sky doesn't fall in.Technorati Tags: policy, drugs, portugal, decriminalization http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/07/03/the-sky-doesnt-fall-in/ When I was a little girl, my four older brothers used to torment me for sport. Holding me down and dangling spit loogies over my face was a good one. Wrapping me up in blankets like a burrito and yanking me about the house was another one. ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/07/03/i-never-liked-cards/ We hope everyone is enjoying summertime and plans on having a fun, safe Independence Day weekend. For those of you who might spontaneously decide to take a road trip or join up for some 12 Step fellowship, here is a list of North American fellowship events for this weekend. Let ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/07/03/independence-to-be-sober/ The autopsy has been kept private, the cause of death is unknown, but that hasn't stopped theories about Michael Jackson's demise from thriving like immorality at an OK! magazine pitch meeting. One hypothesis in particular is quickly gaining followers, especially in the eating disorder community -- that the King of ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/07/01/was-michael-jackson-anorexic/ Tonight, my students are learning about how to write personal narratives. I've sent them on a mission to discover a few great examples of personal stories, and one of the places I sent them was to the online version of the Big Book. I asked them to take a look ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/07/01/lets-get-personal/ Joshua Lyon, author of Pill Head, has penned a book that could not be more timely. Pill Head, which hits the stores on 7/7, is part drug addled memoir and part thoughtful, investigative journalism; it is the story of a pill addict told with unflinching honesty, from first pill ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/07/01/pill-head-book-of-the-month/ I don't remember how it was I first noticed the little bird huddled at the edge of the sidewalk. Did I hear it cheep or see a faint movement? But there it was: a little chick that had fallen out of a nest somewhere. It was fuzzy ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/30/the-little-bird/ I'm thinking a lot today about walls. I've learned quite well to protect myself from my husband by throwing up great, big, frozen, insurmountable walls. I hunker down behind them. There have been good reasons for me to feel the need to be safe, and I've learned out of a strong ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/30/walls/ AMA meeting: More to do on tobacco controlOutpatient alcoholism treatment - 24-month outcome and predictors of outcomeHealthcare Reform Must Prioritize Treatment for Addictions, Mental Health, Report SaysComparing retention in treatment and mortality in people after initial entry to methadone and buprenorphine treatment Technorati Tags: tobacco, outpatient, treatment, policy, buprenorphine, methadone http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/30/tab-dump-6/ I've been journaling for going on fifty years, off and on. During that time I've filled up ledgers, spiral notebooks, diaries, the back pages of pilot logbooks, and several megabytes of disk space. My current drug of choice is the pocket-sized Moleskine notebook with the graph paper pages, or a ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/30/writing-down-the-changes/ I'm not dead set against lowering the drinking age, (see here) but I find it odd that in making the argument to lower the drinking age, John McCardell offers very troubling statistics without any serious interest in their cause:at one major university, student visits to the emergency room for alcohol-related ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/30/21/ Ok, so I'm a little behind on my Lost watching. Somewhere in the middle of the season my husband and I just couldn't find time to watch TV together, so we are only now getting back to those episodes we so faithfully recorded. Last night we were watching ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/29/respect-jacks-boundaries/ I stopped writing on my blog for a while recently, mostly because I had so saturated myself with the subject of sex addiction that I began to feel that if I wrote or read one more word about it, I’d puke. This feeling of being fed up to my teeth ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/29/enough-about-us-lets-talk-about-me/ Maybe I'll be stating the obvious, but those of us in the mental health biz talk a lot about enabling, and the rule, of course is, DON'T. Don't make it easy for someone to stay addicted. Don't bring him a beer, even if he's your father and that's ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/29/when-the-co-dependent-stops-depending/ I am in counseling to deal with the sexual abuse in my childhood. I've been going for a few months now, and we are only beginning to touch on the fringes of the childhood stuff. It's sucky. It's hard. Apparently, I'm really angry with my parents. Today, we talked about a peripheral ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/29/the-rents/ A 2004 study carried out at the University of Colorado found that around 15 per cent of Caucasians have a genetic variant, known as the G-variant, that makes ethanol behave more like an opioid drug, such as morphine, with a stronger than normal effect on mood and behaviour. This variant ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/29/thiq-all-over-again/ I hate to say it, but I think we're going to be seeing more of this. When I clicked the link, I was expecting to see it focus exorbitant salaries in boutique treatment programs. It's a little surprising that this is happening in the program with so much public funding. ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/29/ouch/ For some, alcohol is a fuel; for others it is a vice. Numerous artists have called upon alcohol as a muse, even Winston Churchill attributed his six part memoir to alcohol. Churchill said, “always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than it has taken out of me.” ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/29/some-process-alcohol-as-an-opiate/ Intervention, on A&E, is a popular show examining various addictions and the effects on the addict and their families. Click on the image above to see the lineup for this season, as well as past episodes. Full video can also be found on their website. Tonight's episode: After being molested as a ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/29/tonight-on-intervention/ I get a notice from Google Calendar in my Gmail every morning.  Most of the time, it tells me that I have no events scheduled for the day, apart from the odd subscription or Internet charge coming due.  What a relief that is: "You have no events scheduled today!" I like ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/29/human-being/ How often does a guy receive an Email from a girl he's never met? And that girl has no obvious 'designs' on him? And she does not know him? And in the message is a poem, sort of dedicated to him? And how often then does ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/28/a-poetic-friend/ Everyone, everywhere: Stop everything, and go buy this book:Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality. I borrowed it from a friend, and it is the most interesting thing I've read in a while. I'm only a few chapters in, but I've already been floored. So far, the emphasis ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/28/sex-god/ Yesterday, I took my kids out to the park and watched my son, long and lanky, swing his way to the top of a climbing structure formed from a maze of ropes. Like many autistic individuals, mastering motor skills can be a challenge for him. He was late ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/28/learning-to-climb/       i watch the dawn spreading a hint of light over far eastern skies melting away deep shadows dark drying up tears in my eyes   light that shrinks shadows changing the forms that haunt into those of ease displacing the dark with rays of hope i gratefully soak in some peace   another day is granted to me to live a life worth living to do what’s ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/28/gratitude-3/ I have spent my share of time cyberstalking the women my husband has acted out with. (Hey, I'm codependent; I'm really, really good at focusing on people who aren't me.) And I'm not alone. Focusing on and obsessing about the activities of acting out partners is ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/27/cyberstalking-syndrome-by-proxy/ My husband and I met up with an old friend tonight. It was a guy he'd known at the beginning of his active addiction, and they'd lost each other as both of their diseases had spiraled out of control. I remembered that this kid had recently gotten married and had ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/27/another-possibility/ The King and the King of Pop had a good deal more in common than musical innovation. Elvis, son of an unsuccessful Mississippi sharecropper, came from hard times and rose above them.  He reinvented popular music by successfully combining the three main aspects of American music tradition: mountain or “country” music, ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/27/royalty-ain%e2%80%99t-what-it%e2%80%99s-cracked-up-to-be-lots-of-times-it%e2%80%99s-just-cracked-up/ I roll my eyes as a cluster of neon clad girls buzz, "The way the sidewalk lights up as he walks is so cool! I love that song." Michael Jackson and that stupid Billie Jean video. Cool? Whatever. He's so overrated. I mean, if you wanted to talk ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/26/the-man-in-the-mirror/ I seem to be on a Nar-Anon vacation. In my time attending Nar-Anon, I've never done it before. I know lots of people who have, and I've always thought, "Why in the world would anyone stop attending meetings?" And now I find myself stopping attending meetings. I don't mean to be ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/25/vacation-2/ I've been in an odd place lately, where I feel like I'm in some kind of siginificant transition. I'm not sure what's ending and what's beginning, but it's sure gotten me reflective. I met some new friends tonight, and we were kind of talking about our life stories. I realized that ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/25/the-still-center/ With the story of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's week-long disappearance to visit his mistress in Argentina buzzing about, we're faced yet again with images blasted through the media of a public figure tearfully apologizing for his infidelity, while his job hangs in jeopardy.* And in the wake of ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/24/its-not-about-sex/ Does this strike anyone else as naive? In writing about the FDA's new powers to regulate tobacco, more specifically the FDA's power to regulate nicotine yields, Saletan says: This is what drug warriors don't understand: There's always market competition, whether you like it or not. Prohibition just means that the ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/24/hijack-the-drug-trade/ [caption id="attachment_3303" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Richard G. Hartnett"][/caption]      Getting sober, whether from active addiction or co-dependency, is an opportunity for us to finally get to understand ourselves.  The 12 Step programs of recovery suggest a process of self-study, uncovering the forces at work inside us.  When our emotions calm down enough ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/24/listening-for-guidance/ A study of medications (and placebo) for alcoholism finds that expectancy is a better predictor of outcomes than the medication (or placebo) that they are prescribed:Double-blind placebo-controlled trials are intended to control for the impact of expectancy on outcomes. Whether they always achieve this is, however, questionable.Reanalysis of a clinical ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/24/the-power-of-expectancy-2/ Not much has changed since my last post. You know, the one where my vehicle of life came to a screeching halt at the bloody end of a dead-end road and I no longer recognized my life? Yeah. That post. Some bright spots: I have found a therapist that specializes in ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/23/still-hanging-on-by-a-thread/ This is the cure for our contemporary cultural worship of economics and hopefully for its creep into "behavioral economics" and thinking about addiction.Technorati Tags: addiction, economics http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/23/the-myth-of-the-rational-market/ Sometimes I get sporadic flashbacks from my using days. Today, it was while brushing my teeth--about one of the more difficult and, um, absurd situations that I faced when first getting sober. While I think there is no rhyme to reason for these flashbacks, I know that part of healing is ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/23/first-aid-not-necessary/ Last night I had a call from a family member who's having problems with another member.  Seems the addict who's been living with her and her spouse off and on during periods of "trying" to stay clean has not been following the house rules: a meeting every day, no phone ... http://www.thesecondroad.org/tsr/2009/06/23/co-dep-pain/