The Psychiatric Times, June 22, 2018 says that in medicine, safety is paramount.  As a specialty, psychiatry seeks to help those experiencing extreme psychological distress and vulnerability.  Althought providers may be hopeful and well intentioned in their clinical encounters, violence aganist health care professionals is an unfortunate and disturbing reality.  A survey of Ameican psychiatry residents indicated that 25% had been physically assaulted by a patient at some point in their training.  Rates of threats and physical intimidation reached 86% and 71% respectively.

President Trump announced in August of 2017 that he would sign an executive order to create another commission to tackle what he’s called the “total epidemic” of opioid abuse and addiction.

The main objective of his executive order to create a commission that is tasked with publishing a report on what to do about America’s deadliest drug crisis ever.  The administration’s decision to prioritize this urgent public health issue is promising.  Drug policy experts are already calling the commission a meaningless step in the battle aganist the opioid problem, particulary since Trump wants to cut funding for opioid treatment.  That would be a proposed $100 million in cuts to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administraton’s mental health block grants, which would impact some addiction services.”

From 2000 to 2015, more than 500,000 people died of drug overdoses, and opioids account for the majority of those.  The current numbers are even more stagering.

As reported by the Surgeon General’s report state, “Substance use disorder treatment in the United States remains largely segregated from the rest of health care and serves only a fraction of those in need of treatemtn.  Only 10% of people with an addiction of any kind of get treatment, and more than 40% also have a mental health condition, yet fewer than half get treatment.

Approximately 50% of non-medical users of prescription opioids get them from friends or relatives: 25% get them by prescription from multiple prescribers, most receive the prescriptions from one doctor.

Several states and local governments have instituted lawsuits aganist some of the pharmaceutical companies.  The main target is Purdue Phara, the manufacture of the now infamous OxyContin.  Purdue has just laid off all of its sales staff.  Walgreens has also been targeted due to the volume of prescriptions filled.  They should have raised concerns in certains areas.

Everyone has mental heatlh, just like physical health.  Good mental health is being able to cope with normal daily challenges and stresses.  Reaching your own potential and being capable of contributing to relationships and communities.

Mental illness is not the same as mental health.  Mental illness is a diagnosable condition or disorder.  Mental illness include disordered thinking, mood, behavior or some combination of two or all three.

Some characteristics of good mental health are:

• Satisfaction with life in general
• Peaceful, happy, and cheerful most of the time
• Self-acceptance
• Willingness to try new things
• Generally optimistic
• Sense of community
• Socially accepted
• Contributes to society and community

Everyone can work towards better mental health through lifestyle changes, daily choices, medical diagnosis and treatment.  Reach out to a therapist, Find-a-Therapist.

 

 

 

Drug overdoses claimed the lives of 47,055 Americans in 2014 – the equivalent of about 129 Americans each day – according to the CDC. That’s more than any previous year on record, and drug overdoses now surpass car accidents as the leading cause of injury death among people 25-64.

Opioids such as prescription painkillers and heroin accounted for 61 percent of the overdose deaths in 2014, the CDC says. And the toll increasingly impacts American society: 41 percent of adults say they personally know someone who abused prescription opioids in the past five years – and one in five say that abuse led to a fatal overdose, according to a STAT-Harvard national poll conducted in March, 2016.

Many Americans blame the opioid crisis on unsafe prescribing practices by the medical profession. Providers wrote nearly 207 million opioid prescriptions in 2013 – up 172 percent from 1991 – according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

“White Coats for Recovery,” as the group calls itself, is tapping social media to show people how to buy and use naloxone, commonly known as Narcan®. The antidote blocks the path of opioids such as heroin or narcotic painkillers, and can restore breathing back to normal during an overdose – if administered in time.

Naloxone is credited with reversing more than 26,000 opioid overdoses between 1996 and June 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

More than one in three adults believe doctors who inappropriately prescribe painkillers are to blame for the epidemic, according to the poll by STAT-Harvard.

This information posted on drugrehab.org about the group “Whitecoats for Recovery”.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), “18.5% of service members returning from deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression.” Yet only approximately half of veterans who require mental health treatment seek it, and among them, just over half of those who receive treatment receive adequate care.

According to the National Center on PTSD, the incidence of PTSD and substance abuse comorbidity is high among veterans.  More that two out of ten veterans with PTSD also have SUD (substance use disorder), and one out of every three veterans seeking help for SUD also has PTSD.  Additionally, war veterans with both alcohol problems and PTSD ten to be binge drinkers, which is believed to be in response to traumatic memories in attempt to drown out visions and memories or flashbacks of those experiences.

The Veterans Administration is still  a problem! Appointments are still months away and the paperwork is daunting. Our government lacks follow-through and the ability to take a fixable form of action on this issue.

• Veterans Crisis Line 1-800-273-8255 Press 1
• National Call Center for Homeless Veterans: 1-877-424-3838
• VA Caregiver Support Line 1-855-260-3274
• Wounded Warrior Resource Center 1-800-342-9647

Contact your local, state and federal elected officials through http://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/.

Assessment, Evaluation and Warning Signs of Internet Addiction

Warning Signs of Gaming Addiction
1.Increased time spent in playing online
2.Preoccupation that lasts beyond healthy, new excitement
3.Lying or hiding gaming use from others
4.Disobedience to time and other limits
5.Diminished interest in offline recreational activities, such as sports, hikes, dance
6.Diminished interest in essential offline self-care such as bathing, sleeping, eating. Social withdrawal from family and friends
7.Withdrawal from school or work in favor of playing
8.Cannot find pleasure in any activity besides online gaming
9.Psychological withdrawal from the game when not playing
10.Continuing to game despite its negative physical, emotional, occupational, or relational consequences

Different Approaches to Treat Internet Addiction
Parents, educators, and other concerned adults should know that there are many ways to treat Internet
Addiction and Gaming Addiction. Following is more information on some of the most common options:

1.Behavioral Modification. This therapy modality focuses on changing behaviors as a way to change inner state (outside → in approach). Methods include modeling, conditioning, and structured activities separate from the addiction. In the case of treating Internet and Gaming addictions, this means social and recreation activities offline.

2.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This therapy modality focuses on changing the thought patterns that lead to certain behaviors (inside → out approach). It is founded on the belief that it is what people believe about situations they face – not the situations themselves – that determines how they feel and behave. Thus, by changing the thought patterns one can change behavior and feelings.

3.Family Therapy. Often, a child or teen acting out is responding to a family system that needs attention. Especially if the user already suffers from low self-esteem, sending them to individual therapy may reinforce the notion that they are “broken.” Treating the whole family can give an important opportunity to address unhealthy dynamics that may lead to addictive behavior.

4.Harm Reduction Model. Rather than demonize Internet use, gaming, or technology in general, this approach seeks to reduce the harmful effects of addiction. Harm reduction strategies meet users “where they’re at.” In a drug context, this may include clean needles. In an Internet and gaming context, this may mean going to bed at 1am instead of 4am; skipping a day of gaming and playing only six days a week; joining a sports team one season a year.

5.Online Support Groups. This may seem like taking an alcoholic to a bar, but it is also an appropriate place to treat Internet and gaming addiction. Internet addicts are online anyway, and they may as well spend some time talking about addiction and treatment with others. Community is important for healing, and the opportunity to access support 24/7 can mean a lot to a user trying to cut down.

6.12-Step (AA) Model. The 12-Step program is focused on abstinence and is based on the idea that addiction is a form of treatable spiritual sickness. The model includes working on a series of steps that include humility, personal inventory, amendments, spiritual seeking, and service. Like programs for food or sex addictions, Internet, gaming, and technology 12-Step programs are based on healthy balance rather than abstinence. Most groups meet in person, with literature and outside collaboration among members for additional support. Many argue that the abstinence model is not very applicable to the Internet as the Internet is here to stay and has increasing importance in people’s lives. The 12-Step model may be more relevant to online gaming than to Internet use.

7.Self Help. For those who learn well on their own, there are numerous books on Internet and gaming addiction to help a user quit addictive programs or cut down across the board. This method circumvents the possible shame of admitting to others that one has a problem and may be particularly appealing for self-starters.

8.Residential Treatment Centers. Treatment centers use a variety of modalities: Group therapy, Adventure-Nature therapy, Psycho-Education, Family therapy, Individual therapy, Pharmaceutical (Medication). Users participate in a wide array of activities in a group context, which often results in higher self-esteem due to face-to-face connection and triumph or progress over addiction.

9.Outward Bound. These programs are based on the idea that experiential education is paramount to learning. They often include situations with real or perceived risk, to help bring participants into the moment and physical reality. Addicts of all stripes and colors tend to be far from the present moment and their bodies; hence a treatment approach which necessitates their physical attention may be quite helpful and grounding.

Parents are advised to do research on prospective treatment centers by interviewing staff, program graduates, and reading online reviews whenever possible. Putting one’s child in the care of a facility for addiction treatment should not be done lightly. A worst-case scenario is that the child becomes more damaged in treatment. So, do your research

Cyberbullying is the harassment, taunting, impersonation, or other forms of unwanted attention through technology (cell phones, social media, etc.).

A rude comment on social media can quickly escalate into abuse as more people join in. A sext can be forwarded to an entire peer group in virtually no time at all. Preteens and teens get caught in the perfect storm of wanting social approval and spending a lot of time online, usually without adult supervision. In situations where a mature adult could block the offender and be done with it, young people can become overwhelmed by the onslaught of activity. Unfortunately, the self-worth of many young people is deeply connected to how their peers treat them. A social environment that is unfriendly, for example homophobic or transphobic, leaves members of the group vulnerable to abuse. Even before being cyberbullied, many teens are already be working hard to scrape together some self-esteem (Chen, 2010). People can tell when they are rejected, and it hurts.

Compounding these problems is a reticence to tell parents about bullying and cyberbullying. Targets may be afraid of losing Internet access, or undergoing further embarrassment. They may not trust their parents to actually help, and can fear parental involvement making things worse.

See more information on this topic and others at ZurInstitute.com

Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking; this includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, 1,600 as a result of homicides, 300 from suicide, as well as hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns, and drownings as reported by NHTSA and CDC.

Those who drink do because of risk-taking, expectancies, sensitivity and tolerance to alcohol, personality characteristics, psychiatric comorbidity, hereditary factors, and environmental aspects.

Alcohol is widely available and aggressively promoted throughout society. people who begin drinking early in life run the risk of developing serious alcohol problems including alcoholism.

Alcohol will continue to be an issue for all ages and groups of people.

Life Coaching is all the rage.

These professionals provide the drive and the guidance their clients need to improve their careers, relationships, and lives. They help clients to:

• Recognize their skills and dreams
• Refocus their life’s goals
• Move past challenges that stand in the way of those goals

An effective coach works with the client to help them live a better, richer life-regardless of their type of goals.  Just remember that your coach may be friendly, but they are not your friend.  Your coach is your advocate.  Coaches are experts at the process of changing behavior.  Just remember that coaching is an investment that can produce monetary rewards above and beyond the cost.

Your body already makes marijuana-like chemicals that affect pain, inflammation, and many other processes. Marijuan can sometimes help those natural chemicals work better says Laura Borgelt of the University of Colorado.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not recoginized or approved the marijauna plant as medicine. So far, researchers have not conducted enough large-scale clinical trials that show that the benefits of the marijuana plant outweigh its risks in patients it is meant to treat.

Marijuana may be smoked, vaporized, eaten or taken as a liquid extract.

The side effects that usually dont last long are: dizziness, drowsiness, short-term memory loss, changes in mood, impaired body movement, and euphoria. There are more serioux side effects that include anxiety and psychosis. Long-term effects may reduce thinking, memory, and learning functions. Marijuana used during pregnancy is linked to increased risk of both brain and behavioral problems in babies as reported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Compared to nonusers, heavy marijuana users more often report lower life satisfaction, poorer mental health, poorer physical health, and more relationship problems. Users report less academic and career success. It is also linked to more job absences, accidents, and injuries reported by McCaffrey, Pacula and Ellickson in a study of marijuana use. There also can be withdrawal symptoms of long-term marijauna users.