Jamie Lee Curtis Opens Up About Drug Addiction

Posted by: addictiontreatment Posted date: September 27, 2012

We often forget that Hollywood stars are just people, too. They have the same fears, insecurities, struggles and desire to be loved and accepted as everyone else. Though they may have access to resources and funds that the general population doesn’t, it may not be enough to compensate for living life under the microscope and the added pressure of daily public scrutiny.

In the upcoming October 2012 issue of Good Housekeeping, Jamie Lee Curtis peels back layers of the onion to reveal a more vulnerable side. Curtis admittedly struggled with drug addiction. Beating it, she says, is her biggest victory. She gets frank about dealing with issues of self-acceptance and the addiction that left her feeling like a failure.

Curtis acknowledges that it took a lot of strength to face her addiction. Confessing to her friends and family that she had a problem wasn’t easy. But, determined to get better, she fought hard for her sobriety and made it her focus to stay healthy.

She also surrounded that decision with a support network that would lead her in the right direction. Still, going through the struggle and bringing it into the open certainly required a lot of courage.

Curtis has been sober now for the past 13 years. She has even served as a mentor for troubled starlet, Lindsay Lohan who has faced her own battle with addiction and recovery. People deserve the opportunity to have a second chance, she says. Everyone makes mistakes, but some mistakes can be fixed.

Just like most every woman out there, Curtis has had to come to grips with aging and feeling comfortable in her own skin. She believes that life is about adventure and trying new things. Not long ago the 53 year-old Curtis embarked on a 5K run. While that required a lot of fortitude and grit, getting sober, she says, is “the single bravest thing I’ve ever done.” Article Link…

Old Timers in AA

Go to enough meetings and you’re bound to tangle with some less-than-friendly members of AA’s old guard. What’s the best way to handle it?

Not long after Eric, a 35-year-old father of three with long brown hair and a thick, bushy goatee, began going to AA meetings, he came face-to-face with something many newcomers eventually learn to avoid: the crotchety old-timer. (An old-timer, for the uninitiated, is generally considered someone who has at least a decade of sobriety.) “I had just gone to a meeting with my sponsor and I was feeling pretty good,” he says. Afterwards, the two went to another meeting taking place across the street, where his sponsor warned him that their shorts and t-shirts wouldn’t fit the meeting’s business casual dress code. “But since it was meeting with over a thousand people, he wanted me to see just how big AA could be,” Eric explains.

Once in the door of the mammoth meeting, however, the good vibes of the night instantly evaporated. “There was a line to meet this old man who sat waiting to receive all the people and my sponsor introduced me to him and told him that we were just visiting—not staying,” Eric remembers. “The guy looked at me and said that I had a terrorist beard and that we were dressed like bums, and added that if we weren’t staying, we shouldn’t be stealing their coffee. It was the first time I had ever met anyone like that in AA.”

Eric’s experience isn’t, sadly, altogether unique. Much like the rest of the world, AA has its share of autocrats and assholes—people who believe that, as the old saying goes, it’s their way or the highway. Says Dr. Adi Jaffe, an addiction specialist at UCLA and an expert for The Fix, “I think in any situation, you end up with people who are hardliners. You see it in politics, in religion, and we see it in recovery. They drink the Kool-Aid—they don’t question any aspect of the program. They believe whatever doctrine is being served. And though it can be someone who has 20 days or 20 years, often the person with more time is able to wield more power.”

In other words, despite AA’s pledge to put “principle before personalities” and its request that members act as trusted servants, there are always going to be the people for whom ego is still tantamount and AA just another playground for that ego to roam. Though there are no actual leaders in AA, often the void gets filled with folks who either want to see the meetings or—in some instances—just their own personalities thrive.

You don’t have to be around AA too long to realize that just because someone’s sober a long time doesn’t always mean they’re mentally healthy. Melody Anderson, a family and addiction expert in Los Angeles explains, “There’s a large percentage of people suffering from addiction who also suffer from other issues. Some might be dealing with neurochemical disorders—depression or bi-polar disorder—that need to be treated and others are simply dealing with the narcissism and immaturity that can come from untreated alcoholism. Just because the person is sober doesn’t mean they have grown up emotionally.” Add to that the fact that after a certain number of years in program, it’s possible to get complacent and cocky and think that working the steps is no longer necessary. Anderson continues, “The dry drunk is experiencing the same emotional pain that they experienced while drinking and so there is something in their behavior that isn’t accepting the situation as it is. The person’s job in recovery is to tolerate, accept, and become self-motivated when something doesn’t go their way, but that’s hard to do when one’s emotional health is compromised.”

Eric, who has six months of sobriety now, has discovered since being called a terrorist that different people handle double-digit sobriety in all sorts of ways. “I see a lot of old timers at the meetings I go to who have a real sense of humility,” he says. “They say that they get a lot of hope from me because I am staying sober through the toughest days—the first ones—which is also humbling because I get so much hope from them. It’s all for one, one for all.”

And yet the other kind of old-timer is sure to still exist—as 27-year old Erica, a sales assistant at a cosmetics company in Houston, discovered when she was in her first two weeks. “I was just learning how to share in AA meetings,” she recalls. “I was talking and the timer hadn’t gone off but this guy with like 15 years called me out, interrupting me to say I wasn’t supposed to share about drugs. I had no idea that I wasn’t supposed to do that and it made me never want to go back again.”

The drugs-versus-booze debate has long raged in the rooms of AA, as more young people come in and times change as there are fewer clear-cut alcoholics who haven’t experimented with drugs in the mix. And this, perhaps unsurprisingly, ruffles the feathers of many old timers. Anderson explains, “I know of an old timer in AA who says if you don’t talk about alcohol, then don’t come in. Some people are afraid of new ideas and afraid that AA is being diluted by other forms of addiction. But to deny people the place to share—to make them feel excluded—is cruel.”

Though there are reports of salty dogs in Boston and born-again’s in Texas who are particularly sensitive to keeping drug talk out of AA, anyone—as Anderson points out—can start a new meeting anywhere. “If people are not able to find a meeting that won’t accept them, all they have to do is find an available meeting space, set the meeting up with [AA’s] Central Office, and start one of their own,” she says.

In the end, Erica didn’t use what happened in the meeting as a justification to stay away. “I guess I was just desperate enough that I was willing to ignore someone being a jerk,” she says. “When I later heard the quote ‘We are not saints’ in the AA book, I laughed. We’re not, and if someone has a lot of time, that doesn’t mean they are any closer to sainthood.”

Andy, a 39-year old heavily tattooed graphic designer and artist in Newport Beach, made a similar discovery after entering the program at 24 after having survived a youth fuelled by methamphetamines. Though Andy certainly heard old timers begrudge his age, he thinks his demeanor bothered them more than his birth year. Now that he’s 15 years sober—and thus an old timer himself—he says, “They [the old-timers at the meetings he attended] didn’t know what to do with these kids who had a ton of energy—all these tweakers and dope fiends—and I think there was a bit of resentment because unlike many of them, we had found our way to sobriety at such a young age. We hadn’t lost our youth.”

At the same time, Andy was able to glean plenty of wisdom from those who’d been around a while. “What I appreciate to this day is the way the old-timers taught me the fundamentals and the basis of AA—why we have commitments, how AA functions, that the steps are for the individual and the traditions are for the group,” he says. “But I also had to find young people who understood where I was at and together we tried to figure out a lot [of the rest] on our own.”

Melody Anderson’s advice for the newcomer at odds with an embittered old-timer is to “look at why you’re bothered,” she says. “Part of the process of recovery is learning to handle other personalities. The first principle is not picking up the substance to which you are addicted. But you’re going to hear a lot of crazy things [in AA] and if that’s what sends you out, you probably weren’t going to stay anyway.”

Yet the old-timer-newcomer animosity can provide, according to Dr. Jaffe, opportunities for growth. “We can treat hardliners—people who think that the way they see the world is absolutely right and if it’s not that way, it’s absolutely wrong—with the same tolerance we might wish they would offer us,” he says. “It really comes down to what you’re looking for in recovery: are you looking to better your own life or to seek acceptance from others?”

Melody Anderson concurs. “If you don’t like one meeting, go to six more,” she adds. “There will always be someone you don’t like anywhere you go, which is why, ultimately, only you are responsible for the quality of your meeting.” Article Link…

Tom Arnold Cleans Up

When he became addicted to painkillers after nearly two decades of sobriety, Tom Arnold kept it a secret. Then he almost died. Now he’s back to tell the tale.

With a new movie and TV show (not to mention a surprise appearance at Roseanne Barr’s recent roast), you could say that Tom Arnold is making a comeback. But considering the fact that two years ago, he found himself in a septic coma partially due to a relapse, Arnold’s recent success might be more like a resurrection. After 17 years of sobriety, Arnold had started taken prescription painkillers following a 2007 motorcycle accident. Though he continued to attend meetings, sponsor others, and take a yearly sobriety chip, he was secretly living the life of an addict. Eventually the truth—in the form of his health—caught up with him. Now over a year sober, with the movie Hit & Run in theaters and his new reality show Redneck Rehab launching on CMT, Arnold is back and better than ever. He recently sat down with The Fix to discuss this new phase in his recovery and career.

You’ve been really busy lately. Do you feel that’s in part to your recovered sobriety?

I feel good because I wouldn’t have done the things I am doing now if I wasn’t in recovery. In my career, it’s always feast or famine so I’ve really had to learn to accept the belief that I will work again. That’s the hard part of being both an addict and an actor: the minute you’re not working, you think, “That’s it, it’s over.” But then things change and you’re back in the middle of it again.

How did you get involved with Hit & Run [Arnold’s new movie starring Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell, and Bradley Cooper]?

Well, part of the reason for that is that I am great friends with Dax [who wrote and directed the movie]; he really stood by me and helped me during my relapse. We started shooting the day after I got completely off painkillers. When you’re shooting a movie in 18 or 19 days and it’s hot and uncomfortable, you’ve really got to stay on an even keel and he helped with that. You don’t want to add to the problems so it helps to be working hard on your program.

In terms of the release, you do your best to promote it but you still make sure to hit a meeting and spend some time with other alcoholics. That doesn’t mean that things don’t hurt you. A lot of people have a lot of opinions about me but now I am able to laugh at that stuff. I know there was a time when that bullshit bothered me a lot more.

For years, I had been going to meetings and helping people and I was being entirely dishonest about my sobriety.

In addition to Hit & Run, you also have a TV showRedneck Rehab airing on CMT. Now it’s not actually about rehab, is it?

No, though it’s lightly based on Intervention. The premise of the show is that these rednecks have left their families and moved to the big city to become successful. They’ve left the redneck culture: they’re eating healthy and showering and they’ve forgotten where they came from—that is, until their redneck families show up to do an intervention on their new ways. Though it is really funny, it’s kind of amazing to see these people confronting each other in a visceral way. Because I grew up in a small town and don’t get back there enough, I connected to how these families miss each other. And really it’s not so different than what happens with drugs and alcohol.

What has been your journey with drugs and alcohol?

I started as a stand up comedian and moved to LA in 1988. I landed a job on a real TV show and, not long after, started dating its star [Roseanne Barr], and that’s how I became famous. And apart from killing someone, that is probably the second worst way to get famous. I had already been drinking and using for years. I remember when I was still living in Minnesota, Roseanne would come to town and we would party together but then when I moved to LA, she asked if I did that all time. I was sort of confused by the question. Of course I partied all the time! After that, I started to keep my alcohol and drug use a secret because it was clear that this was not how you became successful in LA. And then I moved in with Roseanne and there were kids around and people watching me and I tried to pretend that I wasn’t using. I would come home and get caught and finally one night I told Roseanne I couldn’t quit and that’s when I went to rehab.

What was your sobriety like those first years?

When I came out of rehab, I was really focused on recovery. My sponsor said I could eat whatever I wanted and smoke as many cigarettes I wanted but I just couldn’t drink and use. A lot of craziness was going on in my life but I was working a really great program. And then, in 2007, I got into a motorcycle wreck and broke my back. By then, my program had begun to get a little shaky. I was still sponsoring guys and going to meetings but I had gotten arrogant about my recovery. When they prescribed me painkillers, I didn’t think I could ever get addicted to them because I was a stimulant guy, not an opiate guy. I didn’t think that was my thing but it turns out anything can be my thing. I got physically addicted to them very fast. I had a million people I could have talked to about it but addiction is a nasty business.

And is that when you got sick?

In the summer of 2010, it was clear that I had a problem and I started seeing an addiction specialist. I was in the middle of tapering off the pain meds when, on August 10, 2010, I had a stomachache and the next thing I knew, I was passed out. My colon had ruptured and I was septic, sending me into a coma for three weeks. It’s not to say that everything that happened to me was because of the pain pills but it was about 90% of the cause. I had an emergency surgery and I ended up needing seven more surgeries because there was so much damage. After the hospital, I went straight to rehab where I was all by myself in a medical unit. I had all these tubes hooked up to me and I could literally see my insides. One night, I was lying awake and I thought, “I need to figure out who I am.” For years, I had been going to meetings and helping people and I was being entirely dishonest about my sobriety. I had to decide whether I was going to be an honorable man or someone who was just full of shit.

How did you get back into recovery?

Well, first my sponsor reminded me that I wasn’t completely worthless. He said, “Sure you relapsed but that doesn’t take away the good things you did over the last 20 years, that doesn’t erase all the people you helped along the way.” I had an incision from my breast bone to my belly button and I have this temporary colostomy bag, which I ended up having for 90 days, and I was thinking, “I have fucked myself up forever” but then halfway through my stay at rehab, I was in a meeting with some young guys who were all there for heroin and prescription pills and in the meeting, I shared that worse things can happen than dying. I lifted up my shirt so everyone could see what had happened to me—so those boys could see what drugs can do to you. Who knows if it worked for them, but for me, it was the moment where I surrendered that bullshit I had been holding onto. I was being of service.

And then you had to get sober from the pills even though you needed the pills, correct?

Yeah, it took me some time to get through the other surgeries. I had to use some hardcore medications so I had a sober companion who would help me manage and hide the prescriptions. I had to believe again in something greater than myself and I had to stay busy. I continued to work—I did three comedy specials for DirecTV—and I would have to bring a nurse with me. I learned that even if no one is calling you and offering you a job, you need to always be working. Whenever I create a schedule and do something about my career—writing, creating, focusing on my own projects—an opportunity always comes up.

And what is life like now?

The good thing is my ego will never get too big—that’s part of being in sobriety and that’s part of being me in this business. If you believe in something and you trust it and you get up off your ass in the morning, you can make something happen. I am still very dedicated to service today—whether through the program or through charities I support. I work with children who have heart disease and have undergone heart transplants and when you meet one of them, they’re not looking at the past or the future, they are digging the present, they are grabbing life by the balls. Any kind of service is always of more benefit to me than the person I am serving, because it reminds me not to be such a grumpy asshole. It reminds me of everything I have to be grateful for. Article Link…

Teens Can Buy Alcohol on eBay, Expose Reveals

By Join Together Staff | September 21, 2012

Teenagers can purchase alcohol on eBay, according to an investigation by the news show “20/20.”

The website prohibits the sale of all alcohol, except for some wines, but allows the sale of collectible alcohol containers, according to ABC News. The site’s alcohol policy states sellers of the containers “will take all appropriate steps to ensure that the buyer is of lawful age in the buyer’s and seller’s jurisdiction.”

The news show asked a 13-year-old to try to buy liquor on the website. He was able to place orders with two vendors. A third refused to sell his product without seeing a copy of an ID showing the buyer was of legal drinking age. After learning about the sales, eBay said it has taken action against the two vendors who sold the alcohol.

A study published in May found minors are often able to buy alcohol online, because many Internet alcohol sellers and shipping companies do not verify the buyer’s age. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recruited eight participants, ages 18 to 20, to try to buy wine, beer and other alcoholic beverages online. They were told to lie about their age when filling out order forms. If they were asked to verify their age by a delivery person, they were instructed to say they were not yet 21.

Participants placed orders at 100 Internet websites, and most deliveries were made by FedEx or United Parcel Service. Of those orders, 45 were successfully made and received. Just 28 orders were rejected because the person placing the order was found to be a minor. The rest of the orders did not go through because there were technical difficulties, or because no one was home at the time of attempted delivery.

The researcher of that study, Rebecca Williams, told ABC News that it is unclear how many teens are using online retailers such as eBay to buy alcohol. Article Link…

Resident ‘in pain’ exposed Duluth nurse’s theft of hundreds of pills

 

• September 20, 2012 – 7:56 PM

Hundreds of painkillers intended for residents of a Duluth nursing home were stolen by a staff nurse earlier this year, leaving at least one patient in “extreme pain,” state health investigators disclosed this week.

The nurse, who worked at Ecumen Lakeshore for four years, was suspended and quit soon after being confronted by her employer, according to the state Health Department report.

Ecumen officials notified police of the thefts in mid-May. A police spokesman was checking Thursday on whether a criminal case was pursued.

“The former employee’s actions are a gross violation of everything we stand for at Ecumen and the nursing profession stands for,” spokesman Eric Schubert said on Thursday. “We’re sorry that this incident occurred, and we thank the patient who helped us uncover the thefts.”

The case is the latest in a series of painkiller thefts that have alarmed state officials and led to the creation of a special task force of health care and law enforcement officials early this year. Their review found 250 cases of prescription drugs being stolen or reported missing at Minnesota health care facilities from 2005 to 2011.

The Duluth thefts, involving the powerful narcotic oxycodone and other drugs, came even though the nurse had been instructed on administering and tracking controlled substances, the Health Department said.

The thefts, totaling 764 pills meant for 34 residents, occurred over a five-month period. They ended shortly after a resident who didn’t receive her oxycodone reported in late April that she was “having extreme pain” without the medication, the report said.

The report noted that the stolen painkillers were to be administered on an “as-needed” basis at the residents’ request. No regularly scheduled pain medications were stolen, Schubert said.

The Health Department does not release the identities of the employees or residents in such investigations.

The number of reported drug thefts at Minnesota hospitals and nursing homes has more than doubled since 2005, according to the state task force.

The trend reflects what experts say is a nationwide surge of prescription-drug abuse — in many cases by the very people entrusted with caring for patients. Article Link…

Overdoses Involving Methadone Rise in Minnesota

Almost 400 people in Minnesota have died of methadone-involved overdoses since 2001, according to the Duluth News Tribune. From 2006 to 2010, the number of methadone deaths almost equaled those who died from firearms, the newspaper reports.

According to data from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), during the past four years, patients discharged from the state’s methadone clinics have had higher rates of relapse and of being jailed after discharge, compared with patients in the state’s other programs to treat chemical dependency.

Duluth Police Sergeant Rodney Wilson, who works with the Lake Superior Drug and Gang Task Force, said many methadone users are also using other drugs. “What we’re seeing is that people who use methadone to treat opiate addiction are consistently using street drugs to supplement that addiction as well,” he said.

Only 5 percent of patients successfully complete methadone treatment in Minnesota, the article notes. DHS officials told the newspaper it is difficult to compare treatments for various kinds of chemical dependency. They said they have not done studies on methadone treatment in Minnesota. “What we rely on are national studies that have shown that methadone therapy is the best practice in health care,” said Maureen O’Connell, the DHS Assistant Commissioner for Chemical and Mental Health Services.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), methadone has long been used safely and effectively to treat drug addiction. “It has been prescribed increasingly as a painkiller because it is a generic drug that can provide long-lasting pain relief. But as methadone’s use for pain has increased, so has nonmedical use of the drug and the number of overdoses,” the CDC notes.

More than 15,500 people die every year of prescription drug overdoses, and nearly one-third of those overdoses involve methadone. Researchers found that while methadone accounts for only 2 percent of painkiller prescriptions in the United States, it is involved in more than 30 percent of prescription painkiller overdose deaths. Article Link…

‘Addicted’: Sports Injury Leads Young Woman Into Painkiller Addiction

“Addicted” took a look at the dangers of prescription painkillers. After suffering a knee injury playing sports, 25-year-old Lindsay became addicted to painkillers, and found herself in trouble. She spent all of her money on drugs, going so far as to steal for money toward getting high.

“For someone who’s not addicted, actions that can have serious consequences like stealing might seem completely crazy,” Lindsay explained. “But for those who are addicted … consequences mean nothing.” She was aware that she was doing wrong, but she didn’t care.

The good news for Lindsay is that she agreed to go into a treatment program, and is now doing much better. Kristina Wandzilak, the show’s counselor, even tweeted during the broadcast that she’d invited Lindsay, along with her friends and supporters, to her home to watch the episode.

She tweeted a picture of Lindsay and her standing side by side, and Lindsay is looking happy and healthy again.

Follow along with more stories of those who are “Addicted” each Tuesday on Discovery Fit & Health. Read More…

Military drinking ‘culture’ now a ‘crisis’ 

 Published September 17, 2012

A new study says substance abuse among troops has become a “public health crisis” and Pentagon methods for dealing with it are outdated.

The study by the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, says about 20 percent of active duty service members reported they drank heavily in 2008, the last year for which data is available. And, binge-drinking rose to 47 percent in 2008 from 35 percent in 1998.

The study says new methods are needed to help troops. Those include better trained counselors and more outpatient care as opposed to relying so heavily on hospitalizations and residential programs.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/17/study-military-drinking-culture-now-crisis/#ixzz26pkCPnRB

Despite drawbacks, many consider methadone the best treatment for opiate addiction

Published September 17, 2012, 06:30 AM

It might not be perfect, but it’s the best solution we’ve got.

That sums up why proponents of methadone say that despite the risks, it’s the best treatment for opiate addiction.

“It has been recognized by the most authoritative, objective voices nationally and internationally for decades as being the most effective form of treatment for narcotic addiction,” said Dr. Robert Newman, director of the Baron Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York.

Treatments for most drug addictions involve a combination of medications and behavioral therapy, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

Methadone, itself an opiate, is used to treat addiction to heroin and other opiates because its effect is gradual and sustained, reducing the desire for other opioid drugs while preventing withdrawal symptoms, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Administered properly, it is neither intoxicating nor sedating, and its effects do not interfere with ordinary daily activities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a 2002 fact sheet, said when methadone is used to treat opiate addiction, it produces a 30 percent lower death rate than among opiate addicts who are not treated with methadone. It also results in reduced criminal activity, improved family stability and employment potential and improved pregnancy outcomes, the CDC said. Read More…