The 3 Minute Alcohol and Abuse Daily News Review: Brent Shapiro Summer Spectacular and tons of celebrities, College DUI kills 6 & National Drug Survey parent advice
A Daily Review of Breaking News, Facts and Studies, Stories of Recovery & Tips and Leading Blogs covering the topic of Alcohol and Abuse.
I wanted to remind you again that I have a Facebook Fan Page (please visit it here and hit the LIKE button) and a YouTube channel (if you spend much time on YouTube you might want to subscribe to it here). I would really appreciate it if you could take a minute to either go to the end of this blog and hit the LIKE button, or go to the facebook fan page link and click on like.
I watched a movie last night that maybe you have heard of, Letters to Juliet, and I have to paraphrase a great quote from it. It was something along the lines of perfectionism is just another name for being a chicken.
Wow, can I relate to that. I so often will hide behind the idea that something has to be perfect for me to do it, share it, etc, and really there is just a lot of illogical fears behind it instead. Ok, to the news.
Brent Shapiro Summer Spectacular and Tons of Celebrities
If you haven’t heard of the Brent Shapiro Foundation you can visit their website here. They are a great foundation doing great work communicating the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse. The organization was founded by Hollywood lawyer Robert Shapiro after his son died from alcohol and ecstasy abuse one night.
The sad part about this story is he had 18 months of sobriety and he thought could experiment again. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this same story and it is perhaps one of the most troubling because in many ways they were over the hardest part of recovery. The first year.
Our minds are so good at convincing us of false realities, especially when it comes to alcohol and drug abuse.
The 3 Minute Alcohol and Abuse Daily News Review: The goggles/wetsuit/duct tape no drinking solution, another city alcohol fee controversy and a discouraging national drug survey result
A Daily Review of Breaking News, Facts and Studies, Stories of Recovery & Tips and Leading Blogs covering the topic of Alcohol and Abuse.
First, I wanted to give you a quick update. You may have noticed that I haven’t posted in a week and I have to apologize. I have spent the last week getting things setup, like a Facebook Fan Page (please visit it here and hit the LIKE button), a YouTube channel (if you spend much time on YouTube you might want to subscribe to it here), and getting a new logo and banner for the site. And that is just a few of the things 
.
So I have been busy, but I am really looking forward to doing this at least 5 days a week. I will try 7, but I don’t want to promise something that I am not sure I can deliver. After all I do have a day job.
Last, I decided to do these all in text and VIDEO format, so I’m really excited about that. So for each day you can choose which option is preferable. I would love to get any feedback below.
Why is Baseball Star Josh Hamilton is Going to Wear Goggles, Duct Tape over his Mouth and a Wetsuit?
I think this is just great and I have to thank @choosehelp for tweeting about it or I might have missed it in the news. Those of you that don’t know Josh Hamilton’s story of recovery, it is an amazing one. I don’t have time to cover it here, but I wanted to share something he recently said. As an admitted and somewhat avid fantasy baseball player I especially like this story.
USA Today shared his quote to the Fort-Worth Star Telegram that “I’m going to have goggles on, duct tape over the mouth and either a wetsuit or raincoat. It can’t get on your skin. It’ll soak through your skin. I don’t want to send the wrong message to people who might see pictures and think I’m not serious about recovery or what it stands for.”
The Alcohol and Abuse Daily News Review: Police & Teachers Surveyed, International Suicide Prevention Week & Boredom – The Perfect Companion for Alcohol Abuse
A Daily Review of Breaking News, Facts and Studies, Stories of Recovery & Tips and Leading Blogs covering the topic of Alcohol and Abuse.
A couple days ago my wife went to an Al-Anon meeting and heard a way too typical story. The story shared by a wife of how her husband had seemingly been doing well in sobriety, but had recently started drinking again. She was done with replaying the past and all the broken promises and said it was over for good this time. Unfortunately his reaction was to take his own life.
It is so sad to hear that these kids have to grow up without their father and I wish I could say I don’t know how anyone could ever reach that low of a breaking point, but I do know. I know firsthand how much pain, frustration, fear and failure I experienced around my drinking and all my failed attempts at sobering up. I know what it is like to lie in bed and just want to die instead of have to try to take on another day sober.
Just don’t let this be the story of you or your loved ones. Search endlessly and become committed to finding your answer to recovery and you will find it.
And remember, as a friend of mine says, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
Ok, let’s get to the news today.
Police & Teacher Survey Say Alcohol and Marijuana are the Most Serious Problem Substances Facing Teens
The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest released the results yesterday of a national Teen Substance Abuse survey that concluded that police officers and high school teachers nationwide believe that alcohol and marijuana are the biggest substance abuse problems for teens.
The numbers are pretty interesting to look at. Although clearly both police and HS teachers see each of these as the greatest concern for abuse, I was interested in the difference at how they ranked meth abuse. I just read the book Methland, which I will probably review at some point, and it painted a very scary picture. Amazing book by the way. I can easily see how police rank meth so much higher after reading about what law enforcement experiences has been with fighting this drug. Nothing short of shocking and really just depressing. Check out the rest of the numbers on this article – I think you will find them interesting.
International Suicide Prevention Week Ends Tomorrow
September 6th – 11th is suicide prevention week and it seemed relevant to mention it here based on how I started today’s news.
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The Alcohol and Abuse Daily News Review: 85.6 Million & 2 Awesome Stories of Recovery – Jamie Lee Curtis & Tom Sizemore
A Daily Review of Breaking News, Facts and Studies, Stories of Recovery & Tips and Leading Blogs covering the topic of Alcohol and Abuse.
In case any of you follow national news you might of heard of the fires in Boulder, Colorado over the last few days. Unfortunately 135 homes have been lost so far and I decided to look at the addresses because I had several friends in that vicinity that I had lost touch with, but I knew still lived in that area. I was surprised to see that it appears at least one of my old friends lost their home.
These things always hit a little closer to home when you know someone that has been impacted. At least as sad as that is the most important thing is no lives have been lost.
85.6 Million Awarded to Local Communities to Prevent Youth Drug Use
Gil Kerlikowske, Director of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), said “Data shows that communities receiving DFC funding have seen significant reductions in past 30-day use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana among middle and high school students.” Here is the press release from about a week ago if you want to read more details.
Sobriety Re-Launches Tom Sizemore’s Career
Did any of you watch Tom Sizemore on Celebrity Rehab or Sober house? Now if there was someone I was skeptical at staying sober, at least early on, it was him. Today he has 15 months of sobriety and has over 30 current projects he is working on between 2009 and 2010.
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The Alcohol and Abuse Daily News Review: Free Stuff from RecoveryMonth.gov & Law of Sobriety Book Review
A Daily Review of Breaking News, Facts and Studies, Stories of Recovery & Tips and Leading Blogs covering the topic of Alcohol and Abuse.
To me Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer and the start of fall, and the weather seemed to change right on queue today. This is probably one of my favorite months in Colorado, with the cool nights, leaves changing colors and perfect daytime temperatures. I got to finish my weekend going to see Eat Pray Love with my wife and Mom, which was a nice treat. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the movie and I was taken back to some of the time I spent out of the country.
I was lucky in college to do a couple study abroad programs and one was to Guadalajara, Mexico for four months. As great as it was, the unfortunate reality was my drinking was probably as bad as it ever was during my college years, so I didn’t make near as good use of the time as I would now if I had the same opportunity. But the movie did bring back some interesting memories. Anyway, enough about me, let’s get to the news.
21st Annual National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month
September is Recovery Month! Be sure to check out this great Government Website on it – http://www.recoverymonth.gov.
Now this is really cool – get a free recovery toolkit at the website. Below are the details and when I get mine I will be sure to let everyone know what I thought. Not only do they have this toolkit below, but they have all kinds of other great resources for free that they will mail you. Great stuff!
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The Alcohol and Abuse Daily News Review: Biggest decline in drinking in 60 years, 50 lives a year saved by new tax, Naomi Campbell’s one day at a time
A Daily Review of Breaking News, Facts and Studies, Stories of Recovery & Tips and Leading Blogs covering the topic of Alcohol and Abuse.
Labor Day Weekend is here and I am ready for a fun 3 day weekend. It is the last holiday until Thanksgiving for me, so I am glad it is here. Labor Day marks the end of the “100 Days of Heat” DUI crackdown in Colorado so it will be interesting to see how many more DUI’s there are this summer over last.
Biggest Decline in Alcohol Consumption in 60 Years!
I wanted to start today off with a positive note. In the UK the British Beer and Pub Association noted some data from the Office of National Statistics that said they have seen a decline in 4 of the last 5 years in alcohol drinking, accounting for a total reduction of 13% since 2004. The question we need to answer here is why. London is known for how expensive pints are, so is that a driving factor, or has there been other efforts to curb drinking that can account for this? Regardless the trend is great to see and something I would love to see here in the United States.
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The Alcohol and Abuse Daily News Review: New Drinking Study, Michael Douglas & The Puffy Alcoholic
A Daily Review of Breaking News, Facts and Studies, Stories of Recovery & Tips and Leading Blogs covering the topic of Alcohol and Abuse.
My Mom and Step-Dad just got into town today, so I am looking forward to a fun weekend of events around the Denver area this weekend. I hope all of you have some nice family plans lined up for the weekend. Holiday weekends are always interesting because it seems like just yesterday I couldn’t imagine a sober weekend, let alone a sober holiday weekend.
So I am always grateful to not be obsessed with the thoughts of drinking all weekend and making sure I have enough alcohol around to last through the holiday.
A Different Perspective to The Study That Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers
Yesterday I reviewed a highly controversial article that has garnered a ton of attention in Time that said heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers. You can read here if you missed it. Today I wanted to offer up a study that offers a different conclusion and to also talk about this from a different point of view.
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The Alcohol and Abuse Daily News Review
A Daily Review of Breaking News, Facts and Studies, Stories of Recovery & Tips and Leading Blogs covering the topic of Alcohol and Abuse.
Here is the first installment of what I plan to make my daily review of alcohol and abuse news. The idea came to me a year ago when I was reading one of my favorite newsletters on technology and in doing research there didn’t seem to be a good daily thread on this topic. And since I finally have a website that it makes sense to do it on I am excited to actually launch this. I really hope it adds value to you.
Every day I will cover a wide range of information and will often offer some of my commentary on it, and of course a link to where you can find the original content. So let’s get started…
Study Shows Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers
An article published last Monday in Time Magazine called “Why Do Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers?” has caused quite the controversy. Given the topic it is no surprise that it already has gotten 287 comments. Everything from people thanking them for confirming their drinking habits are ok to adamant disagreements and studies proving otherwise. The article is based on a paper published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research which concluded that abstainer’s mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers.
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1,565 Per Person Per Year! Australian Alcohol Abuse is a Major Crisis
Australian Alcohol Abuse
You might have recently seen a Major Study published on alcohol abuse and misuse in Australia that estimated the annual cost of excessive drinking there to be 36 billion dollars. For a country less than 1/10th the size of United States that number is a bit startling. Also consider the fact that wikipedia.com estimates the population at a size of just under 23 million people. That means alcohol abuse costs each and every citizen of Australia roughly 1,565 dollars a year. Also the Australian Education and Rehabilitation Foundation estimates that more than 70% of the adult population would be “negatively affected” by other peoples drinking.
I guess given the varies alcohol abuse facts I have mentioned and written about on this site already, see my Free Report Download if you are interested, it shouldn’t surprise me at all. But when I put this in the context of how much it costs each citizen, it really put it in perspective. The challenges alcohol and abuse creates for every country around the world are very real and experienced at one point or another by almost everyone.
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The Puke Shield
Have you heard of “The Puke Shield”? I just got back from an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and this term was mentioned by one of the attendees that recently went to a Al-Anon meeting, which for those of you unfamiliar with this are meetings for the loved ones of alcoholics and addicts. She went on to explain this metaphor, which simply means that the alcoholic and addict has the capability of destroying things around them and as the loved one you need to put up your “puke shied” to keep yourself safe from the damage and destruction they cause. I simply love this slogan as it creates an instant and powerful image. The image of how the the self absorbed and practicing alcoholic can literally and figuratively puke all over you as they feed their addiction.
What "Puke" Does The Alcoholic In Your Life Create?
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