The absence of in person addiction recovery services and 12 -Step meetings puts us at heightened levels of risk and anxiety. Let’s explore some options.

In the midst of this crisis, folks are losing access to countless services. Access to medical care and basic life needs are at the forefront of everyone’s concerns. Once those are met, we take stock and realize that so much of what we count on for our emotional well-being is missing. For some folks, that’s cancellation of their church services, civic organization activities, or social events. For people like me, it’s the absence of 12-step meetings that puts us at heightened levels of risk and anxiety.

In my community, our local recovery center has closed down and most of the other settings where 12-step meetings are held have also closed their doors – some for an unknown period of time. I’m quick to remind folks that the literature of our programs specifies that wherever two or more of us are gathered - it’s a meeting.

The loss of our usual daily or weekly routines forces us to be innovative but in order to take initiative, we have to get past the initial wave of anxiety because we are people who struggle with -

• change
• powerlessness
• loss
• living with unknowns
• being triggered by collective worry and panic

Many of us are unable to access counseling services or are only able to connect online at this time. The loss of support, even temporarily can be devastating. This is not a matter we can afford to take lightly.

Let’s explore some options:

• Online meetings. Check out sites like: intherooms.com and other online sites that host traditional 12 step programs online.
• Create your own online support group by gathering with friends on Zoom, Skype, or other teleconference sites/programs.
• If you’re comfortable having a small group of friends/peers in recovery over, consider hosting a small get together at your home.
• Utilize speaker meetings on Apple iTunes or Google Play.
• Check out TED talks and other inspiring programs on YouTube.
• Share my recovery videos from Sobernow.com with peers in recovery.
• Invest in some journaling, step work, or connect with new friends and/or reconnect with old friends during this time.

Call folks who support your goals. Be of service to others – especially if there are elderly folks in your community. Catch yourself worrying, and then take a minute and get back to basics:

• Separate what you have control over - and what you don’t.
• Breathe deeply, practice grounding skills and stay in today.
• Improve your self-care – eat good food, drink water, exercise.
• Read good books, listen to great music, do things that nurture your spirit.

If you’re struggling – reach out!

With more than a half dozen rehab stints behind him, former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy is opening up about a life of addiction on Capitol Hill to help de-stigmatize brain diseases and to raise money for brain disease research.

Talking to CNN, Kennedy says his decision not to seek reelection for a 9th term in Washington was based primarily on his need to focus more entirely on his continuing recovery from alcohol and drug addictions, saying, “You have people all over the country who want to do you a favor, and they think they are doing you a favor if they do what you ask them. Then you’re going to be able to go wherever you want in order to get drinking, to get any kind of medication you think you need in order to make it through…Frankly, living in the public eye and political life, was not conducive to getting that kind of long-term steady recovery that absolutely has got to be the No. 1 priority in my life.”

Kennedy, who is also bi-polar, says that in addition to doing whatever it takes to maintain his own recovery, his life’s work from this day forth will be to support the de-stigmatization of brain diseases and to raise funds for research towards effective treatments. To do so, he will launch his ‘One Mind’ foundation this weekend during a three day event in Boston.

The foundation will fund and support research into brain diseases and work from a core philosophy that mind and body diseases are likely more connected than currently understood and that a breakthrough in understanding could lead to dramatic improvements in treatments for a wide array of diseases.

Kennedy hopes to tap into the legacy of his president uncle to inspire great acts for research as JFK once inspired great acts for space research.  Fifty years ago, JFK made his famous moonshot speech, in which he committed the nation’s resources to the space race. In his event on Sunday at Kennedy National Library on the 50th anniversary of that speech - Patrick Kennedy hopes to inspire donors for a similar commitment of resources towards a ‘moonshot’ type effort for a breakthrough in understanding and treatments for brain diseases.

When asked by CNN if addiction was a disease of the brain, Kennedy had an easy answer at the ready, stating, “Clearly, this is a disease of the brain. Why would anyone subject themselves to being an out-of-control alcoholic or addict? No one I know would subject themselves to the kind of ridicule and shame these diseases subject someone to.”

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Two research studies released this month show that AA works to help people reduce their consumption and drinking frequency – and that the more often you attend meetings, the better it works.

In one study, female prisoners with alcohol abuse problems at a Rhode Island Correction facility were introduced to AA while incarcerated. The women had consumed an average of 12 drinks per drinking day prior to treatment. Researchers followed up with each woman at one, three and six months post release to observe the level of AA involvement and how that correlated with overall levels of alcohol consumption.

• They found that women who attended at least one AA meeting per week drank significantly less often and less per session than women who attended fewer than one meeting a week (if any at all).

In another study, Harvard researchers followed recovering alcohol abusers, checking in at 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 months to observe how AA attendance affected spirituality and alcohol consumption.

• They found that attending AA more frequently resulted in an increase in overall levels of spirituality and a decrease in drinking.

Explaining why AA seems to help, Harvard researcher John F. Kelly said, "We have also found that AA participation leads to recovery by helping members change their social network and by enhancing individuals' recovery coping skills, motivation for continued abstinence, and by reducing depression and increasing psychological well-being."

The results of both studies can be found in the early view section of Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research and both will be published in the March 2011 edition of the journal.

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Hamilton continues his fairy tale season, setting a new record with 28 homers in the batting derby last night.

Josh Hamilton set an All Star Game home run derby hitting record last night, breaking the old mark of 24 with 28 balls sent out of the park – including three spectacular blasts over 500 feet.

Hamilton says that he dreamed of batting in the derby back in 2006, before he was reinstated to baseball and only a year after hitting his personal rock bottom in an addiction battle that included 8 tries at rehab, a raft of tattoos and three years away from the game. Hamilton explained, "Before I got reinstated in '06, I had a dream. I was in Yankee Stadium, and this was before I knew there was going to be an All-Star Game and a Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium. I didn't see myself hitting, but I saw the microphone stuck in my face."

The first overall draft pick in 99, Hamilton is a natural player who quickly got in over his head with drugs and alcohol. Three years adrift and out of the game and through the devastation of drug and alcohol addiction – he has found redemption and sobriety and some pretty darn good baseball.

Baseball's fairy tale, the Josh Hamilton story – it just keeps getting better.

But if you ask Hamilton what's important, you he'll tell you that his Hall of Fame worthy season doesn’t matter as much as his sobriety or his family. He says that although through baseball he is given the opportunity to preach his message of faith, that "I finally realized that life wasn't about baseball. Being a good husband and a good father and waking up every day and being a responsible man is what's important."

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Once the roughest joint in town, the Eastwood Tavern has been renamed the Eastwood House of Recovery - Now healing instead of hurting.

Once a Biker bar known for violence and with literal blood on the walls, the Eastwood Tavern in Comstock County Michigan has been rechristened the Eastwood House of Recovery, and now tends to the very people who used to drink heavily within its walls.

Mike Green, a retired truck driver and ex addict opened the reincarnated Eastwood facility last year. Now serving hope instead of whiskey, the community center is open 12 hours a day to those in the community looking for sober support and recovery fellowship. Home to six 12 steps meetings a day, pot luck dinners and weekly euchre tournaments, the facility has met a real need, and the response has surprised even the optimistic Mike Green. About 100 people walk through the doors on an average day.

Steve Somers, 24, says he comes to the Eastwood House of Recovery just to chat sometimes, and describes it as "a place to come where I know alcohol won't be an issue - there are some days when I'm here 12 hours a day."

The building is owned by the non-profit Geek Group, and Mike Green pays the organization half of what he collects through "pass the hat" donations as rent each month.

Green, who spent 19 years abusing heroin and alcohol now suffers from stage 2 Hep C, and doctors say he won't make 60, but he explains "if it weren't for people in the recovery community helping me out when I needed it most, I wouldn't be alive today. This is my way of giving back to people in recovery who need somewhere to go."

Jim Wickline, 82, an appreciate patron of the new facility sums up the transformation as "A place of destruction has been turned into a house of construction."

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Conventional therapy supplemented with computer assisted therapy works seems to work better than in-person therapy alone.

Drug users, who were given access to a computer assisted therapy program in addition to conventional substance abuse therapies, were far more successful at quitting than addicts who received only conventional therapy – those are the findings published by Yale University researcher Kathleen M Carroll in this month's edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Carroll led a team that designed tested an experimental "counseling" software therapy program. The program was based on cognitive behavioral therapy, and through video, audio and text, taught users better ways to avoid the triggers that lead to drug cravings.

To test the efficacy of the software, 77 people who sought out drug treatment were randomly assigned to either a therapy only, or a therapy and software group. The success of either method was tested by comparing the number of positive drug tests accumulated by each group by the end of the multi month study - and the software using group was more successful.

Caroll says that although cognitive behavioral therapy has been proven a valid tool for substance abuse treatment, it remains seldom used due to the time and training needed to use it. Computer assisted therapy may allow therapists to provide more comprehensive treatments within limited in-person therapeutic sessions.

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Researchers have long known that alcoholics in recovery face a lengthy period of sleep disruption, but some latest work out of the University of Melbourne suggests that a history of alcoholism can negatively affect sleep quality for as long as 2 years after achieving abstinence.

Sleep researchers out of the University of Melbourne hooked 84 people up to a polysomnograph to evaluate the quality of their sleep. 42 of these study subjects were recovering alcoholics recruited from a residential treatment facility and 42 were non alcoholic control subjects. The average age of the alcoholic subjects was 49 (27 men and 15 women). Male alcoholics had consumed an average lifetime alcohol quantity of 1607.2 kilograms of pure alcohol and women had consumed an average of 847 kgs.

Armed with polysomnograph data, the researchers found that:

• Male alcoholics spent an average of 6.6% of sleep time in deep wave sleep compared to control males that spent 12% in deep wave sleep. Women alcoholics spent 11.1% compared to control women who spent 12.1%.

• Male alcoholics had more stage one rapid eye movement sleep (NREM) at 8.5% of total sleep time compared to control males who spent 6.2% in this sleep stage. Women alcoholics spent 6.3% of sleep in this stage, compared to 5.6% amongst control women.

• Alcoholics that had consumed more alcohol over their drinking career had greater sleep deficits.

More time spent in NREM and less deep wave sleep are 2 factors associated with reduced sleep quality.

The researchers investigated alcoholics that had been in recovery for as long as 719 days, and were surprised by the persistence of the sleep detriments.

Drinking a large quantity of alcohol in a sitting reduces the amount of necessary REM sleep that night. The body makes up for this deficit by “rebounding” the following night with increased REM sleep time, to catch-up with what was missed.

This catch-up theory of REM sleep has been used to explain the sleep disturbances of early alcoholism recovery, but the researchers say that the duration of sleep disturbances observed in this experiment (for as long as 2 years after abstinence) suggests that a more permanent structural change in the brain accounts for the changes in sleep patterns.

The researchers say that these sleep problems may account for some of the cognitive deficits experienced by alcoholics in recovery.

The research summary can be found in the Oct. 2009 edition of the journal, Sleep.

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Research shows that we overestimate our powers of self control and so we unconcernedly expose ourselves to temptation – increasing our probability of succumbing to it.

Judge not lest ye be judged…that’s what senior lecturer at the Kellogg School, Loran Nordgren advises after running a study that examined how much control we have over our impulses.

We don’t have as much as we think we do – and those of us that think ourselves very self controlled, actually place ourselves at greater risk of an impulsive bad decision.

Nordgren led a research team that investigated whether beliefs about willpower influenced the ability to control impulses. Specifically, do people who believe themselves to have high levels of self control actually end up controlling their impulses any better?

Nordgren built the study on the back of previous research that has shown that people in a cold or non impulsive state (a cold state for a measure of hunger impulse control could be someone who had just finished eating until sated) underestimate how much influence a hot state (a hungry state, for example) has on the ability to control impulses. With this foreknowledge, Nordgren’s team ran tests that evaluated:

1. Whether people who believe they have a high capacity for self control will expose themselves to greater temptation and thus eventually succumb to greater impulsive behaviors

2. Whether people already in a “hot” state of mind will better judge their ability to resist temptation

3. Whether people in a “cold” state will be less able to accurately judge their ability to resist temptation

The research team ran tests using addiction (cigarette smoking) and food temptation as measures.

They found that people who predicted a high level of self control did in fact place themselves in situations of greater temptation (such as choosing to view a movie about smoking) and were then very much more likely to smoke a cigarette than people who predicted lower self control and who exposed themselves to less temptation.

In another experiment, people in a “cold” state, who had eaten until full, chose a greater selection of tasty snacks than did a hungry group (a hot group) counseled to avoid temptation and ultimately, the “cold” group consumed more of the snacks.

Nordgren summarizes the research results by saying, "People are not good at anticipating the power of their urges. The key is simply to avoid any situations where vices and other weaknesses thrive and, most importantly, for individuals to keep a humble view of their willpower."

He says that in any system that relies on people to show self restraint, people will overestimate their ability to control themselves, and fall prey to temptation - saying, “We expose ourselves to more temptation than is wise, and subsequently we have millions of people suffering with obesity, addictions and other unhealthy lifestyles."

The full study results can be found in the coming print edition of Psychological Science.

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By altering levels of GDNF (a brain protein) in rats, researchers in California were able to greatly reduce alcohol cravings and consumption. Fellow scientists call it a landmark study.

Scientists at the Ernest Gallo Research Center in Emeryville think they've made a breakthrough in the understanding and treatment of alcoholism, a breakthrough that they say may help to reduce the high odds of relapse facing those in recovery from the disease.

Their research study involved a manipulation of the brain protein glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), and in rats anyway, it showed an amazing ability to keep alcoholic rats off the sauce, for good.

In an animal model study, the researchers gave a cohort of rats alcohol at a level high enough to induce dependence, and then cut off the alcohol supply. The rats were then split into two study groups. Half of the rats received a manipulation that increased their levels of GDNF, and half the rats didn't, and all the rats were then again given access to alcohol.

Amazingly, the rats that had the higher levels of GDNF were far less interested in consuming alcohol, while the rats with the normal levels of the protein quickly fell back into their hard drinking ways.

Higher levels of GDNF reduced the rats desire to drink alcohol.

Significantly, when the rats were given sugar water solution (a natural reward) both groups of rats consumed the solution at the same intensity - and this, according to study leader Dorit Ron, is significant.

He explains that at the moment, there are certain drugs used in the treatment against relapse for alcoholism. The problem with these drugs, he says, is that although they can help to reduce cravings for alcohol, they tend to also reduce cravings for other naturally pleasurable things in life, "People lose desire for any pleasurable activities. They feel bad, they feel blah, so they stop taking the drug."

The research results were published in today's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Fellow scientists have already hailed this manipulation technique with a selective effect on alcohol cravings as a major breakthrough. Friedbert Weiss, of the Scripps Institute commented, "I think it's a landmark study. Chronic vulnerability to relapse is really at the core of addiction."

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Hamilton says that pictures posted online yesterday that show him in compromising poses with women while seemingly drunk at a bar are real and were taken in Tempe Arizona in January.

The sporting website, Deadspin.com posted pictures on Saturday morning of Rangers all-star outfielder Josh Hamilton, seemingly drunk in an Arizona bar, surrounded by a variety of women and in a variety of provocative poses.

Hamilton, who has made headlines for his recovery story and success on the field, admitted yesterday that the photos posted were real and were taken on a January night after a day spent preparing for spring training at the Athletes Performance Institute in Tempe Arizona.

He admitted to an alcohol relapse, and though he has spent much time preaching his story of recovery through Jesus Christ, he said, "I don't feel like I'm a hypocrite. I feel like I'm human. I got away from the one thing that keeps me straightened out and going in the right direction."

Hamilton was chosen as a first round draft pick in 1999 by Tampa Bay. By 2004, alcohol and drugs had derailed his career and he spent 3 years away from baseball, finally making it back with Cincinnati in 2007 after having had his “last drink” in October 2005. His dramatic comeback successes (he led the league in RBIs last year), his humility and his openness about his past endeared him to many baseball fans, who appreciated his candor and his heart warming story of genuine recovery.

Hamilton told reporters that he admitted to his slip with alcohol the day after it happened to his wife, his family and to the Rangers organization. He says that although “he hates that this happened” that it shows how ever present the battle to stay sober remains in him.

Describing how it happened, Hamilton said, "I went to get something to eat. Obviously, I eat at restaurants that have bars in them all the time. I wasn't mentally fit to go in there, spiritually fit, and it just crossed my mind, 'Can I have a drink?' Obviously, I can't."

Hamilton told reporters that he was embarrassed about the incident.

The 28 year old breached no rules of the Ranger organization or MLB and will face no career sanction.

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In his record-breaking performance at the All-Star Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium, last week, Josh Hamilton was a living testament that people can change their lives and can overcome addiction to alcohol and drugs.

A few years ago, Hamilton hit rock bottom when he was suspended from baseball for three years after it had emerged that he was addicted to alcohol and drugs - primarily crack cocaine.

Josh didn't give up but managed to turn his life around through his love of baseball. It took him eight rehab stints to finally kick his addiction. Although he may not have won the Home Run Derby crown last week, his victory over addiction makes him a winner on a much grander scale.

In a statement on ESPN Josh remembers that it was a humbling experience to be addicted. "Getting the addiction under control was even more humbling - and the reason, I got better," he says "is that he surrendered. Instead of asking to be bailed out, instead of making deals with God by saying, If you get me out of this mess, I'll stop doing what I'm doing, I asked for help."

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Last year, without a team to play for, Hargrove wasn’t worried about football - he was trying to take his life back, spending 10 months in drug rehab and treatment for cocaine, alcohol and marijuana abuse.

What a difference a year makes.

Suspended for the full 2008 season after multiple substance abuse infractions Saints star DT Anthony Hargrove wound up a Miami in drug rehab – a place he would stay for 10 months of grueling and ultimately life changing treatment.

No team seemed interested in the very troubled 25 year old, and he says that football was far from his mind when making the decision to enter into drug treatment. Describing his thought process prior to deciding on rehab, he says, "Football wasn't in the picture. The realization was 'What are you going to do when you get sober and clean? What skills do you have?...My main motivation was to try to better my life and get myself in position where I could take care of my children."

Hargrove spent the first years of his life in Brooklyn. A tenement fire left his family homeless at the age of 5 and his mom died from AIDS by the time he was 9. Without family in NY, Hargrove spent his teen years with relatives in Florida, where he excelled as at quarterback in high school.

Hargrove earned a scholarship to Georgia Tech and stellar play soon earned him NFL attention. Unfortunately, his classroom performance was less impressive and he ultimately failed out of school.

After a time spent in menial jobs, Hargrove worked himself back into NFL shape and earned himself a third round draft selection by from the Rams in 2004. By 2006 he was using drugs heavily, even once attempting suicide by overdose. He was traded to Buffalo where he continued to use drugs, fail drug tests and run afoul of the law – leading ultimately to his full season suspension in 2008.

New Beginnings

Hargrove spent nearly a year at the Transitions treatment center in Miami, recovering from years of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and bad decisions. Upon his release from treatment, Hargrove sent a heartfelt 12 minute video monologue to all 32 franchises, describing honestly what he’d been, what he’d done to get better and what he planned on doing to stay healthy, clean and sober.

Only the Saints responded, and after meeting with the determined Hargrove, Saint’s coach Sean Payton signed him and hasn’t regretted it since. Payton says he’s had no regrets, saying, "Most of the guys that come back, they either get in trouble again or they come back and they're not the same. But it kind of worked out different for him. He's a better player than he was before. He's helped us out big time…It gives you confidence in the human spirit"

Now, in an amazing redemption story, he’s back in Miami just one year later to play in this week’s Super Bowl Hargrove is grateful to be where he is and determined to stay clean and sober for good.

Asked whether he worries about slipping up while immersed in the pre Super Bowl party atmosphere he retorts, "Going out and partying is not in my plan. I don't go. It's simple as that. It's about understanding boundaries and limits. Before I even came down here I had a plan of action for what I was going to do each day.

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Researchers at UC Davis have shown that although meth users in recovery have a very difficult time with impulse control, that after 1 year of abstinence, the brain regains much cognitive control.

Some good news for those in recovery from meth amphetamine addiction…it does get easier, in time.

Ruth Salo, out of UC Davis, has spent a career studying the behavioral neuropsychiatric and cognitive consequences of meth addiction. She says that while researchers used to believe that meth addiction caused global irreversible brain damage, her latest research reveals that in time, recovering meth addicts can expect to see some improvements – after about 1 year of sobriety.

Salo led a research team at UC Davis that tested the cognitive control capabilities of 65 former meth addicts. All study subjects had been abstinent for at least 3 weeks; some had been abstinent for years. The pre abstinence duration of amphetamine use ranged from 24 months to 28 years.

Salo had users complete a computer mediated Stroop Attention Test, a very well proven test that has subjects focus on a task while trying to ignoring distractions, which measures cognitive control abilities.

She found that those very newly in recovery (6 months clean or less) fared significantly worse on the test than subjects who had been abstinent for a year or longer. In fact, subjects clean for a year or longer performed the Stroop Test as well as a control group of non-drug using subjects.

Saol also found that subjects with longer histories of meth use did more poorly and longer histories of abstinence are associated with increasing test scores.

What Is Cognitive Control?

Cognitive control enables longer term planning and effective decision making.

Sola explains the importance of cognitive control by saying, "The test taps into something people do in everyday life: make choices in the face of conflicting impulses…For meth users, impairments in this decision-making ability might make them more likely to spend a paycheck on the immediate satisfaction of getting high rather than on the longer-term satisfaction gained by paying rent or buying groceries."

She says that the study offers a lot of hope to those in recovery wondering 'if they are ever going to feel better' and that it also offers insight into why the first year of methamphetamine recovery can be so challenging. She hopes that treatment providers will take this information into account when designing programs for the early days of meth recovery.

The results of this cognitive decision making study reinforce study data from one of Salo's earlier experiments, which used MRI imaging to reveal a recovery in some brain chemical functioning after about 1 year of meth abstinence.

Salo calls meth use a "pandemic" affecting 35 million worldwide and states that although recovery is difficult, it is possible.

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