The Occupy London Stock Exchange protest encampment outside St Paul's Cathedral.

<div id="main-content-picture" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: #ffffff; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Occupy London protest at St Paul's" height="276" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/guardian/About/General/2011/10/29/1319903537602/Occupy-London-protest-at--006.jpg" style="border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" width="460" /><div class="caption" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #666666; font-size: 12px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images</div></div><div id="article-body-blocks" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: #ffffff; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Christian groups have drawn up plans to protect protesters by forming a ring of prayer around the camp outside St Paul's Cathedral, should an attempt be made to forcibly remove them.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">As the storm of controversy over the handling of the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/occupy-london" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Occupy London">Occupy London</a>Stock Exchange demonstration deepened on Saturday, Christian activists said it was their duty to stand up for peaceful <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/protest" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Protest">protest</a> in the absence of support from St Paul's. One Christian protester, Tanya Paton, said: "We represent peace, unity and love. A ring of prayer is a wonderful symbol."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">With senior officials at St Paul's apparently intent on seeking an injunction to break up the protest, the director of the influential religious thinktank Ekklesia, Jonathan Bartley, said the cathedral's handling of the protest had been a "car crash" and predicted more high-profile resignations from the Church of England.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">The canon chancellor of St Paul's, Dr Giles Fraser, and the Rev Fraser Dyer, who works as a chaplain at the cathedral, have already stepped down over the decision to pursue legal action to break up the camp.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Meanwhile, it has emerged that Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, is attempting to mediate in the dispute. She said she had contacted the corporation, cathedral and protesters to offer a "neutral space" to sort out the impasse. The corporation had not yet responded, she said, although St Paul's had acknowledged her offer. She said the protesters had been enthusiastic in their desire for dialogue and a peaceful resolution.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">"It would have been easy to opt for a line of action that would have led to images of police dragging away protesters, but they want to talk."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;"> </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">It was claimed last night that a highly critical report into the moral standards of bankers has been suppressed by St Paul's amid fears it would inflame tensions over the protest. The report, based on a survey of 500 City workers who were asked if they thought they were worth their salaries and bonuses, was due to be published last Thursday.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">But publication of the report, by the St Paul's Institute, has been delayed in apparent acknowledgement that it would give the impression the cathedral was on the side of protesters.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Christian groups that have publicly sided with the protesters include one of the oldest Christian charities, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the oldest national student organisation, the Student Christian Movement,<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/christianity" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Christianity">Christianity</a> Uncut, the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust and the Christian magazine<em style="border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Third Way</em>. In addition, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/london" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on London">London</a> Catholic Worker, the Society of Sacramental Socialists and Quaker groups have offered their support.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">A statement by the groups said: "As Christians, we stand alongside people of all religions who are resisting economic injustice with active nonviolence. The global economic system perpetuates the wealth of the few at the expense of the many. It is based on idolatrous subservience to markets. We cannot worship both God and money."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Bartley said: "There are some very unhappy people within the Church of England. The protesters seem to articulate many of the issues that the church has paid lip-service to. Many people are disillusioned with the position St Paul's has adopted. To evict rather than offer sanctuary is contrary to what many people think the church is all about. The whole thing has been a car crash."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">On Saturday afternoon, more than 20 religious figures gathered on the steps of St Paul's to support the occupation, which began two weeks ago.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">The bishop of London, the Right Rev Richard Chartres, has promised to attend St Paul's in an attempt to persuade activists to leave. But protesters say they have no intention of packing up, many reiterating their intention to stay at the cathedral until Christmas and beyond.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">A spokesman for Occupy London urged the City of London Corporation to open a dialogue with protesters to avoid a lengthy legal battle that could prove expensive for the taxpayer.</p></div>

The Occupy London Stock Exchange protest encampment outside St Paul's Cathedral.

Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images Christian groups have drawn up plans to protect protesters by forming a ring of prayer around the camp o...

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Claus Mogensen 45 years old is a chronic drug addict who lives in Arhus,Denmark.

<p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; background-color: #ffffff;"><div class="panel-pane pane-views pane-stories-media panel-slideshow" style="padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; clear: both; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: relative; margin: 0px;"><div class="pane-content" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 20px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: dotted; border-top-color: #8d8d8d;"><div class="view view-stories-media view-id-stories_media view-display-id-default view-dom-id-1" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="view-content" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div id="views_slideshow_thumbnailhover_main_stories_media-default" class="views_slideshow_thumbnailhover_main views_slideshow_main viewsSlideshowThumbnailHover-processed" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div id="views_slideshow_thumbnailhover_teaser_section_stories_media-default" class="views_slideshow_thumbnailhover_teaser_section views_slideshow_teaser_section" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; position: relative; width: 620px; height: 596px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div id="views_slideshow_thumbnailhover_div_stories_media-default_4" class="views_slideshow_thumbnailhover_slide views_slideshow_slide views-row-5 views_slideshow_thumbnailhover_hidden views-row-odd" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; display: block; position: absolute; z-index: 10; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 620px; height: 560px; opacity: 1; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="views-field-field-image-fid" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="views-content-field-image-fid" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><a class="imagecache imagecache-large_610x456_scaled imagecache-linked imagecache-large_610x456_scaled_linked" href="http://www.demotix.com/photo/898947/life-chronic-drug-addict-denmark" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: underline; color: #384680; display: block; height: 456px; line-height: 456px; font-weight: bold; background-color: #333333; text-align: center; min-width: 610px; padding: 5px;"><img alt="" class="imagecache imagecache-large_610x456_scaled" height="406" src="http://www.demotix.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/large_610x456_scaled/photos/898947.jpg" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: middle; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" width="610" /></a></div></div><div class="views-field-field-video-thumbnail-fid" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"></div><div class="views-field-body" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; float: left; width: 360px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="views-content-body" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><p style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; word-spacing: 0.125em; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Clause takes a nap at his room to cool down his system.</p></div></div><div class="views-field-nid" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; float: left; width: 360px; font-weight: bold; padding: 0px;"><div class="views-content-nid" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">ID: 898947</div></div><div class="views-field-field-meta-date-value" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; float: left; width: 360px; padding: 0px;"></div><div class="views-field-nid" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; float: left; width: 360px; font-weight: bold; padding: 0px;"><div class="views-content-nid" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="item-list" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><ul style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">   </ul></div></div></div><div class="views-field-addtocartlink" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; position: absolute; top: 512px; right: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="views-content-addtocartlink" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="add-to-cart" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><form id="uc-product-add-to-cart-form-898947" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; " action="http://www.demotix.com/news/898960/life-chronic-drug-addict-denmark" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post"><div style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; 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outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; position: absolute; top: 476px; right: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="views-content-view-node" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" title="View image tags, dimensions and download options"><a href="http://www.demotix.com/photo/898947/life-chronic-drug-addict-denmark" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none; color: #384680; text-indent: -1000px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; display: block; height: 26px; width: 107px; background-image: url(http://www.demotix.com/sites/all/themes/clean_demotix/images/more-info-button.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">More Info</a></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="panel-pane pane-content-field pane-context-field-teaser panel-story-teaser" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 20px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: dotted; border-top-color: #8d8d8d;"><div class="pane-content" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="field field-type-text field-field-teaser" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="field-items" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="field-item odd" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; word-spacing: 0.125em; padding: 0px;">Waking up every day with a craving for a substance which has not only destroyed your life but has also taken away your brother,everyone's trust in you, and puts you in the<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />same categories as the lowest members of society,ever wondered what is it like?<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />Claus Mogensen 45 years old is a chronic drug addict who lives in Arhus,Denmark.He is noticeably shaking and restless as he sits down on the mattress in the<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />small, dirty living room.The surroundings seem to lack everything, as if all the valuables and appliances that once sat in this small, deteriorating room has been used to barter for<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />more drugs.Claus goes to his empty fridge and removes three small bottles of Methadone dosage prescribed by his doctor which he has to take everyday.<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />Methadone is a narcotic pain reliever, similar to Morphine. It reduces withdrawal symptoms in people addicted to heroin or other narcotic drugs without causing the "high"<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />associated with the drug addiction.Clauses older brother was on heroin and died six years ago due to overdose. "That shocked the sense out of me,but i haven`t been able to stop using it"says Claus.<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />I remember smoking tobacco when i was 14 and was given cigarettes by my friend.During lunch hour at school we used to sneak out to smoke. I continued smoking until i was 18 years old then I started using Marijuana."I did not feel high i wondered why people smoke it" he says.<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />I smoked it because my friends used it,peer pressure you could call it. His school grades started dropping down because he lost concentration in class due to excess of marijuana.He then dropped out of school and never continued with his secondary education.At the age of 19, during a new year party there were people taking cocaine and some of my friends talked me into trying some.I remember feeling so warm and secure.At this point Claus would do just a little bit of it at a time to make the feeling and the supply last as long as possible.I started out doing it only on the weekends.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; word-spacing: 0.125em; padding: 0px;">Then it wasn’t long afterwards, he started buying for his own. Soon he was doing it every weekend. It became the main focus of all his activities.I liked traveling a lot and everywhere I went with my friends we wanted to have cocaine.It made the experience a lot more fun and enjoyable.Other friends we met really appreciated us having some really good stuff and it made me feel like I was important and gave me a powerful sense of control.<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />He takes a one minute nap while seated at a chair during the conversation and immediately wakes up and apologizes.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; word-spacing: 0.125em; padding: 0px;">He used cocaine for some years before his taste in drugs turned to heroin.At the age of 24 he became addicted to it.On the 6th December 1989 he was admitted at a psychiatric<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />hospital for mental disorder because of excessive usage of heroin. "I dont know what happened but i became dependant on it and i kept using more" he says.<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />Claus has been in and out of the psychiatric hospital for many years.The treatment did not only work on his mental health but also his love life,in 2004 while at the hospital he fell in love with 55 years Lene who was also undergoing treatment on mental disorder at the time. They both fell for each other and have been together for six years now. "I used to feel rejected and lonely but after meeting her ,it made me feel appreciated and loved despite the fact that i have my addiction,"he says.<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />Both live apart and don`t have kids.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; word-spacing: 0.125em; padding: 0px;">He admits that he cannot perform any job without a dose of Cocaine fuelling his system and that does not come cheaply since one dose of the kill-me-slowly powder costs<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />DKK180. “Drugs have definitely become part of my body system and I cannot do without. I don’t even fear the police or dread contracting diseases any more,” he says.<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />In February this year Denmark opened its first clinic equipped to distribute free heroin under medical supervision to people heavily addicted to the drug.The clinic is set to serve<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />only 120 of some 300 hard-core heroin addicts.The objective is not to cure heroin addicts, but to help those who are not satisfied by Methadone by providing them with clean<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />heroin, allowing them to avoid disease and the temptation of criminal acts to obtain the drug.<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />Clause is one of the beneficiaries.He receives his doses everyday and he prefers methadone to injecting himself but still he sniffs cocaine. He receives DKK 13,000 per month<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />from the government for his upkeep which mostly he uses to buy cocaine. Each cocaine addict needs roughly DKK 300 a day to satisfy his or her crave. This amounts to DKK 109,500 Thousand per year to spent on cocaine alone.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; word-spacing: 0.125em; padding: 0px;">According to the 2009 report on the drug situation in Denmark prepared by the National Board of Health, the Danish “Focal Point”,there are an estimated 13,000 intravenous drug users in Denmark.It also states that In 2008, more than half (61%) of the young population aged between 18 and 24 years was admitted to treatment for cannabis use as their primary drug, whereas 17%, 6% and 2%, respectively, of the young population were admitted to treatment for use of amphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy as their primary drug. Globally, United Nation Office On Drug and Crime estimates that between 155 and 250 million people, or 3.5% to 5.7% of the population aged 15-64, had used illicit substances at least once in the previous year. Cannabis users comprise the largest number of illicit drug users(129-190 million people). Amphetamine-type stimulants are the second most commonly used illicit drugs, followed by opiates and cocaine. However, in terms of harm associated with use, opiates(Heroin, Morphine)<br style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />would be ranked at the top.</p></div></div></div></div></div></span></p>

Claus Mogensen 45 years old is a chronic drug addict who lives in Arhus,Denmark.

Clause takes a nap at his room to cool down his system. ID: 898947     More Info Waking up every day with a craving for a substance which ha...

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Deadly Drug Overdose Leads to Pill-Pushing Doctor

<p> </p><p>Montgomery County doctor and his son surrendered to police Thursday morning after investigators discovered that they were supplying known drug addicts with large supplies of narcotics, according to authorities. At least one person died of an overdose on Dr. Richard Ruth's drugs, police say. Ruth, of Souderton, was performing insincere medical exams for drug seekers and then providing them with prescription drugs that often ended up being sold in large quantities on the street, police say. Ruth has been running this drug operation for years, authorities say. The lengthy police investigation into Ruth's alleged crimes was called "Operation Pill Pusher." "We know that this community has been plagued by prescription drug abuse and overdoses and this was the go-to guy in the community," said District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman. Ruth’s son, Michael Ruth, was his medical assistant. "For them to come in and say he’s unlawfully doing things is just an atrocity," a teary-eyed Michael told NBC Philadelphia’s Denise Nakano. Michael also faces charges in the drug scheme that involved charging patients for the narcotic prescriptions and insurance companies for the bogus office visits, police say. Police were tipped off to Dr. Ruth’s drug dealing scheme when sources told them last September that they were able to obtain large amounts of oxycodone from the doctor. In addition to providing drugs to people who dealt them on the street, Dr. Ruth ignored pleas from family members of the drug-addicted patients who asked him to stop prescribing drugs like Percocet and Oxycodone, police say. Dr. Ruth was charged with more than 40 counts of fraud, knowingly prescribing to drug addicts, prescription fraud, and conspiracy, among others. His son Michael was charged with similar crimes.</p>

Deadly Drug Overdose Leads to Pill-Pushing Doctor

  Montgomery County doctor and his son surrendered to police Thursday morning after investigators discovered that they were supplying known ...

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Is it possible to effectively treat addiction without addressing the spiritual aspects of the problem

<p><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; background-color: #ffffff;"><div class="singlesubtitle" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px !important; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The public struggles of celebrities like the late Amy Winehouse reveal how insensitive our society has become to drug and alcohol abuse. But the problem is real, says therapist LaTonya Mason Summers, and we need to reject the ugly trend of laughing at its destructive effects.</div><div id="attachment_17095" class="wp-caption alignright" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 7px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 24px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; float: right; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; width: 360px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-17095" height="255" src="http://www.urbanfaith.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Winehouse-reflection350x255.gif" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 640px; float: left; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" width="350" /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="background-image: none; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #666666; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-right: 10px !important; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px !important; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px; float: left; font-weight: bold; width: 340px; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; padding: 5px; border: 0px initial initial;">LOST SOUL: Amy Winehouse in London on July 23, 2009, exactly two years before her death. (Photo by Shaun Curry/Newscom.)</p></div><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">This week, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/coroner-amy-winehouse-died-too-much-alcohol-123334324.html" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" target="_blank">Amy Winehouse’s official cause of death</a> was finally announced, three months after the singer was discovered dead in her London home on July 23. After initial autopsy results came back inconclusive, the coroner determined that Winehouse died from consuming an extreme amount of alcohol. According to test results, the 27-year-old singer’s blood alcohol level was five times the drunk-driving limit. Her doctor said the troubled star had resumed drinking in the days prior to her death, after a short-lived period of sobriety.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Besides being a talented artist, Winehouse was emblematic of the numerous celebrities today whose public battles with substance abuse are regularly in the headlines. By the end of her life, Winehouse’s struggles had stretched to the point of becoming fodder for jokes and riddles (“Q: What was Amy Winehouse’s biggest hit? A: Her last one!”). Sadly, our society has grown so accustom to addiction that we now laugh it off. But for those in its grips, it’s no joke.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">We asked LaTonya Mason Summers, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based mental health therapist, to comment on the realities of drug and alcohol addiction and what we can do to help those affected by it.</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">UrbanFaith: After Amy Winehouse’s death, the Huffington Post featured a commentary by Rabbi Shais Taub which asked the question, “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-shais-taub/amy-winehouse-death_b_908050.html" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" target="_blank">Was the World Powerless to Stop Amy Winehouse?</a>” In other words, are there addictions so strong and pervasive that they’re beyond human understanding and control? How would you answer that?</strong></h2><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"></strong><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">LaTonya Mason Summers:</strong> The word choice is interesting here, and I agree: the “world” was powerless to stop Amy Winehouse. But it was the “world” that fueled Winehouse’s addictions. Not “world” in the sense of the “earth,” but “world” as defined by Winehouse’s frame of reference — the background, culture, and lifestyle out of which she lived. Addictions are strong, pervasive and hard to understand and control, but it’s even more difficult when one tries to stop addiction by their own strength and understanding. It is reported that Winehouse died from alcohol poisoning. Drug and alcohol abuse is a byproduct of something far deeper. Oftentimes, it’s a symptom of low self-esteem, unresolved trauma and abuse, rejection and abandonment, and mostly fear. We do a great disservice to addicted persons when we focus on their addictions and ignore the underlying problems.</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">We see so many celebrity drug and alcohol addicts today that our culture has almost grown cold and callous to it. For instance, before her death there was a website devoted solely to the question of “<a href="http://www.whenwillamywinehousedie.com/" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" target="_blank">When will Amy Winehouse die?</a>” We see celebrities such as Winehouse, Lindsay Lohan, Whitney Houston, and Charlie Sheen, and we make jokes about them. How does this affect our culture’s understanding of addiction?</strong></h2><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"></strong>When we have a culture entertained by reality TV shows, court and crime TV, and sensationalized Web broadcasting — not to mention today’s popular music — we can’t help but have a desensitized society. We are no longer afraid of or empathetic toward anyone or anything because we’ve been there and done that through TV and the media. So, why wouldn’t we have a “When will Amy Winehouse Die?” website?</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Unfortunately, we live in a society that “dumbs down” addictions but tacitly gives a “thumbs up” to its portrayals. Remember when there used to be cautionary documentaries on drugs and alcohol, and on people who struggled with them? Now, we have reality shows that glorify dysfunctional behavior. No wonder we are ignorant. Understanding addictions is no longer newsworthy.</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">How do you counsel a person with a serious drug addiction? Where do you begin, and what kinds of things should family and friends understand as they’re trying to help that person?</strong></h2><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"></strong>I used to set up and run treatment programs for adolescent and adult substance abusers. I absolutely loved that line of work, but it was emotionally tough. After 11 years of doing it, I stepped away to work solely with mentally ill people. The public sees addicted persons as weak people who lack self-control and deserve every consequence they face. But can you imagine the level of shame, guilt, frustration, and hopelessness that those substance abusers felt by the time they got to me? Imagine having failed everyone, including yourself, family, friends, employers, and the legal system — not to mention God. I always started treatment by instilling hope and restoring the addicted person’s sense of worth. It was much easier to establish rapport, trust, and motivation that way.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">God forbid I say this, but oftentimes the families were more sick than the addicts. In fact, family members would wind up on my couch before the addict would. Family work is important in substance-abuse treatment, because the family members can make recovery hard. They help too much. Their helping sometimes hurts the addict. When my patients had toxic families, I’d send my patient to a treatment program in another city or state so they could get better.</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Over the summer, former NBA star <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/jalen-rose-gets-20-days-jail-drunk-driving-160144351.html" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" target="_blank">Jalen Rose was sentenced to 20 days in jail</a> for drunk driving. Some wondered if the treatment was overly harsh because he was a black celebrity, since others have gotten off easier. Do you think jail time is an effective way to steer people clear of destructive behavior involving alcohol and drugs?</strong></h2><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"></strong>In my experience working in the court system as an advocate for my clients, the courts made it worse. The punishment given rarely fit the crime. The probation officers were inconsistent. The judges sent mixed messages by punishing minor crimes with maximum sentences and vice versa. Jail time is punitive, and punishment does not work when the drug or alcohol use is secondary to something else. Addicts don’t mind punishment because they typically feel useless and worthless anyway. That kind of punishment affirms what they believe about themselves. However, I am not saying they should not suffer consequences for drunk driving, drug use, etc. I am saying that offering them rehab while they’re incarcerated might yield greater results.</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">What kinds of miracles have you seen in your work with people battling addictions?</strong></h2><div id="attachment_17103" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 7px; margin-right: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; float: left; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; width: 160px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-17103" height="200" src="http://www.urbanfaith.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/LaTonya-Mason150x200.gif" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 640px; float: left; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" width="150" /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="background-image: none; background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #666666; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-right: 10px !important; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px !important; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px; float: left; font-weight: bold; width: 140px; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: repeat repeat; padding: 5px; border: 0px initial initial;">LaTonya Mason Summers</p></div><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Goodness, the stories I can tell. I’ve had a hand in imparting into the lives of addicted persons who are now pastors, business owners, and even addictions counselors. I had a 15-year-old girl whose parents brought her to me as a last resort. She had refused other counselors, and I assumed she would do the same with me. After I asked her parents to leave, the girl opened up to me like a book. (It wasn’t because of anything special that I said to her, but other professionals simply had failed to remove the parents.) The girl was a cocaine user and held me by her confidentiality rights, so I could not tell her parents. We made a pact that if she stopped using I would keep her secret. I cannot tell you the anxiety I had for weeks thinking something would go wrong. I collaborated with her physician to drug test her weekly to ensure the girl’s abstinence. After three months, her parents called thanking me for my help. The girl had returned to a healthy weight, her appetite had been restored, and her mood had improved. Today (four years later) she is a successful college student studying psychology.</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Among the celebrity success stories that stand out are Robert Downey Jr.’s eventual victory over substance abuse. It only came after several stints in jail and a long, public battle. What kinds of things contribute to a successful road to recovery, and when do you know that someone is legitimately recovered?</strong></h2><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">My biggest weapon is instilling hope. I do this by challenging the addicted person’s mentality and perspective. I am a cognitive behaviorist, which means I help change the way people think. I do not know what works, as I have often thrown up my hands on clients who later recovered. Then I have lost clients whom I thought had arrived. All I really know is, pray hard in each session. I ask for God’s help. I ask Him to give me the words to say, and I hold on to<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2050:1-7&version=NIV" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;" target="_blank">Isaiah 50:1-7</a>, believing I am called as a therapist.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">I honestly don’t know when a person is legitimately recovered, as I believe it’s a lifelong process. Like those of us who are not addicted, we have our own lifelong battles — we try to stop lying, cheating, stealing, yelling, cursing, overeating — everyone has a Goliath they must face. And can any of us say we’ll ever arrive in this world? From my perspective, messing up is just as much part of the recovery process as getting it right is. And, if you get it right all the time, how do you know you’re recovered?</p><h2 style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Is it possible to effectively treat addiction without addressing the spiritual aspects of the problem? </strong></h2><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"></strong>Absolutely not! I’ve had to learn how to minister without saying “God” and “Jesus,” so that I can reach everyone. However, I know how to make others want what I have. I was mentored by a man who told me, “I may not be able to make a horse drink the water, but I should be able to make him thirsty.” And that’s the approach I take in therapy. I see myself as sowing seeds, believing someone will come behind me and water them, and eventually increase will come.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000; font-size: 14px; line-height: 28px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Addiction is spiritual. I believe an addict’s zealousness can be indicative of the great calling on his life. He just needs to move that zealousness away from destructive behavior to purposeful, life-giving behavior.</p></span></p>

Is it possible to effectively treat addiction without addressing the spiritual aspects of the problem

The public struggles of celebrities like the late Amy Winehouse reveal how insensitive our society has become to drug and alcohol abuse. But...

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Frightening 'Drug Threat Assessment' for the USA and Mexico

<p> </p><p>The National Drug Intelligence Center, a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, recently released a document entitled the "National Drug Threat Assessment 2011."  You can read the document online here.  The document paints a gloomy picture for both the U.S. and Mexico. The Assessment's Executive Summary begins: "The illicit trafficking and abuse of drugs present a challenging, dynamic threat to the United States.  Overall demand is rising, largely supplied by illicit drugs smuggled to U.S. markets by major transnational criminal organizations (TCOs).  Changing conditions continue to alter patterns in drug production, trafficking, and abuse. Traffickers are responding to government counterdrug efforts by modifying their interrelationships, altering drug production levels, and adjusting their trafficking routes and methods. Major Mexican-based TCOs continue to solidify their dominance over the wholesale illicit drug trade as they control the movement of most of the foreign-produced drug supply across the U.S. Southwest Border. "The estimated economic cost of illicit drug use to society for 2007 was more than $193 billion...." One of the contributing factors is the high demand for drugs in the United States. This high demand finances the drug cartels, allowing them to spend more and expand their operations.   According to the 2011 Assessment, that demand is growing. The document reports that "The abuse of several major illicit drugs, including heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine, appears to be increasing, especially among the young."  Elsewhere it says that "Overall drug availability is increasing."  One exception to this tendency is cocaine - its availability and use are down.   The document states that "The Southwest Border remains the primary gateway for moving illicit drugs into the United States.  Most illicit drugs available in the United States are smuggled overland across the Southwest Border...."  The Southwest Border is comprised of the southern borders of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas with Mexico. Then there is the tunneling: "Despite enhanced detection efforts and better countermeasures, Mexican drug traffickers will continue to build tunnels under the Southwest Border." In the U.S., Mexican cartels have cornered the market.  The 2011 Assessment states that "Mexican-based TCOs [transnational crime organizations] dominate the supply, trafficking, and wholesale distribution of most illicit drugs in the United States."  Elsewhere, it predicts that "Major Mexican-based TCOs and their associates are solidifying their dominance of the U.S. wholesale drug trade and will maintain their reign for the foreseeable future." The Mexican cartels are active in many urban areas.  The Assessment calculates that "Mexican-based TCOs were operating in more than a thousand U.S. cities during 2009 and 2010...." And, "Mexican-based trafficking organizations control access to the U.S.-Mexico border, the primary gateway for moving the bulk of illicit drugs into the United States.  The organizations control, simultaneously use, or are competing for control of various smuggling corridors that they use to regulate drug flow across the border. The value they attach to controlling border access is demonstrated by the ferocity with which several rival TCOs are fighting over control of key corridors, or ‘plazas.'" The document says that seven major Mexican drug cartels are supplying the United States, but that "... the Sinaloa Cartel is preeminent - its members traffic all major illicit drugs of abuse, and its extensive distribution network supplies drugs to all regions of the United States." U.S.-based gangs are involved in the distribution north of the border: "The threat posed by gang involvement in drug trafficking is increasing, particularly in the Southwest Region. With gangs already the dominant retail drug suppliers in major and midsized cities, some gang members are solidifying their ties to Mexican TCOs to bolster their involvement in wholesale smuggling, internal distribution, and control of the retail trade." The Assessment reports that "Criminal gangs - that is street, prison, and outlaw motorcycle gangs - remain in control of most of the retail distribution of drugs throughout much of the United States, particularly in major and midsize cities." The document predicts that "Collaboration between U.S. gangs and Mexican-based TCOs will continue to increase, facilitating wholesale drug trafficking into and within the United States.  Most collaboration occurs in cities along the U.S.-Mexico border, although some occurs in other regions of the country. Some U.S.-based gangs in the Southwest Border region also operate in Mexico, facilitating the smuggling of illicit drugs across the border." The 2011 Assessment paints a gloomy picture of the drug trafficking situation, drug cartels, and the safety and security of both the U.S. and Mexico.</p>

Frightening 'Drug Threat Assessment' for the USA and Mexico

  The National Drug Intelligence Center, a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, recently released a document entitled the "Nationa...

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many teens were using the Internet as a tool for exploring questions of personal identity, successfully building their own future lives using what they discover on the Web

<p> </p><p>The risk of youth wasting huge amounts of time on social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as the shared videos of YouTube is well known, but a Tel Aviv University researcher claims that these resources can actually promote psychological development. Prof. Moshe Israelashvili of TAU’s Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education, with his master’s degree student Taejin Kim and colleague Dr. Gabriel Bukobza, studied 278 teenage girls and boys from schools throughout the country. They found that many teens were using the Internet as a tool for exploring questions of personal identity, successfully building their own future lives using what they discover on the Web. The study, published in the Journal of Adolescence, encourages parents and educators to look at engagement with the online world as beneficial for teens. Social networking, Israelashvili says, is a positive example of Internet use: “Facebook use is not in the same category as gambling or gaming,” he insists, and as a result researchers should redefine the characteristics of the disorder called “Internet addiction” in adolescents. The teens were asked to rate themselves in terms of Internet use, ego clarification and self-understanding and how well they related to their peer groups. The researchers discovered there was a negative correlation between Internet overuse and the teens' levels of ego development and clarity of self-perception. This, he said, is an indication that some Internet use is destructive and isolating while some is informative and serves a socializing function. These results show that the current understanding of adolescent Internet addiction demands redefinition. Psychiatrists now classify an “Internet addict” as a person who spends more than 38 hours on the Internet every week. But it’s the quality, not the quantity that matters, argues Israelashvili. The researchers determined that many teens who participated in the study met the psychiatric standard of “Internet addiction” but were actually using the Internet as a tool to aid in their journey of self-discovery. There are two different kinds of teenage Web addicts, he continued. The first group is composed of adolescents who really are addicted, misusing the Internet with things like online gaming and gambling or pornographic websites, isolating themselves from the world around them. The second can be defined as “self-clarification seekers” whose use of the Internet helps them comprehensively define their own identities and place in the world. They tend to use the Internet for social networking and information gathering, such as on news sites or Twitter. Parents and educators should change the conversations they have with teens about Internet use, the researchers urge. The Web is a big part of our modern lifestyle, and both adults and children are spending more time there. As a result, what is important is how that time is used. Students must learn to use the Internet in a healthy way – as a source of knowledge about themselves in relation to their peers around the world, recommends Israelashvili. If parents still don't like the amount of time their teens are spending in front of the computer, they should consider becoming an information resource for their adolescent children, encouraging a healthy flow of conversation in the household itself. “Too many parents are too preoccupied,” the researcher says. “They demand high academic achievements and place less importance on teaching their children how to face the world.” Teens won't give up the Internet, but they may spend less time online if family interactions meet some of the same needs. “By the time teens reach the age of 18 or 19 they enter a new phase of life called ‘emerging adulthood,’ in which they take the lessons of their adolescence and implement them to build a more independent life. If they have spent their teenage years worrying only about their academic performance or gaming, they won't be able to manage well during their emerging adulthood and might have difficulties in making personal decisions and relating well to the world around them,” he concludes.</p>

many teens were using the Internet as a tool for exploring questions of personal identity, successfully building their own future lives using what they discover on the Web

  The risk of youth wasting huge amounts of time on social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as the shared videos of YouTube is wel...

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prescription painkiller addiction

<p> </p><p> Painkillers in Maine: A cure that came with a curse Maine’s out-of-control pill habit is among the worst in the nation, and all of us bear the costs of its abuse. By John Richardson jrichardson@mainetoday.com Staff Writer First of six parts click image to enlarge A pharmacist counts out Vicodin pills at a pharmacy in Portland last week. Maine was one of the first states to see an explosion of painkiller addiction and it remains among the worst states in the nation for pill abuse. The human and societal costs associated with the epidemic – almost 1,400 Maine people have died from pharmaceutical drug overdoses in the past decade and thousands more need treatment for addiction – are staggering, experts say. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer click image to enlarge . Ten years ago, Maine’s former U.S. attorney called prescription pain-pill abuse “the greatest criminal problem and possibly the greatest social problem facing Maine.” The problem, as it turns out, was just getting started. Maine was one of the first states to witness the explosion of prescription painkiller addiction, and its pill habit, still out of control, is among the worst in the nation. The damage continues to pile up. Nearly 1,400 Mainers have died from pharmaceutical drug overdoses in the past decade. And all residents bear the costs of the abuse. They pay for the pills, police the crime and care for and treat the addicts. Substance abuse in Maine is now estimated to cost $1.18 billion a year, or $900 for every man, woman and child, and much of that comes from misuse of prescription drugs. “It’s extraordinary how deep this epidemic has gone,” said Dr. Mark Publicker, an addiction specialist in Westbrook. “It was eating its way through the culture, and it was diagnosed too late.” Now human and social costs are at historic highs, leading to a renewed urgency to fight back. • Overdose deaths from pharmaceuticals in Maine set a new record in 2009 – 165 – and for the first time exceeded the number of Mainers killed in motor vehicle accidents. One hundred and sixty-two Mainers died from the drugs in 2010, the second-highest year on record. • Pill abuse continues to rise among teens, according to experts. Nearly one in four high school seniors in 2009  – 23.6 percent – said they have used prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them. • A record number of Maine babies – 572 – were born last year to mothers who were known to have used painkillers or other drugs during pregnancy, more than triple the number in 2005. Most of the babies experienced painful opiate withdrawal and spent their first two weeks in the hospital. • Crimes driven by pill addiction – especially pharmacy robberies and home invasions – are becoming more common and more dangerous, according to police statewide. These crimes have turned county jails into busy detox centers. • Prescription pain pill addicts are seeking treatment in record numbers – nearly 4,000 last year. Maine has more people per capita in state-funded treatment than any other state, eight times the national average, according to federal and state data. After a decade of efforts to contain the abuse, Maine’s Legislature and the Attorney General’s Office are among those calling for a more aggressive, coordinated response. A seven-year-old effort to track opiate prescriptions statewide, for example, has never been put to full use because of limited resources and participation. “I think there’s enough fault to go around for everybody,” said Jay McCloskey, who sounded the alarm as Maine’s U.S. attorney a decade ago and is now in private practice. FERTILE GROUND The 10-year toll and Maine’s inability to contain the epidemic come as little surprise to those who have experienced addiction. “It just really quickly takes control. And then it takes and takes,” said Daryl Blums, a 27-year-old recovering addict from the Sanford area. Painkiller abuse is the side effect of powerful new pain relievers introduced more than a decade ago. Drug makers targeted Maine physicians with promises that the pills were safe and effective. And doctors who took an oath to relieve suffering felt they could no longer allow pain to go untreated, at least not without violating their oath and losing patients. Maine’s fishermen, loggers and other physical laborers provided plenty of demand for the new pain medications, and the prescriptions flowed. Maine has been a consistent leader in the prescribing of narcotic painkillers such as oxycodone. Teens and others quickly figured out how to crush the pills and snort the powder to get the full euphoric rush of the synthetic opiates, which are as powerful and addictive as heroin and morphine. As a rural state at the end of the distribution network, Maine didn’t have a lot of experience with hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine. But now, here was a drug delivered to every community in pure, pharmaceutical-grade, precisely measured doses. Experienced drug users loved the pills because they could trust them to work. The inexperienced considered them safer than street drugs. And there was a ready appetite for the pills, especially among teens and among adults wanting to wash away depression or escape the stress of unemployment and financial insecurity. Police, meanwhile, were all but powerless to keep the pills out of the wrong hands. “Drugs used to come from foreign countries and people would smuggle them in,” said Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross. “Today, they are in the medicine cabinets of our homes.” HIGHLY ADDICTIVE At first, prescription opiates – also called opioids – give a warm, on-top-of-the-world feeling, users say. Pretty soon you need larger amounts to get high. Then one day you feel like you have a horrible flu – pain, vomiting, sweats and chills – and you realize it’s because you missed a dose. Opiate receptors in your brain, spine and intestines have gone into a kind of shock. Opiate withdrawal doesn’t kill you, but addicts say you wish it would. “You don’t have a care in the world when you’re on it. And when you can’t get it, it’s the worst experience in the world,” said Chuck Lawson, a recovering addict in Portland. Some addicts say it took them as little as two weeks of regular use to get hooked. The extreme highs and lows physically change an addict’s brain. Getting the next dose becomes the first thing – and sometimes the only thing – on an addict’s mind. Some addicts, chasing the high and trying to avoid withdrawal, mix painkillers with Xanax or other anti-anxiety pills or dissolve the pills and inject them directly into their veins. Both push addicts closer to a potentially fatal overdose. “Once you got past a certain point, there is no going back,” said 31-year-old Nicole Martin, a recovering addict who injected the drugs and used heroin when she couldn’t get pills. “Anything you say you haven’t done yet, you will do eventually.” WIDELY AVAILABLE Finding the drugs is rarely a problem, addicts say. Users share them, buy them, steal them, forge prescriptions for them and, if desperate enough, trade sex for them. Some go out of state to get the drugs, including to Florida’s so-called “pill mills” – clinics that offer painkiller prescriptions for cash. Many addicts get prescriptions from their local doctors – sometimes for real pain and often not. Some are even bold enough to file false police reports of pill theft so they can convince their doctors to give them more. Those with their own prescriptions get their pills on the cheap – MaineCare and private insurance cover most of the cost. And they quickly learn they can sell their pills for as much as $30 to $100 apiece depending on the type and strength. Addicts buying their pills on the street can spend $100 to $400 a day to feed their habits. That gets very expensive, said Blake Carver of Portland. Carver, now 24, was a teenager when he started breaking into houses looking for money to buy “Oxys,” he said. And he always cleaned out the medicine cabinets in the homes he robbed. “Even if there wasn’t something I wanted, I knew somebody who would,” he said. ‘NO FAMILY IS IMMUNE’ The epidemic has affected Mainers of all ages and backgrounds – middle schoolers and senior citizens, clam diggers and doctors. “No family is immune from this particular issue,” said Troy Morton, chief deputy of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office.  “They are the youngest of kids, in their early teens, and people in their 70s. They are the poorest of the poor and the richest. There are no boundaries.” Abuse often starts among teens, who don’t understand the danger and are more vulnerable to addiction. Addiction, meanwhile, is most common among young adults who were in their teens when the pills first flooded into Maine communities. Thirteen percent of Mainers age 18 to 25 said they abused painkillers in the past year, according to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the most recent available. The rate is 6 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds and 4.7 percent of all Mainers over 12 – a total of 52,000 people. The overall cost of painkiller abuse in Maine is not known. Through taxes, health insurance premiums and higher medical costs, Mainers are helping to supply the pills, pay for emergency room visits, investigate crimes, lock addicts in jails and provide the treatments to help them get sober. Opiate addiction treatment alone costs Maine taxpayers millions of dollars a year. The state spends about $12 million a year on substance abuse treatment programs, not including its share of MaineCare coverage for treatment services. Painkiller addiction accounts for about one-third of substance abuse treatment admissions. However, every dollar spent on treatment saves as much as $12 in medical care and crime-related costs, according to Maine’s Office of Substance Abuse. Opiate abuse – including both heroin and prescription painkillers – was responsible for 30,451 emergency and outpatient hospital visits in Maine in 2008, a 28 percent increase from the year before, according to a May report. Pharmacies have banklike security, with surveillance cameras and tracking devices, and still get robbed repeatedly in some cases. County jails and state prisons are straining financially to hold and care for all the addicts arrested for drug-related crimes. RENEWED URGENCY State government, the medical community, law enforcement, drug makers and others have all taken action to try to contain the problem. There are new prescribing guidelines, tamper-proof prescription sheets, overdose prevention campaigns and collection drives for unused drugs. Experts say many of the efforts have helped keep the abuse from doing even more damage. But frustration is clearly peaking after a decade of watching the problem steadily worsen. “It just seems that if we’re leading the way with this problem, we ought to show some leadership in dealing with it,” said Rep. Jon Hinck, D-Portland. Hinck proposed a bill in the Legislature earlier this year that would have established new rules for doctors, including a requirement that they check patients’ medication records before prescribing them painkillers. The proposal failed, but lawmakers instead created a study group that is due to propose policy changes by Dec. 1. McCloskey, the former U.S. attorney, said the state and federal governments have not devoted enough resources to educating kids about the dangers of abuse. “It hasn’t been a priority,” he said. McCloskey, meanwhile, took criticism himself after leaving the federal government in 2001 and working as a consultant for the maker of OxyContin. McCloskey still maintains the pharmaceutical industry is not to blame for the abuse. “If we don’t reduce the demand for drugs we’ll never be successful.” Most now agree that pill abuse is so entrenched in Maine’s culture it will take more than doctors or state agencies or police alone to control it. “People want to point a finger. Let’s blame the pharmaceutical companies. Let’s blame the physicians. Let’s blame the druggies. (Some) people still think it’s a problem of will power,” said Marcella Sorg, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Maine’s Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center. “The reason we haven’t been able to tackle it is because it’s so darn complicated.” Maine Attorney General William Schneider has invited leaders in government, law enforcement, medicine, education and addiction treatment to attend a one-day summit Oct. 25 and come up with a coordinated action plan. “It’s staggering,” Schneider said. “I don’t think it’s going to be solved by any one particular tactic, but I think if we choose several different tactics we can make a difference.” Those who have experienced addiction first-hand have no easy answers, either. The pills are too easy to get and too powerful, said James Cox, a 31-year-old recovering addict in Jonesboro. “I don’t think they’ll ever get rid of it,” he said.</p>

prescription painkiller addiction

   Painkillers in Maine: A cure that came with a curse Maine’s out-of-control pill habit is among the worst in the nation, and all of us bea...

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Justin Townes Earle looks back at year of recovery

<p> </p><p>In the days following Justin Townes Earle's arrest last September in Indianapolis, he slipped so deeply into a cocaine psychosis it began to change his personality. Gone was the brash, cocksure young singer-songwriter who against the steep odds of addiction and a tough upbringing had transformed himself into a true artist with the critical acclaim to prove it. In its place was a 150-pound wraith haunting the East Village in New York City with an overriding paranoia brought on by an eight-ball of cocaine and a half-gallon of vodka every day. The continuous binges were destroying his talent and making his intense live shows occasionally forgettable. They were destroying his friendships one by one. Nearly six years of sobriety, all gone during an increasingly tight downward spiral over a year's time. Earle fixated on an erroneous news report that said he hit a woman while destroying his dressing room in an Indianapolis club. For a man raised by a single mother, the idea he would hit a woman was devastating. It prompted a five-day bender. "I'd just be walking down the streets in Manhattan thinking everybody was looking at me," Earle said. "I thought everybody knew about what happened and it absolutely was just crushing me. I remember vaguely calling my publicist at the time — I fired my manager not long before that had happened, and my publicist and my booking agent were the only people still working for me — and just hysterically crying and saying I just didn't want to do this anymore. I didn't want to tour any more. I didn't want to make records." Not long after, Earle entered formal treatment for the 13th time. In the 10 months since he completed rehab, the 29-year-old son of country rebel Steve Earle has experienced a series of highs and lows he shared in several interviews. He's slipped back into heroin use and rallied, turning to a new treatment that seems to have helped him settle into a healthier routine. He's been hailed as a new voice for his generation and targeted by cruel attempts at gallows humor. He split with his old girlfriend and started a new relationship that's brought him back to his hometown. Today he's on the "marijuana maintenance plan" and enjoying the benefits of anti-addiction drug Soboxone. He's exercising and feels as fit as he ever has. He's touring much of the fall and is preparing to record his fifth record, a significant step that has Earle pointed directly into the future. "And I'm as content as I've ever been," Earle said. "Which doesn't mean I'm content, but I'm as content as I've ever been. I'm still always going to be a little bit discontent because I'm a little bit crazy and I'll always want more than I have. That's what keeps me going. That's what keeps me driven to keep on doing what I'm doing." Perhaps it's that drive that's kept him alive so long. ___ Sometimes, Justin Townes Earle is amazed he's still above ground. Images flashed through his head as he sat backstage at The Mercy Lounge last November, staring out a window at bejeweled luxury high rises. The Nashville he's looking at doesn't much resemble the lazy town with the seedy side he grew up in during a nearly feral, often lonely and always confusing childhood. At the same time, some things look very much the same. "I remember when you'd look out this window and there wasn't (expletive) anything there," he said. "It was a rail yard. Well, hell you can still buy crack on 8th Avenue." A few weeks out of rehab, Earle admits his mind is often on drugs. He catches himself falling prey to the classic addict behavior of daydreaming about scoring. "I feel good now, but at least once a day I come up with some kind of hare-brained scheme to get high and get away with it," he said with a laugh.</p>

Justin Townes Earle looks back at year of recovery

  In the days following Justin Townes Earle's arrest last September in Indianapolis, he slipped so deeply into a cocaine psychosis it be...

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Food addiction, although controversial, has recently gained attention in scientific literature and comes under the realm of atypical eating disorders.

<div></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="color: #3f3f3f; float: left;"><div id="sshow"><div class="cnt" style="margin-top: 3px; margin-right: 10px; width: 310px; display: inline; float: left;"><div id="bellyad" style="padding-left: 3px;"><div class="mainimg1" style="position: relative; float: left; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: #cccccc; padding-bottom: 10px; margin: 0px;"><div style="float: left; position: relative;"><span style="color: #336797;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/thumb.cms?msid=10376638&width=300&resizemode=4" style="display: block; margin-right: 5px; border: 4px solid #e1e1e1;" vspace="0" width="300" /></span><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 20px; bottom: 7px; left: 275px; position: absolute;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" src="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo/5766056.cms" style="display: block; margin-right: 5px;" /></span></span></div><div class="zoomimg1" style="right: 4px; bottom: 4px; width: 300px;"><div style="font-size: 11px; text-align: left; padding-right: 5px; color: #757575; font-style: italic;">Are you addicted to food? (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="Normal" style="font-size: 15px; font-family: georgia; line-height: 20px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #336797;"><em><br /></em></span><br /><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">We all over-eat occasionally. However, a food addict eats too much food and wrong kinds of food all the time. It may be associated with an obsessive/compulsive relationship to food - where an individual indulges in frequent episodes of uncontrolled eating, else experiences anxiety if he is unable to do so. However, this may have serious health implications in due course. </span><br /><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">Nutritionist and </span><span style="color: #336797;">obesity</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f;"> consultant Naini Setalvad says, "Food addiction basically means a person eats uncontrollably, for reasons besides</span><span style="color: #336797;">hunger</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">. One reason for this is the neurobiological imbalances in the levels of the chemical, serotonin. Once its levels drop in the body, a person feels low and needs to eat again. This leads to overeating, which in turn leads to feelings of guilt, depression, </span><span style="color: #336797;">mood swings</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">, weight gain and a reinforcement of low self-esteem. Because of this, a person looks to food for comfort and the vicious cycle continues." </span><br /><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">How can one overcome it? "One way is by breaking the cycle. If it is a severe case, then psychological treatment must be accompanied with a healthy food plan. Replace addictive foods with healthy ones, which also boost the mood and serotonin levels. Stick to whole grains, fresh fruits, nuts, seeds and make </span><span style="color: #336797;">vegetables</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f;"> a habit. Also, drink lots of water. These foods not only comfort a person, but also take away the 'guilt' factor. You can eat three mangoes and not worry about the amount of fat you have eaten, since there is none. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: #3f3f3f;">However, the natural sugar in mangoes perks a person and makes him feel better," says Setalvad. If you are addicted to food, it's time to take an honest look at your life and make a commitment to loving yourself. </span></div></span></div>

Food addiction, although controversial, has recently gained attention in scientific literature and comes under the realm of atypical eating disorders.

Are you addicted to food? (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images) We all over-eat occasionally. However, a food addict eats too much food and wrong...

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~Alcoholics Anonymous, 1st. Edition, The Family Afterward, pg. 125~

"We alcoholics are sensitive people. It takes some of us a long time<br /> to outgrow that serious handicap."<br /> <br /> <br /> ~Alcoholics Anonymous, 1st. Edition, <br /> The Family Afterward, pg. 125~

~Alcoholics Anonymous, 1st. Edition, The Family Afterward, pg. 125~

"We alcoholics are sensitive people. It takes some of us a long time to outgrow that serious handicap." ~Alcoholics Anonymous,...

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Religion is for people who are afraid of Hell; 12-Step programs are for people who’ve been there.

One of my favorite quotes that I’ve heard in the rooms of Recovery goes something like this: “Religion is for people who are afraid of Hell; 12-Step programs are for people who’ve been there.” I’m not sure why this quote comes to my mind today, but it’s at the forefront.<br /> <br /> Another bit that I’m contemplating right now is a very familiar passage from the AA Big Book, read aloud in most meetings: “…If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any lengths to get it…” (emphasis added)<br /> <br /> And still a third thing that’s swimming around in my brain is this: “Pain is the price of admission.”<br /> <br /> As someone who feels that the disease is the disease is the disease, I don’t have any problems with saying “My name is Zach and I’m an alcoholic,” when I’m at an AA meeting, or introducing myself “My name is Zach and I’m an addict,” at NA meetings. At my homegroup, though, where I am most comfortable, I occasionally say this: “My name is Zach and I still suffer from the disease of addiction.” Oddly enough, this feels like the most truthful statement I can make. <br /> <br /> The program teaches us honesty, but I am always conscious of whichever room I am in to be respectful of that particular meeting. After all, I am just like everyone else there; I am not so special as to warrant a specialized introduction. A big part of my Recovery has been getting over myself and letting go of the idea that I am so special and unique. In the rooms, I am an addict and/or an alcoholic, just like everyone else there. It’s not a coincidence that I tend to use that last intro at times when I am not doing so well. <br /> <br /> I’ve heard it said by some that one of the most amazing things the Program has done for them is relieved them of the burden of self. This is mostly true for me as well, but there are days when my sense of self marches to the front and demands it’s ego be stroked: I am special. I am unique. I am different from all of you and I demand respect and special treatment. Ah, Uncle Steve… he tries so hard. If only he could look in the mirror and see the little two-year-old he all too often acts like.<br /> <br /> This disease, the sick insanity it causes in our lives, it never quits. We can treat it through working the Program, but it is always there. Like someone who is diabetic but takes their insulin, or someone who has manic depression who takes psychiatric medication—they don’t stop being diabetic or bipolar, but the damage caused by their diseases can be minimized. The damage caused by the disease of addiction can be minimized, too, but only if we choose to minimize it. Only when we choose to treat our disease, live according to the spiritual principles of the program and by the will of our higher power instead of self-will, does the insanity, chaos, and wreckage begin to stop.<br /> <br /> Many of us have learned the hard way that when we let self-will run our lives, the consequences are disastrous. It’s not called ‘wreckage’ for nothing. We find ourselves in situations we never thought we’d be in, doing things we’d never thought we’d do. And when we are stuck in self-will, our ability to see our part in things, our ability to understand why we are where we are, why we’re doing what we’re doing, how we got there and why we’re stuck, can be almost completely impaired. It takes a crash to shake us out of it, and when the crash comes it is far too often more painful than we ever thought it would be. We have to bottom out. We have to be in so much pain that we become willing to go to any lengths to change. If we're lucky, we can get to a point where we choose to live by the principles of the Program because we don't want to be in that pain anymore.<br /> <br /> The disease is insidious. It sneaks up on us. It disguises itself, cloaks itself, comes on us sometimes rapidly, other times gradually. The gradual times are the worst, because the progression is so slow that we don’t notice it. Everything seems normal, and ‘normal’ can be a real bitch because, as addicts, our sense of normal is horribly warped. When the disease is at the helm, when self-will is running our lives, that’s when we create wreckage. We destroy friendships, hurt loved ones, and hurt ourselves. <br /> <br /> We have to check ourselves constantly. The tenth step can be an invaluable tool. But even without it, we still have others. The spiritual principle of the first step—Honesty—can be all we need. Being honest with ourselves is more often harder than anything else, but we can do it if we choose to. We can ask ourselves the hard questions: why have I chosen to not follow the advice of those who have always given me good advice? Why am I choosing to compromise my principles? What exactly am I afraid of? What am I trying to control?<br /> <br /> Sometimes we aren’t able to be honest with ourselves. We can become locked into the disease; it’s at the helm and we are completely unable to wrest our fingers off the steering wheel of our lives. We then must follow the course through, let our self-will run things until they once again get so bad that we are in so much pain that we again become willing to go to any lengths for our spiritual recovery. We are human beings; we aren’t perfect. Sometimes creating more wreckage is the only way we learn. Sometimes losing things that are precious to us is the only way we are able to clue-in to what we have been doing or how bad our disease is. Sometimes, we have to lose everything before we become willing to let go and make the change and do things differently. Sometimes, we have to experience deep pain before we can be done.<br /> <blockquote>Being 'done' doesn't refer to just using or drinking. We can be done, too, with creating wreckage. We can be done with causing chaos in other peoples' lives. We can be done with losing our jobs, our family, and our friends. <br /> </blockquote>I had a discussion not too long ago with some guys in the program whose time was in the 5-10 year range. They were talking about sponsorship and how you shouldn’t waste your time trying to sponsor newcomers who aren’t willing to follow suggestions. “Help someone who is ready,” they advised. “Find someone who’s done.”

Religion is for people who are afraid of Hell; 12-Step programs are for people who’ve been there.

One of my favorite quotes that I’ve heard in the rooms of Recovery goes something like this: “Religion is for people who are afraid of Hell;...

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When you love someone close to you, sometimes you need to make the tough decisions. When someone you are close to is obviously abusing alcohol or drugs

When you love someone close to you, sometimes you need to make the tough decisions. When someone you are close to is obviously abusing alcohol or drugs, you know that the best thing you can do to help them is to get them into a rehab program. It will be hard for them and perhaps hard for you as well, but you know that this is what you need to do for them to help them before the problem gets worse. <br /> <br /> <br /> The over-consumption of alcohol is currently rated to be the third most preventable type of death in the US today. The problem is that alcohol is readily available in bars, which are extremely easy to find, and alcohol consumption even seems to be glamorized in many of the ads you see in magazines and newspapers. Alcohol in and of itself is not bad or evil, but all people are different, and not all people know when to stop, people have different tolerance levels, and it can be easy to become addicted to without realizing that it has become a major problem.<br /> <br /> <br /> Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is, without a doubt, the most popular self-help group dedicated to alcohol rehabilitation. Many prefer to try a self-help approach to alcohol rehabilitation. People suffering from alcohol abuse are taken care of in dedicated rehab facilities as well as mental health clinics. A major problem with self-help is that the alcoholic will frequently not recognize that they have a problem. Rather, they start self-help techniques out of respect for people who care about them, like a spouse, but unless and until they admit and recognize that they have a problem, the self-help techniques rarely are effective for the long term.<br /> <br /> <br /> In the United States, the number of alcohol rehab facilities exceeds 10,000. The effects of alcohol devastate the lives of many individuals and cause trauma to their families. With alcohol rehab, the longer a person abstains from alcohol, the more likely he or she is able to stay sober. It is easier if the affected person has a “buddy” or someone they are accountable to. Without being accountable to someone, it is just simply far too easy for the alcoholic to go back to their old ways and cloud their reality with the effects of alcohol.<br /> <br /> <br /> Drug addiction is similar to alcohol addiction but can be even more devastating, and can lead to longer term adverse effects if not treated. Popular drugs today include vicodin, oxycontin, valium, Xanax, cocaine, crystal meth, heroin, and many more. Sometimes drug addiction can start with taking prescription medication that was prescribed by your doctor for some type of ailment. But long after your ailment has been resolved, your body has become addicted to the prescription drug, and the user needs more and more of it to pacify the body and avoid the inevitable withdrawal symptoms. Usage of other drugs may start as a “recreational” thing, perhaps being introduced at a party or gathering of friends. But the addictive powers of these drugs are just as devastating.<br /> <br /> <br /> Interestingly enough, the state of Arizona has one of the worst drug problems in the United States. The use of heroin in the US has also increased in recent years, meaning that the drug rehab system now has to work harder than ever before. The use of crack cocaine is Chicago’s biggest drug problem – since the early 1990’s, admissions to Chicago drug rehab centers for the treatment of this drug have more than doubled. <br /> <br /> <br /> Effective treatment is available for both alcohol rehab and drug rehab. Specialized doctors build a complex treatment that includes each patient’s individual needs and problems, in order to succeed the reintegration in the healthy and normal life of the society. The basic principles of the drug addiction treatment start from considering each case a particular and individualized expression of the medical condition. They don’t necessarily receive the adequate treatment to appease their psychotic desires. Alcohol rehab is similar, because each individual person is unique with different levels of being able to cope with the withdrawal symptoms. <br /> <br /> <br /> Speaking openly and honestly with the person about the effects his addiction is having on those around him is often the eye-opener the person needs in order to see clearly enough to accept help. From a medical perspective, addiction can be compared to many other serious medical conditions in that it will require long term treatment, lifestyle changes, medication at times and if not monitored, relapse will occur. It has taken some time but, researchers have come to the conclusion that drug addiction and alcoholism are diseases and like other diseases, are chronic and those afflicted are subject to relapse. <br /> <br /> <br /> Choosing drug rehab or alcohol rehabilitation is a positive step adopted by addicts in reclaiming their normal life. In the beginning, it is important to know that the addiction can be conquered with rehab. The Wellness Enhancement and Longevity Learning (WELL) program incorporates this powerful technique with other pioneering therapies in the their addiction treatment program.

When you love someone close to you, sometimes you need to make the tough decisions. When someone you are close to is obviously abusing alcohol or drugs

When you love someone close to you, sometimes you need to make the tough decisions. When someone you are close to is obviously abusing alcoh...

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If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.

People are often unreasonable, irrational and self-centered.<br /> <br /> Forgive them anyway.<br /> <br /> If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.<br /> <br /> Be kind anyway.<br /> <br /> If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.<br /> <br /> Succeed anyway.<br /> <br /> If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.<br /> <br /> Be honest and sincere anyway.<br /> <br /> What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.<br /> <br /> Create anyway.<br /> <br /> If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.<br /> <br /> Be happy anyway.<br /> <br /> The good you do today will often be forgotten.<br /> <br /> Do good anyway.<br /> <br /> Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.<br /> <br /> Give your best anyway.<br /> <br /> In the final analysis, it is between you and God.<br /> <br /> It was never between you and them anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.

People are often unreasonable, irrational and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ult...

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God and I have become like two giant fat people

God and I have become<br /> like two giant fat people<br /> living in a tiny boat.<br /> We keep bumping into each other<br /> and laughing.

God and I have become like two giant fat people

God and I have become like two giant fat people living in a tiny boat. We keep bumping into each other and laughing.

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What we sow is what we reap.

The Law of Karma<br /> <br /> Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind. What we sow is what we reap. And when we choose actions that bring happiness and success to others, the fruit of our karma is happiness and success. <br /> <br /> I will put the Law of Karma into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps: <br /> Today I will witness the choices I make in each moment. And in the mere witnessing of these choices, I will bring them to my conscious awareness. I will know that the best way to prepare for any moment in the future is to be fully conscious in the present.<br /> Whenever I make a choice, I will ask myself two questions: "What are the consequences of this choice that I'm making?" and "Will this choice bring fulfillment and happiness to me and also to those who are affected by this choice?"<br /> I will then ask my heart for guidance and be guided by its message of comfort or discomfort. If the choice feels comfortable, I will plunge ahead with abandon. If the choice feels uncomfortable, I will pause and see the consequences of my action with my inner vision. This guidance will enable me to make spontaneously correct choices for myself and for all those around me.

What we sow is what we reap.

The Law of Karma Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind. What we sow is what we reap. And when we choose...

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age of miracles is still with us. Our own recovery proves that!

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #003366; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold';">age of miracles is still with us.  Our own recovery proves that!</span></b></span>

age of miracles is still with us. Our own recovery proves that!

age of miracles is still with us.  Our own recovery proves that!

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it is a miracle.

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #003366; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold';">The capacity to give one's attention to a sufferer is a very rare and<br />difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle.</span></b></span>

it is a miracle.

The capacity to give one's attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle.

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Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do want society.

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #003366; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold';">However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard<br />names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble your-<br />self much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not<br />change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see<br />that you do want society. </span></b></span>

Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do want society.

However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do n...

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Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn't work. You can easily see why.

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #003366; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold';">We usually conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we be<br />shown all through the day what our next step is to be, that we be given<br />whatever we need to take care of such problems. We ask especially for<br />freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no request for ourselves<br />only. We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped. We are<br />careful never to pray for our own selfish ends. Many of us have wasted a<br />lot of time doing that and it doesn't work. You can easily see why.</span></b></span>

Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn't work. You can easily see why.

We usually conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to be, that we be give...

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