The FDA is a strange best. Sometimes people have a hard time understanding their motives, as many of you may know from my assistant’s previous posts on the FDA. One thing that I know they are responsible for is the safety of drugs, but now, they are taking responsibility for the abuse of certain drugs. (read more)

Source: InjuryBoard.com

Bill Greene, BSN, CARN, met a former patient in the hallway of the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur, where he works in the Mental Health Emergency Annex.

“I didn’t even recognize him, but he stopped to thank me and tell me he was doing real well,” Greene said. “At the end of the day, that’s what makes this job worthwhile.”

A nurse since 1993, Greene worked in geriatrics and med/surg before he decided to specialize in psychiatric nursing in 2001. After noticing a growing incidence of substance abuse in his patient population, Greene took the training and put in the required 2,000 hours to become a certified addictions registered nurse. (read more)

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A network of California drug rehab facilities has used physical activities to enhance the success rates for the clients who are trying to quit drinking alcoholically or abusing drugs. The latest and most popular physical activity program is the Sober Living by the Sea soccer team. (read more)

Source: TransWorldNews

It was a little past 11 a.m., and Billy Daniels was getting worried. A friend was supposed to drive him to Essex County Superior Court, but the man hadn’t shown.

It was a big day for Daniels _ the biggest in years _ and he couldn’t be late to court. Until a few years ago, he snorted heroin every day. But today would be different _ today was the start of a new life.

In only a few hours, Daniels would graduate from a state-run drug rehabilitation program. A few minutes after that, he would be married.

“It symbolizes that he changed,” said his elderly mother, Mattie, an hour before the ceremony. “I don’t think he’s going back to no drugs.” (read more)

Source: Newsday

Think there is nothing to look forward to after a life of drug and alcohol abuse? Wonderful things are possible once you are able to break the damaging cycle of substance abuse. There is hope for a new life, new relationships, better jobs, and renewed health and optimism. It doesn’t happen overnight, though, but all it takes is one first step to begin the journey toward sobriety.

Contact Williamsburg Place and the Farley Center today to learn more about recovery from drug addiction.

The Obama administration has confirmed an anticipated nominee to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the nation’s “drug czar.” If R. Gil Kerlikowske makes one notable contribution in his tenure, it would be by shifting government’s emphasis from war metaphors — “The War on Drugs” — to catch up with the science and the public’s understanding of addiction as a health problem.

For more than two decades, Washington has turned virtually a blind eye to the devastating epidemic of addiction to drugs, alcohol and other substances. Today, we know that the disease of addiction is a serious problem, and we know that addiction can be successfully treated. We also know that untreated addiction contributes to higher health-care costs and health problems in addition to other costly societal ills.

How can we press the reset button on treating addiction? (read more)

Source: Tulsa World

To the regulars on the Saturday morning River Ride, Chad Gerlach must have seemed like an apparition as he rode away from the pack, leaving 50 of Sacramento’s best cyclists gasping for air.

At 35, he was powerful and beautiful and seemingly supernatural, impossibly different from the man who had been eking out a life on the streets of Sacramento, homeless and addicted to drugs. (read more)

Source: JSOnline.com

Prescription drug abuse is no “big city” problem, experts say. In fact, the growing use and abuse of pain pills and other drugs increasingly hurt hundreds of families across the Tri-State.

While the use of narcotic painkillers has been on the rise dramatically nationwide since the 1990s, the effects are most evident in West Virginia, according to a study on unintentional drug overdose deaths published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December. (read more)

Source: The Herald-Dispatch

She’d look at her daughter and worry.

The eczema on her skin — why was it so bad? And what about the way the toddler constantly stared at her hand — was that a sign of something neurologically wrong?

She’d look at her daughter and pray: Don’t let it be the drugs, please not because I smoked cocaine every day for the first months you were in my womb. (read more)

Source: Wilton Villager

When deciding upon a rehabilitation center to assist with your recovery to drug or alcohol addiction, consider the treatments available. Williamsburg Place and the William J. Farley Center specialize in individualized treatment suited to your needs.

Alcohol and drugs impact lives in so many different ways. That’s why assessment and treatment have to be individualized to meet each client’s specific needs. Addictions can be more or less severe, and people can become dependent upon one or any number of addictive substances (intoxicants) or behaviors.

Sometimes traumatic experiences in life can alter the way people cope with stress, and in turn affect recovery. Chronic pain, depression, anxiety and medical conditions all require specialized assessment and treatment. Supportive needs vary from individual to individual. Although there are similarities between people with drug and alcohol problems, there are also many differences. The highest quality treatments always take these into consideration when treatment plans are developed to maximize the chance for success.

Finally, treatment is collaborative: a client with a drug or alcohol problem always participates in the development of a comprehensive and holistic treatment plan that takes into account the myriad of needs that individuals have. When you come to Williamsburg Place and the William J. Farley Center, we can structure a treatment program geared toward your recovery, with lasting effects.

Please contact Williamsburg Place today if you or someone you love is in need of individualized treatment for drug and/or alcohol addiction.

Doctor writes prescription for ‘End of My Addiction’

A renowned cardiologist and scion of a wealthy French family, Ameisen began drinking heavily in early middle age. Like many drunks, his story begins with a few benders and ends with hospitalizations, financial ruin and the widespread dispersion of heartbreak. Like a lot of drunks, he did not succeed with either in-patient treatment centers or with Alcoholics Anonymous. After years of failure, he began to suspect that there had to be another solution. (read more)

Source: StarTribune.com

Recovery rates for alcoholics, addicts up

While Montana continues to have one of the nation’s highest rates of alcoholism and drug abuse, the recovery rate after treatment is nearly twice as good as it was a decade ago. (read more)

Source: Great Falls Tribune