thanks for bringing the issue to the fore. I could write an immensely long response in support. But you have accomplished as much as all of my examples of those suffering from severe addiction and had no one else willing to provide for them. I may have not provided well, but I took them in, and held their hand when the exhaled their last breath.
I did! It was so good. It's what made me look at it. It's so wild because it's all over the scientific literature and the only other popular coverage is an Atlantic story from 10 years ago. Also the documentary, but I hadn't heard of it before. Good on her!
Former opioid addict here who used another long term injection called Sublocade. It was a freaking miracle. No one knows it exists. It's so expensive you can't get it. Insurance won't cover it without substantial hoops to jump through, I mean completely impossible. My doctor who I got it through had to stop offering it because he couldn't fill the scripts when it came time for a second or 3rd injection dealing with fighting insurance companies and specialty pharmacies and whatever other insane red tape they put on it (forced group therapy is a significant barrier for folks who have been stable on long term MAT treatment with no need for therapy). The way we treat substance abuse disorder in America is full blown barbaric. I struggled for a decade before refusing to ever go back to another "treatment center" just to be told to pray and keep coming back. The 12 steps DON'T WORK. I'm saying it. People hate when I do but I don't care because I watched most of my friends die, struggling for a solution while being told hocus pocus was their best bet. It's infuriating people still believe the 12 step, brain disease narrative when the real story is much more nuanced. I've always wanted to tell my story because it's so different than so many others. I quit drugs after a decade of injecting meth and heroin. 6 over doses I can remember. Did jail time for manufacturing methamphetamine. I'm as real deal "addict" as it gets (I hate that word and don't believe "addiction" is real in the way most Americans believe). I have my medical marijuana card. I use it. I drink occasionally. VERY occasionally. I live a totally normal life. I'm NOT AN ADDICT anymore, and if you don't know it, current treatment models teach that once your an addict, you're always an addict. You can never moderate. I couldn't tell you how hopeless that made me and countless others like me feel. I'm grateful I figured out that it's not true. But I had to do that on my own. I had to create my own "recovery" and over 10 of my friends weren't so lucky. If you haven't, I highly suggest reading "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts" by Gabor Mate' and "High Price" and "Drug use for Adults" by Dr Carl Hart. They changed how I thought about myself, about "addiction" and alcoholism and I just wish more people knew that there are many, many other ways that are BETTER than the status quo Florida Shuffle. Sorry for my rant. This is just so important and no one knows this information. Sublocade and Naltrexone are like magic cures and we don't use them because of antiquated thinking about "replacing one drug with another" and that one type of recovery, pure abstinence, is the ultimate and only ideal worth striving for. It's BS. It's killing people. People are dying and we're telling them to pray. That's the situation. Sorry not sorry. Rehabs and treatment are just as guilty for the opioid crisis as the drugs themselves and not enough people are talking about it. I'd love to interview someone more credentialed to tell my story. I knew corrupt owners of rehabs. I knew kids who went to detox SOLELY to market a rehab and get new patients. It's that bad.
I want to caveat that by also mentioning it's been almost 10 years since I last ever used my drugs of choice, heroin and meth. I'm not just saying this stuff willy nilly. I believe in my heart of hearts the disease narrative for drugs and alcohol is killing people. It's 100 year old pseudoscience. Most of it has been disproven yet the system has yet to evolve to those advancements in science. I've read at least 7 or 8 books on the subject. One "The Biology of Desire" set out to prove the disease narrative is false. I highly recommend. I want to write a book about my experience because it's one of straight up institutional failure. Starting from 17 all the way until I was 27 years old, it was nothing but cons, false hope, abusive boarding schools, bad treatment, bad therapists, shady halfway houses, con artists and grifters. And that's a huge amount of the rehab industrial complex. It's all built on lies. The lie that we're (former substance users) broken, different, fundamentally flawed, "diseased" and that without the "steps" and finding God, we can never truly move on from drugs or alcohol. It's a huge story. And no one is telling it because people like me, former users gone normal, don't share our stories at AA meetings. We aren't sought out for speaking engagements. Our "recovery" is looked down on and treated as less than and not as good. We're told we're ticking time bombs that one day I'll have a drink and my head will explode and I'll never stop smoking crack and end up dead. That's what we're told. Don't believe me? Go to a meeting. Listen to what the leaders say. I was in leadership in a 12 step community. Once someone "relapses" they are shunned, ostracized and collectively ridiculed by the in group. It's dehumanizing, anti science and straight up harmful. Not just neutral. The steps are actively harmful. I'm sorry but no one else is saying it so I am. The 9th step involves victim blaming. I've heard sponsors telling women they need to not just forgive their rapist but also see their part in their own rape. That's not an exaggeration. That's part of the program. It's so obviously harmful. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk lol. Sorry
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. It's very valuable. I stand by my point that the failure to embrace science when it comes to addictive behavior is a preventable mass casualty event. I got some feedback on this post that it's not AS simple as, "You take a pill, you drink, and you undo decades of alcohol misuse." I hope I wasn't too glib. It's still hard. But just looking at the numbers ... I mean ... 80 percent success vs. 10-15 percent. I've had people suggest I go to AA but I'm sorry, it sounds SO horrible that the prospect makes me want to drink. And I do think that Ozimbic is like the perfect analogy. It's understandable that people who've been torturing themselves with starvation and excesive exercise are judgy about a drug that just makes you ... eat as much food as you need, not as much food as you crave. I even have that tendency! I'm like, "I run all the time and try to eat mostly vegan to stay thin ... and these people just take a shot and become thin?!?" I can imagine people who've struggled in AA are annoyed at the prospect of a pill that just makes ... alcohol cravings go away. But, much like Ozymbic is a possible solution to America's obesity crisis (and should be made available and affordable to people who aren't vain starlets) the widespread adoption of Naltroxene for alcohol misuse will literally save countless lives.
Seriously thank you I really never like drinking and totally got caught up in the booze propaganda panacea! I am going to talk to my Dr and have him give me a RX! Just in case I fall off the wagon or heaven forbid that I just want to have a good holiday, or have a normal date with my lovely partner without fear! It’s just another tool to put in my box. Really appreciate your writing. I live in MN and I am pretty sure we lead the country in rehab centers and AA per Capita. Once you get the label a ADDICT if you touch that thing that got you in treatment the entire world will turn on you because of the treatment propaganda the general public has absorbed. Treatment is also like a drug! Considering the people who run those institutions, there is no trying, it’s pass/fail, you either adopt the program that is an arbitrarily subjective tests/opinions that even they know most likely will not work, but your in the system you do it all or not at all. I could talk for days about the contradictions and the mind melting issues I have about treatment centers, I don’t know if you have read the book “Health Communism” but at this point when it comes to sickness in all modalities I refer to that book. The way I look at it is US has build an entire institution costing billions, affecting millions involving countless laws, Jobs, and lives of other people that is less reliable and predictable as Russian Roulette.
Yeah. Definitely discuss with your doctor, I'm not sure what the advice is for people who've already stopped. And yeah, I have a friend who was a binge, rather than a daily drinker, so she would take it like ... an hour before an event. Oh and be sure to talk to your doctor about the Sinclair method. Maybe bring in some of the literature. Part of the reason doctors don't use it is that they tell people to take it once a day, in the morning or at night. But, it has a really short shelf life. 6 hours. So if you take it at 8 and start drinking at 6, it's like it's not there anymore. The Sinclair method says an hour before your first drink. Psychologically, the delay also makes you realize that you *CAN* overcome a craving if you let a set amount of time pass.
2 years sober from booze, still do Kratom regularly, lsd and mushrooms 3-5 times a year, I don’t smoke weed, maybe a little coke once a year. Wish I knew about this drug, it really easy to get physically addicted to booze it takes about 1 week or 2 of daily drinking and boom you’re in it. Then people freak out bc the failure of the rehab program and the fear they spread with thier abstinence only program. The US is the only country that promotes the abstinence only idea, and the pressure, shame that get put on people with just regular biological issues is insane. We really need a sit down talk about drug in this country. The rich can do whatever drug the want and it cool or a fad but the second a poor person does a drug it’s a problem.
I think cocaine gets an especially bad rep. Not my cup of tea because even coffee makes me insane, so uppers aren't for me, but despite some high-profile examples, it's just not easy enough to integrate into your daily life to develop an addiction. It's also very unlikely to fatally overdose unless you have an underlying condition.
It's a travesty that this drug isn't promoted. Cold turkey/lifelong abstinence is just not needed, the way that we like ... no longer need to work on the farm dawn til night to avoid starvation. For physical withdrawal, doctors give benzos. There. Easy (these too are addictive but not after short-term use). And then the naltrexone, once you get rid of the shakes or whatever, literally retrains your brain to not be compulsive about alcohol. Desperate craving transforms into light temptation, like you might be temped to get that donut but then you're like, "Nah, I'll ruin my dinner and what;s the point of those extra calories? Donuts aren't even that good." But like if you're in a. 5-class restaurant that offers the world's best tiramisu, it's OK to try it!
thanks for bringing the issue to the fore. I could write an immensely long response in support. But you have accomplished as much as all of my examples of those suffering from severe addiction and had no one else willing to provide for them. I may have not provided well, but I took them in, and held their hand when the exhaled their last breath.
Listen to Andy Mills and Katie Herzog on this, in the first episode of Andy’s new podcast, Reflector
I did! It was so good. It's what made me look at it. It's so wild because it's all over the scientific literature and the only other popular coverage is an Atlantic story from 10 years ago. Also the documentary, but I hadn't heard of it before. Good on her!
Former opioid addict here who used another long term injection called Sublocade. It was a freaking miracle. No one knows it exists. It's so expensive you can't get it. Insurance won't cover it without substantial hoops to jump through, I mean completely impossible. My doctor who I got it through had to stop offering it because he couldn't fill the scripts when it came time for a second or 3rd injection dealing with fighting insurance companies and specialty pharmacies and whatever other insane red tape they put on it (forced group therapy is a significant barrier for folks who have been stable on long term MAT treatment with no need for therapy). The way we treat substance abuse disorder in America is full blown barbaric. I struggled for a decade before refusing to ever go back to another "treatment center" just to be told to pray and keep coming back. The 12 steps DON'T WORK. I'm saying it. People hate when I do but I don't care because I watched most of my friends die, struggling for a solution while being told hocus pocus was their best bet. It's infuriating people still believe the 12 step, brain disease narrative when the real story is much more nuanced. I've always wanted to tell my story because it's so different than so many others. I quit drugs after a decade of injecting meth and heroin. 6 over doses I can remember. Did jail time for manufacturing methamphetamine. I'm as real deal "addict" as it gets (I hate that word and don't believe "addiction" is real in the way most Americans believe). I have my medical marijuana card. I use it. I drink occasionally. VERY occasionally. I live a totally normal life. I'm NOT AN ADDICT anymore, and if you don't know it, current treatment models teach that once your an addict, you're always an addict. You can never moderate. I couldn't tell you how hopeless that made me and countless others like me feel. I'm grateful I figured out that it's not true. But I had to do that on my own. I had to create my own "recovery" and over 10 of my friends weren't so lucky. If you haven't, I highly suggest reading "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts" by Gabor Mate' and "High Price" and "Drug use for Adults" by Dr Carl Hart. They changed how I thought about myself, about "addiction" and alcoholism and I just wish more people knew that there are many, many other ways that are BETTER than the status quo Florida Shuffle. Sorry for my rant. This is just so important and no one knows this information. Sublocade and Naltrexone are like magic cures and we don't use them because of antiquated thinking about "replacing one drug with another" and that one type of recovery, pure abstinence, is the ultimate and only ideal worth striving for. It's BS. It's killing people. People are dying and we're telling them to pray. That's the situation. Sorry not sorry. Rehabs and treatment are just as guilty for the opioid crisis as the drugs themselves and not enough people are talking about it. I'd love to interview someone more credentialed to tell my story. I knew corrupt owners of rehabs. I knew kids who went to detox SOLELY to market a rehab and get new patients. It's that bad.
I want to caveat that by also mentioning it's been almost 10 years since I last ever used my drugs of choice, heroin and meth. I'm not just saying this stuff willy nilly. I believe in my heart of hearts the disease narrative for drugs and alcohol is killing people. It's 100 year old pseudoscience. Most of it has been disproven yet the system has yet to evolve to those advancements in science. I've read at least 7 or 8 books on the subject. One "The Biology of Desire" set out to prove the disease narrative is false. I highly recommend. I want to write a book about my experience because it's one of straight up institutional failure. Starting from 17 all the way until I was 27 years old, it was nothing but cons, false hope, abusive boarding schools, bad treatment, bad therapists, shady halfway houses, con artists and grifters. And that's a huge amount of the rehab industrial complex. It's all built on lies. The lie that we're (former substance users) broken, different, fundamentally flawed, "diseased" and that without the "steps" and finding God, we can never truly move on from drugs or alcohol. It's a huge story. And no one is telling it because people like me, former users gone normal, don't share our stories at AA meetings. We aren't sought out for speaking engagements. Our "recovery" is looked down on and treated as less than and not as good. We're told we're ticking time bombs that one day I'll have a drink and my head will explode and I'll never stop smoking crack and end up dead. That's what we're told. Don't believe me? Go to a meeting. Listen to what the leaders say. I was in leadership in a 12 step community. Once someone "relapses" they are shunned, ostracized and collectively ridiculed by the in group. It's dehumanizing, anti science and straight up harmful. Not just neutral. The steps are actively harmful. I'm sorry but no one else is saying it so I am. The 9th step involves victim blaming. I've heard sponsors telling women they need to not just forgive their rapist but also see their part in their own rape. That's not an exaggeration. That's part of the program. It's so obviously harmful. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk lol. Sorry
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. It's very valuable. I stand by my point that the failure to embrace science when it comes to addictive behavior is a preventable mass casualty event. I got some feedback on this post that it's not AS simple as, "You take a pill, you drink, and you undo decades of alcohol misuse." I hope I wasn't too glib. It's still hard. But just looking at the numbers ... I mean ... 80 percent success vs. 10-15 percent. I've had people suggest I go to AA but I'm sorry, it sounds SO horrible that the prospect makes me want to drink. And I do think that Ozimbic is like the perfect analogy. It's understandable that people who've been torturing themselves with starvation and excesive exercise are judgy about a drug that just makes you ... eat as much food as you need, not as much food as you crave. I even have that tendency! I'm like, "I run all the time and try to eat mostly vegan to stay thin ... and these people just take a shot and become thin?!?" I can imagine people who've struggled in AA are annoyed at the prospect of a pill that just makes ... alcohol cravings go away. But, much like Ozymbic is a possible solution to America's obesity crisis (and should be made available and affordable to people who aren't vain starlets) the widespread adoption of Naltroxene for alcohol misuse will literally save countless lives.
Nailed it.
Seriously thank you I really never like drinking and totally got caught up in the booze propaganda panacea! I am going to talk to my Dr and have him give me a RX! Just in case I fall off the wagon or heaven forbid that I just want to have a good holiday, or have a normal date with my lovely partner without fear! It’s just another tool to put in my box. Really appreciate your writing. I live in MN and I am pretty sure we lead the country in rehab centers and AA per Capita. Once you get the label a ADDICT if you touch that thing that got you in treatment the entire world will turn on you because of the treatment propaganda the general public has absorbed. Treatment is also like a drug! Considering the people who run those institutions, there is no trying, it’s pass/fail, you either adopt the program that is an arbitrarily subjective tests/opinions that even they know most likely will not work, but your in the system you do it all or not at all. I could talk for days about the contradictions and the mind melting issues I have about treatment centers, I don’t know if you have read the book “Health Communism” but at this point when it comes to sickness in all modalities I refer to that book. The way I look at it is US has build an entire institution costing billions, affecting millions involving countless laws, Jobs, and lives of other people that is less reliable and predictable as Russian Roulette.
Yeah. Definitely discuss with your doctor, I'm not sure what the advice is for people who've already stopped. And yeah, I have a friend who was a binge, rather than a daily drinker, so she would take it like ... an hour before an event. Oh and be sure to talk to your doctor about the Sinclair method. Maybe bring in some of the literature. Part of the reason doctors don't use it is that they tell people to take it once a day, in the morning or at night. But, it has a really short shelf life. 6 hours. So if you take it at 8 and start drinking at 6, it's like it's not there anymore. The Sinclair method says an hour before your first drink. Psychologically, the delay also makes you realize that you *CAN* overcome a craving if you let a set amount of time pass.
2 years sober from booze, still do Kratom regularly, lsd and mushrooms 3-5 times a year, I don’t smoke weed, maybe a little coke once a year. Wish I knew about this drug, it really easy to get physically addicted to booze it takes about 1 week or 2 of daily drinking and boom you’re in it. Then people freak out bc the failure of the rehab program and the fear they spread with thier abstinence only program. The US is the only country that promotes the abstinence only idea, and the pressure, shame that get put on people with just regular biological issues is insane. We really need a sit down talk about drug in this country. The rich can do whatever drug the want and it cool or a fad but the second a poor person does a drug it’s a problem.
Drug’s usually are safe, they can be used in a healthy way….
I think cocaine gets an especially bad rep. Not my cup of tea because even coffee makes me insane, so uppers aren't for me, but despite some high-profile examples, it's just not easy enough to integrate into your daily life to develop an addiction. It's also very unlikely to fatally overdose unless you have an underlying condition.
It's a travesty that this drug isn't promoted. Cold turkey/lifelong abstinence is just not needed, the way that we like ... no longer need to work on the farm dawn til night to avoid starvation. For physical withdrawal, doctors give benzos. There. Easy (these too are addictive but not after short-term use). And then the naltrexone, once you get rid of the shakes or whatever, literally retrains your brain to not be compulsive about alcohol. Desperate craving transforms into light temptation, like you might be temped to get that donut but then you're like, "Nah, I'll ruin my dinner and what;s the point of those extra calories? Donuts aren't even that good." But like if you're in a. 5-class restaurant that offers the world's best tiramisu, it's OK to try it!