Dear Addict

Column One, Issue One

HOWDY and WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!

Nice to know you're not alone isn't it!

Thanks for dropping in, I promise it's quite a ride, buckle up, I also promise it's a safe trip.

Today's issue;

>what is Dear Addict? >where is Dear Addict? >What is an Addict? > who the heck is Kim Gray? > How can you tell if you're an Addict? > Drug Facts and Stats this issue; crack cocaine > and who is Jeanne? Lastly, content Index/Subject matter for next issue, including questions and answers.

Entire Issue Here

Dear Addict

Launches May 5th
Associated Content



Dear Addict is launching Monday May 5th at 6am. I am really excited.

Dear Addict however lives through your participation, your comments and experiences, your questions and advise.

Dear Addict while a serious subject about a serious disease will be insightful I promise and when appropriate a forum to have a sense of humor about ourselves.

Dear Addict is simply people sharing each others experience, strength and hope. It will not preach any one way of doing any one thing.

Anything goes. Help is here, through each other. So please, tell each other.

Entire Article Here

Federally Affected

He held Federal Convictions and a lot of time
I held a power of attorney and his life became mine

INTERPOL's top list with warrants and he was Federally wanted
DEA and ROPE'S Bounty Hunters, it was me that they haunted

I wanted to help but crumbled with uncertainty
Detectives were rough and I was alone just with me

I learned far too much and became too comfortable
with guns, badges, searches and dogs while living so portable

Entire Poem Here

Talking to Your Kids About Drugs

By Michelle WathaM
Associated Content Producer

Talking to your kids about drugs may be difficult sometimes. Parents often don't know where to start or exactly what to say about drugs. All we can do is explain to kids why drugs are bad for them. If we constantly remind them every few years why drugs are bad then they will most likely remember it if they are faced with peer pressure in the future.

Explaining to kids about drugs is important. It is better for them to be educated about drugs by adults than it is for them to learn about drugs from other people their own range rage. We can only educate them by telling them how and why drugs are bad. Teenagers usually do listen to parents about drugs even though we may think that they don't listen to us.

Entire Article Here

Why Don't You Get Dressed and Come Down?

Picking up pieces of myself after dropping everything for a few, and
The attestation you endlessly display leaves me with only one truth.
The dilemma I always allow me to face gives rise to obsolete excuse:
The problem's not the lack of concern, but its aroma that will confuse.

Why don't you get dressed and come down here,
With these adversaries, these rivals, these foes, these
Merciless creatures, come here to hunt, come here to wrinkle your nose?
I can't understand why I just don't want their patronizing time!

Entire Poem Here

Poem: The Addict's Hallmark

Just a note for Mother's day
I hope you are doing well.
If you are and can spare a dime
Please drop it in the mail.

Entire Poem Here

Interview With a Gaslighting Victim:

The Rhonda Parkinson Story

Wikipedia defines this little known evil as such: "Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse. It uses persistent denials of fact which, as they build up over time, make the victim progressively anxious, confused, and less able to trust his or her own memory and perception. A variation of gaslighting, used as a form of harassment, is to subtly alter aspects of a victim's environment, thereby upsetting his or her peace of mind, sense of security, etc."

The term is coined from a 1940's film, Gaslight. The character Gregory lights the gas lamps in the attic, causing the rest of the lamps in the house to dim slightly. When his wife, Paula, comments on the lights' dimming, Gregory tells her that she is imagining things. Paula believes herself alone in the house when the dimming occurs. She is unaware that Gregory has entered the attic from the house next door in order to search for jewels he believes to be hidden there. The sinister interpretation of the change in light levels is part of a larger pattern of deception to which the character Paula is subjected.

Since first writing the article "What Is Gaslighting? The Extremes of Emotional Abuse," I have received numerous emails from victims, many of whom had no idea that they were being subjected to emotional abuse. These victims actually believed they were insane, continually blaming themselves for the problems within the relationships with their abusers.

Entire Article Here

Epiphany of a Recovering Drug Addict

I did not want to be a high grandmother. Although the courts gave me added incentive to be compliant with a treatment plan, it has been solely my own choice to not use methamphetamine since August of 2007.

My granddaughter is almost six months old now, and I am certain that when she reaches the age of five years old, I will be able to say "I have been clean for five years." The extreme difference between the person I am on methamphetamine and the sober person I am today can be clearly seen. I am gainfully employed and no longer using or dealing drugs.

Entire Article Here

Personal Experience at the Hannah Home In Alabama

Homeless Shelters Are Not Necessarily "Rock Bottom"



Ordinarily, women's shelters are established for a variety of reasons. For the battered and abused women and children of our society, these homes can mean a safe and secure place to live, sleep, and begin a new, productive life. For those who are displaced, or have no home of their own, the shelters meet the many needs for a woman and her children, as well as for single women.

For me, it meant an alternative to prison while attending counseling for drug addiction in 2001. What I found in the surprisingly warm, attentive atmosphere are things I will never forget.

When first hearing of the alternative plan for my sentence, I was happy to be able to leave jail, and of course ready to be just about anywhere authorities would allow me to be instead of behind bars. But I viewed a woman's shelter quite differently than they in fact are. Upon entering the group home in a county to the north of my own here in Alabama, I met smiling faces and warm reassurances that everything would be okay.

Entire Article Here

What Was That Drug Addict THINKING?

Dorothy has a daughter who is not trusted in her home, even when accompanied by her family. "If Tiffany leaves a room, I know she is looking for something to steal so she can get drugs. If she wants to use our bathroom, I have to watch to make sure she doesn't take a detour into one of the bedrooms."

Dorothy has attempted to manage the sad relationship with her youngest daughter for many years. Her daughter is addicted to K-4's. She is an intravenous user. K-4 is the street name for the drug Dilaudid, a serious narcotic.

Like all opioids used for analgesia, hydromorphone (Dilaudid) is potentially habit-forming. It is listed in Schedule II of the United States' Controlled Substances Act of 1970, and is listed in the Single Convention On Narcotic Drugs.

Unfortunately, most Americans either know someone or are related to someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol. Those who have never been addicted to an altering substance justifiably have a hard time understanding the mindset of those who have.

With that in mind, the following is an attempt to help others understand the battle raging inside an addict. This is not an attempt to excuse actions acted upon by addicts, but rather, it is a journey into the many underlying causes through which this disease literally drags an addict.


Entire Article Here

Will the Morgue Help Lindsay Lohan?

A Recovering Addict Says "No."

Going through the motions and fulfilling the requirements set by the courts concerning her DUI conviction, Lindsay Lohan will now have to spend time in a morgue. Evidently this will make Lohan come to the realization that her actions are potentially fatal. Ironically, she will spend more time in the morgue than her 84 minute stint in jail, however.

People magazine reports that she is to spend two, 4-hour days in the morgue witnessing fatalities and such, and after that, Lohan is set to spend two days working in a hospital emergency room.

I hate to be a killjoy here, but let's get one thing perfectly clear: the disease of addiction will always run its course. Lohan can look at all the dead bodies the courts want her to look at, but it will not make a difference until she is tired of using and wants a different lifestyle.

Entire Article Here

Other Types of Addiction

Addiction
By Genevieve Dowd Corwin

It didn't start out this way.
At first, I started off nice and slow.
Spent little money and indulged occasionally.
The more money you make, the more you want to spend.
It became very accessible.
There became more and more places to get it and more people willing to sell.
You can do it anywhere.
Home, out with your friends, or by yourself.
It even got me in trouble getting caught doing it at work.
It made me so happy.

Entire Poem Here

Methadone Maintenance Programs:the Cure for Opiate Addiction

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, "Methadone is a rigorously well-tested medication that is safe and efficacious for the treatment of narcotic withdrawal and dependence." 1

Years ago, I believed that I could not give up my little pain pill habit. Lortab, Lorcet, Tylox, whatever opioid pill I could con out of a doctor or buy for about $4 a pill on the streets, I usually took no more than eight in a twenty-four hour period, and had "weaned" down to about five a day when I decided I needed to get help. That was years ago, when I truly did not understand what a drug addiction could tragically become.

I started thumbing through the phone book in search of rehabilitative support. The group thing didn't appeal to me. I wanted relief from withdrawals, even though a small five pill a day habit was not, I had yet to learn, hard withdrawals from a drug. I found a Methadone Maintenance Program here in Jefferson County that promised relief from withdrawals while giving professional support and counseling to rid me of my addiction to hydrocodone. I was amazed.

The next day, I was up at dawn waiting to be seen by a doctor at the Methadone clinic. I noticed that even though the doors to the clinic were yet to be unlocked, there were about twenty to thirty people waiting outside. Once open for business, the nurse took down my information, and I was ushered through the process of a blood test, paying a $60 fee to begin the Methadone Maintenance Program, and finally was placed in a line in the main lobby, behind other Methadone patients.

When it came my turn at the Methadone clinic's dosing window, enclosed behind steel bars and offering a counter at my immediate front, I was told to sign my name. I paid her $11 to dose. The nurse, locked in a small room that held many, many rows of small plastic bottles containing Methadone on shelves that ran the length and height of the room, used a small knife to cut open the foil seal on the top of evidently my prescribed bottle. She then poured water into the bottle of Methadone, bringing the amount of liquid about full. She handed this through the small window and placed it on the counter before me, instructing me to drink it all in front of her. I obeyed. The Methadone tasted horrible, even when diluted with water. She offered a small, paper cup of water and told me to drink that in front of her as well. I did. Then she wanted to see inside my mouth. At first, I was perplexed, then realized she wanted to make sure I did not leave with any Methadone in my mouth. They had prescribed me 30mgs of Methadone.

Entire Article Here

The Incarceration Cure?

Locking Up The Chemically Dependant

           

Example
The gavel lifts and slams, papers are shuffled, signed, placed in a folder, and a bailiff instructs a twenty-two year old African American male who is seated temporarily in the juror box with other Jefferson County inmates awaiting a hearing in Circuit Court.

Having pled guilty to a possession charge, Roy listens to the bailiff explain the process of entering the Alabama Department of Corrections' Processing Location, Kilby Correctional Facility. Serving a year and a day actually becomes around three months when tallying time off for good behavior, and is defined as "you'll be there for a minute," by those handcuffed to each of Roy's hands.

Roy's mother is in the courtroom, self-conscious about the tears streaming down her cheeks, watching the judge with a desperate look. It's as if she is waiting for the judge to suddenly pull back the papers he has just signed that will send her son to hell with monsters. Maybe he will rewind everything, and even take back what he said to her son that had shaken her to the very core: "Well, obviously you don't like getting up and making a sandwich whenever you want, Son - I guess you just don't like freedom. You didn't even try to go to support group meetings, did you? I don't really think you can be helped. And Alabama wants you off its streets."

Entire Article

Nicotine Addictions

Addiction

By JConstance

I sneak around
Seeking out the places I hid my paraphernalia
Away from family
Away from my friends
An ashtray
The lighter that caught my eye in the store
Just a day ago I confessed I had quit
And that I had gained the willpower to simply ignore the cravings
Obsessively doing things
Trying to keep busy
As I complete my daily tasks
I pass by my purse
The sewn fabric that holds just enough to buy a pack....

Entire Poem Here

101 Ways to Hurt Your Loved Ones

A Day In the Life of Two Crystal Meth Addicts

Though there are many different ways to hurt your loved ones while addicted to Crystal Meth, a loving family can forgive when there is sincerity present.

However, the deteriorating nature of a long-term, chronic Crystal Meth user becomes such that true healing and closure may never come for some wounds.

A similar situation would be having just watched an extremely graphic horror movie depicting suffering (or something in which you normally would or could not watch), only to reconsider the choice all too late. Just as there were images depicted in that regretfully viewed horror movie that you may never "un-see," there are emotionally detrimental words exchanged during heated arguments or actions decided upon selfishly that you cannot "un-say, "un-hear," or "undo."

Entire Article Here

A Day in the Life of a Methamphetamine Addict

Beneath the Ice: My War with Methamphetamine Addiction

What need is there for alarm clocks when we never slept anyway? My day would usually begin around 72 hours before the morning light became noticed, and I was routinely surprised by the site of it: "My God, is it morning?" The revelation would then create cause to "burn one," yet again, as did almost any event occurring in my environment, perceived environment or actual environment, I should say.

Hell, if the phone rings, burn one; tie my shoes, burn one; returning from the store, burn one; receive bad news, burn one; receive good news, burn one! Any event of just an average day in methamphetamine addiction became a reason, an excuse, to continue using.

I believe I have heard it said before, though I am drawing a mental blank about who may have coined the adage, "You are the last thing that I thought of, and the first thing on my mind." Simply put, Methamphetamine was my god, and I was unknowingly dancing with the devil himself. Methamphetamine addiction stripped me of my very person, changed my personality to an unrecognizable degree, and created scars throughout my family and deep into my friends . . . scars that may never fully heal.

All that I am and all that I have left to give after Methamphetamine addiction is a story of completely grave disappointment, exhaustive pain, mental collapse, and a scream in my heart that will not be stifled. Hopefully, what is left of me can be used to better aid others' decisions regarding which dance requests to decline in life.

Entire Article Here

That Thing Which Screams a Whisper

Drug Addiction In America
by Jeanne Sparks-Carreker

BIRMINGHAM-Addictions can be deadly. I should have been dead already, perhaps many times over, from overdoing combinations of opiates, methadone, "Liquid G," and the queen that locked me in the tower, crystal meth. The urgency and need for former addicts to rise and speak to those unaware of the actual grueling aspects of opting to use drugs has never been in such demand. The need is so great, now more than ever, to spread the word that using even "low-grade" or those seen as "lesser, safer" drugs should be avoided at all cost.

Behavioral Gateways
Even if a drug's addiction rate is not very significant, the behavior can be. See, even now, there are those readers who are justifying using by telling themselves "Okay, I just won't get to that point. I just won't use beyond that level." Do you think anyone planned to allow it to get to any further point besides the levels of enjoyment they experienced at the beginning? In this way, it is plain to see, addicts do not control drugs. The drugs control the addict.

After having been clean four months in 2001, fresh out of county jail where an inmate is not allowed to smoke cigarettes in Jefferson County, a very wise drug counselor suggested to me that I try to abstain from picking up cigarettes again. He said that this was due to the fact that the behavior can lead to the desire for further use of substances. Being in another world for four months, not having been exposed to anything remotely like the former life I had lived before jail, I had not encountered many things which reminded me so vividly of using drugs the way certain behaviors and actions in the free world would. Alas, always willing to ignorantly throw myself out there as my own little Guinea Pig, I did not heed his warnings. I know now that he was absolutely correct. Smoking cigarettes again, though legal, were actually a gateway into the desire for further behaviors, having come from a problematic addictive history, such as mine had been.

Entire Article Here