New 24/7 Addiction News Service

The Addiction News Network is a constantly updated blog/portal/e-magazine that publishes everything from SAMHSA alerts to new Treatment Center openings as well as treatment advances, research reports, first person articles and war on drugs commentary.

Soon, the site will have multiple outgoing RSS feeds for webmasters that need up-to-date alcoholism and addiction content. The feeds may not nelive yet, however multiple styles of widgets are available as a quick copy and paste alternative.

The service gathers and aggregates addiction news and articles from all over the world, presenting it in easy to find, searchable categories. Addiction News Network also accepts original stories.

A sister site, The Addiction Channel, will launch next month featuring an all audio and video format. format.

More information at Addiction News Network 

New Scholarship Awarded to Bipolar Community

From The Addiction News Network:  The Bipolar Lives Scholarship is a new scholarship created specifically with the bipolar community in mind. Many people with bipolar disorder are extremely talented but fail to realize their potential. The $500 cash award is intended to provide practical support for seekers of higher education.

What do you do when you want to let the bipolar community know about scholarships for people with bipolar disorder, but soon discover that support for bipolar students is still far too rare?  You donate a scholarship yourself, of course.

The Bipolar Lives Scholarship was created when journalist Sarah Freeman added a webpage on bipolar scholarships to the Bipolar Lives website, but found only a handful of suitable awards even existed.

“I was shocked and saddened by the lack of support and realized I could do something directly”. According to Freeman, “Bipolar disorder is in the news constantly right now. This has done a lot of good in terms of raising awareness and shattering some of the myths about bipolar. However, this new awareness needs to be matched by practical measures that encourage and support the bipolar community. Many people with bipolar disorder are extremely talented but fail to realize their potential. Higher education seems like the right place to focus on.”

The Bipolar Lives Scholarship is an annual award, and submissions for the inaugural prize opened on July 4, 2008. The scholarship encourages research, reflection, and creativity in communicating important information about bipolar disorder. According to the scholarship organizers from http://www.bipolar-lives.com, there is a shortage of higher education scholarships for mental health service consumers, and the scholarship will provide useful assistance for applicants who are enrolled in a US college, community college, or a technical or trade school.

The scholarship, which is free to apply for, offers a cash award of $500.00.

Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and studying in the United States. They must submit an original essay, article, or multimedia work in one of the stipulated formats on an important issue related to bipolar disorder. This may be a factual piece based on established research, or may be drawn from personal experience. Suggested topics include bipolar treatments, bipolar symptoms, the bipolar spouse, relationships and bipolar disorder, lithium, diet and bipolar and many others. A complete list of suggested topics and submission requirements appears on the Bipolar Lives website. The winner will be selected on merit and chance plays no part.

Click here for Bipolar Lives Scholarship Information, contact Sarah Freeman

STREET DRUG SLANG – Maybe

DRUG SLANG
STREET DRUG SLANG
STREET TERMS

From “A Bean” and “Abe” to “Zoinked” and “Zoomers”, literally hundreds of street terms for drugs, drug paraphernalia, and assorted and varied using behaviors.

IMPORTANT: Parents-study hard. Real hard. With the help of this guide you just might be able to spy on your kids AND sorta, kinda understand what they’re saying…

Or not. 

(I stopped somewhere in the ‘D’s when it dawned on me that at least 2/3 of these must have been made-up by a Principal of a Junior High who submitted it with a Grant Application to DEA or DOJ. Hey, he needed books!)

See the full list at http://www.nicd.us/drugstreetandslangterms.html

When Trailer Park Barbie Talks… I Listen.

There aren’t that many bloggers that I “listen to”… Sure, I read quite a few and even share beliefs with some of them. But really listen to? Two-Maybe three at best.  Yet there’s one that I know absolutely nothing about-not a shred of casual aquaintence-and I know, really know, that we must have either been seperated at birth or just haven’t met yet to plan the wedding…

“ If you have ever hurt, struggled, been angry, frightened, confused or felt misunderstood; and you live, love and laugh (or want to), you might find a part of one of us inside of you.”

And there’s the kicker, “One of us…”

You see Trailer Park Barbie isn’t a “she”…. TPB is a “them”.

Trailer Park Barbie is made up of  FOUR women, and while one did go by the Barbie name on the Trailer Park Barbie Blog, she now goes by UM (Unquiet Mind-Haven’t read it? Go to a Bookstore. Now. If you can relate to the authors experience in a parking lot at UCLA, well…you belong. Not sure where-but you definitely belong.)

So it would seem that I am infatuated with a group. Not sure what that means or where it may lead, but I’m putting it out there for all to see. Yep-good, bad, or indifferent…I’m all about Bi-Polar Chicks Blogging.

If you’re like me at all-narcissistic, manic-depressive, lithium-licker and recovering addict, and too much more to mention right now, then I have a feeling that there’s a place in your heart (soul?) for TPB too. But more importantly, a safe, healing place that let’s you know-immediately-that you are not alone.

Pay them a visit-You’ll have a new addiction in no time…  

From Broken Within

Why is it that real, gut-wrenching grief is so difficult to handle in other people?  Why is is that we can respond to broken bones but pretend that broken hearts are unimportant?

Just imagine that… Why is it that real, gut-wrenching grief is so difficult to handle in other people?  Why is is that we can respond to broken bones but pretend that broken hearts are unimportant?

Just imagine that you are paddling your canoe down a river, watching the birds and bees and butterflies.  You are so relaxed and enchanted that you don’t see the approaching cliff fall.  Your canoe hurtles over the edge and you tumble 30 feet or more trying to puzzle out what is happening to you.  You land badly and end up with broken limbs, but fortunately you have people around you and you are treated promptly.  The pain is real, but nobody complains that you can’t play sport that Sunday, or tells you to stop being silly and to pull yourself together.

For people who experience significant loss, the pain is devastating, though there are no broken bones to show on the surface.  Imagine suddenly falling 30 feet in a canoe – something that was somehow normal and safe suddenly disappears.  The loved-one suddenly dies, the job or health suddenly vanishes.  All significant losses are terrifying, shocking, painful.  But supposing no-one can see the real pain.  Supposing people want you to carry on as normal and then criticize you and accuse you of being self-indulgent when you cannot.

I had some significant conversations with a family recently who had a son who was killed by a drug overdose.  Months later, they are still trying to cope, still struggling to carry on with life, still hoping the pain will somehow ease, still trying to hold down a job and run a family.  They are both hurting and numbed.  Their whole perspective has changed.  Many things that were previously important have now become trivia making them angry.  Slowly they are edging towards a new normality without their son, but the healing of the internal wounds is understandably slow, and the internal trauma has left them emotionally weakened, tired, vulnerable.

Broken Within

The Road Often Traveled

I look back at my many days spent in “Social Model” detoxes and think, “What kind of abuse was that???”

In my teens it was perfectly acceptable for my step-dad to beat the hell out of me-I called the Sheriff’s once…they laughed.

In my 20′s I was perfectly OK with doing a “spin-dry” with a bunch of other alkies and junkies-no meds needed (and even if they were we weren’t getting any.)

Don’t think I could do that today…body’s too beat up and the truth is modern medicine has turned a whole bunch of former die-hard dope fiends into very big cry-babies…myself very included.

Thanks for visiting Fred. Checked out your place briefly and will definitely return….As long as you’re not, well, like a “Friend of Jack T.”….. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

A Bitter Pill

Joe remembers his last heroin high was wearing off. He felt the familiar beads of sweat. Nausea began to creep to his throat. Perfect conditions, his doctor said; bupe works only when patients are in withdrawal. So Joe curled back his tongue, placed the little hexagonal tablet underneath, and waited. He felt it slowly soften to a gritty paste and disappear. It still amazes him how quickly it worked. He didn’t feel high, didn’t feel withdrawal symptoms, didn’t even feel medicated; he just felt better. “It took away the pain,” he says. “It even took away the craving. I had my strength back, and I was eating sooner than I ever had in detox… (Wired Magazine article).