Posts Tagged ‘celebrity drug addiction’

Jonathan Rhys Meyers Returns To Rehab, But How Can He Make Recovery Count?

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

After an initial recovery attempt at a London treatment facility for alcoholism in 2007, The Tudors star Jonathan Rhys Meyers returns to treatment in hopes this time recovery will continue, leading to a healthier, sober lifestyle.

People.com reports Rhys Meyers’ drunken behavior landed him in both Irish and French prison in 2007 and 2009 for his drunken conduct toward airport staff – uttering racist slurs and making a spectacle, but after his stint in rehab it seems the tools provided there couldn’t quite stick.

For an actor who clearly wants to get better, as evidenced by a low profile and his second sincere attempt, how can recovery this time really count? How to make sobriety last when temptation is everywhere?

His celebrity status makes it all the more difficult to stick to his recovery plan, but with adequate support and confidence, he can come out of this experience a more composed individual, sober and excited to see where the new lifestyle takes him. Continuing care is the best way to go in this respect, it offers a point of contact for weekly updates and coaching, catches slip-ups in the recovery process, and if he does succumb to the pressures his position places him in, the program can get him back on track for lasting sobriety.

Usually those trying to recover need a complete change of scenery and crowd of people, but given the nature of his image, it might be impossible to do so; this makes an adequate aftercare program especially important. He’ll need all the extra support from trained professions he can get if he really wants to overcome this disease.

Tags: alcohol, alcohol addiction treatment, alcoholism, celebrity addiction, celebrity drug addiction
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Sober House Season Over, So What's Next For Cast Recovery?

Friday, May 7th, 2010

Now that this season of VH1’s Sober House has concluded we wonder what will become of the “cast members” we’ve grown to love over the course of their two show series. From the touching goodbyes and the optimism pervasive in most everyone leaving, it appears these troubled people in the public eye might actually make it sober.

The show’s commentary did a great job cutting down the misleading music to ensure viewers these people’s struggle was far from over, concluding that many plan to continue in their active recovery with ongoing and after care.

So, what does that mean? What care goes beyond living with people advocating their respective recoveries?

For cast member Mike Star, continuing recovery would mean going to the Aurora Las Encinas Hospital near Pasadena, California. Dr. Drew pushed this idea to plenty of resistance by Mike, but, as the dramatic music and flashbacks showed viewers, his recovery is anything but complete. Las Encinas’ programs have both inpatient (living on site) and outpatient (living on one’s own with program structure) options, so Mike’s recovery would have the attention and the structure he needs.

Many of the other cast members would benefit from programs like AiR’s Recovery Assistance Program, which gives the recovering addict a person to talk to, guide them and hold them responsible for their recovery – much like the people helping them in Sober House. Programs like this also help the families of the recovering addicts learn how to navigate and help the progress to ensure lasting recovery.

Tags: addiction recovery, celebrity addiction, celebrity drug addiction, dr. drew, sober house
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Corey Haim Issued Hundreds of Pills Days Before His Death

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

I don’t imagine there are a whole lot of shocked gasps out there from people hearing Corey Haim’s death has been officially attributed to prescription drug abuse, but the situation should be causing outrage and action as a response to its newest addition to high-profile addicts losing the battle to stay afloat.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the California attorney general announced Tuesday that Haim had managed to get prescription drugs from seven different doctors and multiple pharmacies. The number of pills stashed, an incredible 553 doses of Xanax, Valium, Soma and Vicodin.

As we’ve been commenting, the problem isn’t just for celebrities, but the publicity for this high profile death should be urging some real action in California, where attorney general Jerry Brown seems to be taking exception to the problem, saying though Haim “is the poster child for the problem, there are a lot of doctor-shoppers and most of them aren’t celebrities.”

Clearly this case isn’t one of accidental addiction; Haim’s drug problems have ranged the spectrum of mood altering and body destructive, so the idea that he, a well-known drug abuser, could so easily be issued so many drugs raises more than a few red flags for the industry.

The state has been cracking down on illegal prescription drug rings in California for months now, and the incident caused the attorney general to urge CA doctors to “check with” the California prescription drug-monitoring database so as to avoid “getting duped” by other would-be abusers, as Haim’s doctors claimed to have done.

But where’s the accountability here? “Checking with” a database doesn’t do a whole lot for those doctors who don’t take much ownership of the problems associated with these prescriptions in the first place.

While other states are pushing ahead in mandatory reporting for painkiller prescriptions, it appears California is lagging behind on the legislation needed to truly tackle its growing drug abuse problem at the source. I understand the state’s funding problems may outweigh its other priorities, but the message they send to those looking for drugs without strings, both from within and without the state, is one of neglect and consequent free indulgence.

Tags: celebrity addiction, celebrity drug addiction, Corey Haim, prescription drug abuse, prescription pill addiction
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E! Special Sheds Light on Prescription Drug Abuse of Everyday People

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Flipping through the channels this weekend, I was pleasantly surprised to see E! going deeper than the celebrity deaths due to prescription drug abuse. Their new special looked into everyday people’s struggle with prescription painkiller and sedative addictions.

The show profiled different types of people—from the typical juvenile druggie, to the overachiever, to the unintentional addiction of someone simply prescribed poorly—and discussed how each became hooked, the steps they took to find sobriety and family reactions throughout. All of this was done with compassion and an absence of judgment, potentially leading viewers to gain the footing to seek help in response.

While I applaud them for delving out of their ordinary murder mysteries and celebrity documentaries by looking at the effects of the disease on normal people outside the Hollywood spotlight, the program ended without educating the audience as adequately as it could.

The show’s depictions neglect the concept of “continuing care” (the receipt of guidance after one leaves treatment), a crucial step in the recovery process to which the general population and media have yet to catch on, instead only going through the routine of intervention, treatment and either success or failure.

I don’t mean to rag on E!, but this special is another example of TV programs with the right idea yet lacking the correct and complete education to properly comment on the subject. Discussing recovery of any kind as a behavioral health problem by only highlighting intervention and treatment but missing continuing care is like missing the bread in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich; the other parts have the opportunity to be really satisfying, but without the boundaries, they just fall apart.

Tags: assistance in recovery, celebrity addiction, celebrity drug addiction, prescription drug abuse, prescription drug overdose, prescription pill addiction, Recovery Assistance Program, recovery support
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Addiction Shows On The Rise, But To What Aim?

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

The last couple years have brought a surge of TV programs dealing with addiction, intervention and recovery for both celebrities and the everyday person. VH1, A&E and now TLC have all taken on the topic, but to what aim?

Do shows like this affect people into action, seeking help for their own addiction or those of a loved one? Or does it simply serve as drama-heavy entertainment portraying people apparently worse off than the viewer?

While any awareness should be good awareness, it appears these shows don’t do much in the way of prompting professional action, but instead create a sense of professionalism within the families who care. A sort of pop-psychology for addiction intervention and treatment. This can lead to some pretty dangerous and misguided side-effects.

What seems to be missing upon many of these shows is the effects of addiction on those around the person with the disease. With the exception of the new TLC show, it’s very rare to see families involved beyond the intervention phase, and when this occurs, families simply participate in attempting to urge the loved one to receive help, rather than making the family (and viewer) aware of the family’s responsibilities in this matter and the effects they have on the progress of their loved-one.

Watching the previews for TLC’s new “Addicted” program, I did hear a sound bite of the interventionist saying “I believe firmly that addiction is a family disorder,” and we couldn’t agree more, but what I hope to see from this new take on the old game is families involved in the progress of recovery for all affected by the disease, and an emphasis on the need for professional intervention rather than make-shift family confrontations.

Another disturbing problem with these shows is the lack of conversation about the need for aftercare. It appears  that for most shows treatment is the be-all, end-all for addiction. If one relapses he or she must return to treatment and try again. Money down the drain time and again, and no true hope in sight. VH1 has expanded this closed scope to include “Sober House,” which puts cast members from previous seasons of “Sex Rehab” and “Celebrity Rehab” into a sober living environment. But even here, where is the aftercare discussion. Where is the RAP continuing care?

Relapse seems imminent for most cast members, and on the show’s premier the house manager asks the oft-thought question “What makes one person stay sober and another relapse?”

The answer is actually pretty simple, but lost upon both the asker and apparently the show producers.

Tags: addiction intervention, addiction treatment, celebrity drug addiction, dr. drew sex addiction, intervention, recovery support, sex addiction treatment
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Corey Haim’s Death Another Casualty in the U.S. Prescription Drug War

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Corey Haim’s death Wednesday brought another influx of attention to the prescription drug debate in America, though its misunderstanding could be the most costly side effect of the nation-wide disease.

Prescription drug abuse isn’t just for the wealthy. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, over 45 million Americans or over 20 percent of the country’s population have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons. This dangerous and easily misunderstood addiction goes unnoticed by many and receives less press than other more “street” addictions.

What seems to be most concerning about the upsurge in high-profile deaths recently is that the concept of prescription drug dependency takes a sidecar to voyeur. In the case of Brittany Murphy, the notion of her drug habits elicted responses desiring to “out her” as something less beautiful and more disturbed, a demotion of image or an affirmation of her flaws.

With Corey Haim, the responses simply imply this was the natural course of things. Even his own certainty that he’d be “a chronic relapser for the rest of my life” (from an interview on CNN’s “Larry King Live”) gives little resistance to the idea.

The opposition of Murphy’s rumored closet addiction and the very public knowledge of Haim’s should bring to light the scope of the problem rather than act as both circus sideshow attraction and circle of life philosophy.  Other high profile deaths within the last couple years (like Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson) that should also bring a wider view of the disease seem to be doing little by way of public action.

Sure, states are starting to pass laws putting restrictions on those who prescribe, but how about starting from an obvious point of concern: the labeling.

One of the most difficult issues with this type of addiction lies in the problematic directions on many painkiller labels. Those who are actually taking the drug for a legitimate problem may inadvertantly become hooked. Painkiller labels reading “Take 1 or 2 tablets or as necessary” creates an ambiguous statement. What does “as necessary” really mean?

These drugs are extremely easy to adapt to. After a relatively short time of taking them, the “Take 1 or 2 tablets” begins to take a backseat to “or as necessary” and begins the slope toward addiction.

Without changes to these most basic of problems, how can we expect to change the situation? When doctor’s offices situate themselves in strip malls and you can go to different doctors for the same problem, it makes getting these drugs very easy and makes painkiller addiction less of a celebrity problem.

Yes, state and national governments try to come up with ways to limit or track prescription drug issuance by passing new laws and creating databases. In the meantime, Middle America silently self-medicates behind bathroom doors.

Tags: Brittany Murphy, celebrity drug addiction, Corey Haim, painkiller addiction, prescription drug abuse, prescription pill addiction
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