Brett Favre’s addiction to painkillers (1996)

After the seizure had ended and he had come to his senses, Favre looked into a sea of concerned medical faces and saw Packers associate team physician John Gray. “You’ve just suffered a seizure, Brett,” Gray told him. “People can die from those.” Favre’s heart sank. Upon hearing from doctors in the room that his dependence on painkillers might have contributed to the seizure, he thought, I’ve got to stop the pills, I’ve just got to.

Last season Favre went on such a wild ride with the prescription drug Vicodin, a narcotic-analgesic painkiller, that Tynes feared for his life. He scavenged pills from teammates. At least once he took 13 tablets in a night. But on Tuesday of last week, during his final telephone call before entering the Menninger Clinic, a rehabilitation center in Topeka, Kansas [which moved to Florida in 2003], to treat his dependency (and also to evaluate his occasional heavy drinking), Favre told SI that he hadn’t taken Vicodin since the seizure. “I quit cold turkey,” he said, “and I entered the NFL substance-abuse program voluntarily. I don’t want a pill now, but I want to go into a rehab center because I want to make sure I’m totally clean.
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Tynes wiped her eyes. She took a deep breath. She sniffled a few times. “You know,” she said, “he’s changed already. He talks to me again. He takes Brittany and me out. He pays attention to us. A few days ago he hugged me and he thanked me for everything I’ve done, and he said some really nice things to me.”

She wiped her eyes again. “I said, ‘I can’t believe it. The old Brett’s back!’” Time will tell. The true test will start in September.

Time has shown the answer, after struggles for several years, as Brett Favre has continued his amazing NFL career with great success.

Through triumph & tragedy, Deanna and Brett Favre remain a constant

After doctors found severe liver damage in 1996, Brett agreed to enter rehab, and was able to kick his addiction. He and Deanna were married several months later and welcomed daughter Breleigh in 1999, but his problems with substance abuse had not ended. By 1999, Brett had returned to heavy partying, and was abusing alcohol. Deanna contacted a divorce attorney, which helped scare her husband into quitting drinking entirely, according to Deanna.

The 1990s tested their relationship, but Deanna ultimately appreciated that Brett chose to seek help. “He was battling a disease,” she says. “I was trying to support him, and when he started making the right choices by getting the help he needed, that made a difference.”

Life had stabilized for the Favres by 2003: Brett was sober and a Super Bowl-winning icon in Green Bay, and Brittany and Breleigh were healthy and happy. “We were at a good spot in our lives,” Deanna says.

Then, in December 2003, Brett’s father died in a car accident. The following October, Deanna’s 24-year-old brother Casey was killed when his all-terrain vehicle hit a patch of gravel and flipped. Casey had recently overcome his own drug problems, and his girlfriend was eight months pregnant when he died.

In her memoir, Deanna described the loss of her brother as the darkest time in her life, but the darkness would not pass quickly - just days after Casey’s funeral, Deanna was diagnosed with breast cancer at 35.

Related: The Family of Favre Blog (family photo) - Deanna Favre Hope Foundation - Green Bay Press Gazette Favre Tribute (action photo) - Maradona Drug Rehab - Los Angels Drug Rehab Centers

Nearly all addicted individuals believe in the beginning that they can stop using drugs on their own, and most try to stop without treatment. However, most of these attempts result in failure to achieve long-term abstinence. Research has shown that long-term drug use results in significant changes in brain function that persist long after the individual stops using drugs. These drug-induced changes in brain function may have many behavioral consequences, including the compulsion to use drugs despite adverse consequences - the defining characteristic of addiction.

Long-term drug use results in significant changes in brain function that persist long after the individual stops using drugs.

Understanding that addiction has such an important biological component may help explain an individual’s difficulty in achieving and maintaining abstinence without treatment. Psychological stress from work or family problems, social cues (such as meeting individuals from one’s drug-using past), or the environment (such as encountering streets, objects, or even smells associated with drug use) can interact with biological factors to hinder attainment of sustained abstinence and make relapse more likely. Research studies indicate that even the most severely addicted individuals can participate actively in treatment and that active participation is essential to good outcomes.

Source: NIH Publication No. 00-4180 July 2000

Related: Methods to Treat Addiction - statistics on binge drinking - Drug Treatment Success Rates in England

Maureen McCormick, best known for her role as Marcia Brady, is now 52 and has a new book - Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice

In the book, Maureen provides a behind-the-scenes view of the Brady Bunch. She reveals the lifelong friendships, the hurtful jealousies, the offscreen romance, the loving support her television family provided during a life-or-death moment, and the inconsolable loss of a man who had been a second father. But The Brady Bunch was only the beginning. Haunted by the perfection of her television alter ego, Maureen landed on the dark side, caught up in a fast-paced, drug-fueled, star-studded Hollywood existence that ultimately led to the biggest battle of her life.

The book presents a story of success. After kicking her drug habit, Maureen battled depression, reconnected with her mother, whom she nursed through the end of her life, and then found herself in a pitched battle for her family in which she ultimately triumphed. After fifty years, she has finally learned what it means to love the person you are, insight that has brought her peace in a happy marriage and as a mother.

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

Ain’t no sunshine in interventions, rehab, depression and therapy, which is what followed her “Brady” years. But in 1985 McCormick married actor Michael Cummings, and her life started to turn around. She credits his love and support, plus that of her “Brady Bunch” family, with helping her get sober.

During her troubled times, McCormick got an occasional acting role but nothing substantial. Post-recovery she became the winner on VH1’s own version of dysfunction, “Celebrity Fit Club.” More recently she starred on two other reality series, “Gone Country” and the bizarre “Outsider’s Inn.”

Related: Carrie Fisher’s Drug Rehab - Robin Williams Reflects on Rehab - Piano Man Alcoholism Treatment

Photos via ABC News

According to several studies, drug treatment reduces drug use by 40 to 60 percent and significantly decreases criminal activity during and after treatment. For example, a study of therapeutic community treatment for drug offenders (See Treatment Section) demonstrated that arrests for violent and nonviolent criminal acts were reduced by 40 percent or more. Methadone treatment has been shown to decrease criminal behavior by as much as 50 percent. Research shows that drug addiction treatment reduces the risk of HIV infection and that interventions to prevent HIV are much less costly than treating HIV-related illnesses. Treatment can improve the prospects for employment, with gains of up to 40 percent after treatment.

Although these effectiveness rates hold in general, individual treatment outcomes depend on the extent and nature of the patient’s presenting problems, the appropriateness of the treatment components and related services used to address those problems, and the degree of active engagement of the patient in the treatment process.

Generally, for residential or outpatient treatment, participation for less than 90 days is of limited or no effectiveness, and treatments lasting significantly longer often are indicated. For methadone maintenance, 12 months of treatment is the minimum, and some opiate-addicted individuals will continue to benefit from methadone maintenance treatment over a period of years.

Good outcomes are contingent on adequate lengths of treatment.

Related: Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, HHS - Drug Treatment Success Rates in England - Methods to Treat Addiction

A Tangled Story of Addiction:

When Cindy McCain is asked what issues she would champion as first lady, she often cites one of the most difficult periods of her life: her battle with — and ultimate victory over — prescription painkillers. Her struggle, she has said repeatedly, taught her valuable lessons about drug abuse that she would pass on to the nation.

“I think it made me a better person as well as a better parent, so I think it would be very important to talk about it and be very upfront about it,” McCain said in an interview with “Access Hollywood.” In an appearance on the “Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” she said she tries “to talk about it as much as possible because I don’t want anyone to wind up in the shoes that I did at the time.”

In describing her struggle with drugs, McCain has said that she became addicted to Vicodin and Percocet in early 1989 after rupturing two disks and having back surgery. She has said she hid her addiction from her husband, Sen. John McCain, and stopped taking the painkillers in 1992 after her parents confronted her. She has not discussed what kind of treatment she received for her addiction, but she has made clear that she believes she has put her problems behind her.

I searched on the McCain presidential campaign web site but could find no results sharing the campaigns proposals for drug treatment or the discussion said to be so important (drug rehab, drug treatment - addiction treatment - drug rehabilitation all have 0 results)

Photo taken at the White House on 5 March 2008.

The Feds sent me to Rehab and I learned of Drug Court and wondered why didn’t the Feds have a program similar to this one??!! My prayers were answered and was offered a chance to be the very first participant in a pilot program called PADI (pronounced just as my name sounds!) Court. This program saved my life and allowed me to be with my children. I started dating my husband, got married, and had another daughter. When my daughter was born, I began thinking about what I wanted to pursue for a career. I did some soul searching, and thought about how the Feds saw something in me worth saving and how I may be able to help others the way I was helped (saved). Whenever I thought about possibly being a substance abuse counselor I felt a passion burn within. I knew that is what I needed to do. I went through an accredited program for drug and alcohol counseling training (DACT).

Related: Center for Substance Abuse Treatment - California Drug Rehab Centers - Study: Drug Treatment Success Rates in England

The Comeback Kid

His Life Nearly Destroyed by Drugs, Robert Downey Jr. Found Love and Fought His Way to Recovery.
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For too long other priorities led Downey down a darker path. The son of film director Robert Downey Sr. and actor Elsie Ford, Downey dropped out of Santa Monica High School to act, landing a gig on Saturday Night Live at 20. A slew of roles in movies like 1987’s Less than Zero followed, and in 1992 Downey landed the title role—and an Oscar nod—in Chaplin. But his struggles with drugs eclipsed his talent. In 1996 he was put on probation after an arrest for driving in Malibu with heroin, cocaine and a concealed .357 Magnum. For the next five years he was in and out of rehab and jail, doing time in California’s Corcoran State Prison in ‘99 for failing to take a mandated sobriety test. In ‘01 Downey was fired from Ally McBeal after another relapse.

It was a wake-up call. After another rehab stint, he slowly found his way to health by practicing yoga and kung fu, and by finding love with producer Susan Levin, 34, whom he wed in ‘05. “She’s fantastic,” says Downey, who’s also devoted to his son Indio, 14, with first wife Deborah Falconer. “I’m not a walk in the park, and [Susan's] a very complex and engaging person.” Downey, says Stiller, “talks a lot about how his wife and his son are his grounding forces.” Today his strongest drink is black tea. “My vice, it seems now, is creativity,” he says. “It’s all about living a normal, balanced life.”

Rehab Success Stories

Hammer (CNN Showbiz Tonight): Robert Downey, Jr. spent most of the 1990s in and out of southern California courtrooms, jails and rehab centers, hooked on cocaine, alcohol and methamphetamines. Downey couldn’t come to grips with his addiction.

Robert Downey Jr.: You know, there’s a reason it’s listed in American medical — you know, in books of disease.

Hammer: The headlines-making bouts with rehab eventually worked for Downey, who is now clean and sober and starring in movies like “Zodiac,” where he ironically plays a cocaine-addicted reporters, and in the summer blockbuster “Iron Man.”
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Robert Downey Jr.: Part of that is largely a moral issue, but I think once you have an opportunity to get the help you need to get out of it, you just have to remember that sometimes that train doesn’t come back around for seven years.

Photo by Edgar Meritano, May 2008.

Related: Robin Williams Reflects on Rehab - Maradona Drug Rehab - Eva Mendes on Rehab

residential treatment programs for the middle and upper classes have proliferated across both the geographic and the therapeutic maps. Heated disputes have erupted between proponents of different treatment models. This is exacerbated by a growing rivalry between old-guard institutions like the Ford Center, with its comparatively austere campuslike ambience, and the new class of superluxury rehab centers in ocean-view mansions that supplement the traditional 12-step approach with acupuncture, massage, equine therapy and Native American Talking Circles.
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To John Schwarzlose, president and CEO of the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., the blurring of lines between “spa” and “treatment center” is disheartening. “They say, ‘We have 500-count sheets.’ It trivializes what we do.”
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In fact, with a few exceptions most residential programs run along broadly similar lines. The typical stay is a month, which might not be optimal but is as much as most insurance plans covered back in the 1980s when the programs were designed.
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The exact form of therapy, he says, is less important than just the fact of seeking treatment. A year after completing a rehab program, about a third of alcoholics are sober, an additional 40 percent are substantially improved but still drink heavily on occasion, and a quarter have completely relapsed

I discussed some of my thoughts on this in Should Rehab be Enjoyed?

Related: Top 10 Luxury Rehab Centers - Betty Ford Center - Drug Rehab Centers in Los Angeles

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above. This typically happens when men consume 5 or more drinks, and when women consume 4 or more drinks, in about 2 hours. Most people who binge drink are not alcohol dependent.

* Approximately 92% of US adults who drink excessively report binge drinking in the past 30 days
* Although college students commonly binge drink, 70% of binge drinking episodes involve adults over age 25
* The rate of binge drinking among men is 2 times the rate of women
* Binge drinkers are 14 times more likely to report alcohol-impaired driving than non-binge drinkers
* About 90% of the alcohol consumed by youth under the age of 21 in the United States is in the form of binge drinks
* About 75% of the alcohol consumed by adults in the United States is in the form of binge drinks
* The proportion of current drinkers that binge is highest in the 18 to 20 year old groups (51%)

Binge drinking is associated with many health problems, including but not limited to

* Unintentional injuries (e.g. car crash, falls, burns, drowning).
* Intentional injuries (e.g. firearm injuries, sexual assault, domestic violence).
* Alcohol poisoning.
* Sexually transmitted diseases.
* Unintended pregnancy.
* Children born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.
* High blood pressure, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases.
* Liver disease.
* Neurological damage.
* Sexual dysfunction.
* Poor control of diabetes.

Evidence-based interventions to prevent binge drinking and related harms include

* Increasing alcoholic beverage costs and excise taxes.
* Restricting the number of locations that sell alcoholic beverages in a given area.
* Consistent enforcement of laws against underage drinking and alcohol-impaired driving.
* Campus-based strategies to reduce high risk drinking among college students.
* Physician screening, counseling and/or referral for alcohol problems.

Related: Robin Williams Reflects on Rehab - USA Alcohol Consumption Declining

Overall alcohol use—particularly consumption of beer—is declining in the US, according to a new study published in the August 2008 issue of The American Journal of Medicine. Researchers examined 50 years of data and found several changes in alcohol intake but no change in alcohol use disorders. Americans are drinking significantly less beer and more wine, while hard liquor use has remained fairly constant. More people now report that they are non-drinkers. People born later in the 20th century drink more moderately than older people. As we age, our individual alcohol consumption goes down.
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Writing in the article, Yuqing Zhang, DSc, Boston University School of Medicine, and his co-investigators state, “The findings in this study may be considered encouraging in many ways: the average amount of alcohol has decreased in more recently born cohorts, the percentage of the population exhibiting ‘moderate’ alcohol intake has been increasing steadily, and the percentage reporting ‘heavy’ drinking has decreased over time…