“You cannot fully recovery unless you help the society that made you sick, recover.” New Jerusalem Now, a community of former addicts helping each other achieve a “fullness of life” formerly prevented by drug and alcohol abuse. From the residents’ narratives, you learn how they run their community within a community in one of the poorest neighborhoods in North Philadelphia, PA.

New Jerusalem Now was started by The Simple Way, a web of subversive friends conspiring to spread the vision of ‘Loving God, Loving People, and Following Jesus’ in our neighborhoods and in our world.

They are not just treating the people but building up the community. This is an important activity. Creating a healthy community will not eliminate drug and alcohol abuse but it will help both reduce the amount and reduce the impact of the abuse. Just as a healthy body can get sick and recovery quickly a healthy community can help people recovery more quickly than a sick community.

Related: Shane Claiborne: Interview with a New Monastic – Betty Ford Center – Finding Rehab Centers – New Owner Updating Celebrity Rehab Center, Promises

Although part of the trend was offset by rising numbers of cocaine and crack addicts seeking
treatment over the same period, the numbers of women entering treatment in the under 30 age
group fell by nearly nine per cent in four years.

The study also showed that at the same time the numbers of women problem drug users
successfully leaving treatment having overcome their addiction almost doubled. In addition, the
number of women dropping out of treatment has fallen by well over a third in four years.
The study by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) also highlights:

• While women start using drugs at the same age or slightly older than men, they are more adept at seeking help for themselves and tend to come into treatment earlier
• Cocaine is the fastest growing treatment need among women drug users, accounting for a 55 per cent increase in new entrants since 2005
• The number of women entering treatment for crack dependency has increased by 14 percent since 2005
• Almost two-thirds of women entering treatment are mothers, nearly half of whom have a child living with them. The data indicates that treatment outcomes for mothers are stronger than those who were not parents.

“These findings demonstrate how thousands of women have successfully obtained drug treatment and recovered through it,” said Rosanna O’Connor, NTA director of delivery. “Treatment is the first step on the road to recovery, so it is encouraging that women tend to seek help of their own volition, enter treatment earlier before their drug misuse has become entrenched and frequently achieve better outcomes sooner. Treatment provides the opportunity for individuals to get better, for families to stabilise, and for children to be looked-after at home.”

Related: Research on the Brain and Behavior on Addiction – University Research on Improving Addiction Treatment – Alcohol is a Major Cause of Drug Rehab Admissions

Wendell Bryant was a star defensive lineman for the Wisconsin Badgers, selected 12th overall in the 2002 NFL draft by the Arizona Cardinals. He received a $5.5 million signing bonus. In 2005 Bryant was banned of the NFL after breaking the league’s substance-abuse policy for the third time.

Bryant has faced sobering journey since leaving UW

Getting booted from the NFL served as a wake-up call, but not a big enough one to stop Bryant from using. By that point, Ecstasy had joined beer and marijuana on the list of Bryant’s vices. A typical day for Bryant was getting stoned during the day and drinking heavily at night. He was a fixture on his couch at home in Phoenix, much to the chagrin of the woman who is now his fiancée and the mother of his child.
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“The one thing I always wanted was that cohesive family unit: mother, father, kid, and the house and the car and the dog and all of that,” he said. “I looked and I realized that I still had a chance at that. With everything else that I had screwed up — my career and blowing so much money — I realized that I still have a chance for this.” It took about four more months, but Bryant finally checked himself into Chandler Valley Hope, a treatment center in the Phoenix area.
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Bryant realizes the temptation to return to his vices may never go away. So far, he’s resisted those urges. His mother is confident Bryant will continue to do so.

“He’s my hero,” Wells said. “For him to go through the deepest, darkest tunnel — and it’s ugly down there — and to come out of it and be the person that he is now, I’m so proud of him.”

Related: Brett Favre Overcomes Painkiller Addiction – Maradona Drug Rehab – Cindy McCain’s Drug Rehabilitation for Prescription Painkillers

After 50 years, Smokey Robinson is still having fun

I speak at schools, churches, gang meetings, rehab facilities, telling people that drugs don’t discriminate. I was 39 years old and my life was going exactly as I would have it go. I couldn’t have written it any better. But drugs don’t care who you are, what you’re doing, where you are or where you’re going. When you open yourself up to them, you are vulnerable. And I was. You think drugs won’t get the best of you, that you will never become an addict. Ninety-nine percent of the people who start doing drugs do so with their friends. It’s a social thing and you call yourself having fun. Then you look up and fun has wiped you out like it did me. I did it for two years. I was a walking corpse, totally out of it.

Drugs are also a spiritual condition. If you don’t get your spiritual self together, you’ll never conquer them. I went to church and was prayed for; I gave it to God. I went to church one night a drug addict and when I came out of that church, I was free. That was May 1986. I haven’t even thought about drugs since then other than that I’m at war with them.

As Smokey Robinson shows not everyone needs rehab to remove drugs from their lives but many do. He has devoted himself to helping those that are struggling with drug addiction. And that is what those with drug problems need – a helping hand and allies to tell help them improve their lives.

Photo by jcrawford

Related: Piano Man Rehab – Winehouse to Rehab: Yes, Yes, Yes – Why Can’t Drug Addicts Quit on Their Own?

Photo of United States Representative Patrick J. Kennedy (son of Senator Ted Kennedy) at the ADA rally at the Capitol, 17 September 2008.

Rep. Kennedy returns to Congress after month in rehab

After a four-week course of addiction treatment, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy returned to Congress Wednesday with what he called “excellent” prospects for long-term sobriety – in large part because he sought help before he landed in the kind of trouble that has brought him criticism in the past.
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In May 2006, a late-night car crash on Capitol Hill attracted harsh publicity and prompted Kennedy to enter an addition treatment facility and to acknowledge that he had been an alcoholic and drug addict for most of his adult life. Since then Kennedy had become a public face for recovery from addiction.

On June 12, Kennedy announced through his office that he had left the House for an indefinite period of time to enter a treatment facility. He has since disclosed that he underwent a 28-day treatment regime at Father Martin’s Ashley, a Maryland center well-known in recovery circles.
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Kennedy said Wednesday that he hopes his decision to seek treatment was another “sign to people that this is a chronic illness not unlike a cancer that goes into remission but then becomes malignant again.”

He said, “This is a chronic illness that needs lifelong attention. You can’t ever be cured of it. It needs to be monitored on a day-to-day basis for your whole life.”

Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy Statement on His Drug Addiction (May 2006)

Over my 15 years in public life, I’ve felt a responsibility to speak honestly and openly about my challenges with addiction and depression. I’ve been fighting this chronic disease since I was a young man, and have aggressively and periodically sought treatment so that I can live a full and productive life. I struggle every day with this disease, as do millions of Americans. I’ve dedicated my public service to raising awareness about the chronic disease of addiction, and have fought to increase access to care and recovery supports for the too many Americans forced to struggle on their own.

This past Christmas, I realized that I had to seek help again so checked myself into the Mayo Clinic for addiction to prescription pain medication.
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I am deeply concerned about my reaction to the medication and my lack of knowledge of the accident that evening. But I do know enough to know that I need to seek expert help. This afternoon, I’m traveling to Minnesota to seek treatment at the Mayo Clinic to ensure I can continue on my road to recovery.

Related: Cindy McCain Drug Rehab – Brett Favre Overcomes Painkiller Addiction – Drug Rehab Centers in California – Top 10 Luxury Rehab Centers

Rapper Eminem’s first new album in 5 years, Relapse, explores his relapse and attempts to escape the trap of drug addiction after treatment at a drug rehabilitation center.

Eminem: ‘I wasn’t ready to get clean’

On the subject of his treatment, Eminem explained: “When I landed myself in rehab in 2005 I felt like I wanted to reassess everything. I remember sitting in rehab thinking, ‘Is this what it comes to, really?’.
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“I was like Bugs Bunny in rehab, Bugs Bunny walking in the room. The second you walk in the room…

Get Clean, Come Back: Eminem’s Return

IN late December 2007 a depressed, writer’s-blocked, pill-popping, opiate-addicted Marshall Mathers, better known as the multimilllion-selling rapper Eminem, overdosed on some new blue pills someone gave him — they were methadone — and collapsed on his bathroom floor. Public statements covered up the reason for his emergency hospitalization and detox, claiming the problem was pneumonia. A month later Mr. Mathers had ramped up his habit again.

But the overdose scared him. Early last year he hospitalized himself, went through rehab and started the full 12-step program of a recovering addict, complete with meetings, a sponsor and a therapist. Mr. Mathers, 36, says he has stayed sober since April 20, 2008.

Far from concealing his addiction battle, he’s making it the center of his comeback. The cover of “Relapse” (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope), the first new Eminem album since 2004, builds his face out of pills, and in some songs he raps, as directly as a rhymer can, about how drugs nearly destroyed him.

Eminem Got Rehab Help From Elton John

When it came time for wisecracking tough-guy rapper Eminem to kick his addictions to the curb, he looked to an unlikely source for help — music legend Elton John. “I came home from the hospital the second time and I realized that I was giving up drugs forever,” Eminem reveals in the June/July issue of Vibe. “I reached out to Elton ’cause I knew he had a problem before.”
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He was like, ‘Don’t do it. Do not do it,’” he recalls. “But I didn’t want to disappoint anybody. He talked me out of doing it. He was like, ‘I’m telling you you’re gonna get over there and you’re gonna wanna use. Don’t do it, it’s too early. You don’t even have enough clean time under your belt.’”

And Elton wasn’t just there to advise on the big things; he took an active interest in Em’s sobriety. “He called a lot. A few times a week,” says Eminem. “

Eminem tells a gritty tale in new ‘Relapse’

With its blistering glimpse into his struggles with addiction and sobriety, depression and ennui, the album marks a gritty return for an artist who slipped off the public scene four years ago amid a cloud of speculation. The singsong choruses of “Insane,” “My Mom” and “Déjà Vu” are like taunts in the face of the harsh reality — taunts at his own weaknesses, perhaps — with the intensity broken by the jokey skits and bouncy tracks like “Old Time’s Sake.”

Photo from March, 2009 press release

Related: Billy Joel Alcohol Rehab – Winehouse to Rehab: Yes, Yes, Yes – Colin Farrell Wanted To Be A Better Dad – find a drug rehabilitation center

At age 21, she became the youngest recipient of the Best Actress Oscar and one of only four actresses to receive that honor for a film debut: Children of a Lesser God. In her book, I’ll Scream Later, she discusses her drug addiction. In fact she was in drug rehab when she learned of her Oscar nomination.

Marlee Matlin Reveals a Darker Side

At just 18 months old, Matlin lost her hearing due to a bout with the roseola virus. Without hearing aids, she says she is absolutely deaf.
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Even as she was winning accolades for “Children of a Lesser God,” Matlin said she was preparing to check herself into rehab to battle her drug addiction that began when she was 13. In fact, the name of her book “I’ll Scream Later” was inspired by her inability to react to her Oscar nod because she was in rehab.

Now happily married with four children, her demons seem long gone. But it was a certain dancing show that inspired her to write about her troubled past.
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“I was very rebellious,” she said of her early involvement with drugs.” I was very fiercely independent.” Her drug use began with marijuana and escalated to cocaine, she writes.

Related: ‘Marcia Brady’ Recovers After Drug Addiction – Robert Downey Jr. Rehab Success – Carrie Fisher’s Journey Through Drug Addiction

Green-Milon’s apparent success in overcoming her addictions is all too rare, experts say. Only about a tenth of the 24 million Americans who need drug treatment get it, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and at least half of them relapse.

Part of the challenge, scientists say, is that addiction, like heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, is a chronic condition; it changes the chemistry of the brain. But there’s another hurdle that’s getting attention: treatment programs, with their voice-mail systems and multiple forms to fill out, aren’t very patient-friendly, especially to people whose lives present many barriers to staying in treatment.

A national program, based at UW-Madison, is trying to change that by bringing process improvements to drug treatment. The Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment, or NIATx, attempts to get addicts into treatment quicker and retain more of them by making the programs more appealing.
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24 million Americans need treatment for illicit drug or alcohol problems.
2.5 million get the treatment they need.
The economic cost of substance abuse exceeds $500 billion a year (including alcohol and tobacco; for just illicit drugs, it’s $181 billion).

The NIATx (formerly know as the Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment) at the University of Wisconsin – Madison is focused on improving the success of addition treatment.

Use what you learned in Walk-through exercises (See the NIATx Conducting a Walk-through guide for guidance) to identify problems in processes within your organization from the clients’ point of view. Consider changes to test based on that experience. Prior to starting, you should decide the parameters of the change project, including where (e.g., location) you wish to introduce the change, as well which clients (e.g., level of care, population) you expect to impact.

The PDSA Cycle is an efficient way to learn what will work in your organization, and should be the foundation of every change you make. The PDSA Cycle begins with a Plan, and ends with Action based on the learning gained from the Plan, Do, and Study phases of the cycle

They also offer many case studies on improvement successes by treatment centers.

Related: How Effective is Drug Addiction Treatment? – Center for Substance Abuse Treatment – Methods to Treat Addiction

The Narcotic Farm: The Rise and Fall of America’s First Prison for Drug Addicts is a book exploring an experiment to deal with addicted criminals.

The farm was the first place to look at drug addicts as patients that were in need of treatment instead of criminals in need of punishment. The farm did experiments to learn about addiction including on methadone (which is commonly used to try and ease the transition from narcotic addition today). Certainly the methods practiced on the farm were of debatable ethical ground however there was a great deal of learning and desire to learn and treat drug addition.

From 1935 until 1975, just about every junkie busted for dope went to the Narcotic Farm. Equal parts federal prison, treatment center, farm, and research laboratory, the Farm was designed to rehabilitate addicts and help researchers discover a cure for drug addiction. Although it began as a bold and ambitious public works project, and became famous as a rehabilitation center frequented by great jazz musicians among others, the Farm was shut down forty years after it opened amid scandal over its drug-testing program, which involved experiments where inmates were being used as human guinea pigs and rewarded with heroin and cocaine for their efforts.

Published to coincide with a documentary to be aired on PBS, The Narcotic Farm includes rare and unpublished photographs, film stills, newspaper and magazine clippings, government documents, as well as interviews, writings, and anecdotes from the prisoners, doctors, and guards that trace the Farm’s noble rise and tumultuous fall, revealing the compelling story of what really happened inside the prison walls.

Listen to an NPR podcast on America’s First Drug-Treatment Prison

Related: How Effective is Drug Addiction Treatment? – Drug Rehabilitation Centers in California – Why Can’t Drug Addicts Quit on Their Own?

Masekela’s message for ‘addictive’ SA

One of the biggest names in world music – trumpeter Hugh Masekela – has said the message behind his latest album Time is to help the fight against drug and alcohol addiction in his native South Africa.

Masekela himself is a recovering addict, having gone into rehabilitation six years ago before establishing an organisation to help those with similar problems in his homeland. And he told BBC World Service’s The Ticket programme that he felt a duty to help others suffering from the same problems.
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“I myself am a recovering addict and alcoholic. Six years ago I came to England, took up counselling, and learned the psychology of addiction.”

Drug-busting Masekela calls a brave new tune

The project, called the Musicians and Artists Assistance Programme of South Africa (Maapsa), is a partnership between several South African celebrities, including musicians Jabu Khanyile and Family Factory, actress Connie Masilo and talkshow host Felicia Mabuza-Suttle. Masekela said: “This organisation will make South Africans aware that addiction is a dynamite powder-keg. In South Africa, people are often praised for being able to drink a lot. They think drinking is something to be proud of.”
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Victor Ntoni, another respected musician, said alcohol and substance abuse among musicians was exacerbated by the increasing exploitation of artists in South Africa.
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Mabuza-Suttle, one of the trustees of Maapsa, said that because she came from a background of alcoholism, she knew about the devastating effects of addiction on families.

Hugh Masekela Biography

As the brutality of the Apartheid state increased, Hugh finally left the country with the help of Trevor Huddleston and his friends Yehudi Menuhin and Johnny Dankworth who got him admitted into London’s Guildhall School of music. Miriam Makeba who was already enjoying major success in the USA later helped him with Harry Belafonte, Dizzy Gillepsie and John Mehegan to get admission to the Manhattan school of Music in New York. Hugh finally met Louis Armstrong who had sent the Huddleston Band a trumpet after Huddleston told the trumpet king about the bank he helped start back in South Africa before deportation.

With immense help from Makeba and Belafonte, Hugh eventually began to record, gaining his first breakthrough with “The Americanization of Ooga-Booga” produced by the late Tom Wilson who had been producer of Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel’s debut successes. Stewart Levine his business partner in Chissa Records went on to produce hit records for Hugh on Uni Records, beginning with “Alive and Well at the Whisky” in 1967 and then “”Promise of A Future” which contained the gigantic hit song “Grazing in the Grass” in 1968.

By the beginning of the 1970’s he had attained international fame, selling out all of America’s festivals, auditoriums and top nightclubs. Heeding the call of his African roots, he moved to Guinea, then Liberia and Ghana after recording the historical “ Home is where Music is” with Dudu Pokwana.

photo from Ritmo Artists

Related: Winehouse to Rehab – Yes, Yes, Yes – Eva Mendes on Rehab