8 comments on “Resources – Mental Health”

1. https://www.propublica.org/article/how-to-navigate-california-county-jails-inmates-loved-ones-guide

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2. Medi Cal Substance Abuse Expansion
   https://www.chcf.org/publication/how-medi-cal-expanded-substance-use-treatment-access-care/

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3. Is alcoholism or addiction ever “cured” or do you have to go to meetings forever?

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   • AA preaches) that an addict is never cured. In your view, an addict is forever “recovering.”

     Once you quit, you’re not an addict. You’re an ex-addict.

     An “ex-addict,” not a “recovering addict.” It is OVER. Why saddle ourselves with the gloomy proposition of forever having to look over our shoulders for triggers, temptation, pending relapse. Once we see that drugs never gave us anything, nothing at all, and that drugs have absolutely nothing to offer us in the future, we are done.

     If support groups help, great. If a “sponsor” helps, super. If counseling counsels, right on. We certainly must nurture our physical and spiritual selves for the remainder of our days. But to constantly be adding up the days, months, and years, waiting until enough time has passed before we are free seems so daunting to users that they won’t even attempt to quit for fear of the lifetime of “battle.”

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     there is one that is common to all alcoholics and drug addicts—and that is loss of control. At some point a person will lose the ability to control their use. Whether they are daily users or binge users, the common thread is—once they start using they cannot control how much or when to stop.

     I, in the past thirty-three years, have never seen an addict regain control of their use—to become a social-occasional user.

     So I believe that if I were to tell someone they are cured, they may think they no longer have a problem. That opens the door to another attempt at social use—which NEVER turns out well.

     The way I explain it to people is to think of it like cancer. There is no cure for cancer but cancer often goes into remission after treatment. It does not mean they have been cured or that a cure has taken place. It’s still there but it’s in remission.

     Personally, I have not used anything since 1977—but I’m not cured. My disease is in remission. If I were to choose to try to drink occasionally or socially I would bring my disease out of remission and very soon it would again cause lots of problems.

     I don’t tell people they “have to go to lots of meetings for the rest of their life.” Each person will have to decide for his or herself—how much involvement they need to stay sober and how often they should attend support groups.

     https://drug-addiction-help-now.org/is-an-addict-ever-cured/

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   • The 12 steps are so deeply ingrained in the United States that many people, including doctors and therapists, believe attending meetings, earning one’s sobriety chips, and never taking another sip of alcohol is the only way to get better. Hospitals, outpatient clinics, and rehab centers use the 12 steps as the basis for treatment.

     Affordable Care Act, which requires all insurers and state Medicaid programs to pay for alcohol- and substance-abuse treatment, extending coverage to 32 million Americans who did not previously have it and providing a higher level of coverage for an additional 30 million.

     The program instructs members to surrender their ego, accept that they are “powerless” over booze, make amends to those they’ve wronged, and pray.

     Based on these data, he put AA’s actual success rate somewhere between 5 and 8 percent.

     Why do we assume they failed the program, rather than that the program failed them?

     People with alcohol problems also suffer from higher-than-normal rates of mental-health issues, and research has shown that treating depression and anxiety with medication can reduce drinking.

     AA truisms have so infiltrated our culture that many people believe heavy drinkers cannot recover before they “hit bottom.” Researchers I’ve talked with say that’s akin to offering antidepressants only to those who have attempted suicide, or prescribing insulin only after a patient has lapsed into a diabetic coma. “You might as well tell a guy who weighs 250 pounds and has untreated hypertension and cholesterol of 300, ‘Don’t exercise, keep eating fast food, and we’ll give you a triple bypass when you have a heart attack,’ ” Mark Willenbring, a psychiatrist in St. Paul and a former director of treatment and recovery research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, told me. He threw up his hands. “Absurd.”

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Weekend_(film)

     In 1976, for instance, the Rand Corporation released a study of more than 2,000 men who had been patients at 44 different NIAAA-funded treatment centers. The report noted that 18 months after treatment, 22 percent of the men were drinking moderately. The authors concluded that it was possible for some alcohol-dependent men to return to controlled drinking.

     The problem is that nothing about the 12-step approach draws on modern science: not the character building, not the tough love, not even the standard 28-day rehab stay.

     Over time, though, the brain of a heavy drinker adjusts to the steady flow of alcohol by producing less gaba and more glutamate, resulting in anxiety and irritability. Dopamine production also slows, and the person gets less pleasure out of everyday things. Combined, these changes gradually bring about a crucial shift: instead of drinking to feel good, the person ends up drinking to avoid feeling bad.

     half of a person’s vulnerability to alcohol-use disorder is hereditary, and that anxiety, depression, and environment… —also play a role.

     research has found that having a drink or two a day could reduce the risk of heart disease, dementia, and diabetes.

     https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/the-irrationality-of-alcoholics-anonymous/386255/

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4. Los Angeles time Steven Hawkins wheelchair not a problem it’s just part of human diversity

   Erasing Stephen Hawking’s disability erases an important part of who he was

   http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-stephen-hawking-disability-rights-20180316-story.html

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5. We need stable housing for our very high functioning young adult (26). Redondo Beach.

   Tolerance is more of an issue than cost.

   She talks to herself and new neighbors are very intolerant and harassing.

   Any information on landlord or property owners with available rentals or even co ownership would be most appreciated.

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   • I’m no longer really maintaining this page. Try South Bay NAMI

     Paul Stansbury
     (310) 892-8046
     (310) 533-0705
     [email protected]

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