The Council to Sponsor 2018 Houston Opioid Summit

2018 Houston Opioid Summit Save DateMajor July 25-27 Summit to Gather Multi-Sector Experts to Confront Opioid Crisis & Forge Solutions

The Council on Recovery and the Prevention Resource Center, Region 6, announce the 2018 Houston Opioid Summit, July 25-27, the first summit of its kind to bring together leaders from Houston’s medical, legal, prevention, treatment, legislative, and media sectors to increase awareness of the opioid epidemic and create actionable solutions to save lives.

Taking place at The Council’s main campus at 303 Jackson Hill in Houston, the Opioid Summit will feature keynote speakers, panel discussions, roundtable dialogues, and break-out sessions across four major sectors: Medical, legal, prevention, and treatment. The Opioid Summit will dive deep into this public health emergency that claimed 42,000 lives in 2016 (according to HHS) by exploring all aspects of the issue. It will also examine the role media plays in both the problem and solutions.

The Opioid Summit kicks off Wednesday evening, July 25th, with the free screening of the new documentary – Do No Harm: The Opioid Epidemic introduced by its producer, Harry Wiland, Founder of the Media Policy Center. Thursday, July 26th features an opening keynote address on the scope of the issue, followed by breakout sessions throughout the day and a mid-afternoon keynote address focusing on advocacy. Friday, July 26th opens with a keynote address on the media’s role, followed by additional breakout sessions and roundtable dialogues. The Opioid Summit wraps up Friday afternoon with the intimate and personal perspectives of three nationally prominent figures whose lives were forever changed by opioid addiction. A detailed program for the event will be released by July 1st.

Weds., July 25, 2018, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM – Free Screening of “Do No Harm” & Panel Discussion

Thurs., July 26, 2018, 8:00 AM –4:30 PM – 2018 Houston Opioid Summit

Fri., July 27, 2018, 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM – 2018 Houston Opioid Summit

Early-bird Registration: $50 per day (Thurs and/or Friday); After June 22nd, $75 per day (Thursday and/or Friday)

Registration includes breakfast, lunch, snacks, and refreshments.

Licensed professionals in attendance are eligible to receive up to 12 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for this event.

Register at www.councilonrecovery.org For more information, email opioidsummit@councilonrecovery.org or call 281.200.9323.

Council’s First Concert for Recovery with Travis Meadows a Rousing Success

Travis Meadows 4The Council on Recovery’s inaugural Concert for Recovery was held Saturday evening at the Hamill Foundation Conference Center. The enthusiastic audience was captivated by singer/songwriter Travis Meadows’ recovery-inspired songs and blues-hewn voice that demonstrated an amazing vocal range. Weaving his stories with threads of his long struggle getting sober, Travis’ songs, including “Sideways”, “Underdogs” (with audience participation), and “Minefield” touched on the tragedies of addiction and triumphs of recovery.

Telling the crowd of his upcoming 9th anniversary of sobriety, Travis acknowledged the importance of the Concert for Recovery as a venue unlike those in which he typically performs. The atmosphere Saturday evening was one of rapt attention to Travis’ words and music, and an experience-shared understanding of their meaning.

The Concert for Recovery opened with Max Flinn sharing his own songs of the journey from addiction to recovery. Trading-in a business career to follow his dream of being a full-time performer, Max demonstrated talent certain to turn that dream into reality.

The success of the first Concert for Recovery with Travis Meadows has set the stage for future concerts in the series, with an emphasis on bringing in performers who inspire and encourage with their stories and songs.

How Drugs Affect Your Looks and Your Body

Drugs Affect Looks Woman in MirrorFrom the National Institute on Drug Abuse, here’s the latest on some of the ways drugs can change your physical appearance and your body—for the worse:

YOUR SKIN

Steroids cause acne breakouts on your face and body. Meth causes acne, dull skin, and self-inflicted wounds from picking at your face and body because you think that bugs are crawling under your skin, leaving sores and scars. And don’t forget those needle marks and collapsed veins if you shoot up any drugs!

YOUR HAIR

Steroids can cause baldness in men and facial hair and baldness in women.

YOUR CHEST

Steroids can cause development of breasts in males.

YOUR NOSE

Snorting cocaine can lead to nosebleeds and a decreased sense of smell. Eventually it can entirely destroy the cartilage in your nose.

PHYSIQUE

Meth causes a decrease in appetite, causing you to look thin and skeletal. Steroids can cause you to stop growing – you may never reach your full adult height.

LUNGS

Smoking marijuana can cause breathing diseases, including a chronic cough, bronchitis, and emphysema, and lung inflammation and lung infection.

KIDNEYS

Ecstasy and meth raise your body temperature, causing dehydration, which restricts blood flow to the kidneys and may result in kidney failure.

MOUTH

Meth causes dry mouth, teeth clenching, and poor dental hygiene, resulting in meth mouth – rotten teeth, gum disease, and bad breath.

HEART

Stimulants, like cocaine and meth, cause irregular heartbeats, heart attack, stroke, blood clots, heart damage, or sudden death. Inhalants can cause a rapid or irregular heartbeat, leading to heart failure and death. Fatal cardiac slowdown can be caused by sedatives, prescription pain medication, or opioids. Mix alcohol with any of these drugs and you increase your risk of coma and death!

HELP IS AVAILABLE

If you or a loved one are struggling with drug addiction, call The Council on Recovery at 713.942.4100 or contact us here. We can help!

 

The Lifelong Quest For Sobriety…The Ultimate Hero’s Journey—Part 31

Guest Blogger and long-time Council friend, Bob W. presents Part 31 of a series dealing with Alcoholism and Addiction from a Mystical, Mythological Perspective, reflecting Bob’s scholarly work as a Ph.D. in mythological studies.

King George for Bob Wagner post 31The movie, The King’s Speech, with Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, is about King George VI who, despite a terrible speech impediment, must conquer his affliction and rise up to lead England in its critical opposition to Germany in the years up to the beginning of WWII. It is a stirring portrayal of the courage of a leader and his people in one of the ugliest times in human history. This period has always held a fascination for me, having been born in its early years, because it required so much courage of everyone, so much energy in the face of enormous terrors for everyone, leaders and citizens alike.

But it also occurs to me that, in our struggles to initiate and maintain a life of sobriety, sobriety from the substances and behavior of addiction as well as a psychical sobriety from the behavior patterns that attended our addictions, we mirror just this kind of courage. For each and every one of us, our lives in the throes of addiction were just as fearsome and dangerous to our individual lives and those around us as was the scourge of Nazism and Fascism of Germany, Italy, and Imperial Japan…and then Communist Russia and China…to the multitudinous communities of the free world in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s.

Looking at this from the same perspective, each of us, enslaved in the throes of addictive consumptions and behaviors, had to summon incredible individual fortitude to step through the Gates of Recovery and pursue a better life. It required a courage and resolve that mirrored that for those who landed in the surf of Omaha Beach in the Normandy invasion of June 1944.

Achieving a semblance of Sobriety, and a life in the Fellowships we all enjoy in our sober lives, provide an incredible sense of joy and achievement, despite the work necessary to maintain a safe haven from addiction.  It is a sense of joy that mirrors that felt by the entire free world when the ultimate defeats of German, Italy and Japan were achieved in 1945.

Why Do People With Mental Disorders Turn to Drugs?

Many people diagnosed with a mental disorder start abusing illegal drugs to either fight the symptoms of their illness or deal with the side effects of the medicine used to treat their illness. Scientists have long made the link between mental health disorders and substance abuse. In fact, the co-existence of both is referred to as “co-occurring disorders.”

According to the 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 8.2 million adults over the age of 18 had co-occurring disorders (see a diagram from the survey below).

Co occurring disorders chart2

Consider schizophrenia. About 50 percent of people suffering from the disorder have also abused illegal substances at some point during their lives, according to the article “Treating Substance Abuse among Patients with Schizophrenia” published in Psychiatry Online. 

 “It is widely assumed that patients with schizophrenia use substances to reduce psychotic symptoms and alleviate the sedating side effects of neuroleptics. However, the most common reasons given for use of alcohol and other drugs are to “get high” and to reduce negative affective states including social anxiety and tension, dysphoria and depression, and boredom.”

Researchers have made a connection between schizophrenia and marijuana use in particular. Use of the drug causes symptoms of schizophrenia – like hallucinations and paranoia – to get worse.

Teens dealing with a social anxiety disorder are more likely to start using marijuana at an earlier age, according to a study from Case Western Reserve University School.

What are reasons for the connection? There are young users who take the drug to appear more fun and to “alleviate the social anxiety of making friends,” according to the recent “Canadian Youth Perceptions on Cannabis” report, where interviewers spoke to youth participating in the study. In addition to that, both “cannabis intoxication” and withdrawal from the drug can lead to anxiety.

Regular cocaine use is also linked to anxiety disorders and stress.

If you or someone you love suffering from a co-occurring mental health disorder, contact The Council on Recovery.

[From Get Smart About Drugs, a DEA Resource for Parents, Educators, and Care-Givers] 

The Lifelong Quest For Sobriety…The Ultimate Hero’s Journey—Part 30

Guest Blogger and long-time Council friend, Bob W. presents Part 30 of a series dealing with Alcoholism and Addiction from a Mystical, Mythological Perspective, reflecting Bob’s scholarly work as a Ph.D. in mythological studies.

Hellboy comicMuch of the modern comic and graphic novel genre focuses on the paranormal activities of figures of unusual maybe even absurd abilities.  One such figure is Hellboy, a creature spawned in Hell and accidentally released into the real world through a series of experiments by certain fictitious Nazi scientists. Hellboy’s ascension into the World and the places he found himself were also facilitated by the work of a British scientist and the US Air Force, who take him to a secret facility in New Mexico, where he is raised and, despite his origin in Hell, becomes a very powerful force for good.

Hellboy’s escapades, as told in many, many stories, have him conquering all sorts of evil forces with a power and vengeance that is captivating, despite his name and original history. The creator of Hellboy, Mike Mignola, found much of the inspiration for stories and characters in the mythologies of various ancient cultures. Hecate, for instance, who was a Greek goddess of crossroads, magic, and demons, is this fierce and nearly invincible demon who engages Hellboy in fearsome struggles, only to have Hellboy ultimately prevail. In another episode, Hellboy must venture down into Hell and confront various supernatural powers that attended his original procreation.  Much of these stories are parallels to our individual lives in our diseases of alcoholism and addiction as are the struggles we had to confront, some quite long and drawn out, to gain a life in Sobriety.

All of us in our disease could easily have been described as hellboys, people who in near alcoholic stupors were just incarnations of devil-like beings.  I can’t remember how many times, after a particularly long and planned-to-be-festive holiday, it was said to me, “Here’s another holiday you have ruined for us.”

It is good to know that this “Hellboy” is also turning the corner into a dominant force for good.