What a coincidence re drugs etc. I was asked to write about a new outreach to help keep escalating number of addicts out of jail or save wrecked lives, or etc., in our community. Here is the text, published in the Park County Community Journal this week.
What a coincidence re drugs etc. I was asked to write about a new outreach to help keep escalating number of addicts out of jail or save wrecked lives, or etc., in our community. Here is the text, published in the Park County Community Journal this week.
SEPTEMBER IS RECOVERY MONTH and Treatment Court
There is a program in Livingston for chemical addiction called “Treatment Court” with presiding Judge Gilbert and a team of community men and women who are determined to bust the myths and negative labels around addiction, and to support and make more help easier to get. Participation in the treatment program has freed people from the destructive behavior of substance misuse; too often jail time, sickness, or tragically, loss of life. It’s history of damage to mind and body (and soul, if you will) is many centuries old. Criminal acts, abuse, and accidents that are caused by alcohol, often go un-detected, or are swept under the carpet, which enables ongoing abuse. But serious big crime aside, I am writing about our kin, youth, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. There have been some important new discoveries of the cause and patterns of addiction, which I will try to relay here and in coming articles. Because addiction so prevalent, is misunderstood.
This week’s column is a heartfelt SALUTE to the support groups, and professionals who work with the Treatment Court team: Legal reps, counselors, recovery groups and mentors, a policeman, a commissioner, health and nutrition coaches. This month is highlighting their service and celebrating the courage of those who have recovered. Treatment is an option, but also a multi-level effort by Treatment Court, devoted to preventing destructive results hopefully before one has to stand before a judge, or face incarceration. Participants are given the support and tools needed that uncover the addiction afflicted causes that seemed impossible to overcome,... that we all can relate to: Human pain.
One important myth has been busted: Addiction is caused by a weak will or character. Nope! It is a tangible, treatable disease; a consequence of unrelieved human pain not seen, but buried inside, not dealt with, which causes serious levels of STRESS. MRI’s shows that Dopamine, the chemical/hormone that is the brain’s natural reward/pleasure reaction, declines or “dies” from stress. That is so profound. Read it again. Who doesn’t relate?! So relief is sought from painful stress by using substance that will increase Dopamine. Sugar does it too, also an addictive substance which is in too much of our food, (so a serious discussion of diet is called for around this, too). But diminished feel-good Dopamine?, vital to body systems, causes various levels of an irresistible chemical drive to get some more dopamine of course…from drugs or alcohol, which kills brain cells and the natural creation of our body’s Dopamine. A downward spiral. There’s much more on this subject, and other means of stimulating Dopamine, but that’s the gist of addiction. My take is this: with addiction, or even just recreational misuse, we are seriously messing with and slowly sickening our brains, just for starters.
All of Us have friends, kin or colleagues whose life has been afflicted by drugs & alcohol. It has, in the past, for some mysterious reason, resulted in slam dunk extremes: “tossed out of the house, divorce, sent to jail.” But Treatment Court wants to change that, and is. They recognize the incredibly vast area of human mental/emotional pain as cause, and that there is layers of self denial, and protectiveness; fear, or proud resistance to seeking help for it. Our culture doesn’t seriously teach abstinence or wise use. And we all know that the big business of acceptable “pain relief” is hard to buck. Now and then grateful, hands-on, recovered addicts speak up and talk about their stories to the public, although in a small community, like ours, folks tend to avoid negative feedback or gossip creation.
But things are changing. It’s time to talk this over. And, walk the talk. Many recovering participants are healing; getting a life back, a job secured, or family reunited—recovery treatment can break the cycle of a disease that has collateral damage, often multi-generational (affecting children and their children’s children.)
I had a fun and uplifting chat with Colleen Singer, Coordinator of the 11-member team of Treatment Court, (also called “recovery court,”) in her office at the courthouse. I even slipped a small dog in to meet her, like me she is irresistibly addicted to dogs. But I want to be real here and say that I do share the concern, the experience and the heart of the Treatment Court spirit. Consequently, my writing of this material has caused some stress for me I think, because I empathize with everything I wrote about. I can “feel” this problem, and why we don’t want to talk about it.
PCCJournal supports our Community, and so we want to spread the word: Treatment Court has a great success rate of 70%. I will interview some of the team, and recovering participants, for upcoming columns. Team members “stand with” the people who have had to deal with DUI’s or worse offenses. The participants are encouraged to accept help, to choose recovery, that there is a better way; that they can break out of their own addiction prison; that there is no high like good health.
Treatment Court mentors, and the participants, and graduates are HEROES, and I mean it. Champions of recovery, and of compassionate protection and enforcement when needed. There’s no rescue like that of the power of community; big as the need to heal the drug/alcohol abuse in our society, if not the world. Why not try. The most common word and attitude found to describe all the people involved in Recovery around town, is unarguably, compassion: the stuff of heart that a person can trust, and find the courage inside, to heal. There’s help if you but ask. [Colleen and the Team welcome your questions, and concerns. Please Call her at Treatment Court (…..)
What a coincidence re drugs etc. I was asked to write about a new outreach to help keep escalating number of addicts out of jail or save wrecked lives, or etc., in our community. Here is the text, published in the Park County Community Journal this week.
SEPTEMBER IS RECOVERY MONTH and Treatment Court
There is a program in Livingston for chemical addiction called “Treatment Court” with presiding Judge Gilbert and a team of community men and women who are determined to bust the myths and negative labels around addiction, and to support and make more help easier to get. Participation in the treatment program has freed people from the destructive behavior of substance misuse; too often jail time, sickness, or tragically, loss of life. It’s history of damage to mind and body (and soul, if you will) is many centuries old. Criminal acts, abuse, and accidents that are caused by alcohol, often go un-detected, or are swept under the carpet, which enables ongoing abuse. But serious big crime aside, I am writing about our kin, youth, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. There have been some important new discoveries of the cause and patterns of addiction, which I will try to relay here and in coming articles. Because addiction so prevalent, is misunderstood.
This week’s column is a heartfelt SALUTE to the support groups, and professionals who work with the Treatment Court team: Legal reps, counselors, recovery groups and mentors, a policeman, a commissioner, health and nutrition coaches. This month is highlighting their service and celebrating the courage of those who have recovered. Treatment is an option, but also a multi-level effort by Treatment Court, devoted to preventing destructive results hopefully before one has to stand before a judge, or face incarceration. Participants are given the support and tools needed that uncover the addiction afflicted causes that seemed impossible to overcome,... that we all can relate to: Human pain.
One important myth has been busted: Addiction is caused by a weak will or character. Nope! It is a tangible, treatable disease; a consequence of unrelieved human pain not seen, but buried inside, not dealt with, which causes serious levels of STRESS. MRI’s shows that Dopamine, the chemical/hormone that is the brain’s natural reward/pleasure reaction, declines or “dies” from stress. That is so profound. Read it again. Who doesn’t relate?! So relief is sought from painful stress by using substance that will increase Dopamine. Sugar does it too, also an addictive substance which is in too much of our food, (so a serious discussion of diet is called for around this, too). But diminished feel-good Dopamine?, vital to body systems, causes various levels of an irresistible chemical drive to get some more dopamine of course…from drugs or alcohol, which kills brain cells and the natural creation of our body’s Dopamine. A downward spiral. There’s much more on this subject, and other means of stimulating Dopamine, but that’s the gist of addiction. My take is this: with addiction, or even just recreational misuse, we are seriously messing with and slowly sickening our brains, just for starters.
All of Us have friends, kin or colleagues whose life has been afflicted by drugs & alcohol. It has, in the past, for some mysterious reason, resulted in slam dunk extremes: “tossed out of the house, divorce, sent to jail.” But Treatment Court wants to change that, and is. They recognize the incredibly vast area of human mental/emotional pain as cause, and that there is layers of self denial, and protectiveness; fear, or proud resistance to seeking help for it. Our culture doesn’t seriously teach abstinence or wise use. And we all know that the big business of acceptable “pain relief” is hard to buck. Now and then grateful, hands-on, recovered addicts speak up and talk about their stories to the public, although in a small community, like ours, folks tend to avoid negative feedback or gossip creation.
But things are changing. It’s time to talk this over. And, walk the talk. Many recovering participants are healing; getting a life back, a job secured, or family reunited—recovery treatment can break the cycle of a disease that has collateral damage, often multi-generational (affecting children and their children’s children.)
I had a fun and uplifting chat with Colleen Singer, Coordinator of the 11-member team of Treatment Court, (also called “recovery court,”) in her office at the courthouse. I even slipped a small dog in to meet her, like me she is irresistibly addicted to dogs. But I want to be real here and say that I do share the concern, the experience and the heart of the Treatment Court spirit. Consequently, my writing of this material has caused some stress for me I think, because I empathize with everything I wrote about. I can “feel” this problem, and why we don’t want to talk about it.
PCCJournal supports our Community, and so we want to spread the word: Treatment Court has a great success rate of 70%. I will interview some of the team, and recovering participants, for upcoming columns. Team members “stand with” the people who have had to deal with DUI’s or worse offenses. The participants are encouraged to accept help, to choose recovery, that there is a better way; that they can break out of their own addiction prison; that there is no high like good health.
Treatment Court mentors, and the participants, and graduates are HEROES, and I mean it. Champions of recovery, and of compassionate protection and enforcement when needed. There’s no rescue like that of the power of community; big as the need to heal the drug/alcohol abuse in our society, if not the world. Why not try. The most common word and attitude found to describe all the people involved in Recovery around town, is unarguably, compassion: the stuff of heart that a person can trust, and find the courage inside, to heal. There’s help if you but ask. [Colleen and the Team welcome your questions, and concerns. Please Call her at Treatment Court (…..)