When I was in the Army I was shot by a sniper in 2007. I was in the hospital for three months. I was on a constant morphine drip and when I got out of the hospital I was prescribed morphine pills for my injuries. However the pills were not enough. I often found myself trying to go back to the hospital, saying I needed another surgery. I was addicted to the morphine and didn't know it. I couldn't get more surgery, so to compensate I started to abuse my morphine pills. I was in a unit for injured soldiers and we all had a different type of prescription. We started to trade our pills to get the desired high we were looking for. We would trade Vicodin for Percocet or morphine for Adderall. What made me stop is the death of one of my best friends. We were all taking...

The Pasadena Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (PCADD), a program of Social Model Recovery Systems (SMRS), offers adult and adolescent treatment for alcohol and other drug problems. In addition, SMRS offers education, training, and consulting services for alcohol and other drug recovery treatment programs. PCADD Programs Outpatient ProgramThe treatment program is designed to meet the needs of people suffering from alcoholism and drug dependence. Included are assessment and evaluation; treatment planning and access to other resources; supervised implementation of the plan; monitored 12-step meeting attendance; education on addiction topics and issues; facilitated recovery support groups, and weekly individual counseling and case management. The Aftercare program provides on-going recovery and treatment support for up to a year after completion of the program. Available to adolescents as well as adults, families are also considered and included in the recovery process offered by this program. Information and ReferralEvery month PCADD handles hundreds of...

I can remember the first time tasting it and being hooked at 23 years old.  All the feelings of insecurity, doubts and fears after the first taste were all removed.  Alcohol had me feeling like SUPERWOMAN and I didn't want that feeling to ever leave me.  From that day forward, everything I did included alcohol, from partying to going to the movies.  It was my BFF, my man, my everything, for over ten years.  It had given me what I thought was important, but it had stolen more than I could've ever imagined:  thousands of dollars supporting my weekly habit; sexual engagement unprotected, often with strangers; dignity; self respect; family members dying as result etc.  I lived my life this way for over ten years, self-medicating.  Alcohol, the substance I started drinking and then ultimately became addicted to, was causing more pain than I was trying to mask.  The substance I...

I had been surrounded by alcohol my entire life.  At the age of 14, I had already began drinking hard liquor.  Having high school friends when I was in middle school made it easy to get peer-pressured into drinking.  I also lived above a bar/restaurant where my mother worked for 20-something years, so I was exposed to alcohol and alcoholics growing up.  When I was 18, my father (who was an alcoholic) passed away.  That's when I hit rock bottom; Depression.  I started drinking on a daily basis.  I had established friendships with my co-workers at the time who were older (of course), and I would give them money to buy alcohol for me.  From 18 to 23, the addiction got real.  I had gotten alcohol poisoning several times, blacked out, made poor decisions, got into dangerous situations, and really lost myself.  On July 4th, 2014, something clicked. I made the...

In 2016, people rely more and more on technology to make their lives easier in a variety of ways. A recent article in US News & World Report noted that video communication is available to anyone with a cell phone or computer, virtual reality is becoming increasingly common and there seems to be an app for almost every need, no matter how obscure. The article goes on to add that readily available modern technology tools are being utilized by doctors and researchers to make people healthier. In fact, a number of the same tools people use to play games or chat with friends are also being put to use to combat alcohol and drug addiction, revolutionizing the way the disease is treated. Some examples of technology’s use in recovery include: The Alcoholics Anonymous "Big Book" which is currently available in the iTunes storeThe website Sober Grid (available at http://www.sobergridapp.com/) helps patients...

My name is Tara and I am a recovering alcoholic. I remember always feeling less then. Never being good enough. Just wanting to be accepted for me.  To be able to have my own voice and not care about the influence of others. Something was always missing inside. I thought alcohol solved all my problems and took away all my insecurities. My mom sent me to many treatment centers. It wasn’t until I realized for myself that my life was out of control and I was slowly dying that I could be open to get help for myself. In treatment I found God again, but this time was different. The day that I let go of everything and accepted that I have no control over people, places or things, only over myself, I began to heal. I forgave myself and others. Sobriety has given me a life I never imagined possible....

At some point during childhood, it's safe to say all of us have dreams ... career dreams, dreams of what the future will be like, dreams of something better. Knowing what I know now, I never imagined living my dreams would involve me as an alcoholic becoming sober at age 19. Like many of us, I started using because it was fun and exhilarating; now I know I was trying to escape the reality of an abusive home, a sex-addicted father, and an alcoholic mother. My using took me to what I sought to escape: abusive relationships, flunking college, physical illness, destroyed relationships, sexual assault ... you name it, it was there. By the grace of God, I found AA just weeks prior to my 20th birthday. Each day, I desperately kept coming back. Today, at 4.5 years sober, I have just graduated college, am applying to Physician Assistant school, am...

Many insurance companies require patients who have been prescribed the opioid addiction treatment Suboxone to get prior authorization, NPR reports. This requirement can take days or weeks, leaving patients vulnerable to relapse, one expert says. Sam Muszynski, Director of Health Care Systems and Financing at the American Psychiatric Association, said, “You may lose that opportunity right then and there. They may never come back.” Medicaid required a prior authorization for buprenorphine, the active ingredient in Suboxone, in 48 states in 2013. “It’s almost like when you take on a patient to treat opiate addiction, you also have to take on another patient called the insurance company,” said Dr. Andrew Chambers, a psychiatrist and addiction specialist in Indianapolis.

I am a nurse; I am also an alcoholic and a drug addict. I lost everything to my addiction and spent four months in jail because I stole drugs from work. In the last 11 years I have worked my 12-step program as if my life depends on it ... because it does. I have been sober since leaving jail; I don't ever want to go back there again. I regained my family's respect, my nursing license, my hope and the life I no longer wanted to live, but now am grateful for every day. I wrote a book, 'An Unlikely Addict,' to try and help other addicts from suffering the same fate. If I can do it, you can do it. Work the program as it is laid out for you, just as it is laid out. Work with others. Love yourself again, or maybe, like me, for the first...

After spending more than half my life in and out of jails, rehabs and prisons while battling drug addiction, I was a dead dog on the road of life. Down in the darkness of death’s doorstep, in the depths of despair, the Light began to dawn. Then everything changed. By the time I entered the recovery house, I was already a successful author, having written several books on personal finance, identity theft and consumer issues. I had appeared on hundreds of radio and television talk shows as one of the nation’s leading credit experts. Writing was an essential part of my life, but something was sorely missing – my life was a miserable mess. I needed to do something different. I needed help. As part of my treatment plan my counselor arranged for me to write out my moral inventory in the form of a memoir. For more than an hour...