Hitting Rock Bottom Frees Us From Negative Emotions
Posted in: Alcohol and drugs, Alcoholism, Mental health, Psychology, Substance abuse.	Leave a comment
preventdisease.com
April MCCarhty
We've all heard it said, "When you hit rock bottom, there's nowhere to go but up." This can prove especially true in business, where bottoming out as a result of job loss can be necessary before finding the radical solution that will lead to a new work identity, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame.
"Hitting Rock Bottom After Job Loss: Bouncing Back to Create a New Positive Work Identity," was published this month in Academy of Management Review by lead author Dean Shepherd, the Siegfried Professor of Entrepreneurship in Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, and Trenton Williams of Indiana University."On the way down, we frantically do all sorts of things to try and repair the situation, and suffer as they fail," Shepherd says. "Bottoming out frees us from the misconception that the problems can be fixed, and in the process, frees us from other constraints and negative emotions and provides the conditions necessary to find a viable solution."
Individuals who eventually hit rock bottom come to realize their identity has been lost, and that realization can lead to one of two paths: toward recovery or toward dysfunction.
"Using 'identity play' provides a safe environment to escape the situation and try new things, discarding bad ideas or finding and refining a new identity and returning stronger than before."
Play provides an opportunity to both withdraw from the mental anguish and to be creative in generating alternative new work identities and then trying them out to see how they feel without having to commit to them, which can be fun.
Once the individual finds a potential identity that feels right, they then begin to refine the job to make sure it's a good fit for both their needs and the reality of the situation. Without hitting rock bottom, the individual would not have been freed from the past to enable them to creatively explore different alternatives for the future.
"A failed corporate executive might consider a variety of other potential roles," Shepherd says, "For example, sitting on the board of a nonprofit organization that is desperate for experienced managerial guidance, exploring government positions or running for office, working with startups, and so forth. Similarly, a failed entrepreneur might explore how skills learned in starting a business could be applied in a corporate setting, take standardized exams to be considered for law school or engage in other low risk exploration activities. In these cases, hitting rock bottom opens up myriad new opportunities."
Former NFL players Jermichael Finley, Mike Utley and Tony Boselli all suffered career ending injuries and have refocused on other business ventures. Finley, in his 20s suffered a spinal cord injury while playing as a tight end for the Green Bay Packers. He is now coaching and invested in a gym. Utley played guard for the Detroit Lions when a game injury left him paralyzed. He started the Mike Utley Foundation. Boselli was a defensive tackle for the Jacksonville Jaguars who retired early due to a nagging shoulder injury. He's now 45 and admits he still suffers from an "identity crisis" but continues working with the Jaguars on their Sunday radio show as well as other radio shows including Westwood One. He also coaches high school football and started a small healthcare company.
The less desirable path involves using fantasy as a means of escape and can include alcohol and drug use.
Along this less desirable path, "people will oscillate between no emotion and severe negative emotion and make no progress toward building a new identity, which can eventually lead to even worse outcomes like suicide," Shepherd says.
Recent studies have explored the impact of career-ending injuries for musicians and soldiers-injuries that generated intense negative emotions as they approached rock bottom. In both studies, some of these individuals were fixated on the loss of a former identity, paralyzed by the realization that they could no longer perform or continue in an established role. Some sought escape through cognitive deconstruction, including the use of drugs.
"A failed executive might resort to a numb state that involves abusing alcohol, engaging in menial tasks at home or becoming a couch potato," Shepherd says. "However, when friends offer job suggestions or ask why the executive has yet to land a new position, it could launch the individual from the numb state into extreme negative emotions leading to destructive behavior."
A deeper understanding of why some recover and others languish provides an opportunity to develop interventions that facilitate recovery from work identity loss.
Shepherd hopes the research helps people realize that hitting rock bottom can be an opportunity to let go of a broken and unrepairable life and begin anew to develop a new life, as well as avoid the negative path of fantasy that obstructs recovery.
A research leader in the field of entrepreneurship, Shepherd specializes in entrepreneurial cognitions, new venture strategy, opportunity recognition and learning from failure.
Mindfulness Is More Effective Than Drugs For Both Anxiety and Depression
What happens to your body when you're stressed
Posted by Lou on August 8, 2017
Posted in: Anxiety, Depression, Health, Mental health, Obesity, Stress, Substance abuse.	1 Comment
Heart racing, quick breathing and tension headaches are just some of the ways stress changes your body.
Source: What happens to your body when you're stressed
theconversation.com
Holly Blake
Associate Professor of Behavioural Science, University of NottinghamCreative
We all feel stressed from time to time – it's all part of the emotional ups and downs of life. Stress has many sources, it can come from our environment, from our bodies, or our own thoughts and how we view the world around us. It is very natural to feel stressed around moments of pressure such as exam time – but we are physiologically designed to deal with stress, and react to it.
When we feel under pressure the nervous system instructs our bodies to release stress hormones including adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol. These produce physiological changes to help us cope with the threat or danger we see to be upon us. This is called the "stress response" or the "fight-or-flight" response.
Stress can actually be positive, as the stress response help us stay alert, motivated and focused on the task at hand. Usually, when the pressure subsides, the body rebalances and we start to feel calm again. But when we experience stress too often or for too long, or when the negative feelings overwhelm our ability to cope, then problems will arise. Continuous activation of the nervous system – experiencing the "stress response" – causes wear and tear on the body.
When we are stressed, the respiratory system is immediately affected. We tend to breathe harder and more quickly in an effort to quickly distribute oxygen-rich blood around our body. Although this is not an issue for most of us, it could be a problem for people with asthma who may feel short of breath and struggle to take in enough oxygen. It can also cause quick and shallow breathing, where minimal air is taken in, which can lead to hyperventilation. This is more likely if someone is prone to anxiety and panic attacks.
Stress wreaks havoc on our immune systems. Cortisol released in our bodies suppresses the immune system and inflammatory pathways, and we become more susceptible to infections and chronic inflammatory conditions. Our ability to fight off illness is reduced.
The musculoskeletal system is also affected. Our muscles tense up, which is the body's natural way of protecting ourselves from injury and pain. Repeated muscle tension can cause bodily aches and pains, and when it occurs in the shoulders, neck and head it may result in tension headaches and migraines.
Stress can lead to migraines. from http://www.shutterstock.com
There are cardiovascular effects. When stress is acute (in the moment), heart rate and blood pressure increase, but they return to normal once the acute stress has passed. If acute stress is repeatedly experienced, or if stress becomes chronic (over a long period of time) it can cause damage to blood vessels and arteries. This increases the risk for hypertension, heart attack or stroke.
The endocrine system also suffers. This system plays an important role in regulating mood, growth and development, tissue function, metabolism and reproductive processes. Our metabolism is affected. The hypothalamus is located in the brain and it plays a key role in connecting the endocrine system with the nervous system. Stress signals coming from the hypothalamus trigger the release of stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine, and then blood sugar (glucose) is produced by the liver to provide you with energy to deal with the stressful situation. Most people reabsorb the extra blood sugar when the stress subsides, but for some people there is an increased risk of diabetes.
Stress can have some unpleasant gastrointestinal effects. We might experience heartburn and acid reflux especially if we have changed our eating habits to eat more or less, or increased our consumption of fatty and sugary foods. The ability of our intestines to absorb nutrients from our food may be reduced. We may experience stomach pain, bloating and nausea, diarrhoea or constipation.
There can be problems with our reproductive systems too. For men, chronic stress may affect the production of testosterone and sperm. It may even lead to erectile dysfunction or impotence. Women can experience changes to their menstrual cycles and increased premenstrual symptoms.
Stress and your mind
Stress has marked effects on our emotional well-being. It is normal to experience high and low moods in our daily lives, but when we are stressed we may feel more tired, have mood swings or feel more irritable than usual. Stress causes hyperarousal, which means we may have difficulty falling or staying asleep and experience restless nights. This impairs concentration, attention, learning and memory, all of which are particularly important around exam time. Researchers have linked poor sleep to chronic health problems, depression and even obesity .
Losing sleep affects your ability to learn. from www.shutterstock.com
The way that we cope with stress has an additional, indirect effect on our health. Under pressure, people may adopt more harmful habits such as smoking, drinking too much alcohol or taking drugs to relieve stress. But these behaviours are inappropriate ways to adapt and only lead to more health problems and risks to our personal safety and well-being.
So learn to manage your stress, before it manages you. It's all about keeping it in check. Some stress in life is normal – and a little stress can help us to feel alert, motivated, focused, energetic and even excited. Take positive actions to channel this energy effectively and you may find yourself performing better, achieving more and feeling good.
Should Toronto push to decriminalize all drugs? The city's medical health officer ready to consider it
Posted in: Activism, Alcohol and drugs, Criminology, Decriminalization, Substance abuse, War on drugs.	1 Comment
Source: Should Toronto push to decriminalize all drugs? The city's medical health officer ready to consider it | Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com
By Betsy PowellCity Hall Bureau
Fri., Aug. 4, 2017
The city is convening a committee of health and drug policy experts to explore "a different approach that puts the health of the community first," Dr. Eileen De Villa said.
Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto's Medical Officer of Health, says the current approach to drugs in Toronto is not working and a new approach is needed. (Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star) | Order this photo
Toronto's new Medical Officer of Health is calling for a public discussion on the merits of decriminalizing all drugs in the wake of the ongoing overdose epidemic.
"It's clear that our current approach to drugs in this city and this country doesn't seem to be having the desired impact," Dr. Eileen De Villa told reporters Friday at a briefing on how the city is responding to drug users overdosing and, in some cases, dying.
There have been six suspected fatal overdoses since the weekend, including two teens found dead in an Etobicoke highrise. In addition, Toronto emergency wards treated 79 people suspected of overdosing during the last week of July. It's not yet clear how many were deaths.
Last year, it's believed more than 2,400 Canadians died as a result of opioid-related overdoses.
On Friday, following Thursday's emergency meeting of city partners, De Villa reviewed with reporters the city's overdose prevention strategies which include asking police to carry the fentanyl antidote and speeding up the opening of three safe injection sites.
De Villa said among the 10 key strategies in Toronto's Overdose Action plan is a call for a public health approach to drug policy that puts the health of the community first, "rather than looking at this as an issue of criminal behavior and or an area for law enforcement."
Should Toronto push to decriminalize all drugs? The city's medical health officer ready to consider it | Toronto Star
Iceland Knows How To Stop Teen Substance Abuse But The Rest Of The World Isn't Listening
Posted in: Alcohol and drugs, Criminology, Harm reduction, Iceland, Sociology, Substance abuse.	1 Comment
Source: Iceland Knows How To Stop Teen Substance Abuse But The Rest Of The World Isn't Listening – Collective Evolution
http://www.collective-evolution.com
Alanna Ketler
I think it's safe to say that most teenagers have tried and/or abused alcohol or illegal drugs, yet teen substance abuse rarely gets the attention it needs. Drugs and alcohol have a more detrimental effect on the underdeveloped brain, particularly since teens lack the ability to adequately assess risk, making them more likely to overindulge in substances. It's this same lack that explains why people tend to be braver and more open to trying new experiences as teens than as adults. But this courage comes at a cost, as teens cannot adequately assess the risks of the substances they are taking. And schools aren't doing nearly enough to educate them.
I remember seeing presentations from a program called DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, when I was in school. Although we were taught to avoid drugs, the focus was more on avoiding criminal behaviour than protecting our bodies. There wasn't much focus on long-term effects of drug use. They always maintained that abstinence from drug use was best and that marijuana was the gateway drug, though I believe it's become pretty obvious that alcohol better serves that description. Alcohol is readily available and easy to obtain, be it from parents' liquor cabinets or fridges, older siblings, or underage bars.
Teens are faced with tremendous pressure, from their parents, their teachers, and especially their peers — it's no wonder it is so easy to reach out for that escape, to keep your mind off all of the stresses, but also to just be cool and to fit in.
So How Can We Tackle This Issue?
According to an Icelandic psychologist, Gudberg Jonsson, just twenty years ago Icelandic teens were among the heaviest drinking youths in all of Europe. Apparently you couldn't even walk downtown in Reykjavik on a Friday night without being bothered by rowdy teenagers getting wasted. He says it felt unsafe. These days, Iceland has various after school classes in facilities that include heated swimming pools and clubs for music, dance, or art.
Iceland now tops the European table for the cleanest living teens. The percentage of 15- and 16-year-old teens who had been drunk in the previous month dropped from 42% in 1998 to 5% in 2016. The percentage of cannabis users has even dropped from 17% to 7%, and those smoking cigarettes every day fell from 23% to 3%.
This country has been able to achieve such a successful turnaround thanks to what might best be described as enforced common sense. "This is the most remarkably intense and profound study of stress in the lives of teenagers that I have ever seen," says Milkman. "I'm just so impressed how well it's working."
Milkman believes that if this model were adopted in other countries it could benefit the physical as well as psychological well-being of millions of kids worldwide.
How Does This Become a Problem?
"Any college kid could say: why do they start? Well, there's availability, they're risk-takers, alienation, maybe some depression," he says. "But why do they continue? So I got to the question about the threshold for abuse and the lights went on – that's when I had my version of the 'aha' experience: they could be on the threshold for abuse before they even took the drug, because it was their style of coping that they were abusing."
Milkman helped develop the idea that people were addicted to changes in the brain chemistry, rather than the drug itself. "People can get addicted to drink, cars, money, sex, calories, cocaine – whatever. The idea of behavioural addiction became our trademark," he says.
This is what spawned another idea: "Why not orchestrate a social movement around natural highs: around people getting high on their own brain chemistry – because it seems obvious to me that people want to change their consciousness – without the deleterious effects of drugs?"
By 1992, Milkman's team in Denver had been granted $1.2 million from the government to fund Project Self-Discovery, which offered teenagers natural high alternatives to drugs and various crimes.
Iceland Knows How To Stop Teen Substance Abuse But The Rest Of The World Isn't Listening – Collective Evolution
Paradigm Shift: Study Finds 51% of Millennials Giving Up All Alcohol for Cannabis
Posted in: Activism, Alcohol and drugs, Alcoholism, Criminology, law, Law enforcement, Legalization, ljf, Marijuana, Prohibition, Substance abuse.	Leave a comment
This is good news. John Wayne is dead, long live Willie Nelson! These millennials will give us a more compassionate society than their parents did.
"It appears alcohol's status is changing quickly with pot legalization, and people will be safer for it. About 88,000 people died from excessive alcohol use over a four-year period, and alcohol-impaired driving killed almost 10,000 in 2014."
As cannabis legalization spreads, people can finally turn to a much safer recreational substance without fear of being thrown in a cage.
Source: Paradigm Shift: Study Finds 51% of Millennials Giving Up All Alcohol for Cannabis
thefreethoughtproject.com
By Justin Gardner
Chart via Outco
With the widespread legalization of cannabis taking hold after the historic Nov. 2016 state votes, the news just keeps getting worse for the alcohol industry. They knew it would happen, too, which is why the alcohol lobby – predicting a $2 billion loss in revenue – engaged, and mostly failed, in a campaign to keep pot illegal.
A Dec. 2016 report has already shown the effects, as three states with legal recreational cannabis are seeing beer markets shrinking. A new survey suggests this trend is going to get much more pronounced, with the younger generation turning to cannabis as the recreational substance of choice.
The survey, titled California Millennials Say No to Alcohol and Yes to Marijuana, found that an astonishing percentage of millennials – meaning those born from about the early 1980s to the early 2000s – will be choosing cannabis over alcohol.
"Millennials will be more open to diversity in their consumption of recreational substances than older generations, with more than 50% of them substituting cannabis for alcohol altogether.
The study further shows that one in five Generation Xers will be substituting cannabis for alcohol, as will 8% of baby boomers."
These numbers are especially significant, considering that almost 39 million people live in California and the state's economy is bigger than that of some countries. The alcohol lobby is surely shaking in their boots, looking for lawmakers willing to work against the will of the voters for the right price.
The reasons given by survey respondents for choosing this beneficial plant over alcohol are just as interesting – and encouraging.
"In regards to safety, many expressed the fear of making poor decisions when consuming alcohol, which included driving over the legal limit.
Cost also came into play, with many stating that their overall spend on alcohol outstrips that of high quality cannabis.
Finally, health was stated as a factor when substituting cannabis for alcohol. Participants shared that the effects of a hangover from alcohol lasted the entire next day, while high volumes of cannabis usage had no noticeable lasting effects; thereby making them feel healthier and more active."
All of this reflects a larger understanding among people that it is time to end pot prohibition. Results from a Quinnipiac University National Poll, published on 4/20, found the highest ever support among voters for legalization.
The survey found that 94 percent of U.S. voters support legalizing medical cannabis, while 60 percent support recreational legalization. It also found that people overwhelmingly oppose government enforcement of federal laws against cannabis in states that have legalized recreational or medical cannabis.
If the Trump administration follows through with its hints at escalating the war on weed, it's a sure-fire way to infuriate the masses. Attorney General Jeff Sessions seems mired in the Reefer Madness era, with a track record of promoting falsehoods about the supposed dangers of cannabis.
Alcohol has enjoyed decades of being the government-approved recreational drug, after the disastrous Prohibition era. Government soon learned it could reap massive profits from alcohol through extortion fees (licensing) and so-called "sin taxes."
But it appears alcohol's status is changing quickly with pot legalization, and people will be safer for it. About 88,000 people died from excessive alcohol use over a four-year period, and alcohol-impaired driving killed almost 10,000 in 2014.
Meanwhile, no one has ever died from excessive cannabis ingestion, and the impairment factor is not even close to alcohol. Some studies have shown little to no driving impairment from cannabis, but of course, this depends on a person's frequency of use. People arrested for 'driving while high' are convincing juries that they were not, in fact, impaired.
The markets are changing quickly, and will be very interesting to watch as cannabis legalization continues. Surveys like the one described above are a sure indication of where to put one's investment money.
Addicted to Doom
Posted in: Addictions, Alcohol and drugs, Alcoholism, Mental health, Psychology, Substance abuse.	1 Comment
"If you want to know why you drink and use, quit drinking and using."
Source: Addicted to Doom | The Fix
thefix.com
By Bridget Phetasy
I fell down the rabbit hole of doom.
Like most alcoholics, I wake up every morning, open my eyes and think, "I'm fucked."
I was born this way. When I was a six years old, I would make my mom promise no less than 45 times before I left in the morning that she would be waiting for me when I got off the bus, because I was petrified I'd be kidnapped. I was the last stop on the route. My driver would ask me when I would suck my thumb, "Which flavor is it, chocolate or vanilla?" He was probably making harmless conversation with a six-year-old, but in my mind, he was planning on taking me to the bus yard to murder me. No exaggeration, this is where my brain went, when I was six.
When I was 8 years old, we had a school assignment to write and illustrate a book. Most kids wrote fun-loving stories of unicorns and pirate adventures. I wrote a heartbreaking tale about a bird dying called "The Cycle of Life" that made my teacher cry.
At 10 years old, I was wandering through the Connecticut woods—half talking to the gnomes I was 100 percent sure existed and half worried about being molested by a drifter—when I came upon a man's gravestone from early colonial America. Barely visible from decades of erosion, I could just make out, "Beloved son, father, husband." I sat there trying to imagine his entire life, what it must have been like, what it was like back then…and as I imagined this world, I realized everything I was imagining took place in the tiny dash between those two dates. His whole life reduced to a couple of inches. At that moment I realized I was in my dash, and had an existential crisis that shook me to my newly developing core. I was inconsolable. "We're in the dash, we're in the dash," I cried. My parents shook their heads and told me to try not to "be so deep," but I've never looked at life quite the same way ever since.
From a very young age I've had to fight the fatalistic thought that none of this matters, so it wasn't a huge surprise that I took to alcohol and drugs like a duck to water. I blacked out the first time I drank and it was glorious. Five minutes after smoking my first joint, I was buying a pipe. Marijuana gave me reprieve from the algorithm of doom that constantly unfolds in my mind; sure, I became a delusional conspiracy theorist, but at least I was CHILL AF about it all, man. The relief I got from my brain the first time I ever did heroin, just the blissful SILENCE, is a feeling that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Addicted to Doom | The Fix
Nitrous, weed, opium and peach-pits: the intoxicants of 18th C England
Posted in: Alcohol and drugs, Britain, Criminology, History, Substance abuse.	1 Comment
Source: Nitrous, weed, opium and peach-pits: the intoxicants of 18th C England
http://www.blacklistednews.com
Source: Boing Boing
Historical novelist Debra Daley posts a master guide to the intoxicants of 18th century England, which ranged from modern favorites (laughing gas, cannabis) to historic classics (laudanum) to ratafia, "a sweet liqueur flavoured with peach or cherry kernels," which contained cyanogenic glycosides that broke down into fatal, insanity-causing hydrogen cyanide.
The 18th century — like the centuries before and after — were filled with people who were, frankly, high as fuck. But the 18th century marked a turning point in getting-high-ology, because of the opening of global trade routes, mass colonization, and the nascent industrial revolution, which brought more drugs, more cheaply, to England.
The summer of 1799 saw a new fixation in British society – the inhalation of laughing gas. Nitrous oxide had been discovered by chemist Joseph Priestley in 1772 after introducing iron filings to nitric acid – the resulting gas gave Priestley a painless and giddy feeling – and was synthesised later that year by his pupil Humphry Davy. Davy was delighted by the euphoric effects of the gas, which he had tested on himself at the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol. It induced an elated state which motivated Davy to set about supervising the construction of a machine that could reliably produce large quantities of the gas with a property that he described as 'the thrilling'.
Davy soon issued invitations to people in his circle to sample the wondrous gas and experienced 'the thrilling' for themselves. They met at an upstairs drawing room at the Pneumatic Institution in a series of gatherings over the summer. The guests inhaled nitrous oxide from portable bags made of oiled green silk and happily stumbled about in wild merriment, before drifting into a dreamy sedated state. News of the nitrous oxide capers travelled and came to be repeated at 'laughing parties' held all over the country. Davy held nitrous sessions with poets Coleridge and Southey, the potter Josiah Wedgwood and the thesaurist Peter Roget.
People could not get enough of a gas that allowed "uneasiness [to be]", as Davy put it, "for a few minutes swallowed up in pleasure." He proposed in 1799 that nitrous oxide might be used in surgical operations to deaden pain; but his suggestion went unheeded for another forty-five years. It's a theme that recurs with any account of the history of mind-altering substances: that they can do medical good is overshadowed by their good-time nature.
High Times in the 18th Century [Debra Daley/The History Girls]