Heroin is not alcohol. This might seem like a fairly obvious and even ridiculous point to make, but there are so many people in our courts, our governments, our treatment centers and our recovery communities who don’t seem to grasp this… Read More ›
alcoholism
Off His Meds & Away From Reality: Charlie Sheen’s Struggles With HIV & Mental Health
Acceptance is the answer. As someone who has been through his fair share of rehabs and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, that is an axiom that I am sure Charlie Sheen is well acquainted with and, based on his history of addiction… Read More ›
There Are Such Unfortunates: Failing To Deal With Severe Mental Illness in Recovery
How the hell did I get here is a question that comes about with a fair amount of frequency in the course of an alcoholic or addicted life. Wind up waking up next to someone you’ve never seen before in… Read More ›
Angels In The Outfield Asking For Help: Josh Hamilton & Baseball’s Other Drug Problem
If, in the distant future, some baseball historian were to come across the box score for the Cincinnati Reds’ Opening Day in 2007, he wouldn’t find anything that seemed particularly noteworthy. On that day, the Reds’ notched a 5-1 victory… Read More ›
Constitutionally Incapable: Brief Reflections On My Time Living With an Autistic Alcoholic
In March of 2009, I went to the Hazelden Center For Youth & Families in Plymouth, MN to receive dual diagnosis treatment for alcoholism/addiction and bipolar disorder. Thankfully, both my addiction and mental health have been in check over the… Read More ›
The Click (Or, How I Came To Realize I Was An Alcoholic)
After 16 months of languishing in a storage locker just outside of Baltimore, I finally managed to schlep the bulk of my worldly belongings back to my apartment in Cincinnati. Moving is never fun, but sometimes the process can unearth… Read More ›
Dope Sick With Mouths To Feed: The Struggles of American Women in Active Addiction
~~~~~~~ Author’s Note ~~~~~~~ On the night before I was to publish this article, one of my cousins died at the hands of this insidious disease of addiction. The last time I saw her was early Thursday morning after a… Read More ›
The Drug Dealer in the Cupboard: How The Prescription Drug Epidemic Revived Heroin in America
It pains me to say this, but after more than 5 years of continuous sobriety—5 years in which I lived in rehabs and halfway houses, worked in the drug and alcohol treatment industry, and spent thousands of hours attending 12-step… Read More ›
An Open Letter to Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley Concerning New Foundations Transitional Living
Mayor Cranley, In your mayoral acceptance speech this past November, you pledged to turn Cincinnati into a more inclusive city; a city where government can find solutions that will bring disparate groups together while building communities that work for everyone. It… Read More ›
Void My Bowels & Fill Me With Truth Serum: A Look at Aversion Therapy for Alcohol & Drug Abuse
Sometimes I miss it. Not all of it, but some of it. The part of it that made me feel like nothing. Not nothing in an empty way, but nothing in a weightless way, as if the physical properties that… Read More ›
