Leslie Glass's Blog, page 420

Thank You All Employees Who Run Everything

When is the last time you said “Thank You” to an employee? In many organizations employees wear different hats at different times, depending on budgets and size of the company.

Thanking employees is an incredible tool to show appreciation beyond the fourth Thursday in November. How about saying thank you more often?

In acknowledging, by show of appreciation and gratitude, a leader can foster great changes in the small circle of a company’s employees.

The added value of thankfulness can take many forms in creating a culture of gratitude. Here are a few of the many forms gratitude can be shown:

Formal recognition
Acknowledging successes and workplace celebration
Early dismissal before a holiday
Learn to accept compliment and thanks
Begin by being more open and demonstrate that you care about the employees, a co-worker or a customer

Never forget that a positive reinforcement will most likely be repeated by paying “it” forward. Tap into the spirit of Thanksgiving as a catalyst for growth and motivation within your organization.

The post Thank You All Employees Who Run Everything appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Operation UNITE, Kentucky officials launching SUD help line

The Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet and Operation UNITE are launching a substance abuse call center, Gov. Matt Bevin has announced.

Starting Dec. 1, Kentucky residents who are struggling with a substance use disorder, or have a family member struggling with SUD, can contact the KY HELP Call Center at 1-833-8KY-HELP (1-833-859-4357) to speak with a specialist who will conduct a brief screening, then discuss treatment options and available resources. Options range from medication-assisted treatment to faith-based care, and the specialists will help callers work through variables with each treatment option, including location and cost.

The center will take calls Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. During non-business hours, callers may leave a message, which will be returned by a member of the call center staff.

Operation UNITE, which already fields about 1,000 inquiries from residents seeking help with a substance use disorder each month, will staff the KY HELP Call Center with specialists in Prestonsburg, Ky. The Kentucky Justice Cabinet is funding the initiative through anti-drug appropriations in the current state budget at $500,000 per year for each of the next two years.

The post Operation UNITE, Kentucky officials launching SUD help line appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Former addict buries self alive in drug awareness campaign

A former addict has been buried alive outside of a Florida church since Sunday in a bid to raise awareness for drug addiction and to help others kick their habit. John Edwards, an Ireland native, has been clean for 27 years and has buried himself alive in a makeshift coffin two other times.

Edwards is currently buried outside of a Florida church.  (Fox 13)

“I’m raising my voice up to bring hope to the people,” Edwards, 62, told Fox 13, from underground.

Edwards is currently in a 3-ft. by 3-ft. by 8-ft. box that was outfitted with two tubes for air, food and waste, as well as a bed and technological accessories needed to live-blog and broadcast. He’s been keeping supporters updated on the website, Walking Free, and chronicling his experiences on Facebook Live using the hashtag #Gravechat.

“I’m determined to bring a message of hope,” Edwards told the Miami Herald during a Facebook Live interview. “I pray to God to give me the strength and the perseverance to offer words of wisdom and affirmation from the grave.”

While his previous two campaigns took place overseas, he has been buried outside the River at Tampa Bay Church since Sunday, with plans to come back up on Tuesday. Having faced his own health battles as a result of his addictions, including cancer and a liver transplant, he hopes his campaign goes viral to prevent the same from happening to others.

He updates followers on his website and hosts chats on Facebook Live while underground.  (Fox 13)

“I’m desperate to reach people whose lives are broken,” Edwards told the Miami Herald.

Jayson Williams, the church’s associate pastor, told Fox 13 that they hope others struggling reach out to Edwards and are encouraged to seek help.

“We’re saying, look, if you have problems with drugs or alcohol or depression, we’re here as a beacon of hope to come and to give people a better future,” Williams told the news outlet.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), opioids alone were involved in 33,091 deaths in 2015, with the amount of overdoses quadrupling since 1999.

The post Former addict buries self alive in drug awareness campaign appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

What Is Drug Abuse

Man behind bars made of pills

There is a lot of confusion around substance use,  drug abuse, and addiction. The term “drug abuse” implies use of only the most dangerous drugs and medication, but virtually any substance can be abused.Many substances that we use every day can be abused. Abuse occurs when dependence and tolerance develop. Someone may start using a little, then increase use over time, thinking nothing has changed when everything is changing inside the brain and body as the body gets used to it and craves more.

Stigma Prevents People From Getting Help

Unfortunately, stigma and shame often prevent people from openly discussing their use of substances. Secrecy and denial, even in the most advances stages of addiction, make understanding and dealing with the stages of abuse and addiction much harder. The perception in the past has been that drug abusers are homeless people, but that is not the case. People of all ages and economic levels abuse substances and become addicted.

How Does Drug Abuse Start

“Use of favorite substances escalates as changes in the brain occur and a dependence develops.”

Medications, both over the counter and prescription medicines, as well as caffeine, alcohol, tobacco and sugar are all substances that can be abused and become addictive, just like marijuana, heroin and other illegal drugs. People often start using painkillers, or alcohol or even over the counter medications to stop symptoms and feel better. Foods and other substances, alcohol especially, are used for recreation. Tolerance is also a factor in drug abuse, which means that over time more of the substance is required more to get the same “good” feeling or high. Drug abuse is commonly seen as the second stage after any substance use begins. The third stage is addiction, when people can’t stop and continue escalating use even in the face of catastrophic consequence

The Consequences of Drug (or Substance Abuse)

Drug abuse and addiction have negative consequences for individuals and for society. Estimates of the total overall costs of substance abuse in the United States, including productivity and health- and crime-related costs, exceed $600 billion annually. This includes approximately $193 billion for illicit drugs, $193 billion for tobacco, and $235 billion for alcohol.  As staggering as these numbers are, they do not fully describe the breadth of destructive public health and safety implications of drug abuse and addiction, such as family disintegration, loss of employment, failure in school, domestic violence, and child abuse. National Institute of Drug Abuse

Take the Teen Self Test

Are you a parent or teen concerned about use – abuse – of alcohol and other drugs in your life?  By answering the following 20 questions, you may be able to determine if you or someone you know is at risk of alcohol and/or drug dependence and in need of immediate assistance. Click here to take the test. From the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.

The post What Is Drug Abuse appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

For opiate addiction, study finds drug-assisted treatment is more effective than detox

Say you’re a publicly-insured Californian with an addiction to heroin, fentanyl or prescription narcotics, and you want to quit.

New research suggests you can do it the way most treatment-seeking addicts in the state do — by undergoing a medically-supervised “detoxification” that’s difficult, expensive and highly prone to failure.

Or you can try to quit the way that addiction researchers now widely agree it should be done (but rarely is): by combining abstinence programs with long-acting opioid medications such as methadone and buprenorphine, which allow patients to slowly wean themselves off their dangerous habit.

Neither method is easy, nor by any means failure-proof. But for each patient funneled into the second form of treatment, known as opioid agonist treatment, instead of the first, a study published Monday shows that taxpayers could reap substantial savings — $78,257 a person. And the patients themselves stand to gain longer and better lives.

Deep into a crisis of opioid addiction that claims 91 lives a day and holds close to 2.6 million Americans in its grip, the United States continues to suffer a yawning gap between what it knows about treatment and how the opiate-addicted are actually treated.

Close to 80% of those with an opioid-use disorder weren’t getting any treatment at all in 2015. Of the small sliver of those who did get some treatment, fewer than half in California got the kind of open-ended opioid agonist treatment that addiction researchers widely agree is most likely to lead to abstinence.

In fact, California, the state with the nation’s largest population of people with opiate addiction, still has regulations on the books that favor detox over opioid agonist treatment. For patients who are publicly insured, the state requires proof that a patient has tried detoxing two times or more and subsequently relapsed before it will pay for treatment with methadone or buprenorphine.

California’s Society of Addiction Medicine has said that medically managed withdrawal by itself should not be considered treatment of opioid use disorder. And exemptions to the state’s requirement are thought to be widely granted. Still, the language remains.

Published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the new study underscores that public policies that limit access to treatments such as methadone or buprenorphine don’t just shortchange patients who need help quitting; they’re costly to taxpayers footing the bill for their treatment as well.

If just one year’s worth of treatment-seeking opiate addicts were to get opioid agonist therapy instead of detox, the societal savings over the patients’ lifetimes would amount to $3.869 billion, the new study estimates.

Those patients would be in treatment longer, and the immediate cost of their treatment would increase, the new research finds. But over time, their increased likelihood of getting and staying clean would translate into lower downstream healthcare costs, a decreased likelihood of HIV infection (along with the costs of treating it), and less costly involvement with the criminal justice system.

“We believe our findings really do represent the reality in California,” said the study’s senior author, Bohdan Nosyk, a health economist with British Columbia’s Center of Excellence in HIV/AIDs. “The findings were really robust and, as new people come in, the savings will accumulate. So the numbers are conservative.”

Nosyk’s co-authors included addiction and epidemiological experts from UCLA’s Integrated Substance Abuse Programs and the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System of Los Angeles.

In an editorial published alongside the study Monday, Drs. Jeanette M. Tetrault and David A. Fiellin said the new research strongly suggests that lawmakers should be using their policy clout to promote outpatient clinics that treat opiate addicts in their communities rather than costly inpatient units where patients go to detox.

“Threats to healthcare funding may have lasting consequences, especially if lawmakers do not heed the most science-based and policy-applicable data as decisions are being made,” wrote Tetrault and Fiellin, both Yale University internists with interests in addiction medicine.

melissa.healy@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATMelissaHealy

The post For opiate addiction, study finds drug-assisted treatment is more effective than detox appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Ghosting Why It Hurts

Ghosting may have its roots in the kind of shunning that some religious groups use to control the beliefs and behavior of its members. Perceived wrongdoing followed by punishment in the form of the silent treatment, banishment, excommunication, torture, and even death goes way back.

Today, being among the disappeared in social media can feel just as bad. It is personal, it is aggressive. And it is a common way of dumping someone.

The Modern Version of Shunning

Ghosting is the ultimate silent treatment. It consists of removing someone from all social media connections, and is often associated with dating, but ghosting occurs in lots of other relationships, too. Divorce, former work friends now competitors, relatives who can’t stand you, someone you were dating for a week or three years are all potential ghosting relationships. You can’t call, can’t see them on Facebook, can’t discuss it. Your phone number is blocked, your photos eliminated. When you’re ghosted, you can’t see someone’s present activities and future events, and you can’t see your own past reflected there anymore. Your entire history with someone may be erased. Ouch.

Ghosting Is A Kind Of Psychic Murder

If getting rid of someone were just blocking the phone or returning your letters, as in the old days, it still hurt. You’re rejected, no longer wanted for whatever reason. This form of blocking, which removes you from social media, however, is a kind of anilhilation. It may not have been personal to the person who doesn’t want you in their life anymore, but it is deeply personal to the one who is ghosted.

Ghosting Is A Necessity When Personal Safety Is At Stake

Ghosting is a healthy way of dealing with a scary or toxic relationship. Blocking calls and un-friending someone on Facebook, even moving to another location can keep you safe from an emotionally painful or violent relationship. You’re gone. That person can’t stalk, or hurt you, anymore. Nothing could be healthier than retreating from someone who sucks the life out of you. But when ghosting happens to you for no apparent reason, often you have no warning and don’t know why someone wants you gone.

Ghosting Can Be The Coward’s Goodbye

Human relationships are not magic acts in which you can make someone disappear at will and there are no consequences. Banishing from the kingdom of someone’s life is going to be painful to the ghosted one. That person is not only unloved, but also unvalidated as a human. If there is no explanation or warning for it, the ghosted one can be baffled as well as hurt by it.

In The End What Happened Doesn’t Matter

You don’t know what happened. You can’t discuss it. You can’t argue with it. It’s done.You could torture yourself wondering what you did and wishing you could fix it. But that would be a waste of time and energy. Ghosting is a very clear message to move on.

Treat Ghosting Like Spoiled Milk

You may feel betrayed. You may feel angry. You may feel hurt. All could be very legitimate feelings, but not useful. Instead, change your internal scenery and let the ghoster go. Letting it go makes room for the better relationships to come.

Reach Out Recovery Exclusive by Leslie Glass

 

The post Ghosting Why It Hurts appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Breaking The Spell Of Co-Dependency

Woman Walking Through parted waves

Co-dependency is just something you don’t want to admit exists in your life. When people told me that I was a co-dependent person, but I brushed the idea aside. In my mind, I was clearly not one of those people. But then one day, I opened my mouth and my Higher Power spoke words from my lips that were not my own. Speaking to my mother, these words came out: “No matter how much I do for you, it is never enough!

Breaking The Spell

The power of those words broke a spell that seemed to have kept me captive for 50 years. I was trying to please others so that I could win approval. To my own detriment I gave to others; beyond my own capacity, I gave to others. I gave and gave and gave, and to me it was still never enough.

And this is the foundation of being a codependent. I must martyr myself in order to win your approval. I desperately need you to need me. I feel that I am nothing without your approval and acceptance.

How A Codependent Is Made

Where did this all start? In childhood if a parent only accepts a child when they are exhibiting “good” behavior, but rejects and turns away from a child who is struggling with “bad” behavior, this teaches a child that they must behave a certain way to gain acceptance. A child learns that their behavior is what wins approval. And so the roots of co-dependence are sown.

As I codependent, I felt that the only value I had was in serving others – especially when I put the needs of others before my own needs. I was continually on the lookout for places and people to serve, becoming a professional “volunteer,” going beyond the call of duty to demonstrate my worth. The greater my martyrdom, the more I felt worthy. I sacrificed myself for others until I greatly harmed myself, but it never seemed to satisfy my need for approval.

Life In Recovery

In recovery, I discovered a whole new way of looking at life. I learned to love and accept myself. I also discovered that there was a Higher Power who already loved and accepted me if only I would believe it and receive it. I was surprised to learn that taking care of myself was not selfish, but in fact necessary in order to be a healthy individual. I learned the importance of setting boundaries in order to protect myself from myself. Boundaries helped me stay healthy. I learned that taking care of everyone else was quite often causing them harm because I was robbing them of their own self-respect, decision-making, and strengthening of their own character. My “helping” was often hurting others. I never saw that before!

In recovery, I have found myself – the person who became lost in all the care-giving I was doing. I discovered that I could Live and Let Live. It was up to me to live my own life, and let others live their lives in whatever way those chose without my interference.

Living my own life has brought me joy and freedom, and most of all – peace. That eternal hole in my heart that was in search of approval has now been filled from within. Joy, peace, and happiness come from an inside job. I am so grateful for my recovery family who has helped me come to this place in my life.

A Reach Out Recovery Exclusive By Amy Turon

 

The post Breaking The Spell Of Co-Dependency appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Step 1 Let Go Of The Steering Wheel

When I was a new driver in the snowy Midwest, I was terrified that my tires would lock up on icy roads. My Dad taught me to turn into the skid instead of fighting it. This reminds me of Step 1. In recovery, learning to let go is the first step.

Sometimes, life comes at us 100 miles per hour. Obstacles that appear out of nowhere turn our world upside down. The same thing happens to Indy car drivers. In May 2017, Scott Dixon’s life was saved by letting go. Coming out of turn one, another driver crossed into Dixon’s path. He had no control over his car. He was powerless to avoid a collision. His only course of action was to let go of the steering wheel.

Dixon’s crash wasn’t the only one of the day. The commentators repeated the same phrase, “All he could do is just let go of the wheel.” One of the racers even described himself as a passenger in his crashing car.

When Life Spins Out Of Control

AA’s 12 Steps are so powerful that many other groups including Al-Anon use them to guide their recovery. In Step 1, we admit we were powerless over alcohol. Our lives are unmanageable.”

Before taking Step 1, my life was spiraling out of control. My sister was dying from terminal cancer. As she grew sicker, I tried harder to gain control, but nothing worked. I was just a passenger in an out of control life.  Finally, I was miserable enough to let go. I was ready to take Step 1.

Letting go didn’t undo the aftermath of her death. It didn’t fix any of my problems or repair any damages, but it stopped me from making things worse. It let my Higher Power reach down and scoop me up.

Save

Save

Save

The post Step 1 Let Go Of The Steering Wheel appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Banish Holiday Loneliness

Holiday loneliness can sabotage every one of our recovery self care resolutions.  But there is a difference between being alone and being feeling alone. There is something about traditions and gatherings that makes the need for human connection even greater, so connect you must.

Holiday Loneliness Can Be Avoided By Connection To Others

When life has you down due to loss, divorce, or being far from home there is a certain kinship to others far away. When the loss is a loved one deep in addiction, or you’re new to recovery without the stability of a job or support system,  holiday loneliness is more challenging. Here, the sadness and suffering you feel isn’t as easily seen or understood by others. Worse, it may be compared to worse hardships and diseases. Loss is loss, however.

Being Alone Doesn’t Mean You Have To Be Lonely

When you’re alone on the holidays, for whatever reason, it’s important to make a distinction between being alone and being lonely. And it’s important to get connected. While I avoided the first holidays after my parents died and chose being alone, I filled my days with activities where I could be of service to others. In this way, I was able to honor the spirit of the holiday, and I made new friends in the process. I volunteered preparing traditional feasts and delivering them to the elderly and those who couldn’t travel. I also connected to nature by slathering paper with with peanut butter and rolled it in bird seed for both feathered friends and passing deer.

There Is Gratitude In Serving

Holiday loneliness can be replaced by gratitude when you serve others. Being grateful connects you in powerful but unseen ways. The more thankful you can be right now, even amidst loss and feelings of disconnection, the more your life brings things to be thankful for to your attention.

Look For Connection In Every Moment

Look for joy in the moments of life … the aroma of morning coffee, a heavy ceramic mug, plump blueberries, the sound of chimes, a table and chairs, apples in a wicker basket, silky creamer and the way it both lightens and deepens, crumbs on a napkin, candles flickering their welcome from a window, the grace and flexibility of squirrels as they leap from branch to branch, the way a cardinal hangs from a suet cage – its beak deep in the treat, silence, dry shoes, soap and water, and how the morning light can be separated into slivers of blue, red and all the friends of the spectrum if you just notice it.

 

 

The post Banish Holiday Loneliness appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

3 Reasons You’re So Unhappy In That Relationship

Being divorced in my fifties and dating is not like being in a relationship at other times in my life. As I mulled over the prospect of getting back in the game, my mother said, “Don’t be anybody’s girlfriend. It’s a trap.” I was perplexed, so she added, “Being someone’s girlfriend is practice for being in a relationship. You don’t need relationship practice, you need to know who you are before you get into a relationship.” Sage words, indeed, and from a woman who had already celebrated fifty-plus years with my father.  So, I began my earnest quest of self.

What Is Driving Your Relationship

First, I asked, “Who am I?” and its co-conspirator, “What do I want?” These questions exposed hidden rules which drive our relationships. They also explained why I stayed stuck in certain patterns of behavior. The problem is that these areas are often in our proverbial blind spots; we can’t see them, but we can observe the damage they are wreaking in our lives. Inherent to being human, is to have one of these drivers as a covert maker of our relationship agendas. Inherent to revealing the true nature of a healthy relationship, is to get curious as to who is driving.

Let’s take a closer look at the top three relationship drivers and how they are expressed:

DRIVER
EXPRESSED AS
SELF-TALK


“I don’t belong”
Settling for; lack of self-confidence; changing to fit someone else’s desires; smudging boundaries; hiding out
“I don’t fit in”

“I can’t be myself”

“After I change ___ about myself, then I’ll fit in”

 


“I’m not good enough”
Giving up too quickly or staying too long; trying too hard; taking blame; indecisive; not rocking the boat; lack of self-advocacy; low self-esteem
“I’m not worthy”

“If only I was ___, s/he would want me”

“It’s my fault”

“My opinions don’t count”

 


“I’m unlovable”
Self-loathing; lack of deep and/or meaningful connections; isolation
“If you knew who I really was, you’d leave”

“I’m too hard to love”

“I don’t deserve ___”

 

These drivers are all based in fear and to some degree they are all in each of us, but one of them is more potent than the others. Fear has us trading off what could be a healthy, fulfilling relationship for one that keeps unhealthy behind the wheel.

How To Take Back The Steering Wheel

Personally, “I don’t belong” is my driver. Unchecked, it has shown up as settling for relationships because I convinced myself that THIS time it would be different and trying so hard to fit in that I hid out and made my life about playing it safe. It ran my life right up until I chose to show up for myself as all of who I really am, and I ripped the wheel from the driver’s hands and took my life back. You can too! Start by getting curious to what you are saying about yourself and your life, then get present to how your driver shows up in your relationships.

 

Save

The post 3 Reasons You’re So Unhappy In That Relationship appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.