By David Palmer It is ironic that here in the land of the free, America, three million citizens are in prison. That’s roughly one in a hundred at a total cost of about $39 billion a year. The emotional cost is immeasurable. If we are to make any headway in reducing prison populations, we will first have to do better addressing mental illness and drug abuse and secondly focus more on rehabilitation with prison inmates and less on punishment. When you think about it, being in prison and losing … [Read more...]
Robin Williams dies. Why?
By David Palmer Eighty percent of substance abuse problems like alcohol, pot, and prescription drugs are complicated by mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorders, and the like. In these “co-occurring” cases, both the addiction and mental health problems must be treated. We don’t know all the details of Robin Williams’ suicide on Monday, but we do know that he was a drug addict and suffered from depression. We also know that he had been in treatment several times … [Read more...]
Town doctor tackles pain pills
In the “The Hungry Heart” By David Palmer “The Hungry Heart” produced by Kingdom County Productions is a 90 minute documentary film about how one community, St Albans, VT, is dealing with the devastation of opioid pain pill abuse—hydrocodone, percocet and Oxicontin, for example--among teenagers and young adults. St. Albans is a community of about 7,000 with limited resources, but it did have a kind and caring pediatrician, Dr. Fred Holmes, 72, whose small clinic, “Mousetrap Pediatrics” … [Read more...]
For the alcoholic in your life, how about an intervention?
By David Palmer Interventions are a valuable tool in helping alcoholics and other drug addicts get well. And they come in various sizes and shapes. In my own case, a psychiatrist I was seeing in Denver about my acute anxiety realized after a couple of sessions that I was an alcoholic and directed me to my nearest Alcoholics Anonymous meeting forthwith. He knew that our talks would come to nothing if I did not deal with the alcohol issue first, and he “intervened”. I went to my first AA … [Read more...]
Why should I go to Al Anon?
Why should I go to Al Anon? He’s the one with the problem. By David Palmer If you are living with an alcoholic or have anything to do with one, chances are you need help, and Al-Anon meetings are a cheap and, for many, a priceless resource. More than twenty-four thousand of these free, 12-Step meetings are available in 133 countries, meaning there is probably one near you. More than 150 million Americans, roughly half the population, are affected directly or indirectly by the disease … [Read more...]
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