It seems like every time we look up, some thug on TV is running full tilt, an old bedstead in hand, at a store window. Rioting and demonstrations have been frequent occurrences, and the media, attracted to “shiny objects,” have given them a ton of coverage glorifying their behaviors. “If it bleeds, it leads” still applies in newsrooms. Lost in the mayhem are decent law abiding citizens trying to make a living, raise children or enjoy retirement in the midst of mindless destruction. It’s … [Read more...]

During the sixties and seventies, Gary Stromberg, a west coast public relations executive and one-time movie producer, toured the world with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, the Doors, Three Dog Night and others. And he shared their appetite for women and dope—mostly heroin, cocaine, pot, and alcohol. Almost a decade ago, Gary came to Little Rock to promote his book, The Harder They Fall, telling the recovery stories of 20 celebrities he had interviewed. At the time, he himself … [Read more...]

A steady rain was falling when I crossed the finish line of the fourteenth annual New York City Marathon on the afternoon of October 23, 1983. My time was four hours, seventeen minutes, and thirty-five seconds. “Why,” you may ask, “was a man of your age [I was fifty-four at the time and in my fifth year of sobriety] want to run 26.2 miles on a cold, rainy day in New York when you could be having eggs Benedict at Longchamps and going to the theater?” The quick answer was that the New York … [Read more...]

“Our son, Jared, was diagnosed with  Attention Deficit Disorder and Obsessive Compulsiveness,” Karen Miller (not her real name) wrote in her diary. “While we exhausted every means of help available, nothing seemed to make any significant difference in the problems he was experiencing.  School was like torture to him.  Though our house rules were simple and clear, they were a major challenge for our son.  By his teen years we were seeing disturbing changes in his choice of friends and … [Read more...]

Eighty percent of substance abuse problems like alcohol, pot and prescription drugs are complicated by mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and bi-polar disorders . In these “co-occurring” cases, both the addiction and mental health problems must be treated. Under the circumstances, treatment centers are now required to treat both the substance abuse and mental health problems. Psychiatric hospitals have been doing this as a matter of course, usually with staff psychiatrists, … [Read more...]