Letter from the Editor

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the long awaited 2017-2018 Holiday Edition. We have had some changes at Recoveryview over the past few months. Marissa Maldonaldo and myself are the sole Editors for Recoveryview and look forward to our new 501c3 status in 2018. For new article submissions, please email Marissa at Marissa@recoveryview.com. All of our preparation is for a great 2018. In the midst of these Holy Days please remember that above all things, love is the binding eternal reason for all seasons. We thank our Edition Sponsor Satori Center for Wellbeing. Satori will officially open January 5, 2018, offering unique services to help integrate and align the physical body with your true spiritual self. This is a project I’ve only dreamed of creating and now we are opening a small center.  Look for more details coming soon on our website. I hope you enjoy the articles and I thank all of our awesome authors.

Eloquent reflections penned by Ruth Riddick in her article Partnering for Recovery allow a glimpse into the peer recovery profession.  Peer recovery is the career path that is changing the face of addiction recovery in the real world, with solid career opportunities available to individuals in recovery.  Riddick shares how, using a blueprint program called the Stages of Recovery created by Phil Valentine et al, this roadmap to life post-treatment can lead to fulfilling (non-clinical and non-professional) job opportunities in publicly funded treatment programs, hospital emergency rooms, and addiction treatment centers.

Nadia weighs in on the recent opioid epidemic with an interesting connection to an uptick in cocaine overdoses, even with rates of cocaine use down by half since 2006.  In his article, Are Opioids to Blame for the Sharp Rise in Cocaine Overdoses? Nadia reports that a staggering 63% of nearly 6,800 cocaine-related deaths in the U.S. in 2015 were opioid-related—a combo referred to as speedballing.  Cocaine-related deaths without the opioid component were consistently decreasing, lending credence to the idea that opioid use may be the driving force of most cocaine overdose deaths.  The stimulant effect of the cocaine diminishes faster than the depressive effect of the opioid, resulting in officially respiratory depression.

Lynn Andrews, a leading shaman and mystic, shows us how to ride the dynamic energy of uncertainty like a wave in Becoming Aware of Your Resistance:  The Key to Surfing and Surviving the Chaos of Today’s uncertain World.   She shows us how to tap into the internal power of the wave of uncertainty and allow its energy to propel us forward.  Instead of trying to muscle our way through conflict and chaos, relinquishing control and being willing to move with the current can result in a shift of consciousness.  Andrews explains how the freedom of letting resistance go can lead to new choices and opportunities in life.

An eye opening interview with mindfulness author, Scott Kiloby and New Harbinger Publications, is entitled Celebrating Full Recovery from Addiction, Part 3.  The Q&A is centered on the definition of recovery and replacing one addictive behavior with another.  Kiloby emphasizes the need to redefine recovery as the absence of enslavement to any substance or activity.  Key to achieving this state is the acknowledgement of unresolved traumas that can be an underlying driver of addiction.  Until trauma is dealt with, real recovery cannot be achieved.

In Shackles and Chains, by Dr. Jessica Rodriguez, makes a clarion call for those owners of addiction treatment centers to come up with more options to serve prospective clients, shackled by the chains of addiction, hopelessness and despair, who do not have the means to pay exorbitant admissions fees.  With deep compassion, Dr. Rodriguez pleads for those in leadership roles, clinicians, owners, and front-line treatment staff to help as many clients as possible gain much needed and deserved treatment and recovery their lives.

Suicide is a worldwide issue, so gaining the insights of Zar Nigar Tojik in her article, Youth Initiative in Northern Pakistan Addresses the Issue of Suicide, gives a glimpse into mental illness in that particular place in the world.  Citing generational differences between the youth and their parents, as well as communication gaps between them, Tojik wants the youth to share their problems openly with their parents, allowing them to get the help they need.  Instead of focusing only on the symptoms of depression, the NO TO SUICIDE movement aims to help the young to remember that life is a Heavenly blessing, and to feel thankful and content for the life they have.

In Travelogue 3, Paul Steinbronner takes us along on a journey through his documentary film about the joy of recovery, involving traveling through the states interviewing individuals in recovery.  One of his stops was the San Diego Stand Down event, where the focus is on veterans in need of help getting their lives back on track in the aftermath of trauma and loss.  Steinbronner emotionally describes the power of volunteers coming together to help our vets with addiction and related mental health conditions that have devastated their lives.  Another stop on the journey was the Recovery Café, where camaraderie and meals add to a sense of real belonging and emotional support.  Steinbronner learned, while making the documentary, that the people at the margins can teach us how humility, joy, and simplicity are unrecognized gifts.

Herb K takes us on a poetic spiritual trek in When is God Powerless?, examining the concept of God, or the Reality called “It,” as he refers to God.  Kaighan walks us through some of the aspects of the It we think of as God, encompassing the essence of unconditional, creative, and loving, and being the purest form of love.  Kaighan shows us how, as humans, “we are the only entity of nature that can choose to be out of alignment with its own nature.”  He describes God as being both powerless—giving us and respecting a free will that leads to decision-making, and powerful—a magnetic force that draws us close despite our defiance and willfulness.

In Too Many Illicit Drugs to Be Able to Keep Track of Them All, Reverend Kevin T. Coughlin, Ph.D., tackles the topic of synthetic drugs and their proliferation.  Drugs such as flakka and bath salts, analogs derived from methylone, a harmful and potentially deadly synthetic substance that shows up in various party drugs.  He states that often the individual purchasing a recreational party drug is not receiving the drug they think, that they instead are ingesting these newly developed analogs.  Statistical reporting by hospitals and emergency rooms on overdose deaths are inaccurately derived from drug tests that don’t account for these synthetics, so they aren’t cited as causal factors when they actually are.

With much gratitude to the incredible authors who make RecoveryView’s impact on the recovery community possible.  We have received many inquiries from professionals in the community who want to write for our publication and that is a real blessing. There is room for all who want to share their expertise, so continue to send your inquiries, articles, artwork, poetry and more to josie@recoveryview.com!   I look forward to hearing from you soon and featuring your work so that as many people as possible can benefit!

In Love and Light,

Josie Ramirez - Herndon

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