The number one global online community for people in recovery has teamed up with “It’s All In The Journey” (www.ItsAllInTheJourney.com) in order to reach out in further into the recovery community.

www.ItsAllInTheJourney.com is a magazine written by and for the recovery community. The magazine caters to both professionals and everyday individuals dealing with addiction and recovery. This month’s issue features an interview with recovery comic Mark Lundholm, Congressman Jim Ramstad, personal perspectives and more.

Check out the new InTheRooms.com banner at “It’s All In The Journey” at  www.ItsAllInTheJourney.com. While you’re there, make sure and visit their sober house directory, professional directory, help and support section and much more.

“Club drugs” are a group of psychoactive compounds that tend to be abused by teens and young adults at a nightclub, bar, rave, or trance scene.

Gamma hydroxybutyrate, also known as GHB, Rohypnol, and ketamine are some of the drugs in this group:

- GHB (Xyrem) is a central nervous system (CNS) depressant that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002 for use in the treatment of narcolepsy (a sleep disorder). This approval came with severe restrictions, including its use only for the treatment of narcolepsy, and the requirement for a patient registry monitored by the FDA. GHB is also a metabolite of the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA); thus, it is found naturally in the brain, but at concentrations much lower than doses that are abused.
- Rohypnol (flunitrazepam) started appearing in the United States in the early 1990s. It is a benzodiazepine (chemically similar to Valium or Xanax), but it is not approved for medical use in this country, and its importation is banned.
- Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic, mostly used in veterinary practice.

Raves and trance events are generally night-long dances, often held in warehouses. Many who attend raves and trances do not use club drugs, but those who do may be attracted to their generally low cost and the intoxicating highs that are said to deepen the rave or trance experience.

- Rohypnol is usually taken orally, although there are reports that it can be ground up and snorted.
- GHB and Rohypnol have both been used to facilitate date rape (also known as “drug rape,” “acquaintance rape,” or “drug-assisted” assault). They can be colorless, tasteless, and odorless, and can be added to beverages and ingested unbeknownst to the victim. When mixed with alcohol, Rohypnol can incapacitate victims and prevent them from resisting sexual assault.
- GHB also has anabolic effects (it stimulates protein synthesis) and has been sought by bodybuilders to aid in fat reduction and muscle building.
- Ketamine is usually snorted or injected intramuscularly.

Mary Christine’s “One Sober Alcoholic” blog, is an intriguingly honest, first-person look at the day-to-day life of a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Mary Christine’s tag line reads, “I want to be able to talk about being a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous without anonymity concerns…”

One Sober Alcoholic has been around since late 2005 and Mary Christine’s dedication to her blog is obvious in its constant updates and sometimes shockingly personal accounts of her life.

“My ‘trouble’ daughter, who I love with all of my heart, is sober. She has a homegroup – on the other side of town where I got sober.” Writes Mary Christine while giving an update on her daughters. “She is attending meetings every day with a man who is sober 36 years and was my boyfriend for 10 years.  She tells me about the people she sees who tell her to say hi to me. Because they have been around that long. Oh thank God! She refuses to count how many days or months because she has done this so many times.   (She had over 2 years of clean and sober time at one time, and has had years of time off meth when she drank like an uncontrolled maniac – which on her is actually worse.” 

Mary Christine goes on to write, “It always cracked me up when people would say ‘at least she isn’t using drugs,’ it indicated to me that they had never seen alcoholism up close and personal.)  I hope that some day she will get some faith in the process and claim her time, but she is not there yet.” 

Want to read more of Mary Christine’s blog? Visit One Sober Alcoholic at http://marychristineg.blogspot.com/.

Yes. Most smokers use tobacco regularly because they are addicted to nicotine Addiction is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, even in the face of negative health consequences. This video from HowToQuitCigarrettes.com claims to have the ability to help you beat nicotine addiction in just one day.

It is well documented that most smokers identify tobacco use as harmful and express a desire to reduce or stop using it, and nearly 35 million of them want to quit each year. Unfortunately, only about 6 percent of people who try to quit are successful for more than a month.

Research has shown how nicotine acts on the brain to produce a number of effects. Of primary importance to its addictive nature are findings that nicotine activates reward pathways—the brain circuitry that regulates feelings of pleasure. A key brain chemical involved in mediating the desire to consume drugs is the neurotransmitter dopamine, and research has shown that nicotine increases levels of dopamine in the reward circuits. This reaction is similar to that seen with other drugs of abuse, and is thought to underlie the pleasurable sensations experienced by many smokers.

Nicotine’s pharmacokinetic properties also enhance its abuse potential. Cigarette smoking produces a rapid distribution of nicotine to the brain, with drug levels peaking within 10 seconds of inhalation.

However, the acute effects of nicotine dissipate in a few minutes, as do the associated feelings of reward, which causes the smoker to continue dosing to maintain the drug’s pleasurable effects and prevent withdrawal.

Developed as an alternative to AA and other 12-step programs, Rational Recovery (RR) is a program developed by Jack Trimpey who declares that addiction recovery is not a group project, rather an individual responsibility.

Most doctors agree that addiction is a disease. Even the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) agrees that drug addiction shares many features with chronic illnesses including heritability. The NIDA classifies addiction as a disease comparable to cancer, type II diabetes or cardiovascular disease. However, Jack Trimpey doesn’t agree with the NIDA, in fact, Trimpey doesn’t agree with most of the recovery programs that exist which aren’t his own.

Jack Trimpey is adamantly against support groups claiming that “support” is nothing more, and nothing less than a plan to get loaded in the absence of support. He also proclaims that using drugs or abusing alcohol is absolutely voluntary and there is nothing in an individual’s past, genes, brain or personality that causes one to drink or use drugs.

It’s important to point out that Jack Trimpey is not a doctor. He is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of California who drank heavily for 20 years. Trimpey is also the author of several books on his self-proclaimed “revolutionary” method for overcoming alcohol and drug addiction.

"All of this ‘therapeutic’ activity is part of a convincing illusion that addicted people are somehow defective, or are afflicted with a disease that requires skilled, professional services and lifelong management and prevention.” Writes Trimpey. “In Rational Recovery, we take a rather old-fashioned view of the addiction as willful misconduct, voluntary and for the purpose of physical pleasure. As for ‘tough love’, we know it’s tough to love a drunk, so there’s no use pretending.”

Trimpey has taken his views on recovery online at www.Rational.org, where visitors can explore Rational Recovery (RR) and its unique views and guidelines for overcoming addiction.

Therapeutic Communities (TCs) are drug-free residences where recovering addicts receive positive peer influence and group support in order to create more effective social skills which promote the overall goal of staying sober. Usually, persons who have been admitted to Therapeutic Communities have a long background of functioning in society and positive ties with their own communities and families which have been torn apart by addiction.

The people who are treated at Therapeutic Communities suffer from a wide range of substance abuse problems. Mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and other personality disorders are commonly treated at TCs. However, substance abuse problems such as addictions to cocaine, heroin and alcohol are also common problems which are addressed in Therapeutic Communities.

There is generally no predetermined length of stay at most Therapeutic Communities due to the fact that most individuals go thru recovery at different speeds. However, positive outcomes from TC stays seem to be directly related to time spent in the treatment. It has been proven that individuals who stay at Therapeutic Communities for 90 days have significantly better results than those who stay for shorter periods of time.

In a recent study on the Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 55% of cocaine addicts who stayed at a Therapeutic Community for less than 90 days used cocaine again after leaving treatment. However, only 28% of cocaine addicts who spent 90 days or more in a TC relapsed after treatment.

Eventually, participation in a Therapeutic Community is intended to assist individuals in appropriately and constructively identifying, expressing, and managing their feelings. The concepts of "right living" (learning personal and social responsibility and ethics) and "acting as if" (behaving as the person should be rather than has been) are integrated into the Therapeutic Community groups, meetings, and seminars. These activities are intended to heighten awareness of specific attitudes or behaviors and their impact on oneself and the social environment.

If you spoke to anyone in the cosmetic surgery industry, they would tell you that Botox injection has been one of the fastest growing procedures for years. The “quick fix” nature of injecting Botox, along with its relatively short-term effects, makes it an ideal treatment for surgeons and patients alike. However, the addictive characteristics of Botox and plastic surgery in general, is an issue that had been widely ignored.

Certainly, plastic/cosmetic surgery is by no means a “bad” thing. After all, disfigurements brought upon by extenuating circumstances such as burns, cuts, birth defects and the like can (at times) be easily remedied by cosmetic surgery. One could even argue that “correcting” imperfections such as an abnormal bump in the nose could potentially help a patient deal with issues of self-confidence and self esteem.

However, well over half of cosmetic surgery patients are repeat customers. Sadly, many of them are not trying to “fix” a legitimate deformity, rather they have an unrealistic view of their body which causes them to obsessively seek to improve it.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), often called Ugly Syndrome, Dysmorphophobia and Body Dysmorphia, is a psychiatric disorder. People who are affected by BDD have a skewed or imagined view of their bodies which often causes them to continuously seek to change their physical appearance. Typical forms of cosmetic surgery include face lifts, liposuction, cheek implants, botox injections and more.

Although BDD is often seen as an obsession driven by vanity, people who suffer from BDD see themselves as being irreversibly ugly or deformed, which is why plastic surgery rarely solves their afflictions. Besides an addiction to cosmetic surgery, those who suffer from BDD can also experience social anxiety, clinical depression, bipolar disorder and suicidal ideation.