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Hope After Porn: Our Marriage Would Never Be the Same

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:35:26 +0000

by Laura Booz It couldn’t have happened at a worse time. After the trauma of preterm labor, a month of bed-rest, and a three-day long delivery, I was a new mom who had to constantly hold, nurse, or pump milk for our premature daughter. The around-the-clock care didn’t ease up after the first couple of weeks like they said it would. I was so exhausted that I felt delirious. You might know the feeling. To top it all off, I could tell our marriage was strained and I felt compelled to check my husband’s computer. I knew that in the past, when I had been sick, weak, or occupied with something else, Ryan would struggle more intensely with pornography. We had been going around and around with this problem for the full three years of our young marriage. No amount of disappointment, hurt, anger, conviction, or counseling had solved the problem. The solutions we had tried only lasted until the temptation crept up again. I ignored the internal warning several times. I felt too drained to admit that Ryan might be looking at pornography while I was caring for the baby or enjoying any moments of sleep that came my way. I thought, I can’t take care of another person’s problems; he’s supposed to be strong for me. And yet the prompting continued. Check your husband’s computer. When I finally scanned the history on Ryan’s computer, I found some images that he had recently viewed. Even though I wasn’t surprised, I did feel freshly hurt and betrayed. I felt the familiar rush of jealousy, of wanting to look intently at every two-dimensional woman to discover what she had that I didn’t have, what she did that I didn’t do, or what she was that I couldn’t be. I clenched my jaw and set my heart in disgust towards my husband: my heart was filled with bitterness toward this man who wasted our time, energy, and resources on lust while I worked so hard to take care of our family… Read the rest of Laura’s story in our new free e-book, Hope After Porn: 4 women share their stories of heartbreak…and how their marriages were saved .

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Cool Video – Habilitat Hawaii Long-Term Residential Substance Abuse Treatment & Vocational Training Program

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:40:07 +0000

Watch this video when you get a chance. I think you’ll like it. Author’s Description: Habilitat Hawaii Long-Term Residential Substance Abuse Treatment & Vocational Training Program Has been helping people since We are recognized as one of the nation’s foremost long term drug rehabilitation Habilitat is a self-supporting non-profit We have developed techniques for creating the qualities lacking in many people’s character: self-esteem, self-worth and Habilitat strengthens your character, mind and We believe the best way to take ones dignity is to do something for them that they can do for We teach individuals how to be self-reliant and responsible members of Habilitat’s approach to addiction is We do not subscribe to the notion that addiction is a We teach people that addiction and alcoholism is a We have understood for many years that long-term drug rehabilitation alone is not enough to ensure long-term People need marketable skills and work ethics if they are to be competitive in today’s Our vocational training programs are second to none in the substance abuse treatment We motivate the unmotivated and often succeed where other programs have Since its modest beginnings, Habilitat grew to accommodate 200 residents at its new oceanfront facility in Kane`ohe, Consistently, through demonstration and positive results in helping thousands of individuals and their families, Vinny Marino maintained the highly acclaimed Nonprofit Tagged with: Habilitat, Long Term, addiction, treatment, Hawaii, substance, abuse, drug addiction, meth recovery, licensed program, rehab, therapeutic community, vocational training, construction, computer, training, non profit, kaneohe bay, residential, Heroin detox, nursing, culinary school, aerobics, gym, vinyl fence, masonry, top chef, iron chef hawaii, marine corps base hawaii, waikiki, hawaii 50, hooponopono, EFT, Faster EFT This video has had 194 views and is 1040 seconds in length

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The Buzz on Caffeine

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:55:32 +0000

Do your parents or teachers start the day with a cup of coffee? There’s no question that coffee is a popular drink—the National Coffee Association estimates that Americans drink 400 million cups of coffee a day. It’s the caffeine in coffee that provides the energy boost that many people claim they need to function. Caffeine has that perk-up effect because it is a stimulant. It blocks a brain chemical, adenosine, which causes sleepiness. Caffeine is found in tea leaves, coffee beans, cacao (used to make chocolate), and cola nuts (which come from the plant that gives soda its flavor). Caffeine is also found in many foods and drinks—non-cola sodas like root beer and orange soda, hot cocoa, and ice cream—and some medicines. The latest place to find caffeine is in energy drinks . Caffeine’s Effects—Not Totally Harmless Caffeine is a mild stimulant and not a drug, so its use isn’t regulated like prescription drug use is. Still, consuming too much caffeine can make you feel jittery or jumpy—your heart may race and your palms may sweat. If caffeine is taken in combination with other substances, like alcohol, it can really be dangerous because mixing a stimulant and a depressant like alcohol confuses the brain. A recent report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shows that emergency room visits for high doses of caffeine have increased sharply. The likely cause is caffeine-infused energy drinks mixed with alcohol . Those most affected? Young people between 18 and 25 years old. So What’s a Body To Do? Everyone needs to perk up in the middle of a long day from time to time, but a jolt of caffeine isn’t your only option. Here are a few alternatives you can try to feel energized without overdoing the caffeine: Sleep. This may sound obvious, but getting enough sleep is important. Teens need 9 hours of sleep a night

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A Reader’s Question – I am a health care student seeking answer from recovered Meth addict. 1. When did you begin using Meth?

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:40:23 +0000

It’s time for another question/answer. I know a lot of you like these so here we go. This one comes from who asks us: 2. How often did you use?3. How did you view yourself at the time?4. How do you view yourself now?5. What daily activities in your life were you unable to do while using?6. When did you decide to get help?7. What was the hardest part about recovery?8. What kind of treatment intervention did you have?9. Did you have any occupational therapy?10. What kind of therapy helped you the most?11. Did any therapy hinder your treatment? If so, what and why?12. What is the most positive thing about being sober?13. What would you like to tell someone that wants to stop using?14. Has your spirituality helped you on the road to recovery?15. Are you currently working? 16. What advice would you like to give health care professionals that work with Meth addicts?17.

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Army Doctor Sees Victory, and a Dangerous Drug Bites the Dust—Almost.

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:56:00 +0000

An interview with the man who blew the whistle on the neurotoxic malaria drug in the U.S. Army’s kit bag. A dangerous malaria drug invented by the Army and commonly used by soldiers and civilians alike causes everything from episodes of psychotic violence to nightmares more real than reality, and is finally being withdrawn as the first-line treatment for troops in malarial zones. Lariam, known medically as mefloquine, has also been a licensed treatment for civilians abroad for more than 25 years. Yet it has only been in the recent past that common knowledge of Lariam’s dangers has surfaced publically. The development of Lariam was a prime example of military-industrial cooperation. Discovered at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research during the Vietnam war, initially tested on prisoners at the Joliet Correctional Center in Illinois, and marketed worldwide by Hoffmann-La Roche, mefloquine was an urgent response to high malaria rates in U.S. combat troops overseas. Unfortunately, such close cooperation also led to a lack of adequate clinical testing—the practice that underpins the notion of drug safety. Ashley M. Croft of the Royal Army Medical Corps in Britain has written that in the case of Lariam, “the first randomized controlled trial of the drug in a mixed population of general travellers was not reported until 2001.” Croft believes the FDA was influenced by “the powerful military-industrial-governmental lobby into over-hasty decisions.” In addition, “travel medicine experts in most countries were slow to recognize the danger signals associated with Lariam…. As late as 2005 a reviewer in the New England Journal of Medicine , also an employee of the US military for over 20 years, continued to maintain… that Lariam was a ‘well tolerated’ drug,” according to Croft. The victims of all this pharmacological hoodoo, Croft maintains, “have been those many business travellers, embassy staff, tourists, aid workers, missionaries, soldiers and others who were well at the start of their journeys into malaria-endemic areas…” Largely due to the efforts of Dr. Remington Nevin, a medical epidemiologist and a physician in the U.S. Army, who went public about Lariam’s potential for causing psychological illness, military officials announced in December that the Army was done with Lariam as a first-line malaria preventative except for “special circumstances.” In the past, such special circumstances have allegedly included its use as an interrogation drug at Guantanemo. As far back as 2004, an alarming number of suicides among troops in Iraq prompted calls for an investigation of Lariam. “The military is ignoring this drug’s known side effects,” Steve Robinson of the National Gulf War Resource Center told UPI

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Covenant Eyes Recognizes Safer Internet Day: Sign up for your free webinar!

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:19:58 +0000

Tomorrow is Safer Internet Day. Safer Internet Day (SID) began in Europe but is now celebrated in more than 70 countries worldwide. This year, the theme for SID is “Discover the digital world together… safely! ” The aim is to connect generations around this theme: from the very young, to parents, to grandparents. Did you know… More than 1 in 8 web searches are for erotic content . 79% of youth’s unwanted exposures to Internet porn take place in the home . Nearly 1 in 5 teens who receive a “sext” share it with someone else. 20% of teens say their peers are “mostly unkind” to each other on social networks. 76% of online predators are 26 or older. 40% of teens have seen pictures on social networks of their peers getting drunk, passed out, or using drugs, and half of these first saw these pictures when they were 13 or younger. Free Internet Safety Webinar For Parents and Teachers To help raise awareness about Internet safety issues, Covenant Eyes sponsors a special online seminar: 5 Internet Dangers Facing You and Your Family Right Now . The next webinar is tomorrow, February 7 , 2012, at 9:00pm EST . Register for this special presentation now. Space is limited.

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Book Review: Writers On The Edge

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:58:00 +0000

A compendium of tough prose and poetry about addiction. Here’s a book I’m delighted to promote unabashedly. I even wrote a jacket blurb for it. I called it an “honest, unflinching book about addiction from a tough group of talented writers. These hard-hitters know whereof they speak, and the language in which they speak can be shocking to the uninitiated—naked prose and poetry about potentially fatal cravings the flesh is heir to—drugs, booze, cutting, overeating, depression, suicide. Not everybody makes it through. Writers On The Edge is about dependency, and the toll it takes, on the guilty and the innocent alike.” I am happy to stand by that statement, content to note that this collection of prose and poetry on the subject of addiction and dependency by 22 talented writers, with an introduction by Jerry Stahl of “Permanent Midnight” junky fame, includes a number of names familiar to me. That makes it all the easier to recommend this book—I know some of the talent. Take James Brown, a professor in the M.F.A program at Cal State San Bernardino, the book’s co-editor, who offers an excerpt from his excellent memoir, This River.

3 Reasons It’s Not Okay to Use Porn to Spice Things Up in the Bedroom

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:01:03 +0000

I remember when my wife was 8 weeks pregnant and she was reading in a few online discussion forums for pregnant women. She came across a number of threads of conversation about pornography. Several women said their husbands had really ramped up their use of porn during the pregnancy. To some women this was deplorable. To other women this was seen as all right (“After all, don’t all guys look at porn?”). One common theme I noticed among the more permissive women was that the only ethical dilemma was related to a guy “sneaking around” to look at porn. For these women, the real problem with porn is the secrecy that often comes with it. They believe as long as he’s open about it, there’s no problem. If they watch it together in the bedroom, no harm done. I think wives who allow this to go on in the bedroom need to stop and think about the consequences. 1. First, I would challenge wives to think about what their standards are for a healthy sexual relationship. Is it merely bigger orgasms, more experimentation, more variety, or is there something of a connection you long for? Could sex actually be better if you knew you had all of your man, not just his body, but his full attention? Where is your husband’s mind during love-making? Is it more focused on the women in the porn flick, or you? Even when he’s not looking at the screen, where is his mind? Mentally, what he is doing is similar to watching porn while alone and masturbating, only in the bedroom he’s using his your body. I agree with Dr

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No More Smoking: A “Quit” Coach Is Just a Text Message Away

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:28:34 +0000

For anyone who resolves to stop smoking, help is as close as your cell phone. According to NIDA’s 2011 Monitoring the Future survey results, teen smoking rates are currently at their lowest since the survey began in 1975. However, many teens continue to take up the habit—19 percent of 12th-graders reported past-month cigarette use. By now, we all know that smoking has negative health effects. These include lung and heart disease and particularly cancer—since cigarettes contain chemicals that are carcinogenic, or cancer-causing. However, when it comes to quitting, the main problem is nicotine . Nicotine is addictive and makes quitting notoriously hard. To help teens quit, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently launched SmokefreeTXT, a free text-to-quit service that sends text messages with encouragement, advice, and tips directly to teens’ cell phones. How It Works Sign up at www.teen.smokefree.gov or text “QUIT” to “iQUIT” (47848) and provide the date you smoked last. After that, you’ll receive text messages for up to 6 weeks. Research shows that support for quitting continues to be important beyond the first few weeks. Smokefree Teen The text-to-quit campaign is just one feature of a broader effort to encourage teens to quit smoking. NCI’s new Smokefree Teen Web site features information, quizzes, comics, and other resources to help teens understand the decisions they make and to take control of their health. Smokefree Teen also offers a free smartphone app, QuitSTART —an interactive guide that provides mood management tips, tracks cravings, and monitors quit attempts. You can find Smokefree Teen on several social media pages to connect other teens with tools to help them quit. Think about “liking” Smokefree Teen on Facebook , even if you don’t smoke, to show support for your friends or family who are trying to quit. Is 2012 the year of texting for healthy living? Let us know if you think campaigns like these can help you stay committed to your resolutions.

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Porn Capital of America Under Fire: Will the condom legislation force porn out of California?

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:46:43 +0000

After much work on the part of the Pink Cross Foundation , the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) , and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation , the nation’s largest hub of commercial pornography may be shutting down . Right now the San Fernando Valley (called “San Pornando Valley” by some) is the home to companies that produce 90% of the nation’s porn supply. But a 9-1 vote from the LA city council on January 17 might be changing that. The porn industry may be required to have all their performers use condoms . Enforcing this law puts porn producers between a rock and hard place. The rock would be their blatant violation of workplace health laws. The hard place would be the demands from porn consumers: no one, apparently, wants to see condoms in their porn films. Recently I asked Shelley Lubben , founder of the Pink Cross and a former porn actress, what this vote could means for the porn industry. . . . . LG: Currently, much of the porn industry in California violates Cal/OSHA’s requirements, correct? What specifically is the violation? SL: The California Occupational Safety and Health Act requires employers to provide a safe and healthful workplace for employees, and pay the costs of their health and safety program. This same act gives Cal/OSHA jurisdiction over virtually all private employers in California, including employers in the adult film industry. Employers must comply with all relevant regulations, which are contained in Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations. Directly applicable to the porn industry there is a Bloodborne Pathogens Standard for all employees exposed to bodily fluids. LG: So, if they are already in violation, what is the significance of the Los Angeles city council recent vote? SL: Cal/OSHA has continually said they are not able to enforce the standard and the laws due to low staff so LA City Council has agreed to help enforce the workplace laws by making it mandatory to wear condoms in order to get a film permit. LG: What sort of public support does this law have

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