Posted on 01/06/2021 3:11:34 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
MINNEAPOLIS—Overseeing sober living homes for newly recovering drug addicts is difficult in the best of times. But the endless shutdowns have created conditions that are challenging for healthy people, let alone those who are fresh out of rehab, vulnerable, and still reeling.
Matt Royce, 35, oversees seven sober-living homes in Minneapolis. All of his houses, each holding between 9 and 13 people, have been “pretty full the whole time.”
No overdose deaths had occurred in his homes in almost three years, but last summer he lost two people, while another three were revived from overdoses with opioid-blocker Narcan.
Depression has “skyrocketed” since the lockdowns began, Royce said. Recovering addicts are struggling even more now due to boredom, inability to see family and friends, and lack of social activities.
“A lot of these guys, they just need the simple things in life. And when they’re prohibited from being able to get those things, it’s tough,” Royce said.
“Hopefully this changes sooner rather than later, because I can’t even tell you how many times I was dealing with relapses every single day of the week … heavily, heavily from June all the way until about October. It was non stop. It was definitely more than normal, there’s no doubt about that.”
Nationally, drug overdose deaths are at historic highs.
In lockstep with widespread shutdown measures, overdose deaths accelerated, especially between March and May last year, according to an emergency health advisory issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Dec. 17, 2020.
More than 81,230 people died from a drug overdose between June 1, 2019, and May 31, 2020, the CDC provisional data shows. The final number, which is up 18 percent over the same period the year prior, is expected to be higher.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
Sooooo, how is America’s nine-month-long socialist experiment working out for us?
PING!
1. Ignore any stupid lockdown order or restriction that prevents them from doing what they want to do.
2. Feel empowered to take whatever steps are necessary to destroy anyone who tries to stop them from living their lives as productive people.
How many were listed as Covid deaths, one wonders . . .
Alcoholism and alcohol abuse rates have also soared.
Well, that was a bad hook. Addicts blame others for their personal problems. Don’t do drug, kids.
Here’s how to prevent lockdowns. Start with educating the children and adults to help them grow up to be conservatives. Or whine about how that’s too hard and takes too long. Work is a virtue, including the work of educating oneself. So is patience.
It’s become too tiresome, seeing so much of the speech that we once expected only from self-described liberals.
Lockdowns are depressing. Some depressed people turn to drugs.
It’s not displacing blame to point that out.
Sorry, no sympathy for addicts or abusers.
There’s that big tent and empathy we need.
Enjoy taking a Glade scented #2 today, you’ve earned it.
Do you have any smokers in your family? I have no sympathy if they get cancer. Do you have any diabetics? I have no sympathy if their disease is due to eating themselves into obesity. Have any of your loved ones died in auto accidents due to distracted driving or going to fast? I have no sympathy for such. There. Now we have something in common yes?
Restaurant owners in Rochester and Buffalo are suing the State of New York for non-science business closures.
The restaurant industry is slowly going bankrupt due to State overreach and not following science, which indicates that less than 1.4 % positive for covid spread.
Restaurants can't pay the rent and are forced to lay-off employees just to try to survive.
Lockdowns and quarantines spread infectious disease by compacting families in small and intimate areas, moreso than people going out and eating in commercial establishments.
How many people get sick or die from self-inflicted trauma? I’d have more sympathy if there was more responsibility taken in this country and less enabling.
Do you feel the same about a child dying from cancer and someone dying from a heroin overdose for example?
My mother died of complications from diabetes and congestive heart failure. She was an alcoholic, ate a poor diet, didn’t exercise much and smoked half her life. I loved my mother, but her personal choices cut 10 to 15 years off her life.
People scream “affordable healthcare” or “free healthcare”. But nobody takes personal responsibility. Nobody will judge behavior. People voluntarily take dangerous and addicting substances. Alcohol,nicotine, opiates...you name it. Then when it becomes a problem, it’s a “disease” and not their fault and the public must pay the price.
So yup, most of my sympathy goes to the kid with cancer, not the adult with free will.
The sad part is he eventually moved out after quitting his job for a new and better one, long story, he is in jail right now and his life is ruined, all due to the lock down and not being able to handle the upset to his routine. There are millions out there with his story.
Not all Type 2 diabetics over eat the wrong foods. Or gain enormous weight. Due to a pre-existing condition Meniere’s, 1 bad fall on concrete, tore the Abdominal Vagus nerve in the GI tract, not repairable, med doesn’t work, PAIN is unbearable. Changed my whole life, I can no longer digest fiber foods. Gastropresis (delayed digestion) has lots of complications, it’s diet controlled. Took 6 yrs but even careful watch of diet, calories, in the end Diabetes is inevitable. 2 small meals a day. No snacks, candy, etc. Fluids 0 calories.
I now keep closer watch and take Humalog Flexpen twice a day, 4 pill meds had bad side effects.
Gladly not have either life altering event, that there was no way to prevent.
And you left out that child born with Type 1.They didn’t ask for diabetes.
Should my G. Grand nephew be condemned because of the genes he inherited for early onset Duchene’s, MD? Which will kill him around 40 as being in a wheelchair will begin to destroy his organs.
Your view is to narrow. Bad things happen to good people. What about that patient born with a bad heart, not their fault. Or the person who has a genetic cancer. Botched surgeries, Medical malpractice is the #3 leading cause of deaths in the USA.
Some people in the nearest small city have been doing drugs and committing other crimes against innocent people for years. After the epidemic rolled in, the fast food joints didn’t need them any more. With more time on their hands, they did their meth/heroin zombie dances in public and started confrontations with others without the usual stealthiness.
Now they’re gone. The community is happier and healthier. Maybe some of the liberal psychs and social workers will leave, too. The sun is beginning to rise. The birds are beginning to sing.
“So yup, most of my sympathy goes to the kid with cancer, not the adult with free will.”
Yes, I agree there and if you reread I never once mentioned a child or someone who did not make poor life choices. My only point, in a round about way, was all people make bad choices whether it be health related, job related, family/interpersonal, financial...bad choices happen because we are imperfect humans.
That said, those with substance abuse problems are broken people vast majority of the time. It IS sad and I do feel for them, but there’s little we can do for an adult making poor choices. Our world, not just America, is IMO irretrievably broken. Just a matter of time until it’s pretty much end game now.
“Your view is to narrow. Bad things happen to good people. What about that patient born with a bad heart, not their fault. Or the person who has a genetic cancer. Botched surgeries, Medical malpractice is the #3 leading cause of deaths in the USA.”
My view is not nearly as narrow as yours. I never once mentioned those who had issues to do conditions out of their control now did I?! NOT ONCE. I “left out” those issues you mentioned because I didn’t think of those in the same manner. For God’s sake Almighty!
Yes, bad things happen to good people. My father died of cancer and never smoked or drank his entire life. Was a pastor and a good one too. My husband dropped dead before my eyes 2 years ago of massive heart attack. He did no drugs, drank very, little, and still ran/played soccer...very athletic. Zero health issues we knew of and 6 weeks prior the doc told him he was healthier than most men 15 years his junior. What happened? We will never know/they couldn’t determine. I had a 4 year old cousin die of Reye’s Syndrome (sp). My grandfather died of what I am certain was medical malpractice. But again, what can we do?
So, get off your high horse and read for content rather than using your preconditioned ideas. Also, I’m sorry for your medical issues.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.