August 2013 Newsletter

This newsletter was delayed, but I have a reasonably good excuse. I had a heart attack. Not to be put down by something minor, I used the opportunity to find out how much emergency room personnel know about addiction. Not very much it appears! I wrote about it in this piece: Substance Use Knowledge Amongst Emergency Room and General Medical Personnel. I am back at the office and its business as usual, which in the addiction field is anything but usual. Hope you enjoy this months newsletter, because it very nearly didn't happen!

This time we talk about: The Reward Pathway of Opioid Addiction, Does Maintenance Therapy Need Counselling?, The Scottish Review of Methadone Treatment, Is One Too many?, The Multistep Theory of Transition to Addiction, Internet Addiction, Scott Kellogg.

Famous for Being Homeless

I went viral. I wrote a seemingly innocuous anonymous letter to the press about being homeless and it received over 60 000 views and 700 shares from one facebook page alone. It was suggested that I did not exist and that the journalist who read out my letter on air had made me up, so I decided to "out" myself. Since then I have been sought for interviews in the press and on radio. I am not necessarily comfortable with all this media exposure, but if it can help give the marginalised a voice, I will use it. Hopefully this will help me bring the issues that are on my heart regarding addictive disorders and mental health into the public consciousness and promote debate. Here is the story: