Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani gave a speech on Saturday in Manhattan at Cipriani Restaurant. Hit play and draw your own conclusions. Continue reading “Submitted Without Comment: Rudy Guliani”
Submitted Without Comment: Rudy Guliani
Colton Haynes Shares Dark Details Of His Struggle With Addiction
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| Colton Haynes covers Attitude Magazine’s 25th Anniversary issue |
In startlingly candid detail, actor Colton Haynes shares how his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, paralyzing anxiety, the death of his mother and the end of his marriage led him to some very dark places.
In the cover story for Attitude Magazine’s 25th Anniversary issue, the Teen Wolf/Arrow star opens up about his dangerous downward spiral that led him to recovery.
“In 10 years, there were maybe 25 days I didn’t drink,” he tells Attitude. “I remember when I started, it was a couple glasses of wine, and it regressed into really dark times. I used to blame it on my anxiety or depression issues, but really the root of all my problems was the alcohol and drugs.”
Haynes points to his public coming out in 2016 as the catalyst that pushed his personal issues to the edge.
“I came out and, in a way, my downward spiral started,” he admits. “I felt extremely free but at the same time the amount of attention I was getting was making me spin out of control.”
“I got married and that didn’t work out,” Haynes continues. “That was extremely public and heart-breaking, and right when that was going on, my mom died.”
The passing of his mother was apparently the last straw – “My brain broke.”
The American Horror Story alum shares that when he showed up for his first day of work on a ‘massive comedy for a studio,’ he was abruptly fired that day.
“They said I looked as if I had ‘dead in my eyes’, and I did,” Haynes admits. “I got so heavily involved with drugs and alcohol to mask the amount of pain I was feeling that I couldn’t even make some decisions for myself.”
“I was drowning in my own sh*t.”
It was during those dark days that Haynes would experience two seizures, but wouldn’t remember them until he found sobriety.
But that would be a rocky road to travel. The journey to recovery included multiple hospital admissions for alcohol and drug abuse.
It wasn’t until after a 7-day bender in a Los Angeles hotel room that he was committed via a 5150 psychiatric hold for three days. When he was found in the hotel room, he admits to having major bruises all over his body, loss of partial sight in his left eye, and serious kidney issues.
Haynes saw the incident as a “rude awakening” as he hit rock bottom.
“I was ready to stop running from my own problems,” said Haynes.
He entered a four-month treatment program, and says he has been sober for six months now.
“Once I went to treatment, I found this amazing amount of true love for myself, and started figuring out who I am without those vices, and recognizing the people in my life who lifted me up instead of tearing me down.”
Like many who struggle with addiction, Haynes now realizes he’s “always going to be in recovery.”
The TV super hero is sharing his story now because, “There are so many people struggling out there, but not a lot of them talk about it.”
With sobriety comes clarity, and with clarity comes a new perspective.
“Life is much more beautiful than I could have imagined,” he says. “It’s just a different life now. It’s the best gift I’ve ever been given.”
Check out Haynes’s full cover story/interview in the May 2019 issue of Attitude Magazine.
The hunky actor also shared some of the Leigh Keily photo shoot for Attitude with his 6.6 million Instagram followers.
Click the arrows in the post below.
Anyone Up For A ‘Dry January’ Challenge?
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| Could you go a month without alcohol? |
Ok, folks.
Thanksgiving – done. Christmas – done. New Years Eve – done.
The holiday season is officially done, and with it all those holiday parties and gatherings that can lead to a lot of drinking.
As folks head into January with thoughts of New Year’s resolutions in order to improve our lives, cutting out/down alcohol intake tops a lot of lists.
I think the first tweet I saw today read, “I’ve made it all the way through 2019 so far without a hangover.”
Many participate in observing ‘Dry January,’ a month-long break from imbibing.
No wine???
A study from the University of Sussex conducted a study, published in Health Psychology, set out to see just how effective one month without alcohol can be.
The Dry January study involved 850 participants. Researchers interviewed them at the end of one month, and again six months later.
The results?
After one month:
• 82% felt a sense of achievement
• 79% noted they’d saved money
• 62% reported they had more energy
• 62% said they slept better
• 49% shared they had experienced weight loss
At the six month mark, 72% said they had maintained reduced levels of drinking.
In fact, 4% reported they’d continued to abstain from alcohol over the six month period.
And the folks who didn’t make it all the way through January completely alcohol-free still reported positive benefits.
“Even if participants took part but didn’t successfully complete the 31 days, it generally led to a significant decrease across all the measures of alcohol intake,” said Richard de Visser, an expert on health-related behavior, said in a statement.
What do you think, folks? Can you tackle a Dry January?
If addressing alcohol isn’t your issue, what kind of New Year’s resolutions do you take on?
Instagram Celeb Kyle Krieger Talks Addiction For National Recovery Month
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| YouTube/Instagram star Kyle Krieger |
With September being National Recovery Month, Instagram celeb Kyle Krieger (1.5 million followers) shared a YouTube Q&A about his own journey with alcoholism, drug use, getting sober
Proudly 11 years sober, Krieger shares in frank terms how talking about his addictions literally saved his life as several of his friends he used to do drugs with are now dead.
Asked about any valid associations between addiction statistics and the LGBTQ community, Krieger says the data he’s read shows LGBTQ folks can be twice as likely as heterosexuals to suffer from drug and alcohol abuse.
Krieger sees the stress gay folks experience from dealing with coming/being out to family, coming/being out at work, discrimination in the workplace and more as a significant trigger for ’self-medicating’ with drugs and alcohol.
Krieger admits he turned to crystal meth and alcohol to help him “break down” the stresses in his life.
Asked what led him to finally seek recovery, Krieger shares that it was when he had lost just about everything in his life: dropped out of college; was losing friends at a quick rate; and stopped communicating with family.
The hardest thing about maintaining his sobriety was sticking to the principle of ‘no drinking no matter what.’
Swapping one addiction for another is common for folks with substance abuse, and Krieger says ‘vigilance’ is the key to avoiding that trap.
Whether it’s calling a friend, calling a sponsor, or just sharing on a regular basis, he says those things help him address his personal issues of the moment, and the interaction with others provides feedback and dialogue that helps battle the personal demons back.
Krieger also addresses questions whether he believes he’ll ever be able to drink socially again and how siblings can be most effective in in recovery, healing and sustaining sobriety.
Definitely worth the watching.
If you or someone you know is coping with addiction, a valuable online resource is the Los Angeles LGBT Center which offers anonymous online chat every weekend day from 1pm-5pm, as well as one-on-one in-person therapy and therapy groups.
There’s also the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration hotline (10800-662-4357) and Alcoholics Anonymous.
Meme Of The Day
Well, this let’s me off the hook 🙂
“I’m Not An Alcoholic…”
Reality Check: Carly Fiorina Compares Marijuana Use To Drinking Alcohol
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Carly Fiorina claimed in the CNN debate that drug addiction killed her daughter and then stated that marijuana is not…Posted by Ben Swann on Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Science: Can You Really Have “Too Much” Of A Good Thing?
The guys at AsapSCIENCE ruminate on the possible results from indulging in certain pleasures like coffee, chocolate, alcohol and more.
Be smarter in three minutes. Hit the link.
News Round-Up: March 5, 2015
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| Annie Lennox sings from her latest album on PBS – April 3rd. |
Some stories you may have missed:
• Do not miss Annie Lennox: Nostalgia Live in Concert, featuring Great American Songbook classics from her Grammy-nominated album Nostalgia – April 3, at 10 p.m. on PBS.
• You look hotter after one drink. Two drinks? Not so much…
• Reports about Hillary Clinton’s use of private email may be deceiving.
• Conservative Texas state Rep. Rick Miller introduced legislation to bar cities from adopting LGBT protections, and his gay son isn’t happy about it.
• Trevor Moore’s country music parody – “Gays Got Married” – details every nightmare the LGBT haters have ever uttered about marriage equality with hysterical results. Watch below:
Powdered alcohol coming this Fall
What could possibly go wrong?
From Newsy:
The U.S. Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has just approved — wait for it — powdered alcohol.
A Bevlaw blogger first spotted the application, which approves seven different varieties of powdered alcohol. The blogger writes, “I am not astonished that this is a real product — but I am absolutely astonished that this is approved. … The person that pushed this through must be very patient or lucky.” (Via Lehrman Beverage Law)
The alcohol powder that will be coming to the States includes vodka and rum powders, along with powdered cocktails like Lemon Drop, Cosmopolitan, Mojito and Margarita. They’re all going to be marketed under the brand … *deep sigh* … “Palcohol.”
In what appears to be one of its rare moments of maturity, the Internet has greeted Palcohol with skepticism. Gawker calls Palcohol “a product that, in the wrong hands, could make the darkest days of the Four Loko era look tame.”
And The Braiser rants, “An alcoholic product that could easily be confused for a Crystal Lite package CLEARLY WON’T CAUSE ANY TROUBLE, RIGHT GUYS? *facepalm*”
Meanwhile, under the lede “Well, this sure is a terrible idea,” Refinery29 notes most Palcohol products are advertised as containing about 55 percent to 65 percent alcohol by volume. “We can practically hear the chorus of stomach pumps now.”
This cached version of the Palcohol website — pre-federal approval, of course — features a list of “possibilities” for the product. The list includes dodging expensive booze prices at clubs and concert, smuggling alcohol into the big game, and mixing powdered vodka into your next omelet.
And then there’s this paragraph, reprinted in full. “Let’s talk about the elephant in the room … snorting Palcohol. Yes, you can snort it. And you’ll get drunk almost instantly because the alcohol will be absorbed so quickly in your nose. Good idea? No. It will mess you up. Use Palcohol responsibly.” Thanks for the tip, Palcohol.
Palcohol is expected to hit the shelves this fall. As with all alcohol products, use Palcohol responsibly and safely. And please don’t snort and drive.