A thought while writing the book.

Drugs have the power to both destroy and heal.
When we speak honestly and openly with our children about drugs.
It's a win win situation as they can change our world into the future.

Alcohol And Substance Abuse Will Not Take Away Your Fears

By Stanley Popovich

Your fears, anxieties, and other problems have the best of you and you don’t know where to turn for help. At some point you feel totally helpless as you struggle each day. What do you do? As a layman and an author of a Managing Fear book, there were times that my fears had the best of me. Through these experiences, there is one thing that I learned. You can’t hide or run away from your fears.

Alcohol and substance abuse or any other addictions will not take away your problems and fears. In the short run, they might make you feel better, but in the long run these addictions will only make things worse.

So what do you do to make your problems and fears go away? Well, since you can’t runaway from them, then the best solution is to tackle your fears head on no matter how strong they may be. The key is to be smart in how you try to manage these fears. Here are some ways in how to manage your persistent fears and anxieties.

Take it one day at a time. Instead of worrying about how you will get through the rest of the week or coming month, try to focus on today. Each day can provide us with different opportunities to learn new things and that includes learning how to deal with your problems. Focus on the present and stop trying to predict what may happen next week. Next week will take care of itself.

Learn how to manage your fearful thoughts that may be difficult to manage. When experiencing a negative thought, read some positive statements and affirmations that help lift your spirits and make you feel better. Remember that your fearful thoughts may be exaggerated so balance these thoughts with realistic thinking and common sense.

Take advantage of the help that is available around you. If possible, talk to a professional who can help you manage your fears and anxieties. They will be able to provide you with additional advice and insights on how to deal with your current problem. By talking to a professional, a person will be helping themselves in the long run because they will become better able to deal with their problems in the future. Managing your fears and anxieties takes practice. The more you practice, the better you will become.

When managing your fears and anxieties do not try to tackle everything at once. The best solution is to break your fears or problems into a series of smaller steps. Completing these smaller tasks one at a time will make the stress more manageable and increases your chances of success.

Managing your fears and anxieties will take some hard work. Trying to avoid you problems will do nothing in getting rid of your fears and anxieties. Sooner or later, you will have to confront your fears and anxieties. Remember that all you can do is to do your best each day, hope for the best, and take things in stride. Patience, persistence, education, and being committed in trying to solve your problem will go a long way in fixing your problems.

Heroin is alive and living in Lake County, IL.

After over one and a half years ~ COMMUNITY FORUM on Drug Awareness & Heroin

~ Stay on track don't fall off the horse and lose sight of the real issue
~ you can bet on it ~ "Heroin is alive and living in Lake County, IL..

I copied and pasted these article's ~ as I am so tired of waiting for this to awakening withing our community to happen - to many children are not with us today so please ~ make sure you RSVP as well - read the rules!
If you are in the vicinity ~ please take some time out of your day to listen, learn & educate yourselves.

Pioneer Local - Today ~ June 2, 2009
By RONNIE WACHTER rwachter@pioneerlocal.com

The Buffalo Grove School Safety Partnership, in conjunction with Buffalo Grove and Stevenson high schools, will hold a community forum Thursday to address the topic of drug abuse in the area.

The event is part of a regional effort to increase the awareness and understanding of drug activity and its consequences to parents of high school age students.

The meeting is scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. at the Buffalo Grove Park District's Alcott Center, 530 Bernard Drive, and will place special emphasis on heroin abuse.

Heroin and prescription drug overdoses throughout the area have become a widespread and persistent public safety problem that creates serious personal, social and economic consequences for adolescents, their families and the community.

"We're directing this at parents of high school students, upper grades," Buffalo Grove police Cmdr. Steve Husak said. "There have been a few overdoses and other issues that have been on the rise in the last year."

"The walls need to be put up," said Lisa Stone, a Buffalo Grove trustee who helped organize the meeting because of her concern about heroin use in the community. "It's the most powerful drug on our planet."

Stone said Friday that she would like to see Buffalo Grove become known as the No. 1 community in Illinois in the fight against heroin, as its Police Department is known as a leader in the fight against drunken driving.

The program will feature presentations by:

• Lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group's regional drug task force

• Lake County Coroner's Office

• Lake County States Attorney's Office

• Northeastern Illinois Regional Crime Laboratory.

The public is invited, and can R.S.V.P at the village of Buffalo Grove Web site vbg.org by following the instructions on the community forum announcement, or by e-mailing Husak at shusak@vbg.org

Good Luck ~ May "God" bless you all - vonna ~

R.I.P. now my son ~ 

Words of Wisdom

As of late, I have connected with a few friends from my past ~ a past of the carefree days where my friends & I had freedom with structure~freedom without fear, freedom with hope that our future would be secure ~
I received an email from one of those friends today that I would like to share with you ~ it touched my soul ~ this made me think ~ as I grow old I think back to those days, those days are long gone ~ but the memories shall always be.
~ thank you my old friend for gifting me with your words today~

"I looked through some of the links on your site. ~very insightful~!

A few of my friends passed early due to struggles with booze and or drugs. I also have a few others who managed to turn their life around.

What I have learned is you can only help those ready to accept a helping hand.

Some have a hard time accepting help, either from pride or pain, either way everyone has to reach a point where they must go one way or the other.

Everyone who cares for them hurts if they go the wrong way.

I like to think of help, like giving a gift; there is has much honor in giving a gift as receiving one. For they are both equal... one is not possible without the other"
author undisclosed ~

Living without him ~

Seems like yesterday when they took him away you wake up one day and wonder where or where did this past year go ~ This is all so unreal to me, much harder now than it was over a year ago.

Most of his Jon's friends have either moved on or are still in denial, my friends they come and go.

I have started to weed through the house, it is a cleansing experience that is not making me a happy camper. My refrigerator looks cleaner than when I purchased it!

His slippers finally moved from where they lie that day. His clothes put away nice and tidy, and yes, I smelled every shirt, every pair of pants, and even his socks ~ His TV works, his bed is made and his chair will stay put. Jonathan was young and did not have many belongings, this are my memories as I finally lay him to peace in this house.

As, I go through these days one day at a time, each day brings on a new experience, my life has forever changed and will never be the same as it was before. I am getting to the point of acceptance that learning to live with the fact that Jonathan is gone ~ forever! Yet, he still lives in my heart, my surroundings and always within my soul.

I do get out a little more, it is a very scary experience. I ventured out yesterday to run an errand which was near the pediatric dentists' office where I took all my children. I took a big step opened the door and low and behold, she was standing behind the desk.

When I was 9 years old, we used to eat peanut butter sandwiches together at her house, giggling so hard that milk came out of our noses ~ O~So~Gross ~

She didn't know, we talked we hugged & I told her to teach her children, I told her to make sure she scared him straight, as I did not want her to experience what I am experiencing now -

A mother should not lose a child before her eyes ~

8 ball

It's just not a pool game any more ~ they call it 3.5 grams of cocaine!

Teach your kids at an early age!
Be a responsible parent
Learn educate yourself
Slang - learn it!

IT's Not ThaT Hard to Do ~ It Does NOt TakE that MuCh time Out of Your dAy~

Sit down in a quiet place, close your eyes and imagine what your WORLD would be without your child ~

Enough said from me ~ get more information from the DOC ~ he has the hard core facts ~

Cynicism is an unpleasant way of telling the truth! Lillian Hellman

I am looking for a "Coach Handbag" and authentic "Coach Handbag" cheap - or should I say inexpensive for use of better terminology. I like to collect purses, you could say I have an addiction to purses!

As I searched the Internet I stumbled upon a forum a purse forum, an entire community that has millions posts in tons of informational threads.

Imagine a world and entire community just talking about purses, where to buy them, where to get the best deals, who to deal with, who not to deal with, the reviews, the statistics, the old & the new.

You need a purse fix, that certain brand name you just have to have, need to know what a fake purse looks like, it's all right there on this purse forum.

Prices keep going up - it truly is discouraging to tell you the truth. In order to get high quality that will last a life time, you are going to have to pay through the nose these days -

Almost, everyday I visit Dr. Keller's' blog, just to see what he is posting. I find his blog is well worth the read, and I actually start to worry about him when I do not see him post for a few days. I worry that he is too busy, this saddens me.

I did a little digging, and a little coping and pasting ~

Purses, drugs ~ prices going up ~ interesting yes?

The price of a gram of cocaine in the US soared 89 percent -- from $96.61 dollars to $182.73 dollars -- from January 2007 to September 2008, while the purity decreased 32.1%, from 67% to 46%.

Heroin is readily available in most large metropolitan areas and, increasingly, in some suburban and rural markets throughout the country, the abuse of heroin is increasing among young adults in a number of suburban and rural areas.

The Abuse of prescription narcotics as a precursor to heroin among adolescents is an emerging concern to law enforcement and public health officials.

…cocaine purity dropped during the same period from 67 percent to 46 percent

To increase profitability suppliers cut potency by mixing it with a wide variety of other substances -- an often dangerous practice.

Nonetheless key to remember: Cocaine kills, there is no safe amount of cocaine, you never know what you are getting/buying.

So now you have to spend more to die high; or maybe not quite high, if the amount is enough to kill you (or the adulterants a poisonous enough), but not quality cocaine enough to get a buzz on for you.

I don't think I need that purse anymore!

Take the Drug Test

I'll tell you my score if you tell me yours?

Click!

Young people die using/abusing drugs

Dr. Richard Keller

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Young people use/abuse drugs. Young people die from using/abusing drugs. We need to stop young people from dying from drug use/abuse. (The same goes for older people, but it always seems more shocking when it is young people who die. Is more potential lost?)

I was reading an interview with Dr Drew Pinsky (currently rehab doctor to the stars) recently and he sure makes it sound tough. Although he wasn’t talking about young people in particular, he laid out the 3 events that motivate change in his experience, i.e. motivate folks to quit abusing drugs:

Near death experience (i.e. the drug abuser nearly dying)
Looking in the mirror and feeling genuine disgust
Loss of your children, having them taken away (particularly true of women)

I feel there must be other ways to motivate the desire to make the life change involved in quitting the abuse of the drugs, particularly in young people. Or do we work at instilling self-disgust, if his motivating events are all-inclusive. The younger the person is when we begin to intervene the less entrenched the drug abuse behavior is. That should make available more intervention options. Of course, prevention is an even better goal to drug abuse prevention.

“Just say no” isn’t working, as evidenced by multiple studies. We need real, evidence-based intervention strategies. Scaring them straight doesn’t work. Their minds are still developing, but their intellect is there. Interventions need to use that fact.

There has to be something that we can do.
The 24 year-old young lady didn’t need to die today.

Dr. Richard Keller wrote a letter ~

Thank you Dr. Keller ~

“Many adults and youth are likely to encounter a suicidal person at some point in their professional or personal lives, but lack the skills, comfort level, and training to recognize warning signs or respond effectively…a community-wide cadre of trained “gatekeepers” may make a difference.”

A recent attempt to help develop a “cadre of trained “gatekeepers”” in Lake County middle and high schools met with minimal success. The Lake County Suicide Prevention Task Force will continue to push for that with materials developed locally by Dr John Jochem. We will be working with the Regional Office of Education Superintendent’s Office into the next school year in another attempt to get the material to school personnel at all levels.

However, to attempt to reach a tipping point sooner and to offer it to even more individuals who regularly interact with youths who might be suicidal I am sending the links to the material for your review and consideration. These materials are available on the Lake County Coroner website.

Letter to school administrators

Project Safety NET


Feel free to use the materials for education in your organizations, communities of faith, etc and feel free to disseminate them to others who might be interested.

Richard L Keller, MD
Lake County Coroner
Lake County Suicide Prevention Task Force

I feel hopeless~

A very wise friend of my gave me some very profound advice ~

"Learning and talking is self-therapy. When pain is put out into the weave of the world it gets absorbed by others and that allows you to heal!!"

Although the title to this post refers to me feeling hopeless ~ I have knowledge, I have confirmation. I shall never have to wonder how~

I received the official report from the Coroner's Office yesterday ~
Jonathan's death was ruled as a "homicide" an overdose of dirty drugs ~
Jon's mind, body, & spirit were that of a healthy man.

I would like to reiterate the fact ~ "Knowledge is Power" ~

Read, Learn & Educate yourselves ~ our younger generation's world.

It is and never will be the same again. I shall heal ~ I have faith in myself.

What I am finding out.

I am on an adventure today and adventure where I don't know how or where the day shall lead me, sometimes, I think to myself that this is everyday of my life lately. No matter where I go, to the grocery store, the bank ~ or just for a walk around the street to stretch my legs it's painful within my body, mind and spirit.

It's what way to early in the morning, still I have my coffee, take my medicine, relax for a while, and read through all my son's journal's. He has written the most beautiful stories, the most prolific thoughts I have ever read thus far at least the way I comprehend. A gift that he has left for me, for me to read, enjoy and learn. To gain knowledge of my son who left too soon, but helped so many.

Today, I have come to the realization that my son seems to have found inspiration from the girl he loved, his first love, his only love. His first girlfriend. Step back ( as he says it in his writings ) & the demon's in he had hidden in his soul.

Do you read the last page of a story or book first? I always do.

Today I share with you this. Today this is for her. I shall not mention her real name, as Jon did not either - most of his paper's were for school I am assuming.

July 5, 2001

"And I will always say I love Renee. I love the sunshine in her face. Her gaze of approval stokes my eyes, and I feel comfort. Bring me night, or bring me day...anything for my sweet Renee."
jon mceachern excerpt from journal entry.

Maybe I don't read enough ~ maybe other parents don't either ~

I would like to know ~ Wouldn't you?

CLICK HERE~