I am in need of some help from the people listed in the title– so if you have connections, help me out. I am adding this sentence to the front of this post after rambling too long, as I’m afraid that the person I need won’t get to the important part! If you work in the areas I mentioned or have connections to someone in those areas, please read on.
I’ve talked about some of the goals I have had for this site over the past couple years… one of my ‘personal issues’ is that like most addicts, I like to take things on by myself and solve problems by myself. I remember, in fact, my first time in treatment in 1993– an outpatient, 21-session group therapy program– when one of my assignments was to ask another person for help at least once per day. That was a very difficult thing to do, and I must have gotten better at it because now I am asking for help all the time! On the other hand, I have some areas of my life where I would never consider asking for help– so maybe I’m not as ‘better’ as I think I am.
Before moving on I should make a quick educational comment about addiction– one reason that addicts do not ask for help earlier is because we know that if we ask for help, there is a possibility that we will have to change for the better and lose our addiction. And every addict has ambivalence about becoming sober– even at times when we recognize that we are powerless and that our lives have become unmanageable! There is always some degree of ambivalence. If you are being ‘stubborn’ about getting help, consider whether you TRULY want to be done with using. Sometimes a person who can’t find just the right treatment program is really concerned with something else– whether to really give up the secret life of an active addict. If you are in such a situation, consider whether you are debating the REAL issues, or whether your concern for clean pillows and the ‘right treatment approach’ is just a distraction from a bigger question.
OK… I am in need of some help. I have written a pretty good book about addiction; it is certainly different from what is ‘out there’, as it is personal and at the same time educational, theoretical and at the same time practical, long and detailed but at the same time broken into bite-sized pieces. I have patients on buprenorphine who are accountants, attorneys, nurses, businessmen, laborers, government employees… I find that opiate addicts are an incredibly talented bunch. I figure that if they do OK in life despite having chains around their ankles, they will do wonderful when the chains are removed! So out of the readers out there, I know there are people who work close to the publishing field– or people who know people in the publishing field. If that person is YOU, please consider giving me a hand with the book. I could just self-publish it, and that is what I may end up doing— but I would rather, of course, get the marketing that comes with ‘being published’ so that I can reach a wider audience.
As for the ‘non-profit’ thing– I am aware that of grants from government and private sources for educational projects related to drug addiction, but support is reserved for ‘non-profit groups’. My efforts with the blog and forum are certainly not profitable– but I do not know how to go about setting up a non-profit agency. I would like to make the site grow– to get a ‘real’ web designer instead of doing things myself (and I have no education in computer stuff, so in typical addict style I just try to figure it out myself). When it comes to the IRS, I don’t want to figure it out on my own! So if you can help– either by pointing me in the right direction or something more– please let me know. If you are unemployed, independently wealthy, and experienced in running a nonprofit company, come join me– be the ‘management wing’ and I’ll be the ‘medical wing’!
I realize these are long shots, but I always tell my kids to keep throwing baited hooks in the water. If nothing else, we’re getting exercise! If you even just know of someone who might or might not be interested, throw out another hook for me– I appreciate it!
Serious replies (or even funny ones) can write to me at ideas@fdlpsychiatry.com.
Thanks!
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