General Recovery

By Christina Mersereau Greetings from Christina Mersereau! I was hired back in May of 2018 as a member of the ROOT team. ROOT stands for Recovery Opioid Overdose Team. For several months, I and my teammates were on call at all hours of day and night, ready to go to St. Joseph or University of Michigan hospital any time there was an overdose case where the patient was treated with Narcan. Narcan is a trade name for Naloxone, which is used to treat patients who have overdosed on opiates: heroin, oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl etc. It works by essentially “reversing” the…

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By Christina Mersereau This week is video shooting week! Thanks to donors Ted and Debbie Green we had great lighting (they donated the equipment), and thanks to Kim Fairley for purchasing the cameras. The other equipment needed–a nice microphone and camera tripods–I had to bring myself, as HNV does not own them yet. If you wish to donate any unwanted items, we could really use a tripod and a decent microphone! The shoot went well. I got to work at 7:00am to set up all the lights, chairs, stands, cameras, computers and various other things needed, and we got going…

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By Andrew Breed My name is Andrew Breed, and I’m someone who’s dealt with a Substance Use Disorder. I do a lot of things to maintain a lifestyle that facilitates not using any substances to cope with daily life. It took me a while to get here but it’s something that can definitely be done. One of the big things that I do is exercise, which is why I chose to write about this topic. I would like to share some information and the role that it plays in my life. There’s a ton of research on this subject, and…

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By Dave LaFave A message to the newcomer… AA, NA, Smart, Refuge, Hip, Detox, CA, OA, CMA or any other alphabet variation of “Please Help Me Stop Hurting Myself.”  “Reach out? To whom please. WHO am I supposed to reach out to?”  “No one waits for me.”  “No one cares.”  “My sisters? Nah. They have families already. They have things going on. And they don’t care.  My partner? Nah. I’ve pissed them off enough already and anyway they could care less.  Friends? No one will talk to me since that night at the game when I puked in that girls…

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