Wood County Prevention Coalition
Uniting For A Drug-Free Community Since 2004
Surgeon general urges public to carry opioid overdose reversal drug in rare advisory
The Hill
The surgeon general in a rare public health advisory is calling on more Americans to carry a potentially life-saving medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
Jerome Adams said it is particularly important for friends and family of those at risk of an opioid overdose to have naloxone on hand as the nation’s opioid crisis shows no signs of slowing down.
Adams said increasing the availability of naloxone and expanding treatment services are key to helping manage opioid addiction and overdoses, which are killing more people per year than traffic accidents.
“Each day we lose 115 Americans to an opioid overdose — that’s one person every 12.5 minutes,” Adams said in a statement.
“It is time to make sure more people have access to this lifesaving medication, because 77 percent of opioid overdose deaths occur outside of a medical setting and more than half occur at home.”
Many first responders carry naloxone, which comes in the form of an injection or a nasal mist. All states have passed laws aimed at increasing the drug's availability, according to a surgeon general’s news release, and in most states it can be requested at a pharmacy without a prescription.
The association representing nearly 3,000 local health departments across the country applauded the surgeon general's move, but said it’s just one step in the multi-faceted effort needed to curb the opioid epidemic.
“Dr. Adams is helping destigmatize those who are struggling with opioid addiction by acknowledging the importance of keeping people alive,” Laura Hanen, the National Association of County and City Health Officials interim executive director and chief of government affairs, said in a statement.
“We strongly support increasing the public’s access to and use of naloxone.”
April: Alcohol Awareness Month
April is Alcohol Awareness Month. Alcohol is the most commonly used addictive substance used in the U.S. 15.1 million people over the age of 18 have a diagnosis of AUD (alcohol use disorder); this is a medical condition used when a patient’s drinking causes distress or harm. Alcohol use disorder is the third leading lifestyle cause of death.
Some common signs and symptoms of alcohol abuse are:
- Unable to limit the amount of alcohol that you drink.
- Spending a lot of time drinking, getting alcohol or recovering from drinking.
- Unable to fulfill obligations at work, home or school.
- Experiencing withdrawal symptoms (nausea, sweating, shaking) when you don’t drink or you drink to avoid these symptoms.
- 12 ozs beer
- 8 ozs malt liquor
- 5 ozs wine
- 1.5 ozs or a shot of 80 proof spirits or liquor (gin, vodka, rum, whiskey).
No type of alcohol is safer than another type. All alcohol is equal in the affect it has on you and your body. It’s the amount that you drink that is important.
Alcohol affects every part of your body. It affects the central nervous system, is absorbed rapidly from the stomach and small intestine and metabolized in the liver. Some of the effects on your body include:
- Central nervous system: lack of coordination, confusion, memory, judgment and decision-making (problems with decision making can cause motor vehicle accidents, falls, risky sexual behaviors and violent behaviors)
- Liver: cirrhosis
- Pregnant women: harm to developing fetus (fetal alcohol syndrome)
- Binge drinking: 4 or more drinks during 1 occasion for women in 2 hours, 5 or more for men
- Heavy drinking: More than 1 drink/day for women, more than 2 for men
- Drinking by pregnant women
- Drinking by underage youth
Overcoming the fear of missing out: What is FOMO and how can we learn to deal with it?
March 20, 2018 Student Living by Miguel Principe
The fear of missing out, better known as FOMO, is a universally-felt sentiment—one that can creep up on just about anyone, caused by a range of circumstances. Although the term has been used conversationally for years, it was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013, and defined as “Anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere.”
However, FOMO goes deeper than just the feeling of missing out. It involves making unrealistic comparisons between your social life and your peers’. It’s a vicious cycle of thoughts that gnaws away, making you second-guess your choice to spend Friday night studying in the library while your friends are out partying.
Despite being a natural extrovert, Sachin Samarakone, a U3 engineering student, is no stranger to this feeling.
“I usually tend to feel FOMO a lot,” Samarakone said. “I think it’s more to do with my personality type though. I’m a very extroverted person so I love different social experiences.”
Often, our perception of our peers’ social lives may not actually hold true. A study from the University of British Columbia (UBC) found that 48 per cent of first-year university students believe their peers are more socially connected than they actually are. This is largely because social activities typically take place in public, visible to others, while individual activities, like studying, are done in private, and thus go unnoticed. The study found that many students who sense that they are missing out have a reduced sense of social belonging, which is a key indicator of someone’s mental well-being.
While the fear of missing out is natural, if it comes up too frequently or goes undealt with, it can lead to unpleasant reactions and behaviours. For example, the UBC study found that people grow increasingly stressed if they feel regular anxiety about missing out, and they might react by adopting a dependency on social media or general feelings of dissatisfaction with their personal life.
Another study by marketing communications company James Walter Thompson demonstrated that FOMO contributes to people’s dissatisfaction with their social standing and a feeling of having less.
Wood County Prevention Coalition Community Meeting on April 20th with Dr. Roberts
Lunch & Learn: Addiction in the Workplace May 25th
Wood County Prevention Coalition Community Meeting
Friday, Apr 20, 2018, 08:30 PM
Wood County Educational Services, Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
About Us
Our Vision: Helping youth be drug-free, productive and responsible citizens.
Our Mission: We are a coalition of compassionate community members working together to coordinate high quality programs for the prevention of youth substance abuse in Wood County.
Email: mkarna@wcesc.org
Website: wcprevention.org
Location: 1867 Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
Phone: (419)-354-9010
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WCPCoalition
Twitter: @woodpccoalition