Nice, polite, unassuming – Dwight Gooden is nothing like most of the “celebs” that show up on Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab reality TV show on VH1. Once one of the best pitchers in baseball, Gooden has spent the last 20 years not playing for the NY Mets but fighting his way through five stints in drug rehab and almost no time – outside of rehab – spent completely sober.

Gooden lists cocaine, Ambien, and alcohol as his drugs of choice, but cocaine was definitely what has plagued him the most. It was a problem with that drug in 1985 that first caused him to be suspended, first for a couple of months and then for an entire season. It was also the drug that he tested positive for when he first arrived at the Pasadena Recovery Center on the show.

Alongside a number of actors, the father of an actor, a drummer, and an ex-con-slash-porn-star, Gooden spent three weeks in rehab in front of the cameras. When it was all over, he talked to ESPN about his experiences. Unlike others in the program, he didn’t try to leave or have any dramatic episodes. At one point, a friend of his visits and says something about breaking him out, but that’s about it. Climbing on the roof, participating in screaming fights, sobbing hysterically, or threatening to/ actually breaking out – all that he leaves to others in the programs.

Says Gooden: “I’m very happy now. At 46, I’m still learning about myself, but I am getting more comfortable in my skin. Fans have always been supportive of me, and it brings back memories each time I go out to the ballparks to think about all those great accomplishments.

“I’m just blessed to be here these days. It’s a good feeling. I have two boys in high school who are playing sports and I get to give back to them. That’s a good feeling.”

As far as his plans for the future, Gooden hopes to open a baseball academy in Newark, New Jersey, and teach kids how to play the sport.

Although he’s gone to rehab six times now, spent time in prison, lost his career, and endangered his child due to his continued cocaine addiction and prescription drug addiction, Gooden’s spirits are high and he remains hopeful. It’s a good lesson to learn from: no matter how much you feel like you’ve lost due to drug addiction or how long you’ve spent fighting to be drug-free, tomorrow is a new day and it could bring with it another great opportunity in recovery.

It’s not just Whitney Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina, who is making headlines due to alleged drug abuse
and potential addiction behavior. Now it’s Whitney herself who is reportedly beginning a drug rehab program. Like many celebrities, there is no admission from her camp that she is actually living with an active drug addiction that requires treatment, but that she is simply checking in so that she can maintain her long-term recovery and be proactive against relapse.

Whitney Houston’s rep says: “Whitney Houston is currently in an outpatient rehab program for drug and alcohol treatment. Whitney voluntarily entered the program to support her long-standing recovery process.”

When Outpatient Drug Addiction Treatment is a Good Idea

Whether or not Whitney has relapsed or if she is genuinely attempting to fight for a continued sobriety, an outpatient addiction treatment program is the perfect choice for her. Because she has already attended multiple inpatient treatment programs and learned how to remain clean and sober for the most part, an outpatient rehab can give her the refresher course she needs to stay in touch with the principles of sobriety, get a little guidance on specific issues that are causing her trouble, and have a supportive group of people who will hold her accountable for her actions for the duration of the program. For some patients, the constant possibility of a drug test is enough to help them avoid relapse and filling that sober time with personal therapy, group therapy, volunteer work, experiential therapy, alternative treatments and more can do nothing but bolster sobriety.

When Outpatient Drug Addiction Treatment is not a Good Idea

In general, it is not recommended that you attend outpatient drug addiction treatment if:

• It’s your first time in treatment after a long-term addiction.
• If you experience withdrawal symptoms when attempting to stop taking your drug of choice in addition to cravings and will require inpatient drug detox.
• If you have been living with an addiction without treatment for a long period of time, whether or not you have attended drug rehab in the past.
• If you are diagnosed with a co-occurring psychological, social, or behavioral disorder that makes the drug addiction more difficult to handle.
• If you have concerns that you will be unable to avoid relapse when you leave the program each day.

Though there are a number of situations in which outpatient addiction treatment is the only option – and it can be very effective – in most cases, a more intensive inpatient drug rehab program is recommended.

Contact us today to learn more about the addiction treatment programs available here at The Orchid.

Cocaine addiction kills the appetite, boosts the metabolism, and provides a false energy that makes you think that you don’t have to eat to survive. After cocaine addiction treatment, many in recovery have a hard time figuring out how to eat properly. Many women are upset when they gain weight in drug addiction recovery and find that they have low energy and feel rundown most of the time. Learning how to eat well and create a healthy diet can be a crucial part of your success in sobriety. Here are some tips to help you eat well, stay healthy, and get your metabolism back on track after cocaine addiction.

• Plan a week’s meals at once. If you take it meal by meal, you’ll get bored if not overwhelmed with the constant maintenance that comes with trying to find something healthy to eat every few hours. Instead, designate one day a week as meal planning day. Find healthy recipes, create a grocery list, and make as much as you can ahead of time. If you have extra, freeze pre-portioned single servings for next week.
• Take healthy snacks with you. If you work for longer than a few hours at a time or are on the go often, make sure that you are not at the mercy of restaurants for your nutrition. There are a lot of hidden fat and calories in restaurant food and, when you’re hungry, it’s harder to make positive choices. Bring a sandwich, a fiber bar, a piece of fruit or another healthy snack with you at all times and if you know you’ll be out for a meal regularly, (e.g., lunch at work each day) plan ahead and bring what you’ll need.
• Always eat breakfast. In order to get your metabolism going every day, you have to kickstart your body with breakfast. Avoid sugary pastries or high-fat breakfast meats and choose something small – a whole grain piece of toast, with half a piece of fruit and a hardboiled egg – just to let your body know that the day is starting.
• Workout. If you feel like all this healthy eating is thickening your waist line, don’t think for one second that starving yourself or relapsing on cocaine is the answer to slim down. Instead, kick up your efforts in the exercise department. If you’re out of shape, start by taking a daily 30 minute walk and increase the time or turn it into a jog-walk when you feel up to it. If there’s a sport you used to like, try to find an amateur league to play with or take a class to ease your way back in. Take a yoga class, start parking further away from the store, or take the stairs instead of the elevator – anything to increase your caloric burn and boost your metabolism in a healthy way.

What’s your favorite way to stay healthy in recovery and avoid relapse? Leave a comment and let us know!

Whitney Houston has famously struggled with her own drug addiction issues – on stage, on TV and in the tabloids. Maybe it’s her experience with addiction that has made her hypersensitive to the issues her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, is experiencing. According to AOL, Whitney Houston is not taking the pictures that surfaced of Bobbi Kristina lightly – these pictures show her daughter snorting cocaine.

Perhaps there have been a few other incidents at home as well – we may never know. But the word is that Bobbi Kristina is headed to rehab because Whitney is taking no risks.

Other tabloids add a few more details. Some say that Whitney has taken away the Lexus she gave her daughter and cancelled her 18^th birthday celebration as well. Tabloid reporters say that sources are reporting that Whitney is extremely worried about her daughter – while her daughter reports nothing but disdain for these articles, saying she’s a perfectly normal and healthy young woman with no need for rehab.

Parents Protecting Children: When It’s Time to Step in and Send Your Child to Drug Rehab

If you are a mother in recovery, you likely credit someone close to you with having recognized your need for help and given you the push you needed to get the treatment you needed. If you didn’t, you probably wished someone had done it for you earlier than you had to do it for yourself. Whitney says that her own mother, Cissy Houston, helped her get treatment for her struggle with crack cocaine addiction. In fact, Whitney told Oprah that Cissy made her go to rehab after getting a court injunction that gave her permission to stage an intervention with the assistance of armed police at the front door back.

Where’s Dad? The Father’s Role in Helping a Child Get Treatment

Bobby Brown is Bobbi Kristina’s father and Whitney’s ex-husband. He, too, spent a great deal of time living with an active addiction and received treatment as well. Whether or not he is currently living in recovery or in relapse is unknown, but some reports say that he is just as concerned about his daughter as Whitney is and that the parents are working together to make sure that Bobbi Kristina gets what she needs.

The support of both parents – no matter what their personal relationship or feeling for each other – is imperative when it comes time to help a child enroll in drug rehab. In fact, the more family members the better from both sides of the family. The teen may not feel excited about entering treatment no matter how is there to help her make the transition, but later he or she will appreciate that there is a strong foundation of support waiting and available no matter what.

If you would like to learn more about enrolling your teen daughter over the age of 18 in our woman-centered drug rehab program here at The Orchid, contact us today.

There are new research studies out that support the notion that women more quickly develop an addiction to cocaine after casual use and have a more difficult time quitting use of the drug. How do they know? Well, one of the latest studies took a look at the behavior of rats; it was found that female rats worked harder for cocaine than did male rates

Male rats with a high stress response and high impulsivity also were more motivated to track down cocaine – so it may not be entirely based on gender, according to the Biology of Sex Differences journal. But female rats, from the first introduction to cocaine, were quicker at learning how to administer the drug to themselves and will work harder to get the drug. As the dose increased and the rats’ addiction increased, the differences between male and female response was lower.

Jennifer Cummings led the study. She said that though personality type may reinforce a predisposition toward addiction, “an individual’s sex continues to increase the likelihood of drug abuse.”

Why Women Abuse Drugs

It’s not always a matter of gender when women abuse drugs, but women do report some different reasons for the development of drug addiction than do most men. For example, women are more likely to have experienced sexual trauma or abuse in their lives, an issue that often precipitates drug addiction. They also struggle with the many responsibilities and expectations that are placed on them – to work, maintain the home, care for children, maintain their husband’s schedule and still find a little down time for themselves. Especially when stimulant addiction is an issue, this particular issue can push many women to abuse diet pills, their children’s ADHD medication or cocaine. They appreciate the extra energy and positive mood initially provided by the drug, but end up having to seek more in order to maintain their level of output.

Why Women Avoid Addiction Treatment

Choosing to go to drug addiction treatment means two things: 1) that things have gotten out of control for the woman getting help and 2) that drug addiction is the reason. There is a stigma attached to drug addiction that few women embrace, and especially those who develop cocaine addiction do not want to even allude to the idea that they may not have it all together.

Other women avoid treatment because they don’t want to leave their children or husband alone for an extended period. It’s true that children need their parents, but they need parents who are well. They will fare much better if their mother gets the treatment she needs and comes back to them a healthier person than if she continues living with an active cocaine addiction.

Woman-Centered Drug Addiction Treatment

If you would like to learn more about our drug rehab program for women here at The Orchid, contact us today.