Comedian Darrell Hammond’s new book tells the behind-the-scenes story of abuse and addiction that fueled his need to be funny and how he eventually achieved sobriety.

There’s a dark side to comedy, and Saturday Night Live alum Darrell Hammond is speaking out about it. In his raw, honest new memoir, God If You’re Not Up There, I’m F–ked, SNL’s longest-running cast member admits to struggling with alcoholism, crack and cutting.

Hammond doesn’t blame the popular comedy show for any of his issues, though. His demons date back much further than his SNL days, stemming from an abusive childhood, which he also addresses in the book. “I don’t have anything bad to say about anyone [at SNL],” he told the New York Post, adding, “They all really went above and beyond the call for me.”

Hammond, who appeared on the show for 14 seasons — 270 appearances – found fame with his hilarious impressions of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Sean Connery and others. But at the same time he was making America laugh, he was fighting to suppress his childhood trauma. Some of the book’s more shocking admissions include being taken from the NBC building in a straightjacket, keeping a pint of Remy in his desk at work to quiet the disturbing images in his head, and cutting himself when alcohol didn’t work to numb the pain.

Cocaine use turned to addiction in 2002 for Hammond, escalating to crack use in 2009, during his final season on SNL. After finding himself in a crack house in Harlem, he went to rehab. Like so many who seek help for addiction, Hammond faltered in 2010, relapsing with Vicodin. He re-entered treatment that same year, and this time it stuck.

His newfound sobriety has led to a fulfilling second act for Hammond. He starred this past summer as Truman Capote in a one-man show in New England, and is now making the rounds promoting his book. He’s also involved in fellow comedian Will Ferrell’s “Funny or Die” website.

Alcohol Rehab

If you or someone you love is in need of alcohol rehab or help with co-occurring disorders, call The Canyon at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Greg Giraldo, insult comic and former lawyer, died after he experienced complications from a prescription drug overdose. He was found unconscious in his New Jersey hotel room and remained nonresponsive after being taken to a hospital in New York. He died September 29, 2010, in the hospital.

According to The Examiner, Giraldo’s overdose occurred while he was having a party in his hotel room after his first performance at a charity event promoting drug addiction recovery.

Giraldo was well-known for his stand-up comedy and his performances on Comedy Central “celebrity roasts,” in which such performers as Pamela Anderson, David Hasselhoff and Joan Rivers were celebrated through comedy routines.

Giraldo was also a judge on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing.” The producers of that show released a statement that said: “Greg was one of the most talented comedians of our time. He was truly brilliant. His work will surely continue to influence and inspire us. We will miss our friend. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”

Prescription Drug Overdoses Don’t Just Happen to Addicts

A longtime proponent of alcohol addiction recovery, Giraldo was also a Harvard Law School graduate and the father of three small children. While he was in recovery for alcohol addiction, the prescription drug overdose is considered accidental. It is not believed that he abused the prescription purposely but experienced complications as a result of the drug.

Giraldo’s death can serve as a lesson to those left behind. If someone who was well aware of their fragile status as an addict, an intelligent person with a Harvard degree, and a longstanding career in activism against alcohol abuse could still inadvertently overdose after taking a prescribed drug, what a slippery slope it must be for those who purposely abuse their prescription drug prescriptions or take opiate or stimulant medication without a prescription.

Prescription Drug Addiction and Prescription Drug Addiction

If you are addicted to your opiate painkillers or to a stimulant prescription, the only way to ensure that you will not experience a prescription drug overdose is to stop using your prescription with the assistance of a prescription drug rehab program. Opiate detox and prescription drug detox at a medical treatment facility will give you the assistance you need to make sure that you not only stop using your prescription unsafely but they provide you with a detox plan that is efficient and healthfully designed.

Please do not stop taking your prescription without the assistance of medical professionals. Especially in the case of opiate painkillers, the possibility of complications is a serious consideration and the result can be fatal if the opiate detox is not done correctly.

Prescription Drug Rehab at The Canyon

At The Canyon, we offer a number of drug and alcohol addiction treatment programs. For those living with prescription drug addiction, we have an inpatient prescription drug rehab that includes drug detox and drug addiction treatment. Call us to find out more about our opiate painkiller addiction treatment program and our stimulant addiction rehab here at The Canyon.

Sobriety is a living moving thing. If you don’t feed it, it can wither and weaken. It requires constant care by you and support from others. Caring for your sobriety is much like caring for another living being. And like many living beings, it needs to be surrounded by the influence of others to truly survive. Sobriety rarely thrives when a person stands all alone and isolates themselves. Learn why this won’t work and how personal interaction keeps your sobriety going.

Sobriety Doesn’t Just Happen

Sobriety doesn’t just happen, it develops. Yes, you can technically be sober when you don’t have drugs or alcohol in your system. But true sobriety takes that one step further and sustains it as a lifestyle. When you see it that way, it’s easier to understand that sobriety doesn’t turn on an off like a switch. It is fed, grown, and developed each day.

In order to keep your body healthy, you don’t drink a whole bunch of water first thing in the morning and hope it gets you through the day. You have to keep drinking water all day to stay constantly hydrated. The same principle applies to sobriety. You must keep positivity around you all the time. Healthy habits of good nutrition, exercise, and stress management keep you going forward through each day.

Sobriety Need Community

Isolation is a close friend of addiction. It keeps people away from new ideas and positivity. People are social creatures that thrive on meaningful interaction. Good relationships support a person’s sense of value in the world. When a person stays socially active, they give and take with others. None of this can happen when someone stays isolated and avoids deeper relationships.

If you’ve been hurt by relationships in the past, it’s understandable that you might hesitate to open up again. However, truly supportive relationships can help you during your recovery. They can keep drug cravings at bay and give you someone to celebrate the good days with. Your social connections make life worth living and keep your addiction in check.

Keeping a Positive Mind

Isolation does a number on someone’s mind when they started getting negative thoughts. Without any other perspective to consider, a person with lots of negativity can get stuck in their own mind. They can get sucked into a downward spiral of depressing thoughts, creating great risk of relapse.

Drug rehab centers hold frequent group treatment sessions for good reason. The positive support and varying perspectives of group members help a recovering addict get out of their own head. When they can see the world a slightly different way, they can step out of their black-and-white thinking and destructive thought cycles.

Recovery Doesn’t Happen In Isolation

Isolation keeps you from experiencing the full benefits of a sober lifestyle. Even if you are uncertain about your sobriety, reach out to your support group. Get closer with a good friend or family member. Stay connected with others who really care about you and your sober lifestyle.

Meth is a hard-hitting drug. It takes your body on a wild ride every time you use it. Over time, the chemical influences can really harm your body. Drug rehab is essential with a drug as powerful as crystal meth. But the challenges don’t stop once you get sober. With a lot of support and persistence, you can start feeling better and rebuilding your life. Take a moment to better understand how and why your body may take a while to recover from crystal meth addiction.

Possible Brain Damage From Meth

Your brain is a very flexible and resilient organ, but it can’t always bounce back when it’s been damaged. Meth can significantly harm your brain over time. In some cases, normal functioning can return after a few years of sobriety. But the longer you have used meth, the more likely you are to suffer some level of permenant damage.

One of the biggest problems with meth addiction is its powerful effect on the body’s dopamine reward system. Dopamine is neurotransmitter that allows you to feel pleasure naturally. Eating, sex, or an happy event causes dopamine to flow through your body. It keeps you motivated to do things that are essential to your survival.

Meth overstimulates the dopamine system, causing an intense rush sensation in the early stages of use. Over time, your dopamine system shuts down. Excessive meth use can even kill nerve endings that use dopamine. When you get sober, the dopamine system doesn’t quite know what to do for a while. As a result, you may find that fatigue and depression challenge you in your first year or two of recovery.

Feeling Fatigue After Sobriety

Many crystal meth users have a lot of trouble feeling energetic shortly after becoming sober. Meth is a powerful stimulant, giving you an unnaturally high feeling of energy during your first several uses. As time progresses and your body adjusts to the presence of meth, you need the drug just to feel normal.

Your body dramatically alters the production of dopamine and other chemicals that help you regulate your cycles of energy and rest. Also, the addiction lifestyle will cause you to neglect your nutrition and physical health. This can also be part of the fatigue experienced in early recovery.

Feelings Of Depression

The lack of dopamine moving through your body also affects your mood. Without the natural ebb and flow of dopamine, you will likely feel many symptoms of depression. You may lack motivation or interest in doing things, feel hopeless, and feel unhappy much of the time.

Exercise, good nutrition, and healthy social connections can gradually retrain your brain and body to enjoy naturally positive things. It may take some time and patience, but recovering meth addicts can and do get through this period. If you are newly sober from meth, you can do it, too.

Meth Addiction – Adjusting To Sobriety

When you get sober from meth, you go through stimulant withdrawal. You experience the exact opposite of what you felt when you were using meth. Fatigue, depression, and lack of motivation are common hurdles in your first year or two of sobriety. When meth use is stopped early enough, you may eventually feel more like you did before your addiction. But you’ll need drug rehab to get you started. Don’t hesitate to call us for more information today.

Corey Haim is another sad casualty in the world of drug abuse. The former child movie star of the 1980′s died early this morning. There was no official report of the cause of death, but it is speculated to be related to his extensive drug use history.

Corey Haim Started Drug Addiction To Deal With Emotional Pain

Corey has told his story to many media sources over the years. His drug use reportedly started in his teen years after he was sexually abused by a man. Corey smoked marijuana as he filmed one of his big movie hits of the 1980′s, and before long he was using alcohol and other drugs.

Corey reportedly went to drug rehab several times and even suffered a stroke. Doctors were astounded at the high levels of various drugs he was taking. His daily valium use alone was up to 85 pills. It seems almost a miracle that he survived through that period of his life.

In the mid 2000′s, he seemed to be staging a comeback in Hollywood. He was involved in several movies and was in a reality show with Corey Feldmen. The show apparently came to a close because Corey Haim continued to use drugs.

Corey Haim Attempts Drug Rehab Several Times

Corey seemed to make good faith efforts to get and stay sober, going to drug rehab and drug treatment programs numerous times. However, it looks like the long term damage may have finally caught up with him. Even if his death was not directly caused by a drug overdose, it is certainly possible that it was somehow linked to his drug use history.

It may be some time before we all know the final verdict on Corey Haim’s death. Drug addiction can be so powerful and so destructive. It’s like a time bomb waiting to go off. Even when someone gains sobriety for a period of time, they can’t get lax for even a day. As Corey indicated, he started using just one or two valiums at first. Then it turned into four, five, six, and finally in the dozens of pills a day.

Reminder That Drug Addiction Can Kill

Corey Haim’s struggle with drug addiction is a definite sign of caution to anyone abusing any form of drug or alcohol. It can catch up to you slowly unless you stop it in it’s tracks by going to drug rehab. Even that is no guarantee of sobriety. If you are abusing drugs in any way, stop and look at your life. Take a moment to consider how drug treatment can keep you from having a tragic ending like Corey Haim.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) has released their first draft. In this new version of the American Psychiatric Association document used by virtually everyone to diagnose behavioral health problems, the disease categories for substance abuse and dependence will be replaced with a brand new “addictions and related disorders” category.

Why The Categorization of Drug Addiction is Changing

The hope of the American Psychiatric Association has for making this change is that it will create a clearer line between those who are physically dependent upon a prescription drug and those who are addicted to their drug of choice.

In a press release, the APA stated: “Eliminating the category of dependence will better differentiate between the compulsive drug-seeking behavior of addiction and normal responses of tolerance and withdrawal that some patients experience when using prescribed medications that affect the central nervous system.”

Their point is that many people will develop a physical dependence upon a drug during the course of treatment, but that this singular fact does not make them a drug addict. When it is appropriate for their treatment, they can simply cut back on their dose slowly under their doctor’s supervision and stop taking the drug completely and without incident.

Someone suffering from drug addiction will find this simple exit plan from their drug of choice to be impossible. The psychological addiction and cravings are the defining characteristic of drug addiction and it is this distinction that the APA would like to make in the new DSM-V.

How the Categorization of Drug Addiction is Changing in the DSM-V

One of the biggest changes is the new category that will include substance-use disorders. Each drug type will get its own category with its own diagnostic criteria. Not much will change in terms of diagnostic criteria except that “drug craving” will be added and “problems with law enforcement will be dropped.” As the APA points out, “cultural considerations… make the criteria difficult to apply internationally.”

Cannabis withdrawal criteria is also a new addiction to the DSM-V. The APA says it occurs with the “cessation of cannabis use that has been heavy and prolonged,” results in “clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.” Some listed symptoms of marijuana withdrawal include irritability, anxiety, anger, weight loss/ decreased appetite, insomnia, depression, and physical symptoms like sweating, fever, headache, et cetera. At least three of these need be present to diagnose marijuana withdrawal, according to the new DSM-V.

Why The Categorization of Drug Addiction Matters

For many, insurance is the only way to pay for drug and alcohol rehab. If the problem is not categorized as a medical issue that requires medical treatment, then insurance companies may start rejecting claims that request coverage for drug and alcohol detox treatment and medications. As these are both necessary for recovery and typically very expensive, it’s important that their classification be as clear as possible.

Charles O’Brien, M.D., Ph.D., is the chair of the APA’s DSM Substance-Related Disorders Work Group. He says: “The term dependence is misleading, because people confuse it with addiction, when in fact the tolerance and withdrawal patients experience are very normal responses to prescribed medications that affect the central nervous system.

“On the other hand, addiction is compulsive drug- seeking behavior which is quite different. We hope that this new classification will help end this wide-spread misunderstanding.”

There’s no doubt that in 99.9 percent of cases, the first use of any recreational drug is voluntary. Even the use of an addictive prescription drug, ultimately, is voluntary. But what about addiction? Do you choose to use or is it an uncontrollable compulsion?

What the Experts Say About the Nature of Drug Addiction

The answer is: a little bit of both. The compulsion to use and the craving for a drug of choice are both characteristics of drug addiction as a medical disease. Yes, the first step to developing this disease—like smoking that leads to lung cancer—is voluntary, but once the disease has developed, it’s pretty much out of your hands. You started it, opened the door to its manifestation, but now that it’s here, it is a medical problem and not one you can erase with apologies and promises not to do it again.

Voluntary Drug Use Versus Involuntary Drug Addiction

When does the voluntary action cross the line into compulsive behavior? That is different for everyone. Tolerance levels vary in each individual, as does the predilection for addictive behavior. The drug used plays a part as well as the dosage, the length of time the drug is taken, how often, and other drugs it is mixed with. All of these factors dictate when and to what extent the brain is changed and at what point the idea to use becomes a craving.

Tracking The Evolution of Drug Abuse Into Drug Addiction

No matter when it happens, this transition occurs unbeknownst to the user. No one intends to get addicted, but when it happens, treatment is the only way to put the disease into remission. If you’re not psychologically addicted, treating the physical addiction with a substitution and detox drug like buprenorphine is all you need to get back on track and shake the cravings without going through withdrawal.