CVS has over 700 Florida locations and will not say the amount of doctors they notified with the official letter telling them prescriptions will no longer be filled at their stores. One doctor claims CVS has pegged him a criminal and he has fired back with legal action. Many are praising CVS for taking this measure since Florida has reached an all time high with abuse of prescription drugs and is seeing epidemic proportions of abuse and overdoses.

In 2010, 90 percent of all Oxycodone was purchased from doctors in Florida. CVS spokesman, Mike DeAngelis said that while CVS regrets any inconveniences they have caused their customers, they do treat the distribution of controlled substances with the most serious care and awareness. CVS maintains that they are unwavering in their compliance and prevention efforts to keep drug abuse controlled and these substances free from the wrong hands. Law enforcement officials have targeted local drug rings in the state by monitoring doctors who supply prescriptions at pain clinics to be sold on the streets. Last July, lawmakers enforced legislation that increased penalties on doctors and later banned most from dispensing painkillers in their offices.

It is uncertain what impact this decision from CVS will have as they are the first to take such action in the fight against prescription painkiller abuse, publicly.

We think we know the usual suspects who push this pastime a little too far and end up getting in fights, driving drunk, or waking up the next day feeling like they were the one who got hit head-on by that 350-pound offensive lineman. Although you might think binge drinking is the territory of 20-somethings, in fact, 36 percent of binge drinking occurs in people age 35 and older.

Whatever age they are, binge drinkers will tell you it is all harmless fun. They only do it on Friday nights or on the weekends. But is it really harmless? As more medical research shows the toxic effects of binge drinking and the damage being done to memory, is it time to reconsider downing a 6-pack before halftime?

What Alcohol Does to Memory & Learning

Memory is essentially the storing of learned information and the ability to recall what you learned. Without memory, there is no learning.

Researchers now think that the most significant alcohol-related injury to memory and learning results from repeated withdrawal from alcohol. But withdrawal doesn’t necessarily mean severe detox such as when someone goes to rehab after long-term heavy drinking.

Mark Twain once joked that quitting smoking is the easiest thing in the world; he quits smoking every night and he starts again every morning. With alcohol it’s the same thing; if you binge drink you eventually go to sleep and your body metabolizes all the alcohol that you’ve consumed. By morning you are in withdrawal. A hangover is essentially a cluster of symptoms related to alcohol withdrawal. The truth is if you go out a single night and have six drinks of alcohol and you stop, you’re going to have withdrawal of the kind that can injure memory and learning.

If you are questioning whether you are binge drinker, remember that the only criteria is a pattern of drinking that brings blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 grams percent or above. For men, that’s about five drinks in two hours. For women, it’s four drinks in two hours. If you aren’t sure what a standard drink is, this chart will help.

Another thing that binge drinking does is injure your ability to learn from bad experiences that happen while you are drunk. You might get into a dangerous situation when you are binge drinking and experience some very real negative consequences. You swear next time you won’t get into that situation, but chances are you won’t remember to avoid it next time you binge drink.

Studies of rats show that when “sober” they will learn to avoid environments where they receive negative stimuli (foot shock), but give them alcohol and they don’t seem to learn how to avoid the environment where they actually experienced the shock.

Their learning is very limited when under the influence of alcohol.

Interestingly, binge drinkers behave like these rats. They fail to learn associations in aversive conditioning tests and they have much more limited learning. As a result they are not able to avoid situations that are going to be dangerous to them.

Alcohol essentially interferes with your ability to remember threatening situations.

You might ask what a real-life equivalent is to this. Let’s say you binge drink at a football game and drive home drunk. You wake up in your driveway and realize you took out your mailbox. You feel sick to your stomach, yet you’re lucky it didn’t end worse than this. Next time, you swear, you will not drive if you get that drunk.

Unless you make it impossible to drive before you start drinking, chances are you will drive again when you get drunk. Once you are drunk again, you will make the same bad decisions because your alcohol-intoxicated brain has not learned the lesson. (This is also referred to as state-dependent learning.) In fact, binge drinkers are 14 times more likely to drive under the influence than non-binge drinkers.

During the withdrawal period that occurs after any binge drinking episode, your brain tries to re-adjust to being alcohol-free; it often misses the baselines, however, and overshoots the mark. This is the most vulnerable period when brain cells die.

You might read this and think, “Well, it’s just short-term memory loss.” But the damage is more pervasive than that. If new information cannot be retained in short-term memory, it has no chance of being consolidated in long-term storage. Research shows that few cognitive functions escape the impact of alcohol.

Just scan some of the academic literature on binge drinking and the titles alone will make you wonder if this style of alcohol consumption is such a good idea. Words like neurotoxicity, neuronal degeneration, cognitive deficits, and the more easily understood phrase “brain damage” abound in the scientific literature on binge drinking.

So the next time you break open that second six pack during the game, ask yourself if it really is just harmless fun.

The question becomes, what can be done to help Baby Boomers who need treatment to overcome substance abuse today? This is especially important if the boomer happens to be in your immediate family. It may be your spouse or your parent, or even your child, if you are the elderly parent of the boomer.

• Consider an intervention – If your loved one who is a Baby Boomer is resistant to the idea of accepting treatment, you may wish to consider a professional intervention as a means of convincing him or her that treatment is the best option. Enlist the support and participation of other close family members, as well as friends, and definitely make the call to obtain a trained interventionist to handle this possibly life-saving intervention. Make sure that you look for a board certified interventionist.
• Consider residential treatment – Whether or not you need to use an interventionist to get your loved one into treatment, you will need to make arrangements for the treatment itself. For many Baby Boomers trying to overcome substance abuse, a residential treatment facility is the best option. After initial screening, a personalized treatment plan will be created for the boomer, and will consist of education about substance abuse, learning how to recognize and identify triggers to using, learning methods of coping with cravings and urges to use, and considerable time spent on relapse prevention. One-on-one counseling, group counseling, and possibly prescription medications to assist in lessening anxiety and/or depression may be utilized. Private insurance may cover most of the residential treatment for the Baby Boomer, or there may be financial assistance available through federal, state or local programs.

Relapse Prevention

What happens during the relapse prevention phase of treatment for Baby Boomers as they are overcoming substance abuse? According to SAMHSA, a successful relapse prevention treatment approach utilizes the cognitive-behavioral and self-management intervention in a counselor-led treatment setting to help older adults overcome substance use disorders. Treatment modules should consist of the following:

• An analysis of substance use behavior – The first module consists of having the individual learn how to analyze their behavior by looking at their substance abuse behavior patterns what prompted it, the behaviors themselves, and the consequences associated with that behavior.
• Learning how to manage social pressure – Refusal skills are an important method for individuals to use when social pressures create high-risk situations for substance abuse relapse. Here the objective is to teach the individual how to control their behaviors while still being able to socialize.
• How to manage situations at home and alone – Learning how to cope with boredom and loneliness and manage leisure time is taught in this module.
• How to manage negative thoughts and emotions associated with substance abuse – This module teaches the individual how to recognize repetitive thoughts and negative self-talk, how to interrupt those negative patterns, and to find ways other than substance abuse to cope with mood changes.
• How to manage anxiety and tension – It’s important that the individual learn how to manage feelings of anxiety, ways to avoid situations that produce these feelings, as well as skills on how to reduce those feelings.
• How to manage anger and frustration – The importance of using assertive behavior to handle feelings of frustration and anger are taught in this module.
• How to control substance abuse cues – This involves recognizing personal substance abuse cues as well as practicing skills on how to avoid those cues.
• How to cope with urges – Here the individual learns that urges last for various periods, have a beginning and an end, even during abstinence; can be waited out; become weaker and end sooner each time they are resisted; and become easier to resist each time they are successfully managed.
• Preventing a slip from becoming a relapse – One slip doesn’t have to lead to a relapse, negative self-talk can be replaced with positive self-talk, and self-management skills and requests for help can be used to avoid a relapse.

How Long Will It Take and Will Treatment Be Effective?

A natural question that anyone would have is whether treatment for substance abuse will be successful. Along with that is how long will it take. The answer depends on the individual’s particular situation. How long has he or she been abusing drugs and/or alcohol? What is her or her drug of choice? Are there medical conditions or mental health disorder also present? Is there a family history of drug or alcohol abuse? These are just a few of the screening questions that help the professionals at the treatment facility create a tailored treatment plan to help the Baby Boomer overcome substance abuse.

Some individuals may do well in a 30-day or short-term treatment program while others with chronic substance abuse may need a treatment program lasting 60 days or even longer. Aftercare or continuing care programs are also important to help ensure long-term effective sobriety. Family programs can help others in the household learn how to support the Baby Boomer post-treatment as he or she begins recovery.

There is, however, no guarantee that treatment for substance abuse will be effective with Baby Boomers just as there’s no guarantee that treatment will work for any other age individual. What is known is that without treatment, substance abuse will only worsen. So, too, will the complications and consequences associated with substance abuse, and this is particularly true with older adults.

It is also a fact that just getting detoxed, coming clean from alcohol or drugs (or both), is not enough. You can’t just dry out and expect that everything is going to be fine from this day forward. Without counseling and education to learn how to manage stresses and life changes without self-medicating with drugs and alcohol, the cycle will continue to be repeated. That’s why it’s important that the Baby Boomer who goes into treatment remain in treatment after detox. The only way treatment will be able to prove effective for the boomer is if he or she stays in the program that’s been tailored for him or her through completion.

Following treatment, participation in self-help groups, peer-support groups, and family support and encouragement are recommended for the Baby Boomer to maintain sobriety.

Substance abuse among Baby Boomers is indeed growing. But this doesn’t have to be a foregone conclusion or result in tragedy. Treatment can help.

Substance Abuse Grows Among Boomers

A recent study sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) shows that the rate of illicit drug use among those adults aged 50 to 59 has increased 3.1 percent in the past eight years.

The NSDUH also found that an estimated 4.3 million American adults aged 50 and older (or 4.3 percent of this population) have abused an illicit substance in the past year. Of that, men over the age of 50 were more likely to use marijuana than prescription drugs, while individuals age 65 and older were more likely to use prescription medication. Women, as a group, had a higher rate of prescription drug abuse than men, although they did tend to use less illicit drugs.

According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), the two most commonly abused prescription drugs are opiates or painkillers, such as oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone, morphine, and methadone, and benzodiazepines, such as diazepam (Valium), alprazolam (Xanax), clonazepam (Klonopin), and lorazepam (Ativan).

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimate that 48 million people in the United States have used prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes. But, although the elderly comprise only 13 percent of the population, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, this group accounts for one-third of the prescriptions, raising the potential for abuse and addiction.

This poses a problem not only for the boomers themselves, but also for their families, both children and elderly parents.

What is causing this growing incidence of substance abuse among boomers? There are several possible explanations. We’ll begin with one that seems to be a common perception, which may or may not have a basis in reality, depending on which Baby Boomer is being considered. After all, each person is the product of unique life experiences, and not all boomers fall into the same category.

Population study experts who pore over data and characteristics of generations of adults in the United States point to the fact that Baby Boomers grew up during a time when the recreational use of drugs was not only common practice, but was accepted behavior in certain parts of society. Certainly it was among the boomer generation.

Now, as life stressors are mounting up, many of these boomers are once again reverting to substance abuse as a means of coping with daily stresses and unexpected and unpleasant changes.

Contributing Factors to Baby Boomers’ Substance Abuse

But just growing up in a time of common recreational use of drugs couldn’t be the only reason why Baby Boomers are now using drugs and alcohol, often to levels approaching dependency and addiction. There have to be other contributing factors to consider.

In fact, there are a number of them.

Financial insecurity and strain, the loss of a parent or loved one, age-related health issues and other stressors tend to increase during this transitional period in boomers’ lives.

• Looking for a quick fix- With their tendency to be extremely goal-oriented or career-oriented, many boomers look for a quick fix to problems. Approaching tasks, they were used to figuring out a solution and going for it. When their current lifestyle doesn’t lend itself to immediate relief from stress, anxiety, depression, illness and other unpleasant changes, they may find that drowning their sorrows in alcohol or numbing their mind with drugs offers a way out of the pain, even it if is only a temporary solution.
• Dealing with stage of life issues – Baby Boomers are now at that time in their lives when they have to sit down and deal with some pretty heavy issues, things they either didn’t think much about before or figured were a long ways off and therefore not demanding their attention. It could be adjusting to a life in retirement that adds stress to their lives. With no job or career to attend to on a daily basis, many boomers may feel lost, undervalued, unimportant, and mourn the feeling they had of being part of something, a sense of community. Other life issues that cause stress and unpleasant change include possibly having to support two other generations: their own children and their aging parents. How much easier it often seems to just take a drink or pop a pill of one kind or another in order to just have it all fade away for a while?
• More medications prescribed as Boomers age – Then, there’s also the fact that as Baby Boomers get older, they’re subject to any number of age-related health conditions, any one of which may require that they are being prescribed various types of medication. Combine several different doctors and multiple conditions and the individual could be taking a pharmacopeia of pills – which could interact with each other and result in side-effects or complications. Factor in daily or frequent intake of alcohol, sometimes to excess, and the risks increase for dependency, addiction and overdose. Another fact to consider is that Baby Boomers are more accepting of medication, and often view prescription drug use as necessary. They may even boast how many pills they’re taking, listing them in a litany of drugs to other family members.
• Combination of drugs and age-related complex disorders – As boomers age, they may experience a combination of different disorders that are related to aging. Health risks increase when boomers abuse substances and have existing or newly-developed complex disorders. While boomers may know something about their health conditions, they may not be aware of the health risks they are taking as a result of their substance abuse in conjunction with their age-related medical conditions. Older Americans also have more problems related to drinking due to both the effect of cumulative years of drinking and the fact that their bodies and brains are older and have less restorative abilities. The effects of drinking impact an older individual faster because the body and brain aren’t able to metabolize the alcohol consumed as well or to regenerate brain cells.
• Resistant to getting treatment for addiction – Another common tendency is for Baby Boomers to feel that they can take care of the situation themselves, no matter what it is. This includes the belief that they don’t need treatment to overcome substance abuse. Not only will they deny that they have a problem with abuse of alcohol or drugs, if pressed and when faced with the facts, they often vehemently insist that they can get a handle on it without outside help. The problem with this resistance is that boomers will likely just continue abusing substances. Once dependent, it’s an almost inevitable slide into addiction. Without treatment, the cycle will just continue.

Learn about treatment options for Baby Boomers.

OxyContin is one of the best-selling brand-name narcotic painkillers in the world, amassing Purdue Pharma billions of dollars in annual revenue.

In fact, this is one instance where big Pharma isn’t about to get away with misrepresentation of a drug’s addictive potential. Cutting to the latest development first, the state of Kentucky, home of the thoroughbred racers, among other notable attractions, is suing Purdue Pharma in a billion-dollar lawsuit. For more detailed information on the Kentucky lawsuit, see Jim Edwards’ story in BNET (http://www.bnet.com/blog/drug-business/how-purdue-used-misleading-charts-to-hide-oxycontins-addictive-power/9870).

The state’s lawsuit, now pending, alleges that Purdue actively suppressed data about OxyContin’s addictive potential and knowingly remained silent as the drug known as "hillbilly heroin" became one of the most widely abused and deadly prescription drug in the country.

Kentucky’s suit says that an estimated 80,000 Kentuckians have become hooked on Oxy, along with millions of other Americans. A recently released study showing that drug-related fatalities have outnumbered traffic deaths for the first time since such statistics have been collected will no doubt add some strength to Kentucky’s arguments.

Not only is Kentucky suing for reimbursement for Medicaid payments for patients who were prescribed Oxy, it also demands restitution for all the harm that the drug has caused in the state. In this, the lawsuit is unique. The fine Kentucky seeks from Purdue Pharma would cover rehab and healthcare for addicts, as well as education, prevention and "excessive prescription costs."

The timeline and detail on how this landmark lawsuit came about is simply a matter of connecting the dots.

OxyContin’s Addictive Potential Misrepresented in Charts

When Purdue Pharma was involved in safety hearings over the drug, it presented charts showing that OxyContin stays in the bloodstream at least 24 hours. Such a representation, if it were true, would mean that the physical and psychological impact of withdrawal would be significantly reduced.

But that was not the case, according to Kentucky prosecutors who allege that the chart was deliberately manipulated by Purdue and was factually wrong. What the charts showed was data using a logarithmic or log scale, rather than a linear scale. See the BNET story referenced above for a more complete understanding of the misrepresented charges.

Sales reps used the log chart to convince doctors that OxyContin wasn’t addictive because it didn’t have a sharp user comedown. Doctors did not know that the chart was in log scale and not linear scale, and thus were duped into believing OxyContin was less addictive than other pain relievers.

In many reports surfacing after the publicity over OxyContin and Purdue’s marketing of the drug, numerous doctors claimed that Oxy’s effects peak quickly in the bloodstream, leaving the system after just a few hours. This, in turn, triggers severe withdrawal symptoms and cravings.

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) had ordered Purdue to remove the misleading chart from all of its promotional materials as far back as 1996. Yet the company continued to include it on the drug’s official labeling – where it remains today.

Long History of Misrepresentation of OxyContin’s Addictive Danger

The FDA had also, back in 1995, explicitly banned Purdue from claiming that the extended-release form of OxyContin was less addictive or less susceptible to abuse than any other pain medication on the market. Yet Purdue continued to market OxyContin to doctors as a less-addictive form of opiate pain medications, using altered charts and referring to OxyContin as having "fewer ‘peaks and valleys’ than with immediate release oxycodone."

In 2007, three Purdue executives – the former CEO, R&D chief, and chief legal counsel — were held personally liable for, as a U.S. attorney told USA Today, unleashing "a highly abusable, addictive and potentially dangerous drug on an unsuspecting an unknowing public."

Despite Purdue having to pay close to $1 billion in plea agreements as a result of lawsuits that arose because the company deliberately concealed OxyContin’s abuse and addiction potential, the three convicted company executives never had to pay a penny in restitution. The executives were shielded from the monetary damages pursuant to indemnification agreements. As for Purdue, it had factored in the costs of the lawsuits as part of doing business.

However, there was one small ray of light. Despite trying to have a 12-year ban on doing business with the government overturned, none of the three convicted Purdue executives can ever work in the field again, and can never do business with Medicare and Medicaid again. Since almost every drug company accepts payments from the government, this permanent ban, in effect, ruins the careers (in the drug industry) of those three former Purdue executives. See BNET story "Feds Wage War on Pharma CEOs: Ban on OxyContin Execs Upheld" (http://www.bnet.com/blog/drug-business/how-purdue-used-misleading-charts-to-hide-oxycontins-addictive-power/9870).

What’s the Big Deal? Don’t Patients Deserve Legitimate Pain Relievers?

Clearly there is a demonstrated need for effective painkilling medications for patients with a legitimate medical condition. The scandal over OxyContin isn’t that it’s meant to deprive such patients from receiving relief from pain from medication prescribed by their doctors, but that the addictive potential was deliberately concealed both from doctors and patients.

Many narcotic analgesic pain relieving medications contain oxycodone, the key ingredient in OxyContin, although in much smaller amounts. In OxyContin, it’s a time-release formula that contains 40 to 160 milligrams of oxycodone. The fact that patients seeking relief from pain who have been prescribed OxyContin may become addicted to the drug is one part of the problem.

The other part of the problem is that the drug has quickly become the alternative drug of choice among users of heroin. By snorting, chewing, crushing, or shooting the pills, the drug’s time-release aspect is easily bypassed, leading to a quick high. But since the high quickly dissipates, this leaves the user wanting more of the drug, more often, which may lead to addiction.

Diversion, doctor shopping, borrowing pills prescribed to others, buying Oxy on the street – all have become common practice as users clamor for the drug to satisfy their addiction. Thus, the millions of Americans currently addicted to, or in danger of becoming addicted to, OxyContin.

Landmark Case Will be Closely Followed

One thing is clear in this sad litany of misrepresentation of OxyContin’s addictive potential and Purdue Pharma’s role in it: the Kentucky lawsuit will be closely followed and may be just the tip of the iceberg for many more such suits to be brought in the future by other states seeking restitution for damages done.

Will Purdue Pharma be hit with a substantial penalty in this latest lawsuit? Will the days of OxyContin on the street be numbered? Will the company be forced to change the formulation of the drug? Across the country, petitions have been and are being filed seeking to get rid of this scourge once and for all and to make pharmaceutical companies and any executives involved pay the price for their misdeeds and misrepresentations.

It will be very interesting to see how this all unfolds.

Benjamin hopes to bring together medical professionals, law enforcement, community advocates, educators, treatment experts and many others in efforts to battle this huge problem in America. Karen Kelly, president and CEO of Operation UNITE based in Kentucky, says Benjamin is at the forefront of response to this crisis. Benjamin is the 18th Surgeon General in the U.S. and provides the top scientific information that is available in efforts to improve the health of our nation.

The National Prevention Strategy acknowledges that good health doesn’t just come from receiving the best medical care but also from healthy lives at home, in the workplace, in safe outdoor places and with physical activity and healthy nutrition. Kelly adds that America’s youth are especially susceptible but that Benjamin is skilled at implementing strategies for prevention of drug abuse. Benjamin brings her expertise to the Spring Summit and her knowledge from overseeing the command of over 6,000 health officers serving in areas around the world. The goal of the Summit is to help name policies that are data-driven and find the solutions. Benjamin has various degrees and experience over the course of her work that includes 15 honorary doctorates.

The goal of the summit is to bring all of these top stakeholders together in an effort to prevent this epidemic from further escalating.

The Violence in Mexico

Mexican leaders report almost inconceivable numbers of casualties in the war against drugs. Officials report that close to 48,000 persons have been killed there in violence connected to drug activity just since 2006. In the first four months of 2011, 13,000 more people died drug-related deaths. The Mexican National Human Rights Committee says that as horrendous as those figures are, they do not include the greater than 5,000 citizens who have gone missing as a result of drug violence nor include the thousands of children who have become orphaned as a result of drug-inspired violence.

Growing Violence in the United States

The violence is paying almost no regard to the U.S. – Mexican border. The billions of dollars in profits that drug cartels realize annually are largely made selling drugs on U.S. soil. The U.S. Justice Department has reported that drug cartels were present in 230 U.S. towns and cities in 2008, but today that number is closer to 1,000 cities. Gangs on the streets of border cities like Los Angeles, Dallas and others are often connected to drug cartels in Mexico. In one infamous recent case, a 14 year old known as ‘El Ponchis’ (the Cloak) was found guilty of acting as a cartel assassin who tortured and beheaded his victims. The boy is serving a three year prison sentence in a Mexican prison for his crimes.

The Love of Money

U.S. officials are wondering just how long the violence in Mexico can go on. After all, at some point the harm is destroying not only their own country but even their own families. At the center of the murderous violence is the struggle among cartels for control over smuggling channels from Mexico into the U.S. Greed is behind it all. Cocaine grown south of our border costs around $2,000/kilo to produce but sells for anywhere from $34,000 to $120,000/kilo on the streets of American cities. It is estimated that the combined annual income of traffickers in Mexico and Colombia runs close to $40 million. With no ideology but the love of money, as long as U.S. buyers will buy, the violence is unlikely to cease.

The Mexican government seems to be losing the battle for control of its long border with the United States. Instead, the border is falling into the control of bloodthirsty cartels with no apparent regard for human life. Those cartels are attempting to push their control northward essentially moving the border. As they do, more and more American law enforcement agents and innocent civilians are paying a heavy price. Until Americans decide to stop consuming, the killing is likely to continue.

Ms. Locklear’s troubles seem to have begun in 2006 when it she discovered emails which hinted that her husband of 11 years, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, was carrying on an affair with one of their mutual acquaintances. Almost immediately, tabloid magazines ran stories which reported Ms. Locklear as seeking the help of prescription medications to deal with bouts of anxiety and depression. Not long after her supposed discovery, Ms. Locklear filed for divorce.

Things appeared quiet for a time until 2008 when it was reported that the star had spent a month at a center in Arizona receiving treatment for anxiety and depression. Sadly, Ms. Locklear appears to have experienced a relapse at best, within a matter of months she was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Evidently, a US Weekly reporter who had been photographing Ms. Locklear that same evening, made a 911 call to report that the star was driving erratically. It turned out that Ms. Locklear tested negative for alcohol and narcotics, but her lawyer did say that prescription medications may have caused her impaired driving. The case was dismissed in 2009 after Ms. Locklear entered a plea of no contest to the charge of reckless driving. The star agreed to three years of informal probation and a $700 fine.

No further mishaps were reported until 2010 when she ran into a neighborhood No Parking sign at four in the morning. A neighbor, frightened by the crash, called 911. This case was later dismissed because the court had insufficient evidence to prove that it was Ms. Locklear’s car which had crashed into the sign. Despite the fact that the court could not prove her culpability, it must have been obvious to those closest to Ms. Locklear that she was a woman who needed some help. It took another near-disaster before her loved ones intervened.

In 2011, it was announced that her engagement to boyfriend Jack Wagner was at an end. Their on-again off-again romance appears to have mirrored the turbulence inside Ms. Locklear because just this past month her ingestion of a cocktail of prescription medications (likely Xanax) and alcohol left her so disoriented that her sister placed a frantic call to 911. Ms. Locklear ended up in Los Robles hospital because her family was concerned that she might try to harm herself. The family later said that the star was out of any immediate danger but did announce their desire to see her enter residential rehab treatment again.

It has been said that we live out of our hearts. Ms. Locklear’s heart has been sorely tested over the past six years. Prescription medications and alcohol have not been sufficient to mend what has been damaged inside of the star’s beautiful exterior. Hopefully, she will agree to her family’s wishes that she seek residential rehab treatment. Addressing the issues inside of Ms. Locklear is the best hope for conquering the outside issues plaguing her.

O’Brien says children’s social skills need more work today due to the amount of screen time they spend on their Wii, PSP, X-Box and on the Internet, to name a few. Thankfully, children are so easily adaptable they can be weaned off of such electronics, according to an article on the Daily Telegraph. O’Brien says their clinic has a program for communication and social skills that teaches children how to interact with others by joining groups and learning such basic skills as taking turns.

Experts say it is important to make the transition easier by being prepared for change. Parents need to set certain boundaries to prepare children for school with set bedtimes and limits when it comes to electronics and screen time. As both children and parents prepare for the school year, there needs to be rules in place with appropriate bedtimes and screen times that limit their exposure. Familiarity is a great way to ward off such fears, especially for those starting kindergarten or changing schools. It’s important to go over routines and practice things such as getting dressed and packing school lunches before the first day comes. It also helps to organize play dates for your children during the summer or over holidays. Be sure to visit the school beforehand so your child is more familiar and knows their way around.

Kids are much more resilient than adults and if you help encourage them and prepare them, you will help to ease some of the unnecessary stress that comes with change.

Why did Vinny choose to leave the Jersey Shore house? In his own words, Vinny tells us as he opens up about dealing with anxiety and stress in a video broadcast on vinny.halfofus.com.

• Vinny started having anxiety and panic attacks at a young age, especially in high school. That’s when he really started having bad panic attacks. "They came out of nowhere. There’s nothing really to pinpoint it, when it happens. It can be all in your subconscious."
• How anxiety mounts up. "When my anxiety starts to interfere with my job, my school, things that I do in my everyday life, then it starts to become a problem. One of your resources is to actually remove yourself from the situation at hand.
• Why he left Jersey Shore. "I was on the Jersey Shore and it’s a terrible environment for me to be involved in when I’m anxious because there’s drinking involved, there’s fighting involved, lack of sleep, lack of privacy and it’s just not a good place for me. So, in order for me to get better, I had to go home and recharge my batteries."
• "We’re in a pretty crazy environment when we film. I feel bad for my roommates, for any inconvenience that I caused them. They really didn’t have that many resources to help me when I was filming the show.
• Advice for dealing with anxiety or stress. "The advice that I have for someone dealing with anxiety or stress is to definitely get help, just to say something to somebody, whether it’s your sister, your brother, a friend, your mother, a therapist. It doesn’t have to be that extreme. You have to just speak up so, in case the problem ever does become manifest and gets worse, you have already laid down the foundation and people already are aware. You’re on their radar that something’s not right.
• What about a friend who may be dealing with anxiety? "I would definitely recommend help for your friend. Maybe the person dealing with anxiety doesn’t want to go to a professional, or is embarrassed to see a therapist or to open up about it. I would be a support system for that friend that’s going through anxiety. Be there for them, but also help them. Maybe go through their insurance book with them and look up therapists or say, ‘You know what, I hear that there’s school counselors around that can help you.’ Because a lot of times, the anxious person or the depressed person has no drive or motivation themselves, so the best advice I can give for someone that’s a bystander is to do the work for the anxious person, just so the anxious person just has to walk through the door."
• Go to vinny.halfofus.com for phone numbers you can call, people that can give advice. "It doesn’t have to be so extreme. No one has to be on a ledge in order to seek help. Just ask a professional or someone around you. Just speaking up is the hardest part."

Anxiety Disorders are Common

You may feel like you’re alone in this situation, but the facts are otherwise. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States. They frequently co-occur with depressive disorders, substance abuse, or eating disorders.

Approximately 5 to 10 percent of the U.S. population has one or more phobias. Research shows that people with phobias, particularly social phobias, may also exhibit problems with substance abuse. Many individuals with social phobias become so anxious that they also experience panic attacks as well.

Between 2 and 3 percent of Americans, approximately 6 to 9 million, have obsessive-compulsive disorder, also called OCD.

Panic disorder typically develops in the late teens or early adulthood. But not everyone who experiences panic attacks will later develop panic disorder. Many individuals have a single panic attack and never have another one.

Individuals who suffer post-traumatic-stress disorder (PTSD) may have flashbacks that are so strong they feel as if they are reliving the traumatic event.

What to Watch for with Anxiety Disorders

While everyone feels anxious at some time or another, when anxiety takes over your life and begins interfering with it, as it did with Vinny of Jersey Shore, you need to be aware of the warning signs so that you can get help to do something about your anxiety.

Watch out for:

• Excessive worry with an inability to control it
• Intense episodes of fear or panic
• Recurring nightmares
• Avoidance of social situations
• Difficulty concentrating
• Repeated, unwanted thoughts (obsessions)
• Sleep disturbances
• Upsetting and intrusive memories of a traumatic event
• Physical symptoms, such as nausea, rapid heart rate, stomach pain, muscle tension, sweating, shaking, dizziness, numbness, or difficulty breathing

Questions to Ask Yourself

One way to test yourself to see if you are dealing with high anxiety is to ask yourself the following questions:

• Have you found yourself in situations where you felt more anxious than usual?
• Have you been feeling sad, tired, blue or depressed lately?
• Have you had difficulty managing stress in your daily life?
• Have you ever felt as though you should cut down on your use of alcohol or drugs, whether prescription or illegal)?
• Over the past couple of weeks, have you ever felt bad about yourself, like you’ve let somebody down or that you are a failure?
• Over the past couple of weeks, have you ever felt as if you had a hard time concentrating, or that your thoughts came out slow or jumbled up?
• Have you noticed recent changes in your mood, interests, sleep patterns, or eating habits?

If you answered yes to several of these questions, you may have one or more problems that you could use help dealing with.

For more information and help, check out the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) by calling 1-800-950-NAMI or go to their www.nami.org/.

There’s also the www.adaa.org/.

Bottom line: Don’t suffer with anxiety, depression, or any other mental health disorder that’s taking over your life. Speak up and ask for help. You can learn how to effectively manage these conditions so that you can go on living your life and be happier and more self-fulfilled.

Start by talking with someone you know and who cares about you. Let them know how you are feeling and ask for their assistance in finding some help for you. Don’t think about it as a big thing. Just do it. The road to recovery and feeling better about yourself and your life begins with taking this first step. And it’s a step that’s well worth taking.

As Vinny’s experience shows us, sometimes you just have to leave a stressful situation and concentrate on taking care of your emotional health. But you don’t do this alone. Get the help you need, whether it’s from a therapist that your family doctor recommends or through a school counselor or other referring professional. Just do it, and do it today.

About The Half of Us Campaign

Launched in 2006 by The Jed Foundation and mtvU, MTV’s college network, The Half of Us campaign seeks to raise awareness and reduce stigma around emotional health issues and to encourage individuals to seek help if they need it. The campaign tells stories of high-profile artists and celebrities, like Mary J. Blige, who came back from alcohol, drugs, depression and the brink of suicide, Billy Corgan, of Smashing Pumpkins, who overcame anxiety, depression, cutting, childhood abuse and contemplating suicide, Ron Artest, NBA Laker who got treatment to deal with his depression, and Pete Wentz, musician, who learned how to deal with anxiety, depression, and thoughts of suicide, along with those of college students across the country.

To learn more about The Half of Us campaign, go to www.halfofus.com.