La Hacienda

While reading an article this morning in Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
Weekly I came across this comment - “… recovery is a process of coming
to terms with one’s illness rather than the elimination of its
symptoms.” I immediately thought that’s what the 12 Steps gives us - a
process of coming to terms with our illness. Through working the steps
we come to understand our powerlessness and the unmanageability
addiction has brought to our lives and we gain the tools to deal with
life on life’s terms. Many of us have spent years trying to eliminate
the symptoms, but it’s not until we come to terms with our illness that
we can hope to truly recover.

-Sherri Layton

After doing basic training in Ft Jackson, SC in 1966, Leonard Ensminger served with the Army’s 1^st Infantry Division in Vietnam for one year. His next tour of duty was in South Korea for 2 ½ years where he met his wife of 44 years, Chong. Upon returning to The States, Leonard attended Cook School, Culinary School and Hospital Food Service School. This training prepared him for another tour of duty in Vietnam, only this time with the 24^th Evac Hospital for a year before he was selected to cook at the General’s Officers Club in Vietnam. Back stateside, Leonard spent two years at Ft Sam Houston with the 24^th Evac Hospital again, returned to school for the Hospital Food Service Supervisors Course and then served as a Senior Food Service Instructor at the Hospital Food Service School. After 2 ½ years there, his duties changed to being a Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge (NCOIC) of Food Service at hospitals in Wurzburg, Germany, Washington, D.C., Stuttgart, Germany, and Ft. Hood, Texas, respectively. After 8 ½ years as an NCOIC, Leonard took a break and spent the next two years writing Skill Qualification tests for all Army food service personnel’s promotion requirements. He returned to NCOIC duties for the next two years at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas where he retired from the military in 1988. Since Leonard’s military career prepared him well for a civilian career in food service, he obtained employment for the next 5 ½ years as Food and Nutrition Services Director at the Army Residents Community in San Antonio, followed by another 5 ½ years as assistant Food and Nutrition Services Director with the Methodist Health Care System. Leonard then joined the La Hacienda team as Food and Nutrition Services Director, a position he has held for the last 14 years.

The alcoholic is usually the identified patient in the family system but the entire family needs to change for all to recover.  There is a great article on About.com providing 10 key actions a family member can do immediately to take care of themselves.  The family system is like a dance, if one person starts dancing to a different beat, change inevitably occurs for all family members.

10 Things to Stop Doing if You Love an Alcoholic

Is your US Representative a member of the Congressional Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery Caucus?

Probably not since only 22% of all Representatives are members! That’s 73 of 337 representatives nationwide (4 of 32 Texas representatives)!

What does the Caucus do?

Founded in 2004, it is the leading Congressional Caucus of bipartisan Members who are dedicated to educating and raising awareness among lawmakers about addiction issues in hopes of increasing legislative support for expanding access to treatment.  Joining does not commit the Representative to support any particular legislation. It is simply a forum to get relevant information to its members.

What can you do?

Visit http://sullivan.house.gov/Biography/ATRCaucusMembers.htm to see if your Representative is a member. If he/she is, call the office and thank them for being involved and let them know this is important to you! Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for the office of your Representative. You will probably have to leave a message but leave your “thank you” and it will get to the Representative.

If she/he is not a member, and/or you don’t know who your Representative is, visit http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/7158/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7809 and scroll to the bottom of the page, enter your zip code and click submit. On the next page Option 2 allows you to send an email directly to your Representative and the email is already written for you, all you have to do is add your  name at the bottom of the pre-written text and then fill out your demographic information and click “Send Your Message”.

I will be visiting Washington DC next week on behalf of La Hacienda and treatment providers in general. Caucus membership will be one of my “asks” with the Congressmen I meet with. Having calls and emails from their constituents will make my request more “on the radar”.

Thank you!!! Let me know if I can help you with any legislative questions or contacts, slayton@lahacienda.com.

Couples Recovery Planning

Presented by Michael Cox, LCDC, ICADC

Family Program Director

Saturday, March 24, 2012

9:00 am to 4:00 pm

La Hacienda Community Outreach Office

1320 Greenway Dr., Suite 135

Irving, Texas

Topics Presented

• Quality Communication
• Emotional Growth for the Relationship

• Couples 1-year Shared Journal Creation

• Wider Support System Balance

Who: 

• Couples who have some time in recovery (1-2 years). 

• One had a treatment advantage or time in AA, NA, CA  developing tools and a “personal” recovery plan.

• Now the relationship needs a plan for recovery they can both work at.

• Busy couples willing to slow down and make the connection and improvements needed to honor each other .

• Couples looking to gain some specific tools to move to a more honest and vulnerable relationship.

• Couples in need of simple workable conflict solving skills

• Those in need of a plan assisting them to work for a successful, lasting higher quality relationship

• May be La Ha graduates, may be from the local wider recovery community without a prior connection to La Ha.

For detailed questions or concerns call Michael Cox, 800-749-6160 ext. 303.

For credit card payment call Janice Ward, 800-749-6160 ext. 300.

Josh Hamilton and his Struggle with Addiction

This post was provided by Hickory Wind Ranch, a sober living environment in Austin, TX.

It may come as a surprise to many to learn that Texas Ranger outfielder and slugger, Josh Hamilton, has struggled with addiction his whole life. He recently made headlines for admitting that he had in fact been drinking in two Dallas-area bars the last month, which caused concern among his players and team owner, Nolan Ryan.

For those who don’t know, Josh Hamilton was a stellar prospect coming out of high school. He was selected as the first overall draft in 1999 by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and was awarded a massive signing bonus. After impressing scouts in the minor leagues, Hamilton began to suffer from chronic injuries and drug and alcohol abuse. Before the 2001 season, Hamilton and his parents were involved in a car accident. That season, he only played 45 games. In 2002, still plagued by injuries from the accident, Hamilton managed to only squeeze out 56 games.

From then on, Hamilton was in and out of rehab, bouncing around minor league teams and struggling with his addiction problems until 2006, where he managed to train and play with the Hudson Valley Renegades (a Devil Rays minor league feeder team) for the last part of the season. It seemed he was back.

In 2007, Hamilton was picked up by the Cincinnati Reds and had a stellar year starting in center field. In 2008 he was traded to his current team the Texas Rangers and has since been selected as an All-Star, American League MVP, American League RBI Champion, American League Batting Champion, American League Championship Series MVP, and has won two Silver Slugger Awards as well as a Player’s Choice Award.

If Josh Hamilton’s narrative is evidence of anything, it’s that addiction never truly goes away. It’s a lifelong fight that requires one to be prepared at all times. Even four years down the road, after plenty of personal success and accomplishments, Hamilton still struggles from time to time. Luckily, he has a great support group around him. His team shows their support by using Ginger Ale champagne instead of real champagne to celebrate pennant titles in the clubhouse. The Rangers organization has hired him an accountability partner, and his wife is very open about their past. Hamilton also openly admits that it was a sense of religious faith that has led him back toward sobriety.

His story also proof that you can overcome your addictions and drawbacks. Hamilton went from being an unstable minor league burnout to one of baseball’s greatest players. Now, let’s see if he can’t add a World Series ring to that list of accomplishments.

Inhalant abuse, also known as ‘huffing’, is very common among young people right now and very dangerous. At La Hacienda we see most of this abuse among our collegiate patients, but not to the degree we did when we had an adolescent program. Unfortunately, it is the most accessible type of drug there is. Common household products such as nail polish remover, hair spray, cleaning fluids, and whipped cream can be sniffed and inhaled in various ways. The common slang words used to reference these products are laughing gas, poppers, snappers and whippets.

For the full article click here.

There would be no music if high C were the only note,
no art if spectrum red were the only color,
no joy in pleasure if pleasure were the only feeling — and paradoxically,
there would be no perfection without imperfection.
What does this mean to me? Well, first it means that I don’t have to be perfect.
All I have to do is grow at a pace natural to me —
and that is all I have a right to expect of others. - The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 1], pp.60-61

Many people in the addiction field think that education and intellect make it harder to get and stay sober. Although it is true that intellectual people tend to talk more and look for scientific solutions to sobriety, the actual problems are not much different from anyone else’s problems.  Individual needs may warrant more time in treatment but the education and discipline of the person is not important.  The more someone avoids the basic problem of not drinking or using narcotics, the more time it takes for them to actually address the addiction and not “issue man”. 

Some professionals should plan on more time in treatment than other professionals, but I have never seen a profession that has any more effect on sobriety than a spouse.  Spouses do not cause addictions but they are convenient for blame.    Egos may be larger in one profession than another but all professions have egos and addiction problems.  Recovery is about the work that a person does and the honesty that is expressed in that work.  I would question a test of humility that did not include working with others for no gain like the work that is done in 12 Step programs. The spiritual solution is about more than intellect or education. 

Several years ago, I was at a professional meeting of military men who proudly said their addiction rate was only 5% because that is the percent of people with problems caught at their gate checks.  I am someone that was missed by similar gate checks, so I do not always agree with statistics when there is information to the contrary.  In my experience, I don’t think gate checks make addiction in the military any less or any more than any other profession. 

-Doug Coffey