5 Celebrities That Conquered Addiction

A large number of celebrities have managed to beat their addiction to various substances. Here are a few of the biggest stars that are shining brighter than ever.

Martin Sheen: Sheen is a recovering alcoholic. In the 1970s, his alcoholism was so severe that he suffered a mild heart attack while filming Apocalypse Now. However, he has been in recovery since 1981. This followed a series of talks with film director Terrence Malick in Paris. He's truly is the embodiment of the sober lifestyle.

Jamie Lee Curtis: Curtis struggled with drug and alcohol addiction since the age of 35. However, Curtis has now been in recovery for more than a decade. Following a routine operation when Curtis was 35, she became addicted to painkillers. Curtis also self-medicated with alcohol in order to ease her loneliness. Curtis is quoted as saying her recovery is the ‘single greatest achievement’ in her life. She feels that without her recovery, her life would be a total shambles. Curtis said that she was lucky because she felt like she didn’t have anything to lose by entering recovery.

Robert Downey Jr.: Downey was born into the limelight, with his first film role at the age of five. He says he was brought up surrounded by drugs. When Downey became addicted to heroin, his life spiraled completely out of control. He was arrested numerous times and even spent six months in jail when he failed to attend a court-ordered drug test. Downey managed to quit drugs in 2001 by relying on a number of holistic therapies. He filled the void from his abstinence by taking up yoga and Wing Chun Kung Fu. He also credits the support he received from his spouse as the source of his success in recovery.

Nicole Richie: Richie, the adopted child of Lionel Richie, was the recipient of a privileged upbringing in Beverly Hills. She says that this glamorous lifestyle led her to experiment with drugs during her teens. She got to the point where nothing excited her anymore and the boredom caused her to engage in dangerous behavior. She struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction, including heroin, cocaine and prescription drugs. She’s now been clean for nearly a decade, working as a fashion designer. She actively works on her recovery each day.

Elton John: John began to experiment with cocaine back in 1974 and a year later suffered his first overdose. Despite his enormous popularity (more than 300 million records sold), he said that he took drugs to feel socially accepted. He identified himself as an unattractive loner and felt painfully insecure. For the next 16 years, John continued to abuse drugs and alcohol and attempted to commit suicide several times. John claims he is fortunate to still be alive. He says he experienced several cocaine overdoses, turning blue from epileptic seizures caused by his heavy cocaine use. He refers to this period as the ‘lost years’. In 1990, John decided enough was enough and committed himself to his recovery. 

Kicking & Knocking Out Addiction

By Bob Cox

With the growing opioid addiction crisis in America, which has recently been declared a national emergency, there are also a huge number of people suffering in anonymity: the friends and family members of these victims, including young and vulnerable children. Amazingly enough, for every addict, there’s roughly 250 people that are negatively impacted. The average person knows about that many people, according to Joe Girard, who is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s greatest salesman, having sold 13,001 cars from 1963-1978. When Girard heard about this statistic, he was his determined to treat every customer like gold, building a massive business empire based primarily upon referrals and consistent contact.

So, where can people turn for help when they have a loved one that’s spiraling out of control from addiction? A great place to start is to locate a drug and alcohol counseling organization that has a proven track record of successfully rehabilitating addicts and putting them on the path towards a brighter future, an organization that treats every client like gold. An organization like Better Decisions Counseling Services here in Sacramento (near Rancho Cordova).

The founder of Better Decisions, Janina Guarino and her Program Manager Alex Noriega have put together an extraordinarily successful outpatient program with an 86% success rate. According to Janina, this is roughly four times the average success rate of other outpatient programs, which are closer to 20%.

What makes Better Decisions Counseling Services so successful in helping their clients get back on their feet? Janina believes that there are at least four things that help them deliver superior counseling services. First, Janina and Alex have conquered addiction, so they both have genuine empathy with their clients and they know what it takes to recover. Second, they offer customized counseling services for individuals and/or groups, while many other agencies only offer cookie cutter programs. Third, Better Decisions has an enormous network of resources to help their client’s get the help and training they need to maintain sobriety. Finally, they offer affordable counseling for the entire family.

Janina is especially passionate about helping children that are living with parents addicted to drugs or alcohol. “As the opioid addiction crisis continues to grow, many children don’t have enough food, adequate clothing or shelter. More and more teenagers have become homeless, either because they’ve become addicted to substances or have parents that are. We can give them counseling and life skills they’re not getting at home so that they can achieve independence”, said Janina.

The life skills they teach their clients include things like resume writing, mock interviews, budgeting, finding employment and housing, just to name a few. “We have a vast network of resources, so when we have someone that’s trying to get on their feet, we can help them find jobs and develop the life skills they’ll need to be self sufficient”, Janina explained.

Better Decisions also provides their clients that are on probation affordable courses on subjects like anger management. “Oftentimes, these individuals are required to take a specific number of hours of anger management courses in order to honor their parole agreement. “Oftentimes, they can’t afford it on their own, so without adequate county funding, some of these people go back into a life of crime. Our goal is to prevent that”, Janina said.

Aside from the opioid crisis, another problem in our society is the growing use of marijuana. Janina explained how this has created a challenge for many local businesses that are looking to hire clean, sober and dependable people. Better Decisions offers affordable drug testing for local businesses with substantial discounts based on volume, and for those individuals that test positive, they provide additional counseling services to help them achieve sobriety.

Another key to the high success rate of Better Decisions is how they help their clients replace negative addictions with positive addictions. “We incorporate sports, nutrition, exercise and discipline. We’ve created a cradle to grave program, which includes customized counseling for children, troubled teens and at risk adults of all ages. We help them get off the drugs and alcohol and achieve success”, said Alex.

Janina and Alex have reached out to a number of communities in need, including Native American citizens. “Alex and I are Native American citizens, so we felt compelled to offer courses to specifically help Native American citizens. We’re also offering workshops on Friday nights that’s free for the kids in our community that can’t afford to improve their lives”, Janina explained.

Better Decisions has stepped up their efforts to help more people and their families struggling with addiction by asking local businesses for donations. Companies like Urijah Faber’s Ultimate Fitness has generously granted six scholarships to help kids get off the path of self destruction. Together, these two extraordinary companies are presenting a terrific community event called: 1^st Annual FootGolf Kicking & Knocking Out Addiction Fund Raiser.

Q: Can you tell us about the 1^st Annual FootGolf Kicking & Knocking Out Addiction Fund Raiser?

A: Better Decisions Counseling Services and Urijah Faber’s Ultimate Fitness have teamed up to help kick and knock out addiction with this fun and exciting event on Saturday, September 23^rd (9am-6pm) at Foothill Golf Center (7000 Verner Ave., Sacramento). The money raised at this event will be used to fund scholarships for counseling services at Better Decisions Counseling Services.  Bring the whole family out to enjoy fun games, entertainment, celebrity appearances, including Urijah Faber, Team ALPHA MALE Professional Fighters and the 2016 FIFG World Champion FootGolf Team! Be sure to take photos with local heroes in our community that support those kicking addiction out of their lives.  The event is free for Kids Under 12 and all kids get a free T-shirt and a lunch provided by The Sandwich Spot!  Expect a full day of fun for the whole family with all of these exciting attractions and more, including face painting, music by Souled Out, delicious BBQ provided by The Country Club Optimist Club and visits from our Sacramento County Sheriff & Fire Departments, the military, Mermaid Ginger and much more!  If you would like to contribute to the cause, T-shirts will be sold for $15, donations for food are greatly appreciated and enter our drawing for exciting and valuable prizes. Vendor tables are also available.

For more details, 

call Better Decisions at 916-368-0700 or visit https://www.kickingandknockingaddiction.com/.

Better Decisions will be hosting their annual PTSD event this November, so visit their Facebook page to stay up to date. 

Three Things Unite U.S.

By Bob Cox

Life, liberty and the pursuit of... what was that third thing, oh yeah the pursuit of happiness. This is a fundamental part of our nation’s heritage, dating back to the birth of our beautiful country and infamously written in the Declaration of Independence 12 score and one year ago.

So, are these the three things (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) that I’m convinced unites every American? No. I believe that there are three even more compelling things that connect every human being north of dirt on this spectacular tiny blue orb we call earth. Without further ado, here they are...

1. Happiness: First things first, I think we can all agree that everyone wants to feel more of the good stuff, more joy, peace and yes, happiness. But honestly, do we merely want to just pursue it? Of course not; we want it and we want it now! I have found that during my pathetic little lifetime that the longer I’ve pursued something and didn’t get it, the more frustrated and miserable I became. How’s that for tragic irony!

2. Problems: The second thing we all share is a never ending supply of problems. They seem to come at us like ocean waves. Just when we dove under or glided above the last swell, another one is seconds away from smashing us to smithereens. “When will the madness finally end?” you may be thinking to yourself. I don’t know the answer to that but my prediction is this: As long as we have air in our lungs, our problems are likely just a breath away.

3. Solutions: Since every sane person wants to be happier and we all have problems that get in the way of experiencing greater euphoria, what is the one thing that can help us get what we want more than life itself? We all want the answers to every problem that sabotages our sense of well being. So, logic dictates the better we become at solving our problems, the happier we’ll be.

Whenever we’re faced with a new and vexing challenge, there are only three ways to respond: With uncontrollable fear, supreme confidence or some unsettling gray area between those two extremes.

Let’s imagine that you’re home alone, in the middle of a dark and stormy Halloween night when you’re awaked by a thunderous pounding at the front door. Swallowing your fear while submerged in darkness, you open the door and see a terrifying menace of mayhem towering over you, sporting a ski mask and brandishing a chainsaw while swearing obscenities at you. Unless you happen to be Rambo, Buzz Lightyear or certifiably insane, chances are good that overwhelming fear will overtake your sense of calm.

Now image that same Halloween night as you’re watching another hysterical rerun of Seinfeld in your favorite chair. Between the laughs, you hear a feint tapping at your door and as you open it, a tiny version of Jason from Friday the 13^th shyly squeaks out those infamous three little words that make Halloween, well Halloween: “Twick or Tweet”. Chances are more than good that you will respond with supreme confidence, as long as you remembered to stock up on those sugary little “tweets”.

With this in mind, our goal is to help all of our readers and eventually every person on the planet find greater joy and happiness. To achieve this lofty mission, we’ll be reaching out to local business owners to let them share what they’ve done to solve problems and achieve greater joy. I believe the more we learn how others have overcome obstacles, the stronger and more confident we’ll be when we see the next wave is looming on the horizon or hear the sound of opportunity knocking at our front door.

Is Your Car Ready for Back to School?

By Dave Trux

With many of our kids now back in school, now is the time to reclaim your home and a morsel of peace and sanity. On second thought, are you and your car up to the task of transporting them back and forth every weekday, including all those extracurricular activities after school and on weekends? So much for peace and sanity!

For those of you with kids that are old enough to drive, your days of being an unpaid chauffeur are over and your life will become infinitely easier, right? Wrong! You have merely traded in your old problems for new ones to deal with, like ensuring their safety when you’re not around. Unfortunately, whenever you lend your sage words of advice about safety, does your teen roll their eyes in total indifference? You have our sympathies.

Surely, things will get easier once junior has graduated from high school, right? I’m sorry to be the bearer of even more bad news, but not exactly. If your young and enthusiastic scholar is about to hit the road to higher education, it may be as far away from you as possible...ouch! Do you really want to watch your daughter or son drive off into the sunset in that old and abused car of theirs before having it carefully looked over from bumper to bumper? That wouldn’t be the wisest choice.

My sage words to you is to have a qualified mechanic perform a thorough inspection of the entire vehicle while paying close attention to all the basics, including an inspection of the windshield wipers, fluid levels, an oil change and checking tire condition. Parental peace of mind doesn’t come cheaply or easily, but after all you’ve been through, you deserve nothing less!