Snow squalls notwithstanding, members of the Twentieth Century Club of Garrettsville met at the home of Karen Miller on March 1, 2018, to usher March “in like a lion.”
Roll call was answered by revealing the individual members’ worst habits. Some had more than one. These included speeding, harboring negative attitudes, nail biting, over-commitment to various projects, addictions to vices such as superhero movies, catalogs, phones, yarn-hoarding, slovenly living, even underwear retention (Don’t ask).
Minutes from two previous meetings were read and approved and the next meeting will be at the home of Leah Schultz. The Spring Party will be held at Robie Lee’s in Newton Falls and guests may be invited. Reservations should be made with the committee ASAP. The nominating committee reported the slate of officers proposed for the next club year. They included president—Iva Walker, vice president—Mary Furillo, secretary—Carol Torda, treasurer–Karen Miller. The slate was accepted as presented for the 2018–2019 club year.
The evening’s program on the topic “Addiction, Then and Now” was presented by member Jill Thewlis, a licensed drug counselor and employee of Coleman Services in Portage County. She illustrated some of the many facets of addiction, including the pathological pursuit of satisfaction for neural/chemical interactions in the brain and body, the cycles of relapse and re-addiction, brain illness affecting the frontal cortex and impulse control, the genetic, environmental and cultural components that bring about the condition of addiction at any level in any individual. The enormity of the effects of addiction result in, and are caused by, toxic families, childhood trauma, criminal behavior as well as the failure of rationality. She offered graphic information on the disruption of neural pathways and the effects of drugs on brain functions.
The addition of the synthetic opioids fentanyl and carfentanil to the toxic mix has only made dealing with the epidemic more difficult and, all too often, fatal, despite the use of Narcan(Naloxone) in dealing with overdose situations. Fly-by-night, cash-on-the-barrelhead “clinics” are not the help they purport to be. Failure of rationality cannot be so easily dealt with. Some recently-developed drugs—e.g., methadone, suboxone, vivitrol–have proven helpful but the key to recovery really is support, whether religious/spiritual, social or familial, Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. The fight goes on, but slowly.
