https://links.reactionrecovery.com/

Reaction Recovery, Philadelphia, PA (2025)

10/26/2025

This weekend we said goodbye to Jake.

In 2009 I was working at a pharmacy in Pacific Palisades, CA, and a woman walked in holding a Jack Russell Terrier.

I asked if it was a puppy, and she said, “no, but she’s having puppies soon”.

A couple months later, we met Jake at a coffee shop in Santa Monica, and we fell in love with him.

In hindsight bringing a Jack Russell puppy into an LA county apartment might not have been the most responsible thing to do, but we made it work.

And for the past almost 16 years, Jake has been with us everywhere.

Right in the middle of everything.

He’s flown cross-country at least 20 times, he’s been on vacations, long road trips, no less than 100 drives up the mountains, he’s moved with us through three apartments in Los Angeles, a cross-country move back to PA in 2015 and finally in 2019 into our current home (with the big yard I always promised him).

And like everyone else in this house, Jake wasn’t perfect.

He had a low tolerance-threshold for toddlers, and when my wife got pregnant, some weren’t sure how he was going to react to the baby.

But he was great on day one.

And stayed great with them every day since.

Despite some – let’s call them – idiosyncrasies.

Jake didn’t like delivery people.

He didn’t like people riding skateboards.

He didn’t like weedwhackers, or lawnmowers, or grass blowers or anyone who was holding those things.

He didn’t like to be too wet or too cold or too hot, and he didn’t like to be bothered while he was sleeping.

He didn’t like it if you tried to take one of his toys.

He didn’t like deer, or squirrels, or bunnies, or mice.

[Continued in comments]

11/12/2024

Eight years ago I wasn’t doing great.

I lost my job, my career, had no source of income, we had a baby in the house, and I had a body and mind that were about to enter a yearlong acute/post-acute withdrawal that would drift me in and out of complete despair.

It felt like life was over.

I was court-ordered into treatment in June of 2013, but 2014– 2016 still only consisted of brief periods of abstinence followed by progressively worse relapses.

Memories from those years are foggy.

But in 2016 by the grace of God, I asked for help and followed direction without questioning much and things started to change.

For the first time there was no sense of urgency.

No sense of needing to make up for lost time or prove to anyone that I was doing better.

I was content with just “waiting and hoping” (in the words of the Count of Monte Cristo).

I stayed within my recovery circle, didn’t have any social media, was rarely on a computer, and my life got hyper-focused.

I believed my brain would heal but also knew it probably wasn’t going to happen quickly.

Over a decade of daily opiates, benzos, and amphetamines.

At high dosages.

[To this day I haven’t met anyone who took larger doses of opiates. Not that I have some superhuman body, but I had unlimited access, so the numbers climbed year over year without anything slowing them down].

That first year I picked up work where I could, started a little furniture business, helped my uncle as a pest control tech, helped my sponsor with some electrical work here and there, went to recovery meetings, and kept busy enough.

None of it was “beneath me”, and I knew I just needed to stay alive and sober, and things would get better.

And they did.

Life has gotten full.

I give as much of myself to the various commitments and responsibilities, but still struggle with the feeling that it isn’t enough.

That I wish I could do more.

If you’ve followed along on this account, I appreciate you.

You’re some of the world’s greatest people, and I’m lucky to have gotten to know a lot of you.

In some ways eight years feels like an eternity, and in other ways I know it’s just the beginning.

Onward and upward.

11/12/16 ♥️

10/23/2024

We’re capable of so much 🧨

Every day I witness the most incredible stuff.

People going after things they want - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.

It’s so rewarding to watch.

Just about anything is attainable if you define the steps.

And surround yourself with supportive people who help oppose the voices that try to stop you and help clear obstacles as they come up.

Because obstacles will come up.

Build a team who will fight for you and believe in you.

Until you can fight for and believe in yourself.

People who know when you need a pat on the back and when you need a kick in the butt.

Because we all need both, but the right one at the right time can lead to growth and the wrong one at the wrong time can lead to harm.

Knowing when to use the carrot and when to use the stick is a skill.

It comes from experience.

After a certain age so many of us get so little encouragement.

And some never really gotten any.

And that’s a sin.

You have no idea what the future holds.

But it's bright.

And the sky’s the limit 📈

10/19/2024

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid you can’t do that.”

How do you feel about AI and tech advancements?

Does it scare you or are you embracing the change?

My opinion is that because it’s happening (and happening quickly) whether you like it or not, the only mistake you can make is to completely ignore it and pretend it isn’t changing the world.

This really is no country for old men.

And by ‘old’ I don’t mean the age on your driver’s license.

I mean the age when you just stop trying.

I’m old enough to remember folks who refused to get a computer and learn about the internet.

Life got harder for them than it needed to be.

I’m not saying you need to spend every waking second learning about this stuff, but you do need to keep up.

My job is to help people define and reach their life, health, and career goals. So this includes talking about technologies that help them get there quicker.

Find a few tools that you like, play around with them, watch some YouTube videos for best practices, find a channel that keeps you up-to-date with the major announcements and stay in the stream of advancement.

We might not need an AI powered sponsor, but the other stuff is important.

Don’t say no one ever warned you ♥️

10/17/2024

"I'm sorry, Jeff. I'm afraid you can't do that." (proceeds to lock me in the basement until I 'turn it over')

10/14/2024

Does tapering on your own work?

In my experience, it depends.

Personally, I tried it no less than 50- 100 times and up to that point, I would say no it doesn’t work.

But this last time - when I was taking the most and coming off 4 different dependencies at once - it did work.

So I don’t know.

If it’s anything that can lead to seizures or immediate death (severe alcohol or benzodiazepine dependency), it should always be medically monitored.

But what about everything else?

Of course the most highly acute patients should IDEALLY be receiving the highest acuity level of care.

But as we know in the world of drug addiction, we don’t always operate in ideals.

We operate in reality.

And I work with a lot of folks who meet criteria for residential treatment but who are unable or unwilling to accept it.

For whatever reason.

So what about them?

Can they successfully detox on their own?

Yes.

Sometimes.

Other times not.

The majority of addictions are resolved outside of a facility.

But it does require the right mindset going in.

There’s a lot you can do to reduce the discomfort, but ultimately you should be prepared for a rough go of it.

You need to see this time as a temporary sacrifice for the greater good.

A tribute to your future self.

And then surround yourself with good people.

When we're part of a supportive community and immersing ourselves in a world of recovery, we can and do get better.

But you have to be mentally ready for it.

Or are you still waiting for that one day when you finally grasp the concept of moderation? 🐝♥️

10/10/2024

Not everyone's favorite topic to talk about - especially for men.

Some updated and relevant mental health stats (DM me if you want sources):

* 23% of U.S. adults experienced mental illness in the past year—that’s nearly 60 million people.

* Su***de is the seventh leading cause of death among men globally, with men dying by su***de at nearly 4x the rate of women.

* 2023 saw the highest number of su***des ever recorded in the U.S.

* The highest su***de rates in the U.S. are among Caucasian men over age 85.

* 1 in 4 men in the U.S. have had suicidal thoughts.

* Only 23% of adults with a substance use disorder received treatment.

* In 2022, only 40% of men with a mental illness received care, compared to 52% of women.

* Mental health issues hit younger men harder: 44% of men aged 18-24 worldwide report anxiety, compared to 22.8% of men over 55.

* 49% of men feel more depressed than they admit to those around them.

* Globally, 36.8% of men reported feelings of depression, according to a survey of over 12 million adults across 115 countries.

A lot of people are struggling.

It’s not just you.

Help is out there.

World Mental Health Day 2024 ♥️

10/07/2024

A lot of people suffer in silence 🤫

Quiet pain, quiet fear, quiet desperation—hidden behind forced smiles and empty routines.

But for the addicted population, the suffering is anything but quiet.

Everyone sees it.

It’s raw and exposed.

And usually ugly.

So chaotic, yes, but in the loudness of the chaos is an opportunity most people can’t see.

At least not someone who hasn’t been there.

And that’s the possibility of seeing the entire world in a new way.

Often permanently.

Not that everything becomes wonderful, but the perspective changes.

And I’m convinced that unchanging perspectives are what keep people in that state of quiet desperation - that they might never break away from.

Where by the world’s standards it’s the better/preferable life (because it’s less openly destructive), but is it?

Would you rather 1) a chaotic existence with the possibility of either a terrible ending or an incredible against-all-odds type of re-birth, or 2) no visible chaos but condemned to see the world through a slightly foggy lens that colors everything some shade of gray for the rest of your years?

It’s a tough question.

And unfortunately (or fortunately) addicted people aren’t being asked.

They find themselves in the middle of the chaos and right up against the fork in the road.

Where the path on the left is continued destruction and the one on the right is the possibility of something entirely new.

I try to help people see the path on the right.

And to write it down and describe it out loud and break up the vision into little action steps a couple weeks at a time.

We really are some of the world’s greatest people and have the ability to accomplish so much.

We can do anything.

And the sky's the limit.

Are you doing what you need to do to get there?

10/05/2024

Having high success rates are easy when you get to make up the definition of 'success'.

[Always reminds me of the scene in Tommy Boy where he's trying to sell brake pads and explaining the value of a guarantee.]

The quality of a treatment facility is as good as its local reputation.

If you want to know how good a place is, talk to the people who have been there.

And the families who have sent people there.

If you get a large enough sample size, the data can be considered valid ♥️

rehab

10/02/2024

What were your thoughts on the VP debate?

Being alive is expensive 💸

And right now is about as bad as it's been for a long time.

But still, there's a time to spend, a time to save, and a time to invest.

And it's important to have a plan of when to do which.

Your first year of recovery should be an investment in yourself in every sense of the word.

Nothing wasteful.

I recommend writing down everything you spend money on each month and circle all the crap you don’t need.

Then invest that directly into yourself (or your little kids if you have them).

You need that plan.

The likelihood of accidentally stumbling on the right course of action is low.

People ending drug addictions have usually had money problems for years.

The abstinence alone won't solve all of them.

You’re gonna live 50 more years.

(I just checked my crystal ball).

In the world of compounded interest, if you get this first one right, the next 49 might not have to be so hard.

My clients all complete a "My Ideal Life" exercise.

They visualize and write down their five year vision.

And then they attack it week by week.

God speed out there ♥️

09/27/2024

How is your city handling the crisis? How much of it falls on the individual and how much on the available resources? 🌆

09/26/2024

They’re not going anywhere.

As one woman recently said to me, “The golden age of opioid use was from 1999-2009.”

And while we’re using a very loose definition of ‘golden,’ she’s not wrong.

That was a different time.

Pretty much anyone could get their hands on anything, medical and administrative oversight was minimal, and for the most part, you knew what you were purchasing each time.

So at least we had the benefit of predictability.

Not too many surprises.

80mg Oxycontin was 80mg Oxycontin.

30mg oxycodone IR was 30 mg oxycodone IR.

Every time.

And although overall opioid use started to skyrocket during this time, the percentage of unintentional overdoses didn’t change from the previous decade.

That all changed sometime in the mid 2010s.

That’s when humans realized it’s way easier to make your opioids in a lab than it is a poppy field.

And much, much, much cheaper to produce and scale.

It went from fentanyl, to carfentanil, to nitazenes, U-47700, isotonitazene, and other analogs like brorphine, and benzimidazole opioids, and the list will continue to expand.

As soon as we get one added to a standard drug panel, a new one will come out.

So they’ll continue to be hard to test for.

And hard for the user to predict the response.

Am I going to wake back up this time or not?

No one can be sure.

The time to do street opioids has passed.

It’s over.

There’s no shortage of ‘pain’ to be ‘relieved’, but I suggest looking for alternative pain relievers if possible.

The street ones aren’t reliable anymore, and they never will be again ♥️

Reaction Recovery

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