Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, Conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I want to introduce you to Jana Wu. She is
a senior therapist with Mountainside, the Mountainside Treatment Center which
is located on Eighteenth Street here in New York City.
And the reason I have her on. We've talked about
overdoses a lot in the past. So the numbers say
(00:35):
that we're making progress with overdoses, but according to Mountainside
Treatment Center, reality says otherwise. The CDC reported a twenty
four percent decline in drug od deaths across the United States.
But then beyond the headlines, there's a more complicated story,
(00:57):
and this has to do with the availability of gummies marijuana.
Let's get into it, Jenna, thank you, Shelly. Yeah, it's
a much more complex picture. Yes, the overdose deaths have
gone down, which is a very positive thing. But when
(01:18):
we look at the opioid crisis an epidemic, there was
a tremendous amount of pain that people were in, physical pain,
psychological pain. There are a lot of complex reasons why
our country had this really horrific experience.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
A lot of that pain is not gone.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
So because we have shifted our awareness through many different channels.
You know, one ma looxome, which is narcan, making that
more widely available, which helps present an overdose death. Two
more harm reduction methods throughout the country, and more education.
So the overdoses have gone down from opioids, but what
(01:57):
we're seeing is a rise in other substance use. We're
seeing actually thhc AT being used at the highest rates
in all demographics, including older Americans and younger Americans. We're
seeing the rise and popularity of substances that have been
around for centuries. For example, creedom, but it's now sold
throughout the country. It's only illegal in six states and
(02:18):
gas stations, and that's not usually a place where we
should be buying something, you know, to help cure us
headshops and very very prevalent online. There are several other
substances too that are being sold online that are quite concerning.
So I think there's still a tremendous amount of pain
out there and people are looking and trying to find
(02:38):
ways to alleviate that pain and discomfort.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
You know, I've seen places that advertise for cretum. Is
that how you said it's I didn't creatim or cradom?
Speaker 3 (02:51):
It is, okay, yeah, pronounceable?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
What is it exactly? And what is the danger of
using that? And yes, I mean yeah, you see that
in stations.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Yeah, we're seeing it pretty much everywhere, except as I mentioned,
in six states where it's illegal and certain parishes in
Louisiana it's illegal, and certain communities. So kreatum is a
botanical it's.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
From Southeast Asia. It's been used for centuries.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Traditionally used was used for day labor, so you think
of people working in rice patties, working in hot conditions
all day long, a very physical job. It was dried
and made into a tea or chewed. The leaf was chewed,
so it was a whole plant was utilized. What's happened now,
fast forward a few hundred years, is that it's been
(03:38):
extracted so that the most psychoactive components are able to
be utilized and pressed into pills or put into extracts
that are extremely strong and difficult to test the potency on.
Right now, it's not a regulated substance, although there are
testing sites, it's difficult to determine sometimes how safe those
testing sites are, or if they're actually from distributors for
(04:01):
doing their own testing. So now we're seeing people use
it quite frequently in a wide gamut of people. We
can see soccer moms, adolescents, maybe high pressured attorneys for example,
the workout community. It's very big in the women's weightlifting world.
You know, it's really marketed as a cure all for
anything for depression PTSD. Again, for more energy because in
(04:25):
low doses it does act as a mild stimulant, so
it gives one a lot of energy. In higher doses
it acts as a traditional opiate, so you know, people
cannot out and become very tired and effective at work
or engaging in social relationships.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Is it addictive? Is it addictive?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Yes, it can be very addictive.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
No.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
What's interesting is the recovery or sobriety community. Some people
do tout it as a harm rediction helper for alcohol
use disorder and opiate use disorder.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
It, like you know, likely is much safer.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Than fentanyl or street drugs in that way, So of
course we want people to be as safe as possible.
But the problem with it, again, I think, is the
marketing that it is supposed to be this chuer all
and there's a lack of testing, regulation, or research on it.
So when we have those things, maybe there is a
potential that it could be used safely. But for those
(05:21):
that use it with a history of addiction, I have
seen many people struggle with it and become very addicted
and have the same characteristics that they have in other addictions, isolation,
spending too much money on it, not getting the same
effect from the same amount, having to increase their dosage.
So it has a lot of the same traits as
other addiction, and plus the diminishing return, you know what,
(05:44):
used to give them maybe relief from social anxiety. Now
they feel tremendously anxious unless they have it, and so
an increase in what they were trying to alleviate.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Is marijuana addictive?
Speaker 4 (05:58):
I think for some people it can be. So marijuana again,
there's a lot of complexity to it. Right now, the
marijuana of today isn't even the same as the marijuana
of the early two thousands, the nineties, the sixties, the seventies.
It's a ninety percent increase impotency in a THHC. That's
pretty significant, especially now with edibles and there's a lot
(06:18):
of THHD drinks. I don't know if you've also seen
that throughout the city. Yeah, and those drinks. So again
it's difficult to know how that how much that TG
is going to affect us. We all have different metabolic rates,
we all have different body composition. So you and I
could drink the same drink and have a very different effect,
(06:39):
and then by the time we've imbibed it, it's hard
to take that effect out we have, you know, the
high would have to go away. So marijuana for some
people can be very challenging. I think especially it really
comes down to why someone's using it. You know, if
it's to alleviate social anxiety, you know, are there other
ways without the side effects that one could work on that.
(06:59):
There are actually some marijuana, you know, teachc that's distilled
to give people a very distinct high that's more peppy,
like some you know, certain sativa type things. Those also,
when using excess, can create an excess of energy that
could lead to anxiety, the same way taking a stimulant
could lead to anxiety.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
If people have.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
A history of addiction, you know, it can be very problematic.
Where again we get into the same behavior as I
mentioned before, but a lot of people will state that
it is harm reductionist for them. So I think proceed
with caution and not doing things alone in isolation is
very important and if someone is struggling to talk about it,
(07:39):
and I think both creative and marijuana can be difficult
to acknowledge one is struggling with because people think, oh,
they're not hard drugs, Oh they're not as bad. How
come everyone else can use this and I can't, And
there becomes a lot of shame in that.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I'm speaking with Jana Wushi. You's a senior therapist with
Mountainside Treatment Center, which is located on West eighteenth Street
here in New York City. I recently discovered and I
was kind of shocked, but then I sort of got
it that some parents of autistic children are treating them
(08:20):
with marijuana and this I saw this in the Wall
Street Journal, that this has become a thing that they
say that it helps their children sleep better and it
helps their children with anxiety. The science is inconclusive on this,
but there are some There was one doctor who said,
(08:43):
of all the parents that I have in my treatment
with children with autism, forty percent forty percent were treating
their children with medical marijuana. This was kind of like
word of mouth kind of thing in the autism community.
(09:06):
What's your reaction to that.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
My reaction would be to follow the research. I mean,
that would be something that I would want to see.
You know, there is some research on marijuana being very
helpful for pay management and increasing appetite for cancer. So
I would say follow the research and make sure it's
effective research that it's not research produced by a company
(09:32):
that is also distributing marijuana.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
So that's what I would state to that.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
I mean, we are seeing a lot of different psychoactive
drugs being used in different ways. You know, the VA
Hospital is studying MDMA. We're seeing a lot of psychedelics
being studied now, and I think a lot of this
has to do with informed consent and not looking for
sort of the cure al genie in the bottle, knowing
that with everything, just like with antidepressants or other prescribed medications,
(09:58):
there can be side effects, so there is no one
hundred percent cure all. So I think, again, informed consent
about what the potential risks and what the potential benefits are.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Up Mountainside Treatment Center, there's a short film that you
guys have produced. Tell us about that and how people
can access it and why they would want to.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
I'm so excited to talk about our films. So we
did create a short PSA. It is ten minutes. It
is on our website Mountainside dot com and also on
Shatterproof's website. So Shatterproof has an incredible call to action.
They're an organization of advocacy that has been fighting for
over a decade to really bring people in communities and
(10:41):
families out of the shadow that struggle with addiction and
show people how help is out there. They have an
incredible treatment at LISS, So it seemed like a natural
fit for our film and Shatterproof to work together. So
our film follows two different stories of recovery, two different
people with very different reasons, what brought them in to
(11:04):
struggle with addiction and then how they got out. There's
a tremendous amount of hope in it, but also it's
very real a recovery is possible.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Recovery is out there, and so is death.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
And I think this film really touches on that so
beautifully that these two families chose recovery and they completely
transform their whole family systems. It's really quite beautiful and
our call to action was for families to start.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
To be able to talk about it.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
We all struggle with something, but to bring it into
the light and to show that there is help out there.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
It does work.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
It does take vulnerability though, to acknowledge how much you're
struggling and that you can't do it alone.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
And you can access it at Mountainside dot com.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Correct, Mountainside dot com and Shatterproof. I believe it's shatterproof
dot org. We'll have to link it.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
How is the Mountainside Treatment Center different from other rehabs?
Speaker 4 (12:03):
It is so dire treatment center. So we are twenty
years going strong. We're very independent where we have evolved
so much so. We have a main residential and a
detox up in Canaan, Connecticut, which is south of the
Berkshires where New York, Connecticut Massachusetts meet. It's a full
treatment spectrum that utilizes the mountain that we're on. We
(12:27):
have one of Connecticut's largest labyrinth and then also has
best clinical practices, most research and form clinical practices, so
we have a lot of healing in different ways and
different pathways. We allow our clients to really explore different
methodologies to see what will help them find their sense
of purposefulness and their sense of direction in their path
(12:47):
of sobriety. We also incorporate the family throughout the treatment,
so as soon as someone gets into detox, we offer,
you know, family treatment for the loved one. That could
either be like a clinical path where they like their
loved one is getting therapy, they're getting therapy their own
therapy even without a substance use disorder for anxiety depression
(13:09):
as their loved one is.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Or then we have this really unique program that I'm.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Excited about where we allow a family to have their
own process of going through treatment with a client and
doing workshops as their client goes through through the treatment.
So that could be workshops with their mother, their brother,
their stepfather, and their uncle, you know, whatever type of
composition family it is, or wife ex wife and children
(13:35):
where the family gets to do workshops that are very
curated to what's going on for them. What they need
is a family system, because we find if the system
doesn't shift, will someone's getting treatment. It's very difficult for
our families. We also started this incredible, well two incredible
programs when we saw the growth and overdose pre pandemic.
(13:57):
We started these two very unique programs that really work
to lift a client up before they're in crisis, where
we come in and we engage someone before they hit
a crisis, and we have a very particular way and
particular staff that are very dynamic. They've been in recovery
and they know how to reach people when they maybe
don't want to be.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Reached, Jena, Do you take insurance?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
We do.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
We take several insurances and you can go to our
website and find out which we do. We also work
with veterans and that's been really exciting too, and we
have a whole veterans track, we have a healthcare professional track.
We work with several different labor unions, so it's pretty broad.
And again we do particular tracks for specific groups of
(14:44):
people that might connect a bit more in their own track.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Well, thank you so much, Jana Wu, and again, if
you need more information mountainside dot com.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
You've been listening to Sunstein sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
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