1. Try deep breathing or meditation techniques to relieve pain without drugs.

Meditation and deep breathing allows the body to relax without the aid of opiates, easing pain and tension that tighten muscles.

Try these soothing repetition steps to help you relax:

• Find a quiet spot and comfortable body position
• Imagine a spot just below your navel
• Breathe into that spot, fill your abdomen with air
• Let air fill you from the abdomen up, then let it out, like deflating a balloon.
• Ignore any disruptive or negative thoughts
• Repeat a relaxing word or phrase (a mantra)

2. Reduce negative emotions and stress in your life.

Learn to take control of stress – depression, stress, anxiety and anger can all increase your body’s susceptibility to chronic pain.

Try these drug-free stress-reducing and relaxing techniques:

• Listen to soothing, calming music
• Mental imagery relaxation is a form of mental escape (imagine a calm beach or quiet place)
• Progressive muscle relaxation – alternately tensing and then relaxing muscles can relieve stress

3. Rely on natural endorphins from exercise, not drugs, to boost pain relief.

Exercise strengthens muscles, helps prevent injury & further pain, and releases natural endorphins to help improve your mood while blocking pain signals without the help of drugs. Additionally, by keeping your weight down, you can reduce heart disease risk and control blood sugar levels, important if you have diabetes.

4. Reduce alcohol intake, which increases sleep problems.

Pain can make sleep difficult and alcohol can increase sleep problems – drinking less or no alcohol can help you with getting enough rest each night.

5. Join a support group for those living in chronic pain without drugs.

Sometimes you need to ask for help – it’s a sign of strength, not weakness. When you’re surrounded by people living with chronic pain, you feel less alone and you can benefit from their wisdom in coping with pain. Or, consider meeting with a mental health professional. Counseling can help you develop a healthier attitude by learning how to cope and avoid negative thoughts that increase pain.

6. Don’t smoke.

Smoking can increase painful circulation problems and your risk of heart disease and cancer.

7. Document your pain level every day.

Try documenting a journal of your daily “pain score.” At the end of each day, rank your pain level on a 1 to 10 pain scale, and document your activities that day. Bring this book with you to every doctor visit, and try reviewing it yourself to see what you can change about your daily habits to decrease your pain score.

8. Learn biofeedback to decrease pain severity naturally without drugs.

Here’s how it works: You wear sensors that let you “hear” or “see” certain bodily functions like pulse, digestion, body temperature, and muscle tension. The squiggly lines and/or beeps on the attached monitors reflect what’s going on inside your body. Then you learn to control those squiggles and beeps. After a few sessions, your mind has trained your biological system to learn the skills.

9. Get a massage to relieve chronic pain.

Massage can help reduce stress and relieve all types of chronic pain and tension, including back and neck pain.

10. Eat a healthy diet.

A well-balanced diet reduces heart disease risk, keep weight under control and improve blood sugar levels.

Try these foods for a low-fat & sodium diet:

• Fresh fruits and vegetables
• Cooked dried beans and peas
• Whole-grain breads and cereals
• Low-fat cheese, milk and yogurt
• Lean meats

11. Distract yourself from pain to enjoy life more – don’t rely on drugs.

Focusing on pain can worsen it. Instead, find something you love to do – a sport or hobby that keeps you busy and thinking about things besides your pain. You can always take control of your own life, even if you can’t prevent pain altogether.

The psychiatric and pharmaceutical industry compare psychiatric disorders such as Bi-Polar Disorder, Depression, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, etc. to medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. However, no scientific tests can verify the medical existence of psychiatric disorders.

The psychiatric industry claims that there are certain medical conditions that exist without verifiable tests, therefore there does not exist one for mental illnesses. While there may exist rare medical conditions without verifiable medical tests, there are no psychiatric disorders that can be verified medically as a physical abnormality or disease.

Often brain scans used to prove schizophrenia or depression have not been conducted on people not taking antipsychotic drugs. Such scans have been documented to cause brain atrophy, or shrinkage. Other brain scans have compared brains of smaller children to show smaller brains in comparison to larger and older children. The scans were used to claim that children with ADHD have smaller brains. However, none have been conclusively proven to verify mental disorders as abnormalities of the brain.

This is not to say that people don’t get depressed, troubled, or even sometimes act psychotic.  For example, can soldiers returning from war experience extreme and often debilitating stress?  Yes, but it is less likely to be a medical condition of the brain. Can mothers become distraught after a joyous occasion such as the birth of a child?  Yes, but again, it is unlikely to be a brain abnormality or mental disease.  It may not be the best decision to prescribe these people certain drugs documented by international regulatory agencies to cause mania, psychosis, worsening depression, heart attack, stroke and sudden death.  Additionally, new or nursing mothers may risk birth defects or damage to infants from prescription drugs.

Any drug taken influences behavior or mood, whether it be cocaine, alcohol, marijuana or heroin. This does not mean someone who acts or feels differently on cocaine does so because they had a cocaine imbalance, with which the cocaine then corrected. It means that drugs change moods, emotions and behavior.  But while the illicit use of drugs is universally frowned upon, psychiatric drugs are conversely viewed as “good” drugs, despite the fact many are more addictive than cocaine or heroin. Drug addiction leads to the greater issues of drug abuse and withdrawal.

The larger problem is that the biological drug model prevents governments from allocating funding to actual medical solutions to people experiencing difficulty.  There are also viable, non-harmful medical treatments that do not receive government funding because the psychiatric/pharmaceutical industry spends much of its budget on advertising and lobbying efforts.

Opiate drug addiction can cause depression and many patients are prescribed antidepressants by psychiatrists. A blind study in 1998, whose findings were reinforced by landmark research in The Journal of the American Medical Association last month, concludes that antidepressant drugs thought to help with depression are not as effective as once thought. More studies being conducted suggest that benefits are often not much more effective than placebos.

Patients on a placebo improved about 75 percent as much as those on drugs. Yoga, relaxation imaging, meditation, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and other forms of therapy can help combat this debilitating illness.

Most common side effects of antidepressant therapy include sexual problems, drowsiness, sleep difficulties, anxiety, nervousness and nausea. While some side effects may go away after the first few weeks of drug treatment, others can persist and progressively get worse.

In adults over the age of 65, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors pose an additional concern. Studies show that SSRI medications may increase the risk for falls, fractures, and bone loss in older adults. The SSRIs can also cause serious withdrawal symptoms if you stop taking them abruptly. Once you’ve started taking antidepressants, stopping can be difficult; many people have withdrawal symptoms that make it difficult to get off of the medication and may require opiate detox.

If you decide to stop taking antidepressants, it’s essential to taper off slowly. If you stop abruptly, you may experience a number of unpleasant withdrawal symptoms such as crying spells, extreme restlessness, depression, anxiety, dizziness, fatigue, and aches and pains. These withdrawal symptoms are known as antidepressant discontinuation syndrome. Antidepressant discontinuation syndrome is especially common with Paxil or Zoloft. However, all medications for depression can cause withdrawal symptoms.

In general medicine, the standard for informed consent includes communicating the nature of the diagnoses, the purpose of a proposed treatment or procedure, the risks and benefits of the proposed treatment, and informing the patient of alternative treatments so he or she can make an informed, educated choice.

Psychiatrists often do not offer patients non-drug treatments, nor do they conduct thorough medical examinations to ensure that a person’s problem does not stem from an untreated medical condition. At times, they might fail to inform patients of the nature of the diagnoses, which would require informing the patient that psychiatric diagnoses based on behaviors with little scientific or medical validity (no X-rays, brain scans, chemical imbalance tests to prove anyone has a mental disorder).

All patients should have what is called a “differential diagnosis.” The doctor obtains a thorough history and conducts a complete physical exam, rules out all possible problems that might cause a set of symptoms, and explains any possible side effects of the recommended treatments.

There are numerous alternatives to psychiatric diagnoses and treatment, including standard medical care that does not require a psychiatric label or drug. Governments should endorse and fund non-drug treatments as alternatives to potentially ineffective and dangerous drugs. Limiting drug treatment can lead to the reduction of drug addiction.

Skeptics claim the numbers reveal a system of scientific fraud. “This rapid increase in diagnosis of bipolar disorder can only be explained by either a runaway epidemic infection or a medical fraud that seeks to label people as ‘diseased’ in order to sell them more drugs,” said consumer health advocate Mike Adams.

According the new study, nine of 10 individuals diagnosed as bipolar are treated with at least one medication, and two-thirds of them are treated with two or more drugs. These drugs create profitable, reliable revenue streams for drug companies.

The data for the study were taken from annual government surveys of doctors.

The skyrocketing rate of psychiatric diagnosis’ has many people arguing over whether a mental disorder was previously under diagnosed, or whether psychiatrists are now over diagnosing it.

“There’s no question that there is misdiagnosis going on,” said Gary Sachs, director of the bipolar and mood disorders program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “You can dispute whether it’s under- or over-diagnosis.”

Misdiagnosis, in turn, may lead to inappropriate use of drugs. These patients often become addicted to the unnecessary medication, needing to seek out addiction treatment. People need to lead healthier life styles, stop opiate and illicit drug use, seek exercise and practice good nutrition.

by David B. Stein, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology and Criminal Justice
Virginia State University
www.drdavestein.com

One of the subjects that I have taught for over twenty-five years is psychopharmacology. It might be helpful to challenge one of the great myths about mental disorders, namely that they are caused by chemical imbalances. This myth is founded on some of the tricks that are pulled in so-called scientific research in psychology and psychiatry. First, there is a large volume of research claiming to discover all kinds of chemical imbalances in a wide variety of psychiatric disorders. The manipulation of research has become one of the most powerful and most unethical marketing tools ever devised. Not one study can be replicated at the testing labs of hospitals or by laboratories involved in clinical patient care. All that one needs to do is ask his or her doctor to order a blood or urine test to confirm any psychiatric disorder, and the response will be, “I’m sorry, but no such test exists.” Replication is a basic step for all sciences.

The second manipulation is a bit trickier to follow. An unethical researcher, earning grant money from the pharmaceutical companies, injects test subjects with a radioactive sample of a nervous system hormone, such as dopamine, serotonin, nor-epinephrine, and so on, and then trace, using either CT scans, MRIs, or PET scans, exactly to what parts of the brain the chemicals go. They can even trace the hormones to microscopic receptor sites on the ends on neurons. They then repeat the injection process with a radioactive sample of one of the drugs that supposedly correct chemical imbalances, such as antidepressants that elevate serotonin, or amphetamines that effect serotonin and dopamine, and so on and so forth. By golly the drugs go to the same exact parts of the brain and receptor sites as the hormones. Conclusion, the drugs are correcting chemical imbalances!

Not so fast. The part they do not tell the public, and even professional psychiatrists, psychologists, and practicing physicians, is that we can precisely measure hormone levels in all people, and diagnosis does not matter. We can measure the metabolites in the blood, which are the residue left after the hormones are metabolized i.e. used by the nerve and body cells. This tells us the precise amount of hormones carried in anyone’s body. When that is done, as it has by numerous honest researchers, we discover that the amount of hormones are exactly the same for anyone with a diagnosis, such as depression, attention deficit disorders (ADD/ADHD), bipolar, and schizophrenia, as with anyone diagnosed as perfectly normal.

There is a third part to the perpetuation of scam information. We are told that when a drug alleviates certain psychiatric conditions, such as depression and anxiety, that the drug is therefore correcting obvious chemical imbalances. However, this type of logic is not permitted in true science. This is called “allopathic logic”, which is a no no.

A quick analogy will help clear this up. If one drinks alcohol, then one experiences a relief from anxiety. Alcohol is a drug, a sedative. Can we say that alcohol clears up chemical imbalances that cause anxiety? If that were so then the entire human race is running around with chemical imbalances. The same is true for any drug used for any purpose, such as antidepressants for depression, tranquilizers for anxiety, mood stabilizer drugs for bipolar disorder, and even antipsychotic drugs for schizophrenia. This type of logic is not permitted within proper scientific circles. Sadly, proper scientific circles are evaporating within psychiatry and psychology. Those who are ethical researchers make no such claims.

Dr. David B. Stein is Professor of Psychology and Criminal Justice at Virginia State University. He is a best-selling author, and his books include: Ritalin is Not the Answer: A Drug-free, Practical Program for Children Diagnosed with ADD or ADHD; The Ritalin is Not the Answer Action Guide: An Interactive Companion to the best-selling Drug-Free ADD/ADHD Parenting Program; Unraveling the ADD/ADHD Fiasco: A Guide for Successful Parenting; and Controlling the Difficult Adolescent: The REST Program (Real Economy Program for Teens).

Chronic use of opiates has long been associated with multiple side effects, many of which are due to lower levels of androgens in this patient population.

Previous studies have shown that long-term opiate use may lead to opiate induced hypogonadism, resulting in significantly decreased testosterone levels in men. One area of chronic opiate use that needs to be looked at extensively is the correlation between opiate-induced hypogonadism and associated side effects such as osteoporosis and sexual dysfunction in male patients taking opiates. Marked testosterone deficiency is a well-established risk factor for both osteoporosis and altered sexual function, and recent information demonstrated that altered estrogen levels may play a role in these side effects as well.

Heroin is the most abused and most rapidly acting drug of the opiate class, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. It is estimated that 3.7 million Americans have used heroin at one point.

Originally developed as a possible alternative to morphine in 1874, heroin was legal until 1914 when its addictive properties were firmly established. Today, heroin is a Schedule I narcotic with no known medical utility. Heroin is derived from naturally occurring morphine secreted from certain varieties of poppy plants. Pure heroin is a white powder. Most heroin on the street varies from a light to dark brown depending on impurities left over from the manufacturing process. Black tar heroin found mostly in the west and southwestern states is often very unrefined with many impurities.

Many heroin users did not start out on heroin. Data shows that traditional pain medication such as Percocet and Oxycontin addiction often leads to heroin use. Demand for these drugs causes increased prices and many of the people addicted to these pain medications will switch over to heroin due to it’s cheaper price. The rise in heroin use in the last twenty years has correlated with an increase in purity and a decrease in price. Current purity levels are such that smoking, snorting and intramuscular injections are possible administration methods in addition to intravenous us, which is the most common route of use. With fears of diseases associated with intravenous drug use, a large portion of new users are smoking or snorting the drug. This is the usual route with a new heroin user. Data suggests that users may progress from inhalation to injection as tolerance levels demand higher drug potency and users soon realize that they can get the same effect with a much smaller amount when they “shoot it” into a vein.

NIDA research suggests that all administration forms are addictive, but differ in time of onset of drug potency. The “euphoria” associated with heroin use is short-lived and immediate. The temporary high results in average users injecting up to four times a day. However brief, heroin’s effects are immediate. Intravenous administration can result in a high being achieved in seven to eight seconds. The rapidity of drug action in crossing the blood-brain barrier is one of the reasons for heroin’s highly addictive nature. Continued use builds a high level of tolerance and physical dependence/addiction, which are powerful factors motivating addiction.

Chronic heroin use results in increased tolerance and severe physical addiction. Tolerance issues may be one reason that for the majority of heroin users, heroin is not the only substance they abuse. Sixty-one percent of people admitted to public facilities admitted to secondary substance abuse. Most commonly heroin use was combined with cocaine—40% or alcohol—24% and benzodiazepine use.

Beyond tolerance, medical complications of heroin use include the consequences of intravenous injection like collapsed veins, bacterial infections which can lead to blood infections and loss of limbs, liver and kidney disease, and transmittable infections like hepatitis B and C and HIV. They also include lung and respiratory problems, such as tuberculosis and pneumonia. Additives in street heroin range from sugar or starch to quinine, strychnine or fentanyl other poisons, which further escalates risks to drug users. Many heroin dealers will sell heroin mixed (cut) with crushed Benzodiazepines, Benadryl, etc. These additives still give a “high”, and they are cheaper and add more volume to the heroin so the dealer makes more money. Many heroin users are unaware that they are also addicted to Benzodiazepines, which can be a life threatening withdrawal.

Heroin withdrawal can be a painful process. Symptoms typically begin within a day of discontinuing use and include profuse sweating, malaise, mood disturbances including irritability and thoughts of suicide, chills, muscle aches, insomnia, vomiting, abdominal cramps, weakness, shivering or trembling, yawning, convulsions, dehydration, diarrhea, leg kicking and severe anxiety. However, the detoxification treatment with our Rapid Drug Detox Method along with the use of the opiate blocker, Naltrexone, provide hope for individuals who suffer from heroin use and for those around them.