For me addiction is about having trouble letting go of ANYTHING that has ever been helpful. That includes people, food, experiences, substances of all kinds etc. I have no conventionally understood addictions right now, but I am deeply resonant with the concept of addiction. Our consumer oriented culture teaches us to cling to everything. Healing for me is learning to stop clinging. Completely. …
I’m mostly not blogging anymore, it’s true, but I do still jot down thoughts from time to time. I’m sharing a bunch of those thoughts from the last couple of months. I’ve included links in some of them where you might find more similar thoughts explored and collected here on the website. They are a loose sort of documentation of my process as it continues. Be well. Remember, healing is not a linear process! Love to you all.
Only an intellectual Luddite would deny the enormous benefits that have accrued to humankind from the scrupulous application of scientific methods. But not all essential information can be confirmed in the laboratory or by modern statistical analysis. Not all aspects of illness can be reduced to facts verified by double-blind studies and by the strictest scientific techniques. “Medicine tells us as much about the meaningful performance of healing, suffering, and dying as chemical analysis tells us about the aesthetic value of pottery,” Ivan Ilyich wrote in Limits to Medicine. We confine ourselves to a narrow realm indeed if we exclude from accepted knowledge the contributions of human experience and insight. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Question from a reader: Physically when were you able to start pushing yourself with regularity?
Answer: I don’t push. I practice not pushing. This seems to be a good way to live in general in order to stay healthy. But when you’re sick it’s critically important not to push. — Instead I gently lean against what might be called the edge. Pushing you fall over (and down)…leaning in a bit you can come back and rest and then go out again. It’s really important to learn this… Granted, I say practice because we all push on occasion. But if I push, I still pay for it…so I practice not pushing…like I said. I get better at it all the time. … [click on title to read the rest]
Whether or not you’ve ever dealt with a full-blown addiction, the compulsive desire to distract oneself from the pain of being human is universal. For this reason Gabor Maté’s work and insights can be valuable for anyone.
Gabor Mate does an excellent job considering how Western modern human beings are all subject to addiction of one kind or another. I’ve shared his work here several times. Our capitalistic and consumer driven culture depends on the addict in all of us. Here Dr. Gabor Maté gives us clues as to who we are when we are not addicted. … [click on title to read and view more]
Illness and what creates illness with Gabor Maté. If you’ve been reading Beyond Meds for any length of time you’ll know that Gabor is one of my favorite human beings. He is an inspired brilliant man who is helping us change the healing climate on this planet. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Because there is virtually no understanding of the above reality in medicine, nor psychology, psych drugs instead are far too often agents of trauma rather than being therapeutic. The entire mental illness system actually acts as an agent of trauma because of this lack of consciousness. That is exactly what my first comment above is pointing to. Whatever I met psychiatry with all those years ago when I was drugged, (my story is here) the psych drugs magnified and made worse exponentially (not so much in ways that show up obviously in behavior, but in how the entire body/mind/spirit was affected). There is no way anyone who goes through this and comes to the understanding we’ve come to on this side of the trauma can stay silent on the topic. We are here to change things. Simply because we know what we know. … [click on title to read and view more]
Professor Alexander argues this discovery is a profound challenge both to the right-wing view that addiction is a moral failing caused by too much hedonistic partying, and the liberal view that addiction is a disease taking place in a chemically hijacked brain. In fact, he argues, addiction is an adaptation. It’s not you. It’s your cage. …
Jack Kornfield and Brother David Steindl-Rast are two of my favorite men in the world (along with Gabor Mate). Love seeing them together here. At the Greater Good Gratitude Summit, the renowned authors and religious teachers define love and trust, and explore the relationship between these two critical concepts … [click on title to read and view more]
Physician Dr. Gabor Mate began his interview by addressing the “myth of normal” that divides us into the normal and the abnormal with pathological traits. Dr. Mate mentions that he doesn’t see a division but a continuum where mental distress, of some degree, is present in all of us. He explains how mental distress and pathology are largely a result of a materialist culture that “idealizes individualism and ignores our emotional needs.” … [click on title for the rest of the post]
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