After gaining extensive knowledge of drugs through my own addiction, work as a drug and alcohol counselor, and then as educator, author and therapist specializing in addiction, it became increasingly obvious to me that the existing drug recovery model badly needed updating.

THE RADICAL ROAD TO DRUG RECOVERY

From my first puff on a hash-laced joint, I said ‘yes’ to drugs. I couldn’t get enough of the wild adventures, from tripping in the forest on LSD, to shooting-up speed and performing with my band. I loved drugs, the intensity, the exhilaration the magic.

I believe that drugs are an evolutionary tool. They create change. The idea is to quit, leave the old behind and embrace the new in every part of life. Complacency is no longer part of the equation.

As a therapist specialising in holistic drug repair, I find I am now working with two distinct groups: drug-users and the parents of drug-users. Often the latter are much more distraught and desperate than the former. Particularly those parents who never used drugs themselves but, following government advice to ‘talk to their children about drugs’, initiated conversations that, due to the powerful emotions involved, became increasingly more confrontational until their relationship with their children broke down. These parents initially tried to be understanding (like the parents on the anti-drug television campaigns) but driven by the raw anguish of seeing their children destroy themselves and the agony of their own powerlessness to change the situation, ended up blaming, criticising and verbally attacking their children. This is not the way the scenario plays out on TV but unfortunately it is all too common in real life.

Time	Organ	Intent	Actions
5:00-7:00am	Large intestine / colon	Transform	Get up, drink water, evacuate bowels, stretch, meditate, exercise
7:00-9:00am	Stomach	Balance	Be sweet to yourself, eat breakfast, arrive, become real
9:00am-11:00am	Spleen	Develop	Act, make decisions, work hard, think, communicate, achieve
11:00am-1:00pm	Heart	Communion	Articulate vision and purpose, access your soul, spread the love
1:00pm-3:00pm	Small Intestine	Refine	Have lunch, go slow, ride the wave

Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity
– Lao-tzu

 

In Western medicine, sex is not considered an integral part of health, in Traditional Chinese Medicine though, sexual practices are considered to have a huge impact on health by affecting levels of ‘Jing’, a substance which determines your basic constitutional strength and vitality. Jing is supposed be carefully managed but there are lots of things that we do that can contribute to its decline, and consequently an earlier death, and excessive ejaculation in men is one of these.

As a holistic health counsellor, I treat many people who have had an addiction of some sort in the past. They come to see me because they want to make changes and become healthier but they often mention having to give up just one ‘last vice’ before they reach this goal. One of the most common ‘last vices’, particularly for ex-drug addicts, is cigarettes. However, I don’t believe there is a ‘last vice’ because once we start on the path to health and self-realisation and undergo daily practice of meditative techniques, we naturally constantly refine our energy fields.