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The Real Reason for the Opioid Crisis

10/18/2017

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There's a lot of noise about opiods in the media.  As a doctor, I can tell you that opioids are old news.  People have been getting hooked on opiates since they were discovered thousands of years ago.  It has also been well known for a very long time that an overdose stops you from breathing: you die.   What is different about this situation is that the supply of opioids has been quite abundant in a very rich nation, and that people are isolated and miserable.  The abundance of such an addictive substance is a problem for our government to address through laws and regulation.  The isolation and misery we have to deal with on our own.

What nobody is talking about is the fact that opioids, or opiates, make us feel good.  They work for emotional pain as well as for physical pain.  We are in the midst of a psychological crisis, as a nation, which makes us susceptible.  Opium and its derivatives give a person the feeling of a warm, safe, loving embrace, the sense that everything really will be all right.  This is the real reason that Americans are "addicted" in astounding numbers.  We're not addicted to opioids, we're suffering.  We're miserable.  Nothing is going the way that we thought it would.  We're isolated or in troubled relationships.   We're unemployed or underemployed.  We "don't get no" respect.  We're traumatized by wars, rapes, and a zillion other unmentionable events in our lives.  

It's because of this misery that Americans commit suicide in all kinds of ways.  I think suicide can be both passive and active.  Active suicide includes all the things that people do when they have every intention of dying that same day.  Some slit wrists, pull triggers, or swallow pills.  Passive suicide is even more common.  People passively suicide by eating or drinking themselves to death, or by accidental overdose or driving too fast or doing other things that are obviously risky but without the expectation that death will happen today.  It just could, and the danger be damned.

And then there's suicide by cop, which is getting more common.  All you have to do is threaten a cop and you might well get shot.  It will happen faster if your skin is brown.  If you want to be famous then you do like the Unabomber or the Vegas shooter guy and try to break some records before you die.

All of this is just a symptom of what's really wrong: we are miserable.  We have splintered our families and destroyed our communities and in their stead we have endless televised entertainment and cell phones and automobiles that will take us to soulless destinations.  Our president has been stomping on what was left of our moral compass.  We have lost our sense of who we are.  We have lost our ritual traditions, our celebrations of life and death.  We have lost our humanity and become appendages of some giant machine that owns and uses us until our brains give way and we execute ourselves.  Planned obsolescence was the term for equipment that was expected to become outdated.  Now we the people are irrelevant, and it doesn't fell good.

There are those who say that if we can take a pill or inject something and feel great, what's the harm in that?  At least if you die of an opioid overdose, you die happy.  I can't argue that ending miserable lives is all bad.  It is also not all good, because it is so irreversible.  Death is the end, you do not get to play again.  Misery is reversible.  Many who are miserable at one time eventually find a way to be happy.

There are ways that we can rediscover meaning in our lives.  We have to be conscious of when we are resorting to patches and distractions, and get real about what matters.  Being with those we love... if we remember how to love... that could save us.  Get that warm hug from a real person instead of a pill.  Give that warm hug to someone who needs it.  Share traditions that celebrate the good things in life... Thanksgivings if you will... these kinds of traditions help us build community and help us remember what is important.  Being in touch with nature is also the deepest kind of medicine.  There is something about the ocean that helps people grieve.  Gardening, digging in the earth and watching things grow, is another simple thing that helps open the door to happiness.  Art and music are wonderful ways to let the pain flow out and to become human again.  These are things that we have lost, but we can claim them again.

Suing drug manufacturers--or doctors--will not bring back the dead.  The government cannot bring back the dead or prevent the deaths that will happen tomorrow.  It is up to each and every one of us to remember what it means to be human, and to BE human with the people in our lives.  If something is clearly wrong, ask about it.  Talk about it.  Just by connecting we can help a person hang on to the will to live.  

Another thing we can do to support life is to mourn the dead properly.  To truly grieve is to remember what was good about someone and to praise them, so that you know what you have lost.  So many have died already, let us grieve them all.  Let us admit our losses, and by being honest about them, reclaim the value of a life.

In order to remember joy we must let ourselves feel the pain.  When we numb ourselves to the pain in life, we become slaves to whatever substance makes the pain go away.  Drugs make us less and less capable of dealing with pain, and they also dissolve our human relationships that can help us work through the pain.  The thing about pain is that it does not last forever.  It goes through us.  If the injury is great, it can last for a long time.  The pain of grief comes in waves, more some times and less others.  Psychological pain lasts far longer than physical, and is the real reason that people want to keep taking opioids.  The pain is "too much" unless we are there for each other, unless we find ways to support each other in going through the fire that is our own pain.

The conventional treatment for opioid addiction is more drugs.  The treatment drugs are less enjoyable than the more addictive ones, but they are in the same family.  I say we must address the suffering.  If we do not help people find ways to alleviate suffering, we are doing no more than rearranging bullets in a gun.
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Election Anxiety

11/7/2016

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You don't have to look far to notice that people are terrified about this election.  American psychologists have been writing about it.  Everyone is scared, not just one side or another.  And we've been scared for a while already, since before 2001 even.  It just keeps ramping up.

The psychological roots of the modern fascination with Zombies relates to a doomsday feeling about our time and more recently about this election.  People are even more afraid than they are angry.  

No matter who wins or looses, a significant portion of the US population thinks that all is lost.  We're goners.  This is going down the tubes.  There's no reconciliation, the other guys are idiots.  There's no compromise, how can you compromise with evil?  It's enough to make the sanest of people very uneasy, and enough to drive the slightly unstable right off the brink.

We need to find a way back to civility.  Desperately, we need this for the survival of our nation, our families, ourselves.  We need to get comfortable looking people in the eye and telling them what we really think and why.  And we need to do them the honor of listening to their thoughts and reasons too.

Honesty has fallen by the wayside, and been replaced by Bullying and Obfuscation.  The media can't be trusted, neither social media like this blog, or commercial media like TV news.  It's hard to know what is real and what is hype.  The amount of screaming about how close this election has become is not functional, I think it will shut people down.

It's sad to say but today more and more people talk like politicians.  All you hear is obstructionism, evasion, and distraction.  An opinion is supposed to be worth something even if it is founded on nothing.  Whatever happened to having reasons for your beliefs, for finding evidence to support your position?

We can be honest.  We can sit quietly and say I don't want this because I'm afraid.  I do want this because I hope for something for my kids.  I have reasons for my choices, and they may be my feelings, or they may be something that I believe to be a fact.

Belief is imperfect.  No matter what you believe you can be mistaken.  But you are still of value, even if you don't know all the facts.  You are a human being, and you can learn and grow and make your own decisions.

Remember that.  You too are a human being and your greatest power is your ability to care, to laugh, love, and connect.  Through that you can sustain yourself and your dear ones through these troubling times, and build the strength you need to talk honestly with someone that you disagree with.  One on one.
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    Author

    Teresa Gryder ND is a naturopathic physician with a unique perspective on mental health, and a wide range of evidence-based alternative treatments to consider.  Originally from Tennessee, she currently practices in Portland, Oregon.

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