I was inspired to write this article due to my recent viewing of the movie, “What the Bleep” do We Know.” This movie inspired me as after years of helping people overcome their addictions (including myself), “What the Bleep Do We Know”, actually gave one of the most precise explanations of the holistic models of healing that I have researched and utilized the past 35 years. What follows are two case studies whose journey it was to overcome years of heavy levels of addiction to become drug, medication, and alcohol free.
CASE #1- When I met Stan for the first time it was at a talk I was giving at Books a Million in Delray Beach, Florida. Stan walked in with his girlfriend and joined the group listening to me discuss my latest book, “When Life Becomes Overwhelming.” I thought it was odd that in his hand he already had a copy of my book which had just being released in this bookstore with my lecture as the kickoff. Later when Stan and I met in my office he told me he had bought the book at another bookstore three miles away earlier that evening. He and his girlfriend had been bicycling around town, saw Books a Million and decided to check it out-unaware I was at the bookstore launching my latest book to this store.
Stan met me professionally about a week later in my office. He explained how he was now taking the large doses of LOVOX (300mg) and BUSPAR (60mg) for obsessive-compulsive disorder, DEPAKOTE (1000mg) for manic-depression and SEROQUEL (100mg) for psychosis. Stan had been living a life in a “fog” of chemicals for the past 24 years which included for many years, quarts of different alcohols daily. Stan was filled with anger and resentment towards his father, wife and the world in general-overwhelmed, suffering and hopeless. As he told me later-“You are the tenth and last therapist I have come to and for me it is the end of the line. I have separated from my wife and am going through a divorce, watching my business collapse and I have lost all desire to go on.”
“My psychiatrists up North told me that I must be on these medications the rest of my life”, he spoke despairingly, “yet these drugs drain me of energy, nullify my creativity and I’ve lost all joy in living. I can’t even connect well with my 10 year old son. Since meeting you in the bookstore last week and reading your book, “When Life Becomes Overwhelming.”, it seems to me you had your own challenges to go through and have obviously more than surpassed them. I’ve come to you today as a last resort-Can I be helped? Can I get off these medications which destroy my vitality for life? Is there any hope at all I could be happy again?”
I sat there for a few moments without saying a word. I just looked at Stan and extended a compassionate heart and mind to him-connecting “spirit to sprit”, before speaking.
“Thank you for sharing your situation with me-I understand where you are in your life and the events leading up to it. I realize how devastating it can be to hear from one psychiatrist after another that you are chemically imbalanced, brain damaged and would be a victim of your upbringing your entire life. However as I look at you and feel the presence of your Being I can tell you with great certainty, you are so much more than just your body; you are a powerful spirit with an enormously competent intellect. You are not just a bunch of chemicals interacting according to the grey mass in your head. Your brain takes directions from your mind-and your mind takes directions from you, the knower of the mind, which I call the Self. Call it Self, Spiritual Being, Soul, Pure Consciousness, Divine Spark of Light, whatever you like but you are so much more than what you’ve been told.”
I noticed Stan’s eyes brighten as I told him this-his breath eased and he sat more relaxed. Years later he would tell me how this was the defining moment for him, he suddenly felt a connection to his authentic self that he had separated from 30 years earlier and had completely forgotten about. This image would be held onto for years acting as a perpetual life preserver and motivation to drive Stan through to the other side.
Stan shared with me the story of his life consisting of continual emotional abuse. He felt scared growing up-trying to “escape from being nutty”. He spent three years on his back from ages 11 to14 with Perth’s disease in his hip. He became ashamed to face people. He had an extremely negative self image and took heavy doses of four medications to try and “cope and remain comfortable in my skin.”
When I initially did some sensory channel testing, I found his auditory and kinesthic means of perception nearly shut down. (Not uncommon in heavy drug users.) He was going through a business melt down and divorce and was quite overwhelmed in every facet of his life. He remembered very little about his childhood but knew it was painful. Stan was confused, numb, frightened, alienated and lost. He was a human being who did not know how to be the Authentic Self that was peaceful, happy and loving, a state of mind shared by few humans!
Perhaps worse for Stan was not his childhood abuses but the psychiatric abuses he endured. Psychiatrists continually over medicated him and labeled him with so many “made up” illnesses like-Bi-Polar, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Manic Depressive, Psychotic. Unhappiness, bad habits and being caught in the past are not illnesses-they are mental states of human beings can get trapped in that with redirection becomes free, happy, healthy and present.
Stan was told authoritatively a number of times,“never stop taking those drugs we prescribe you as otherwise you’ll never be able to function in your life.” I reframed this for Stan in our first meeting-“if there was an insane person in the room when you were told this, it wasn’t you.” We laughed.
Everyone should understand by now thatwhen someone is labeled as broken or ill who has a natural human emotion such as unhappiness, grief from loss or confusion in life-people soon no longer see them as a spiritual being, people see them as another “depressive”, another “ADD” or another “broken being”. The mind becomes what you focus your attention on. Give mistakes all your attention and you will feel like a mistake. Focus your attention upon your strengths and you will feel your strengths. What you feel, you radiate, and you will receive what you transmit, a reflection of itself, a like kind returned. Psychiatry doesn’t understand this yet…. I’m an eternal optimist-it feels better for me to focus on their goodness and the bigger picture of being healed.
Beginning my work with Stan-I knew how it was important to get him to stop focusing on all that had gone wrong in his life as he had for over 25 years in sessions with his psycho-therapists. They always seem to concentrate on what wasn’t working in his life. But this never worked to make him feel happier or stronger. A basic rule of therapy I’ve always used is “observe and adjust”. If what you’re doing isn’t working to improve your client-change what you’re doing. Simple isn’t it? You don’t just increase the medication dosage and hope! Stan’s past therapists didn’t recognize Stan’s forgotten abilities and powers-and they didn’t know how to help him call upon these resources to help himself. This was the direction I felt guided to take. For this I began using Meta NLP-to build new strengths, good feelings and things he did right amidst this entire drama. I wanted him to access his abilities as somehow he had still managed to get married, have and raise a child to ten years old, build a million dollar construction business and still be alive today! He survived! A “Very Well Done!” for that!
Stan was very open and seemed to enjoy the creative approach to strengthen himself, instead of dwelling on his weaknesses. When we would get stuck in an issue with someone-especially his father-we would use one of the many Miracle Mindedness Forgiveness techniques to unhook him from the anger, resentment and hatred-which lessened the resistance to circulating the emotional energy he was experiencing. These “stuck” masses of energy were gradually diluded and dissolved free by helping him redirect his choices to look at things from a viewpoint of seeking compassion, understanding and release, he gained access to new possibilities and resources that were previously ignored. Stan worked well with gentle guidance-rebuilding his life from the bottom up.
To support his recovery process, I sent him to a nutritionist to evaluate his biological levels. Medications strip key nutrients from our bodies-especially B-complex-as well as weakening the immune system from the medications toxic effects.
Stan agreed to follow a regime of multi-vitamins, Flax seed Oil and other mineral supplements-combined with a 20 minute daily Epson salt foot-bath. Exercise was encouraged-walking, biking, tennis etc. Long term drug users need to re acclimate themselves to being in their body without the need of numbing it as they had been doing.
Meanwhile Stan dealt with divorce ramifications-costs, child support, alimony etc. I worked intensively with Stan and helped guide him to reshape his attitude, self-image, inner dialogue and belief systems. He was open and ready to learn.
One of the common effects I see in long term addiction patterns-is the tendency to dwell on a few undesirable events or situations and to carry them forward, recreating them again and again in the present. The recreation of a past unwanted feeling or emotion- does not make any sense, does it? Wouldn’t someone want instead to create a new opportunity to feel good? Part of my approach is-why not remember a different time in which things went well-or you just felt good about things in general? Then by modeling this-you can begin heading in a new direction. Many therapists, like most people, get caught in the ego’s trap-always looking for what’s wrong. When you dwell on what’s wrong it will generalize into other areas of life to remove the joy and fun. The right minded way of thinking is to look instead for what’s right and build on that! The exercises in the Miracle Mindedness CD’s help train listeners in these techniques.
I continued to help Stan rebuild a new inner core, creating compelling models of strength and the ability to survive in life easily. Stan demonstrated the one thing that always guarantees success, complete commitment. He always did his best every day to complete the different parts of his assignments. Stan embraced the technique of forgiveness that A Course in Miracles taught as I shared in Miracle Mindedness. A session didn’t go by that we used these techniques on one or more former friends, relatives or business associates who were still entangled in some unhealed grievance from the past. Stan also learned to use the “Clear Mind, Open Heart” meditation techniques I taught him, and he practiced them consistently between sessions. One of my goals for clients is that through daily repetition they develop new habits that soon just happen unconsciously and automatically.
As his emotional self was stabilized, Stan eased off all medications by 75% within 3 months. He was 100% medication free in 4 ½ months, the first time in 27 years!
After some time, we did different types of regression work and unburied interfering childhood and past life memories. Stan was amazed to see how many of this life’s challenges were the accumulation of un-forgiven mistakes from earlier points in his personal existence. By the sixth month working with Stan, he was stable and had opened his heart and mind to realignment with his Higher Power-his Authentic Self and was reconnecting deeply to Life-thoroughly and profoundly. I can still remember the joy in his face as he shared with me the joy of going out to a club to hear music for the first time in years. Because of the OCD labels his psychiatrist gave him, Stan was told to stay away from going to places with music or playing music. Dan loved music and art. After a few months in our work together he reconnected to his love, began playing guitar again and doing art for the first time in many years. Creativity returned grandly as it usually does. Fortunately creativity is your life essence-is your loving, peaceful nature as long as you are alive you possess this innate quality. The creative nature is unchangeable as is your loving, peaceful nature.
My experience has shown me that the process of healing goes through various stages-a beautiful dance around the vibrations of existence in and out, to and fro. Once you commit to the process-each day provides a meaningful event for you to learn and grow, develop new abilities, experience things in different ways and have fun. But the detoxifying process can be quite difficult at times as you sort through the valuable from the valueless. Sometimes it feels things are being taken away and your body may go through various withdrawal stages as the old is flushed out, releasing ideas and beliefs that are worthless in reaching your intended state of peacefulness and freedom to make space for the new healthy replacements later. But this soon will pass if you persist.
Amidst this healing process for Stan-I also had a chance to work with his significant other. She had been in recovery for over 15 years and had been by Stan’s’ side for over a year watching him lose his grip on life. Fortunately for Stan, she was very open to the work I was doing with Stan and she began attending the same classes to learn empowering tools for her self so as not to fall into a co-dependent relationship any deeper. She also came to me to work on some of her unresolved issues which helped her clear away other obstacles to her inner peace, and gave her helpful insights into how the transformation process Stan was experiencing worked to be more understanding of the stuff Stan was going through.
I know of no better way for a couple to strengthen their relationship then by facing their shadow sides together-and emerging into the light-together, remembering: always start every communication from a place of stillness with the purpose of peace being primary in your mind.
Ten months since starting, Stan had reached a wonderful milestone-drug, alcohol and medication free for over 4 months. He was now ready and willing to face the mess he made with his family and business. He felt connected to his Higher Power and was filled with faith that whatever life would bring him-he could handle it and know it would bring him good. Stable and clear minded Stan moved back North to begin his new life.
A year after finishing therapy work-Stan wrote me a letter letting me know of the difficult readjustments to his new life. To currently survive he was working a contractor job for $14 an hour. He wrote how his “worldly” life is “unimaginable now”- “The only good news” being how after giving away his million dollar construction firm for nothing while in a daze on medications and not thinking straight, he felt at least “I didn’t have to go bankrupt!” (He reframes it to a positive later as he writes, “But I have never felt better in my life. I live each day at a time in the moment. Life is a mysterious gift!”
I occasionally received a letter from Stan telling me of his progress. Then-four years later, while visiting Florida, Stan stopped by my office. He had grown a beard and was joined by the same girlfriend from 5 years earlier. They had been through a great deal together-but that’s another story in itself. At age 52, he was back in school studying to be an architect-and this was his Spring Break. They were on their way to Key West to relax and enjoy. He had just celebrated his fourth year medication, drug and alcohol free and was feeling great. He still did his Clear Mind, Open Heart meditation and used the Miracle Mindedness techniques to experience life as a wonderful mysterious gift. Interestingly, Stan attempted to have the courts remove the wrongly diagnosed labels from his record- psychotic, OCD and disabled. The courts refused-and Stan is given disability income because of this which now supports him while in college. College tuition is also paid for by his state of residence. Funny how the universe helps bring us back into balance when we are right minded!
A major principle in my work is, “With your willingness to be open and learn and, your commitment to face your shadow side, when you combine it with faith and honesty, you can accomplish anything!” Just as a caterpillar on the ground has no idea he’ll transform one day into a beautiful butterfly soaring amongst the tree tops, anyone can emerge from their cocoon and begin sailing in the sky instead of crawling upon their belly, looking up-and wondering if they’ll ever get off the ground. For even as the caterpillar crawled up a tree to gain new perspectives and begin to wonder about unknown inner impulses beginning to draw his attention within, you can begin to imagine lofty new horizons in your perspective-as you rise up to see the mental construct of the life you created for yourself. With this new vision you can see clearly the steps you need to take to reach your goals, and you happily begin to take them.
Case #2 Trained into Addictive Behavior
Before I met Ted-I met his mother. She had been in the downtown Delray Beach, Florida area and “accidentally” walked by the Quantum Healing Center where I work. She walked upstairs and looked at one of my books and some articles I had written and asked to see me. She sat in my office for the next hour as a frightened desperate mother. She had been overwhelmed watching her son become more and more withdrawn from life. Her son would hardly bath, always wore the same T-shirt-and was very out of touch with reality after 4 years of taking LSD nearly every day. He had also been getting drunk on alcohol, often times, twice in one day.
Ted’s Mom had tried everything a 28 day in house programs, AA, treatment centers, psychiatrists, medication, psychologists and addiction counselors. Her son was now doped up on heavy dosages of medications-introverted and non-functional-“Please could you help my son in anyway”, she pleaded.
Tears ran down Ted’s mothers face-A pretty woman in her late 40’s who obviously was deeply afraid of losing her son. Her son had already been suicidal on more than one occasion. I explained to her that I could help her son if he wanted to receive my help-and was willing to work with me, committed to his healing. I told her the story of Stan from Case #1, which filled her with hope.
There was no question when I met Ted he had been very disoriented and disconnected. Fortunately his mother followed my advice as she read Dr. Peter Breggins and Dr. David Cohen’s book, “Your Drug May Be Your Problem.”, and listened to important information I have later put in a health education CD set I made called, “Caution-Psychiatric Drugs May be Hazardous to Your Health”. She then began a two week detox of the medications Ted was taking (I believe two weeks is usually too short and 4-10 weeks is more appropriate under a medical doctors supervision). Despite some difficult days-he broke through and was more clear headed then he had been in quite some time. When I met Ted-he was quick to say, “I feel angry, depressed and nervous. I’m without any grasp of reality and have no motivation for anything. My depression is bad all the time and I’m angry all the time”. He listed 82 unwanted personal, emotional and spiritual conditions he sought help for.
Ted was your stereotypical ‘lost boy’-finding a sense of freedom in the thousands of LSD trips, alcohol, speed, coke and downs he took. He had no hopes or dreams and had become like a hermit. “Nothing is real”, he repeated to himself like a mantra.
As is my standard procedure-Ted and I looked over his life and made a Time Line to see the defining moments, pivotal decisions, traumas and sudden shifts in any particular direction. It became very clear-Ted was raised to model drug and alcohol use. Both his parents openly took drugs in great excess and when a father substitute as a young teen entered into his life, he was a chronic alcohol and drug abuser that tutored Ted further in these ways.
Over the next few sessions I did some receptivity testing to determine his ability to access and utilize his mental functions. He was able to visualize well and his artistic nature shone through. Ted shared some powerful metaphysical experiences with me. His intense LSD use had forced open some portals into deeper realms of the super-conscious and unconscious minds. As a spiritual astronaut myself in the 60’s-I was well aware of what dimensions of consciousness can be opened through the use of psychedelics. I was sure to acknowledge what he did and showed him many self trance techniques so he could safely continue his spiritual exploration without dangerous side effects of drugs. Ted and I then worked together to discover the underlying decisions as to why he made these choices. I encouraged him to express his feelings and new visions and to put them into his paintings to allow whatever influences he liked to flow through him in creative ways. In one of the receptivity tests I used he easily uncovered a safe and good memory at age two-while on a boat-breathing in the salty air (I anchored him to this feeling so each time he put his hand on his heart he would feel these safe and good feelings).
As forementioned, my therapeutic philosophy is to spend substantial time building positive, healthy, workable resources to have the strength, patience and determination to keep on the path of healing and stay the course as they remodel their self image. I believe it’s important to score small victories along the way. (Which written down in a “Valuable Insights” journal can help ourselves later, your journal can become a source of helpful insights to guide you if you ever fall off course.) Additionally, it’s helpful to learn what’s right about yourself-expand your strengths and abilities and not focus on mistakes and inabilities. I’ve observed when you feel confident and strong in what you decide, life goes easier.
Another direction I take with most addiction oriented clients is to get them into physical work. A workout at a gym 3 or 4 times a week, walks in nature, doing physical labor, yoga, bioenergetics, gardening, construction-these are excellent to reground an addicted persona back into the Earth. Those who numb themselves with substances disassociate from their bodies-often because of suppressed pain. Learning to reconnect yourself back into your body creates a more powerful base from which to function and can then open you to a wider array of the unconscious minds resources.
In addition to Ted’s personal problems-his relationship problems fared no better. Ted’s parental history looked like this-his mother was separated from his father, when the SWAT raided them while a small boy enjoying a day trip of fishing on a boat. A few years later his mother came out of the closet and moved in with a woman lover/partner for a number of years before leaving her and finally marrying a wealthy man to take care of her, when her girlfriend could no longer support her. Throughout all of this Ted was in a permissive substance abuse environment.
Choice therapy was helpful in helping Ted learn to look at consequences, purposes-ego gratification versus right mindedness. Step by step Ted was reconnected with his environment, his family, work and school. Learning meditation and the steps it takes to create a satisfying life each day helped Ted quickly take hold of himself and have a foundation to build upon. He liked to use as part of starting his day the phrase, “Nothing is going to change-unless I change it!”
Within a matter of weeks-Ted showed great improvement. We began setting goals to get his GED, go to college, get a job-build a future career. “I want to feel good.”, became the new mantra.
Through the course of our work we did many forgiveness interventions. As I present in both Clear Mind, Open Heart Meditation and Developing Miracle Mindedness, it is imperative to release the past. Failing to let go of the past is like walking around with one hundred pounds of lead weight on your chest and shoulders. We must lighten our loads for our own sakes!
As we searched around pivotal times in his life, we discovered Ted had many cross flow traumas that still weighed heavily upon him. Watching his Dad hit his mother as a child, watching his father arrested by a SWAT team, having his best friend die at 13-and then “becoming” him-clothes and all. I’ve found that many times cross flow memories can have a greater impact than a directly involved situation. Observing others experiencing traumas can make one feel more helpless and hopeless than when something is done to you-or by you. Unfortunately for Ted, these cross flow situations, were always his parents, his “deities”. Feeling separation or any threat of separation of a parent-real or imagined-can often cause a separation from your essential self that could allow the establishment of a new false “self-image” to cover up this perceived emptiness to compensate for the resulting gap. Separation events are one of the most important segments in our lives to heal. It is often here we broke away from our authentic power-and got caught into a weakened version of ourselves that believed and felt it was alienated from its true source. Understanding this, its easy to see how separation events are a major cause of depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome and scores of other illnesses. Through the work I’ve done with individuals using hypnotherapy, NLP, regressions, Hellinger Constellations, Quantum Psychology and other modalities of therapy to reveal these hidden negative influences, healing the major separation points, provides great transformation.
Ted quickly made progress. After less than 3 months of intensive work Ted was driving again, had a job, a new girlfriend and had signed up to finish school.
When I look back at Ted’s process-I think the recognition of hidden rage that occurred when his father threw him and his mothers’ clothes overboard while on a boat one day was the key negative charge release that unlocked the door. As a young child it was the difference that made the difference in his life. He remembered watching his favorite polka dot shirt floating in the water-and decided both his parents were crazy. This separated him form his “creators”. And he now felt “alone”, “alienated”, “unlovable”, “nothing”. It was these cognitions that helped Ted emerge from the shadows and reenter life with a positive attitude and clear mind. Now the challenge would be maintaining it-staying in this channel of consciousness.
Nearly a year later after finishing my work with Ted, I received an email from him:
“I wanted to write to you and tell you how much you helped me. I’m working part time and going to school at night and haven’t ever felt this happy. I live down the road from my mom and her husband. I just want to let you know how much of a role model you were to me and how appreciative I am.”
Friday, June 15, 2007
Addiction to Drugs, Medication and Alchohol - A New "Bleep" in Understanding True Recovery - © Dr. Brian Sheen – March 2005
The Quantum Healing Center – 12 NE 5th Avenue – Delray Beach, FL 33438 – 561 272 3733
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