California Sues Big Pharma

The several million Americans dependent on narcotic painkillers, along with their families, friends and co-workers, are probably giving a little cheer today at some pretty amazing news. Two California municipalities, Santa Clara County and Orange County, have launched lawsuits against five of the largest narcotic painkiller pharmaceutical companies in the world.

The suit, being brought on behalf of the entire state of California, accuses the drug companies of creating the nation’s prescription drug epidemic by “waging a campaign of deception” to boost sales of their dangerously addictive painkillers.

Named in the suit are:

• Actavis
• Endo Health Solutions Inc.
• Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals
• Purdue Pharma
• Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ Cephalon Inc.

The drugs made or marketed by these companies include most popular brand name painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet, Percodan, Opana, Duragesic and others, along with many generic narcotic painkillers, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl and others.

Both Orange and Santa Clara counties say they have been seriously impacted by prescription narcotic overdose deaths, emergency room visits and skyrocketing medical costs. The lawsuit contends that the pharmaceutical companies violated California laws against false advertising, unfair business practices and creating a public nuisance.

The LA Times said the 100-page lawsuit uses “sweeping language reminiscent of the legal attack against the tobacco industry.”  The companies employed tactics similar to those used by the tobacco industry to “conceal their deceptive marketing and conspiratorial behavior.”

The suit “alleges the drug companies have reaped blockbuster profits by manipulating doctors into believing the benefits of narcotic painkillers outweighed the risks, despite ‘a wealth of scientific evidence to the contrary’”, the Times said. The lawsuit claims that the drug companies’ marketing practices “opened the floodgates” for such drugs and “the result has been catastrophic.” Patients were encouraged to ask doctors for narcotic painkillers to treat common conditions such as headaches, arthritis and back pain. The drug manufacturers promoted narcotic painkillers as safer than they actually are and promised unproven benefits such as improved sleep and quality of life. Such claims are beyond those allowed by the FDA, the suit says. The result, says the suit, is “a population of addicts” which has led to the explosion in heroin abuse and addiction – the same high at a fraction of the cost of illicit prescription painkillers.

The suit also says that in Orange County, there is a painkiller-related death every other day. The county’s district attorney told the Times he sees the suit as a matter of public protection, with the “primary goal to stop the lies about what these drugs do.”

Where the attention goes the prana flows ...

“Most of us prioritize externally oriented attention. When we think of attention, we often think of focusing on something outside of ourselves. We “pay attention” to work, the TV, our partner, traffic, or anything that engages our senses.  However, a whole other world exists that most of us are far less aware of: an internal world, with its varied landscape of emotions, feelings, and sensations.  It is often the internal world that determines whether we are having a good day or not, whether we are happy or unhappy.  That’s why we can feel angry despite beautiful surroundings or feel perfectly happy despite being stuck in traffic.

University of Toronto study compared exteroceptive (externally focused) attention to interoceptive (internally focused) attention in the brain.  Contrary to the conventional assumption that all attention relies upon the frontal lobe of the brain, the researchers found that this was true of only exteroceptive attention; interoceptive attention used evolutionarily older parts of the brain more associated with sensation and integration of physical experience; brain regions that link the cortex to the limbic system.  These limbic connections may support more direct access to emotions and physical sensations while the neocortex is more responsible for a conceptual sense of self. By recruiting “limbic-bridge” areas, a person using interoceptive attention may bypass the pre-frontal neocortex, directly tapping into bodily awareness that is free from social judgment or conceptual self-evaluation.

For some, turning attention inward can be distressing, because it may tune us into emotions that are not comfortable. However, constantly distracting ourselves through attention turned outwards will not remove those underlying emotions.  Yoga, breathing and meditation practices are designed to increase our interoceptive awareness.  By learning to engage with our emotions through our dedicated interoceptive awareness, we may experience the first signs of healing. Research conducted with veterans suffering from trauma is also showing this to be true.  Though the veterans are at first wary of being present with the emotions, feelings and memories that can arise during their first yoga, yogic breathing, and meditation practice, they report that over time those distressing inner experiences start to actually wane and heal. Best of all, they feel empowered. No longer reliant on drugs or a therapist, they have learned to use their own breath to regain control of their lives.”

Read more of this article from Emma Seppala, Ph.D. from Stanford University, Assistant Scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

and see what Deepak Chopra has to say on the subject here - where I found the cool images on this post, thanks Deepak ; )

Available for 36 more hours free - Tommy Rosen on Thriving in Recovery From Addiction

This interview with Tommy Rosen, Founder and Producer of Recovery 2.0: Beyond Addiction Conferences -  “Recovery 2.0: Thriving in Recovery From Addiction” was recorded on Feb 27, 2014

March 1st 2014 for 24 hours only: FREE Online Screening of the ANONYMOUS PEOPLE (new feature documentary) and live Q&A, from 12 A.M. Eastern time (U.S.)

HAZELDEN’S SOCIAL COMMUNITY WILL HOST A FREE ONLINE SCREENING OF THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE AND LIVE Q&A.

On March 1st starting at 12 A.M. Eastern time (U.S.), the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, a founding partner of the Manyfaces1voice call-to-action campaign, will host a free online stream of The Anonymous People via the Hazelden Social Community: www.hazelden.org/social.

On that day, The Anonymous People will be available for people all over the world to watch for 24-hours only. The film’s director, Greg Williams, and other key subjects from the film, including Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s William Cope Moyers, will be available for a live chat at 5 p.m. EST.

The Anonymous People is a new feature documentary film that tells the story of the over 23 million Americans living in long-term recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs. It has ignited new energy in a grassroots public recovery movement by bringing the faces and voices of the leaders, volunteers, corporate executives, and celebrities in recovery to the forefront.

Watch The Film’s Trailer: http://manyfaces1voice.org/#the-film

Already, more than 55,000 people have gathered to watch the film and discuss how they can “join the movement” at community events worldwide.

“I’m grateful the film is inspiring so many more people to get involved. They are taking a stand on behalf of others impacted by addiction and we are telling our recovery stories to a whole new audience. Collectively, we can change public perception and ultimately the public response to the addiction crisis,” said the film’s director, Greg Williams, who partnered withFaces & Voices of Recovery to create the brand new advocacy engagement campaign, www.ManyFaces1Voice.org.

“So many people have asked us what they can do and told us that they are anxious to see the film again. And even more are trying to see it for the first time. This online screening event in partnership with the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is a unique opportunity to bring the message of recovery to everyone, no matter where they live,” Williams said.

Membership in Hazelden’s Social Community (www.hazelden.org/social) is free and available worldwide.

“I recommend signing into the social community ahead of time so that on March 1st, you’re ready to just log in and watch the film and participate in the special Q&A event,” said Hazelden Betty Ford’s Jeremiah Gardner, who is helping coordinate the event. “The Hazelden social community is home to daily recovery meetings, a lively discussion board, expert blogs, the exclusive Hazelden Book Club and, most importantly, a collection of wonderful, productive people sharing their recovery journeys together and demonstrating the personal and societal value of recovery.”

If you have questions about the event, please contact Gardner at jjgardner@hazelden.org.

Should there be a word for an 'almost alcoholic'?

Alcoholics are people who fall asleep in skips. Alcoholics get into fights. Alcoholics start the day with a shot of whisky. Alcoholics are drunk all the time. Alcoholics can’t hold down jobs.

None of the above is necessarily true, but the intensely negative nature of the word alcoholic leaves some people scrabbling for an alternative.

The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality ...

The six tenets of Yoga of Recovery are:

1. Life is Longing;
2. Life is Prana;
3. Life is Relationship;
4. Life is Sweet;
5. Life is Love; and
6. Life is Progress.

Life is Prana, our second focus point in Yoga of Recovery – prana gives a feeling a vitality, lack of prana is described as depression, lethargy, lack of enthusiasm.  We teach hatha yoga, breathing exercises, nutrition, sense therapies and EFT to help manage our prana.

We ingest prana, at the gross level, through food, heat, liquids and air (breath) and, on a subtle level, through sensory impressions (predominantly the senses related to air and ether: sound and touch). We need prana, and when our food, water and air are polluted, processed and devitalized, when we are removed from nature and bombarded with sensory stimuli, our prana is disturbed. When we are under stress we shift into the fight or flight response and our breathing becomes fast and shallow. This further disturbs the flow of prana and our body’s reserves of this life-force, which can lead to fatigue and exacerbate muscle tension in addition to creating a feeling of emptiness that somehow needs to be filled.  We experience Pranic challenges:

1. If we are energy/prana-deficient we seek stimulation.

2. If we are hyperactive and constantly on the go, we seek sedation.

3. If the flow of prana is blocked and we are in pain, we self-medicate.

4. If we are under stress, we often seek instant gratification through our senses.

These coping mechanisms: stimulation, sedation, medication and instant gratification, are fully supported and even encouraged in our modern world of overdrive and hyper sensory stimulation. The short-term pain relief created, however, is outweighed by the long-term progression of disturbed prana that can lead to depression, mental stagnation, denial and addiction.

Writer, Andrew Solomon talks about depression in this TED talk - we know depression through metaphors – language and paintings.  Andrew takes you to the darkest corners of his mind during the years he battled depression. That led him to an eye-opening journey across the world to interview others with depression — only to discover that, to his surprise, the more he talked, the more people wanted to tell their own stories.  He says “Depression is the flaw in love…”

“I became much more tolerant of the vast world of alternative treatments”

Evidence of the neuropharmacological plasticity of the human taste system

I read about this study and recognize how it is coming closer to the understanding of the interconnectedness of our senses, brain, behavior and cognitive abilities – connections that are a basic part of Ayurvedic understanding of who we are and our imbalances… Doshas:Vata-air types who are prone to anxiety are balanced by sweet, sour and salty taste, Pitta – fire types who are prone to anger/irritability are balanced by sweet, astringent and bitter taste, and Kapha – water types who are prone to becoming overweight and depressed are balanced by bitter, astringent and pungent tastes.  This would be part of a full therapy plan involving all 5 senses, behavior and cognitive modifications and physical exercise and relaxation.  Here is what the scientists are wrestling with – well done to them for recognizing connections!

Studies about psychological influences on taste perception indicate that the taste system is sensitive to emotional and stressful manipulations.

Evidence of the neuropharmacological plasticity of the human taste system – since the serotonergic and the noradrenergic systems are involved in clinical anxiety and depression and are the main targets of antidepressants, changes in these systems may explain taste alterations in these patients

Anxiety can also distort your perception of taste (which, to be clear, you do with your tongue) and smell (which dominates flavour discernment).  Read more here …

Why social prescriptions are just what the doctor ordered

Social prescriptions, from fishing to knitting groups, are helping patients back on to the road to recovery.

New UK research released on Tuesday by the innovation charity Nesta and the Innovation Unit suggests GPs across the country are increasingly keen on the “more than medicine” approach of social prescribing, which typically includes activities from dance classes to knitting groups and cookery clubs. Among 1,000 doctors surveyed, four out of five thought social prescriptions should be available from their surgeries, in particular exercise groups, help with healthy eating and groups providing emotional support. Yet patient experience suggests the opportunities to benefit are limited. Nesta questioned 2,000 members of the public, with just 9% saying they had received a social prescription. More than half (55%) said they would like their GP to offer them.

Read more here

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Craving, Desire and Addiction streaming live - Oct 28 - Nov 1, 2013

Thank you to Hari for letting me know that the Mind & Life Institute is offering a live webcast of their 27th Dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama; Mind and Life XXVII: Craving, Desire and Addiction will be streamed live on DalaiLama.com,  Oct 28 – Nov 1, 2014.

Craving, desire, and addiction are among the most pressing causes of human suffering. By bringing contemplative practitioners and scholars from Buddhist and Christian traditions together with a broad array of scientific researchers in the fields of desire and addiction, hopefully new understandings will arise that may ultimately lead to improved treatment of the root causes of craving and its many manifestations.

For times in your region, 9:00am IST on October 28th in Dharamsala, India = 8:30pm PDT on October 27th in Los Angeles, CA, USA: and 4:30pm BST on October 28th in London, England.

We're all closely related to an addict ... Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, grandparents and siblings are among those with addiction issues ...

Here is a blog post from Tom Keim, a recent student of Inner Peace Yoga Therapy Program at the Prama Institute …

The Vitamin Myth: Why We Think We Need Supplements

I linked to this article through the Tadasana newsletter.  It is an excerpt from the book Do You Believe in Magic? The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine.

Here is a quick excerpt from the article … “In 2007, researchers from the National Cancer Institute examined 11,000 men who did or didn’t take multivitamins. Those who took multivitamins were twice as likely to die from advanced prostate cancer.

In 2008, a review of all existing studies involving more than 230,000 people who did or did not receive supplemental antioxidants found that vitamins increased the risk of cancer and heart disease.

On October 10, 2011, researchers from the University of Minnesota evaluated 39,000 older women and found that those who took supplemental multivitamins, magnesium, zinc, copper, and iron died at rates higher than those who didn’t. They concluded, “Based on existing evidence, we see little justification for the general and widespread use of dietary supplements.”

Two days later, on October 12, researchers from the Cleveland Clinic published the results of a study of 36,000 men who took vitamin E, selenium, both, or neither. They found that those receiving vitamin E had a 17 percent greater risk of prostate cancer. In response to the study, Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic, said, “The concept of multivitamins was sold to Americans by an eager nutraceutical industry to generate profits. There was never any scientific data supporting their usage.” On October 25, a headline in the Wall Street Journal asked, “Is This the End of Popping Vitamins?” Studies haven’t hurt sales. In 2010, the vitamin industry grossed $28 billion, up 4.4 percent from the year before. “The thing to do with [these reports] is just ride them out,” said Joseph Fortunato, chief executive of General Nutrition Centers.“We see no impact on our business.”

Yoga-Based Breathing Techniques Can Help Reduce Teen Impulsive Behavior: Study

A four-week stress-reduction program that includes yoga-based breathing techniques can help teens gain better control of their impulsive behavior, a new study suggests. The researchers say lack of impulsivity control in teens is associated with substance abuse and other risky behaviors.  Read more here.

and then take a look at “7 ways to de-stress in a Minute or Less“

NIMH “reorienting its research away from D.S.M. categories”

The creators of the D.S.M. in the 1960s and ’70s “were real heroes at the time,” said Dr. Steven E. Hyman, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at the Broad Institute and a former director at the National Institute of Mental Health. “They chose a model in which all psychiatric illnesses were represented as categories discontinuous with ‘normal.’ But this is totally wrong in a way they couldn’t have imagined. So in fact what they produced was an absolute scientific nightmare. Many people who get one diagnosis get five diagnoses, but they don’t have five diseases — they have one underlying condition.”

from NY Times article “Psyhciatry’s Guide is out of touch with Science” by Pam Belluck and Benedict Carey

Patients with mental disorders deserve better. NIMH is looking to Transform Diagnosis and has launched the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project to transform diagnosis by incorporating genetics, imaging, cognitive science, and other levels of information to lay the foundation for a new classification system.   Read more from NIMH here

The Creation of Disease

The free market is not very good at distributing compassion, nor is it particularly good at deciding whose suffering deserves recognition…

in a free-market economy anyway, it’s not such a good idea to let the people who profit from disease define it.

Read article from Gary Greenberg here

DSM diagnoses are not real diseases, but rather constructs ...

Gary Greenberg’s recently published book “The Book of Woe: The DSM and The Unmaking of Psychiatry”, is said to be a powerful critique of the entire DSM methodology.  Greenberg is a practicing psychotherapist who has been referred to as “The Dante of our Psychiatric age,” by Errol Morris, and blogs about the DSM for the New Yorker. With The Book of Woe, written during and after his own participation in the revision process of the DSM-5, Greenberg doesn’t just paint the DSM as irrelevant, but as an arbitrary and totalitarian influence in the treatment of mental and emotional distress. Greenberg makes an unsparing case against the DSM’s hold on the naming rights to our psychic suffering.

Here is a very interesting article from the Fix on what Gary has to say about the new DSM

The narrative of human lives is more or less absent in healthcare economies ...

We live in an age that pays lip service to history, yet which continually undermines the ties we have to the past. The narrative of human lives is more or less absent in healthcare economies, where symptoms are seen as problems to be treated locally, rather than as signs that something is wrong at a more fundamental level. If the constellation of the manic depressive includes a difficulty in integrating a part of his or her history, society’s neglect of this dimension can only make things worse.

Data has the power to inform. Story has the power to transform

THE STORIES OF ADDICTION

By Jim Jensen, LAC, LCPC

In less than a generation we have gone from a community of fellow alcoholics sitting together in church basements sharing stories, to licensed professionals sitting together in hotel conference rooms sharing  studies on the neurochemistry of addiction.

One invites questions. The other stands at the door handing out answers. One engages the brain. The other engages our imagination, emotions, and spirit.

What is the difference between being an addict and being a human being?

I always enjoy Susan Cheever’s articles for “The Fix” -

“At a popular center for meetings in New York City on most days of the week, an addict can get 12-step help for spending, under earning, sexual compulsiveness, cocaine, co-dependency, crystal meth addiction, debting, overeating, surviving incest and problems with addicted family members. The miracle of the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is that they often work when nothing else does. Although few of the more than 50 12-step programs for other addictions are as organized or as effective as AA, they seem to have a good effect on the people who attend them.

Yet their proliferation raises a larger question: What is the difference between being an addict and being a human being? Everyone has some kind of problem. Can a 12-step program help every problem?

Although addictions vary in intensity—some addicts are more addicted than others—there is a difference between an addict—someone who cannot stop—and someone who is not addicted. It is also true that many addicts can switch substances if they need to. “High-functioning alcoholics” are often people who also have other addictions, such as money, food and pills‑all kept more or less in check by spreading the addiction thin. Recovery author Patrick Carnes, PhD, who put sex addiction on the map, calls this “bargaining with chaos.”

In many AA meetings members talk about drug addiction, eating disorders and struggles to stop smoking. Although all addictions are the same in some ways, it is deeply reassuring and comforting to sit with a group of people who have exactly the same problems as you.

Weight-loss surgery doesn't fix the insides of a person

In my experience this is also what I have seen -

“Weight-loss surgery fixes the outside of a person, but not the inside. While it can reduce the harm of obesity, it leaves the needs driving your addiction untouched. So if food has always been your drug, and stomach-minimizing surgery abruptly denies you your fix, you turn to other drugs. Alcohol, being legal, is the most available, but patients can take their pick among the panoply of addictive substances.”

Get people hooked on ... The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food

This article is adapted from “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us,” which will be published by Random House this month.

Michael Moss is an investigative reporter for The Times. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2010 for his reporting on the meat industry.

Here are some parts that struck me …

Today, one in three adults is considered clinically obese, along with one in five kids, and 24 million Americans are afflicted by type 2 diabetes, often caused by poor diet, with another 79 million people having pre-diabetes. Even gout, a painful form of arthritis once known as “the rich man’s disease” for its associations with gluttony, now afflicts eight million Americans.

Our limbic brains love sugar, fat, salt. . . . So formulate products to deliver these. Perhaps add low-cost ingredients to boost profit margins. Then ‘supersize’ to sell more. . . . And advertise/promote to lock in ‘heavy users.’ Plenty of guilt to go around here!”

… the food industry already knew some things about making people happy — and it started with sugar.

… pioneering work on discovering what industry insiders now regularly refer to as “the bliss point” or any of the other systems that helped food companies create the greatest amount of crave.

The “Drinking Mirror”, a new phone app

A new phone app shows the effect of drinking alcohol on a person’s facial appearance. The “Drinking Mirror” is designed to make people aware of the physical toll of heavy alcohol consumption.  The app, which is free until March, is available for Android and iPhone users. You can upload or take a photo of yourself, and enter information about your drinking habits.  The app shows them how their face might age if they continue to consume alcohol at their current rate, by adding weight gain, dull skin, wrinkles and red cheeks.

The app is part of the Scottish government’s “Drop a Glass Size” campaign, launched this month.

It is also available on the web here

Read more about the Visible and Inivisible Effects here

and remember YoR teaches Ayurveda for addictions – we specialize in REJUVENATION!

WHO says more than 350 million people worldwide have depression ...

and predicts that by 2020, the disorder will rival heart disease as the illness with the highest global disease burden.

The evidence is that both our genes and our early childhood experiences contribute …

governments should consider screening adolescents to try to reduce the number who go on to suffer major and recurring bouts of depression…

Virtually Anorexic - Where's The Harm?

Thousands of young girls are using dangerous ‘pro-ana’ websites that encourage users to ‘starve for perfection’.

“Thinspiration” – where images of celebrities such as Victoria Beckham and Keira Knightley are used to idealise a certain look.

Read  more here

“hyper-palatable” foods - sweet, salty and fatty - along with “mouth-feel”

Food addiction seems to be linked to the types of foods we’re consuming. Dr. Kelly D. Brownell, director of Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, notes that the human body is biologically adapted to deal with foods found in nature, not processed foods.

“We don’t abuse lettuce, turnips and oranges,” says Dr. Brownell, co-editor of the new book “Food and Addiction.” “But when a highly processed food is eaten, the body may go haywire. Nobody abuses corn as far as I know, but when you process it into Cheetos, what happens?”

Dr. David A. Kessler, the former F.D.A. commissioner, described these products as “hyperpalatable” foods created to tantalize our taste buds by focusing on the right combination of salty, sweet and fatty ingredients along with “mouth-feel.”

Dr. Brownell says that the brain science should lead us to question how food companies are manipulating their products to get us hooked. “With these foods, personal will and good judgment get overridden. People want these foods, dream about these foods, crave them.”

Dr. Pamela Peeke, assistant professor at the University of Maryland and author of “The Hunger Fix,” says that meditation and exercise can help engage the brain to overcome food addiction. As a heroin user might rely on methadone to alleviate withdrawal, food addicts, she says, should seek alternatives that still give pleasure — a fruit smoothie, for example, instead of ice cream.

http://news.yale.edu/2011/04/04/compulsive-eating-and-substance-dependence-share-similar-brain-patterns

Heroes in Recovery

I am teaching yoga on the beach at the excellent Moments of Change conference this week at the Breakers in Palm Beach.

Heroes in Recovery are here and I had a great chat with Wendy Lee Nentwig who got a bit of my story out of me and it’s now posted on the Heroes website  - read and comment here

What your doctor doesn't know about prescription drugs

Ben Goldacre … “I felt mislead … what a staggering difference there was between reality and what [we] could see in peer reviewed journals … this is a cancer at the core of evidence based medicine … research misconduct … the effect on patients is damning, and this is happening right now, today.”

Watch this TED.com talk here

Interview with Durga in Integral Yoga Magazine, Fall 2012

Fall 2012 Issue of  Integral Yoga Magazine, Yoga Therapy 2012,

Yoga Therapy 2012 Issue

Featuring Jon Kabat-Zinn, Durga Leela, Bo Forbes, Swami Ajaya, David Shannahoff-Khalsa, Grace Bullock and more…

• Eastern vs. Western Psychology—Sri Swami Satchidananda
• Every Thought Affects You—Swami Vishnudevananda
• The Nature of the Mind—Swami Asokananda
• Yoga Psychology Today—Laura Sevika Douglass
• Yoga of Recovery—Durga Leela
• Yoga, Vulnerability and Transformation—Bo Forbes
• The Mind’s Own Physician—Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Mantra as Medicine for the Brain—Catherine Ghosh
• Yoga: The Original Mind-Body Medicine—Ananda Bhavanani
• Healing into Wholeness—Kathleen Lea Summers
• Yoga Psychology: Where East Meets West—Swami Ajaya
• Medical Yoga: A Paradigm Shift—M. Mala Cunningham
  The Healing Power of Yoga—Grace Bullock
• Yoga as an Alternative to Antidepressants—Bethany Butzer
• Trauma Sensitive Yoga—David Emerson
• Kundalini Yoga, A Sacred Therapy—David Shannahoff-Khalsa
• The Bridge of Yoga—Leonard Perlmutter
• A Healing Journey—Ken Lidden

Addiction Research: All Brain and No Soul?

…”To understand addiction, we need to know more than that someone has taken a drug that he likes. We need to know about the rest of his life, about his social support, his history of mental illness, education, employment, as well as his values and sense of meaning and purpose.

We need to know the dose of the drug and the setting where he takes it. We need to know his age and how his culture views behavior related to that drug and something about the level of stress and trauma he experienced as a child.

In fact, social factors like unemployment, education level, traumatic life experience and amount of social support for recovery are currently better predictors of recovery than any brain factors yet discovered. So far, pretty brain pictures don’t necessarily tell us much. A recent study, in fact, found that simply presenting data with such images—relevant or not—made people more likely to be convinced by the authors’ claims.

In short, addiction doesn’t begin—or end—with “pleasure centers in the brain.” If we’re going to address it effectively, we need to recognize this reality and devote as much time and money to studying social factors as intensely as we do the brain.Of course, that might mean looking at issues like unemployment, child abuse and poverty that are far more uncomfortable than saying “nucleus accumbens” or “brain disease” and being done with it”…

read more of this article from Maia Szalavitz, a columnist at The Fix. 

What is Recovery?

RECOVERY RESEARCH – PARTICIPATE TODAY!

Take part in the first-ever nationwide survey about addiction recovery. You will be partnering in an exciting new research project funded by the National Institutes of Health. The project’s goal is to learn how people experience and define recovery. This research has never been done before.  The 20 minute anonymous survey can be answered online here

Yoga of Recovery Recording from Yogaville satsang

It was an honor to be asked to talk about Yoga of Recovery at last week’s satsang at Yogaville, VA.  First part of recording is chanting and wonderful recorded talk of Swami Satchitananada.  YoR talk starts around 1:03 and is about 40 minutes long.  Like and share if you find it useful, thank you

http://new.livestream.com/yogaville/DurgaLeela

An evening with Noah Levine

I enjoyed hearing Noah Levine talk about Breaking the Addiction to the Mind last night. Good to see a young audience interested in meditation. I believe quite a few were also in recovery.  Noah is well known for his book Dharma Punx and starting Against the Stream – a 501(c)(3) non-profit Buddhist Meditation Society,  whose core mission is a commitment to social action. They have projects to feed the homeless, work with gang and prison populations and those in recovery centers. Their center in Santa Monica supports the dharma and practice both on and off the cushion.

Bill W.: The First Intimate Documentary

“It seems to me that alcoholics don’t have a single flaw or emotion or difficulty that non-alcoholics don’t also have. But there is something about alcoholism that seems to make people experience these things at more depth, or more intensely, and causes them to seek a solution in a way that other people may not have to…The thing that makes all of us human is our imperfections and our vulnerabilities.”

Producer Dan Carracino and director Kevin Hanlon’s documentary, Bill W.

Go to billw.com to see the Bill W. trailer and find out more about the film.

Are You Addicted to Facebook?

Are your Facebook fixes problematic?

Take this simple test, developed by Norwegian scientists.

If you answered “often” or “very often” on four or more of these questions, you may have a Facebook addiction, according to the researchers. And if you’re dicing with a cocktail of social media, God help you.

Article from www.thefix.com

Right-sized?

In recovery we are often reminded to work at becoming “Right-sized”  – see if this helps you consider what that really means!

Foundations Conference provides profound first experience

I have been teaching at the Foundations Freedom and Recovery Conference this week at Hotel del Coronado, San Diego, CA.  Wanted to share with you some feedback from a first time conference attendee who came to find out what help is available for loved ones who suffer from addictions….

“First of all I thank God that he led me to come to this conference and thank everyone who organized and planned this conference.  I learned so much and met so many good people.  I had a wonderful opportunity to attend my first 12-step meeting.  Most of all I met Durga and had a chance to participate in her teaching and class.  I will try to implement her teaching to my current practice when I return home.  I plan to return back to  this conference next time again if situation allows me.  I can’t thank you and everyone enough.” J.J. MD

Why are sweet cravings so much more common than cravings for the bitter taste of leafy greens?

The answer lies in your brain: the taste of sweet activates dopamine receptors in the brain, which are responsible for most addictions.

Dopamine is the “I gotta have it” hormone. When you see that chocolate cake or other favorite sweet, dopamine levels rise and strengthen your desire for that sweet.

Read more from an excellent series of articles by Dr John Douillard on Pre-Diabetic conditions

Empathy, cooperation, fairness and reciprocity ...

Traits ALL of us share – our primate friends too.

Coming to Blossom

I see so many people in recovery blossom with the work they do, it is a miraculous transformation to witness.  We are simply following the flowers, watch how they do it!

Happy Spring – rise up and shine

Namaste, Durga

Guest comment

We are having a wonderful Yoga of Recovery retreat down here on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.  Teaching the first session to the guests, The 6 Tenets of Yoga of Recovery – the roots of our addictive behaviors, one guest commented at the end of the session… “This is the most intelligent discussion I have ever heard on addiction.”

It is such a joy to share vedic wisdom with people in recovery.

Happy Easter

Durga

Make them wonder why you're smiling

Received this link today – if you have a few minutes take time out to enjoy it.

First ever Yoga Room in an airport

Thanks for LA Yoga for this story on the first ever Yoga Room in an airport

Jan 2012, the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) opened the “Yoga Room” The first of its kind in the country, located in Terminal 2, adjacent to the Terminal’s Recompose area. It’s equipped with hardwood floors and Yoga mats.

“Before you sell a drug, you have to sell the disease.”

First DSM (1952) had 106 disorders, the number has almost tripled. Are we getting sicker, or is something else at play?

The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is widely regarded as the bible of psychiatric diagnoses. Its authority extends not only to this country’s schools, prisons, court system, and health-insurance industry, where it is daily invoked, chapter and verse, but also around the world, where it is highly influential in defining mental illness. It’s currently in its fourth edition, and a fifth is due out in 2013. With each edition the number of diagnoses greatly increases, and the thresholds for meeting them are routinely lowered. The number of people who can be defined as mentally ill has grown to the point where Darrel Regier of the American Psychiatric Association says that mental disorders affect some 48 million Americans in their lifetimes. That’s one in six people. And he’s basing that judgment entirely on DSM criteria and language.

Behaviors once understood as reactions to one’s environment and upbringing are increasingly seen as innate conditions of brain chemistry, resulting from problematic levels of neurotransmitters, especially serotonin. Lane suggests that because of the open-ended language in the DSM and the wide range of behaviors it pathologizes, anyone who is shy, as he was as a teenager, now risks being diagnosed as mentally ill. The new disorders were “obviously music to the ears of drug companies,” he says, “insofar as they massively increased the market for their products, which the media greeted with incredible enthusiasm.”

Christopher Lane On What’s Wrong With Modern Psychiatry

“Experts of their own experience”

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately one in four Americans suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder. Our society has gone further than any other in classifying unwanted behaviors and emotions as diseases demanding medical — and often pharmaceutical — treatment.

Emotional distress is highly individualized, and we shouldn’t come to any general conclusions about it. ..

People who have been taught that “mental illnesses are brain diseases” see psychiatric patients as dangerous and unlikely to recover. And those in crisis are often understandably reluctant to consult mental-health professionals, because the stigma of mental illness is so severe: it’s possible to lose your job, your home, and your family as a consequence of being diagnosed with a mental illness. In cultures that take a social view of emotional distress, by contrast, people more readily seek help because they aren’t as likely to be ostracized and are assumed to be capable of full recovery.

The World Health Organization did an international study comparing outcomes for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia in “developed” countries — including the U.S., the United Kingdom, Denmark, and others — and in “developing” countries such as Colombia, Nigeria, and India. To their astonishment, they found that outcomes were much better in the developing countries. As often happens when a study produces unexpected results, the findings weren’t believed at first. So the study was repeated a few years later with a more stringent definition of what constituted improvement for the patients. The results were the same.

Two hypotheses have been put forward to explain these findings. One is that developing countries don’t use medications over the long term because they can’t afford it. Without long-term medication, patients don’t become chronically disabled. The other hypothesis is that people in developing countries are more likely to be cared for at home and be a part of their community, rather than being isolated or sent away to a hospital, and this helps them recover.

Read more of this interview with Gail Hornstein, a Mount Holyoke College professor of psychology

Another gifted woman and mother lost in the wreckage of addiction

Well said, this comment on Whitney Houston’s death in the NY Times

Internet Addiction Recovery Program

The reStart Internet Addiction Recovery Program– a first of its kind center in the U.S. — recently opened in Fall City just a few miles away from Microsoft’s headquarters.

Tthe creators of reStart say Internet addiction is a growing problem.  The 45-day program (cost $14,500) is designed specifically “to help internet and video game addicts overcome their dependence on gaming, gambling, chatting, texting and other aspects of Internet Addiction”.

Similar programs are already on offer in places like China and South Korea.

S*#t Yogis Say

Another one that made me laugh, from Lululemon

Sh*t 12-steppers Say

This “Lttle Miss Addict” You Tube made me laugh, hope you enjoy it!

A world of fellowship

Today a young woman from NY showed up at the Vietnam ashram asking for Durga.  She is in recovery, and in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) for 2 weeks to help her sister move here.  She wrote a friend in NY (YoR retreat guest) who told her we were here, so she came on 2 buses and a motorcycle taxi to visit.  It was lovely to share our experience, strength and hope together.  She’s taking our YoR and Vietnam ashram brochures to her new recovery friends in Ho Chi Minh City now -  small world eh?
I am grateful for fellowship and connections
Peace
Durga

Here is the link to AA in Ho Chi Minh City, http://www.aahcmc.com/

Wholehearted!

This is a wonderful 20 minute talk on “The Power of Vulnerability” from Brene Brown, compliments of TED.com

We often get to these kind of discussions and realizations in our Yoga of Recovery sessions, it is amazing to be around people who are becoming open to accepting their vulnerability and all the gifts it offers.

Listening to the heart...

I enjoyed reading this blog post from David Crow, author and founder of MedicineCrow and Floracopeia Aromatic Treasures.  David is an expert in the field of botanical medicine, natural health and ecological sustainability.  He is a master herbalist, aromatherapist and acupuncturist with over 30 years experience and is an expert in the Ayurvedic and Chinese medical systems..

I am comfortable on my meditation cushion, wrapped in the silent darkness and shining constellations of winter Solstice.

Many wise teachers have shared their contemplative practices with me, but there is one practice I come back to more than the others: listening to the heart. No one taught me this, however; I discovered it myself, which is like saying I discovered that I am breathing. So many spiritual insights are like this, yet we think illumination somehow lies outside the fabric of our own being.

I am listening to the pulsation of my heart. Join me…it is easy and very profound. My right thumb is resting on the radial artery of my left wrist, where the pulse rises and falls.

The artery undulates as the waves of nutrient fluid pass through it. If we listen attentively, the wandering mind will gradually become calm and steady, and in this flowing together of heart and awareness there are many revelations waiting to be known.

…Read More

Yoga One Day at a Time

Below is a link for an article written by one of our Yoga of Recovery counselors, Alicia,  from our NY July 2011 course.  It is for a contest to win a scholarship for a yoga teacher training.  The winner of the article is the article with the most votes.

Some Humor

The therapist I saw in early recovery (12 years ago) sent me this,

made me laugh and we need a sense of humor in life!

Humor Mental Health Hotline

Almost 200 Tons of Prescription Meds Collected on 3rd Drug Take-Back Day

When I see this it makes me wonder about all the resons we have this much medication that needs to be safely gotten rid of – are they overprescribed?  people are not ‘compliant’ with them? they improve without them? they seek other ways to feel better?
http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/drugs/almost-200-tons-of-prescription-medications-collected-on-third-drug-take-back-day?utm_source=Join+Together+Weekly&utm_campaign=01582bd553-JT+Weekly+News%3A+Marijuana+Use+and+Adolescents…&utm_medium=email

Video: Balancing Doshas through Yoga

Here is a great introduction to dosha-balancing yoga from Banyan Botanicals.

Video: Recovery from Mental Disorders

This is a great lecture about recovery from mental disorders from Patricia Deegan. It addresses recovery aspects that also can apply to recovery for alcoholics and addicts.