I know I’ve said this many times, but I can’t help but mention it again. Within not even one quarter mile of my house I count not just one but two CVS stores. And in each one, zombie figures stand in line to pick up prescriptions. In my mind’s eye I imagine them as either stick-thin with bent backs and sunken chests or as obese, lumbering monstrosities. I know that bi-polar characterization is both exaggerated and unfair. I strive to tone down my judgments. It’s the inner work I must do to not find myself in the grip of the collective pain body.
So, what’s in your bathroom “medicine cabinet”? Here’s mine. Photo taken right now. Messy. No re-arranging — and no prescription meds.
Except for very rare, short-term emergency occasions,
I. SIMPLY. DON’T. DO. PHARMACEUTICALS.
It’s “against my religion.” Instead, I pay attention to what I eat, sleep enough, exercise enough, do yoga, chi kung and tai chi daily, and most crucial: I assiduously cultivate mental and emotional attitudes that reduce or eliminate stress in the physical body.
This is not bragging. This is reality. The reality I have created over many years. I set my priorities decades ago, knowing that in deciding my routine, I must make the body primary. That I must do daily practices to enhance and preserve physical function, for without a body in communion with mind, emotion, spirit — and primed for action, I can not be of service to the world. Furthermore, if I don’t care for my body as my portion of the Earth body, then inevitably, at some point, I will be forced to care. In fact, at that point my focus will be reduced to just this body — this pain, this immobility, this ghastly suffering. And even worse — if there can be worse! — at some point, without an unremitting focus on my body as primary, then ultimately, my very life will become parasitic, utterly dependent on others, rather than enlivened with equal exchange.
As my teacher once said, cryptically, “In a sense, routine creates character.” Now I know what he means.
Which reminds me of a story. I know I’ve told it before, too. But it’s important.
Back at least ten years ago, The Dalai Lama was visiting Bloomington. (This was before he drew stadium-sized crowds). I was in a small audience of maybe 50 people at the local Tibetan Cultural Center (founded by the Dalai Lama’s brother, a professor at IU). The Dalai Lama had just mentioned that he gets on a treadmill every morning. Someone in the audience then asked about “discipline,” saying that he wasn’t disciplined enough to do regular exercise. The Dalai Lama looked at him, and then thundered: “Young man, self-discipline is looking after your own long-term interest.”
Bingo.
The wisdom of this “disciplined” approach to life, of course, gets more and more obvious as we grow older. Those who have not begun to take charge of their bodies in their 50s may find that it’s “too late.” Or that it seems too late. Systems are failing. Chronic disease patterns are setting in.
But in truth, it’s not too late. It’s never too late. However, we must begin. And to begin, we must eliminate pharmaceuticals, except for rare circumstances. They maim and they kill.
The Evils of Big Pharma Exposed
This is not news. I am preaching to the choir. However, how many of us actually do manage to live without pharmaceuticals? No matter how enlightened, if we see doctors or counselors on a regular basis, we will be steered in that direction. (The last time I saw an M.D. was when I broke my wrist, maybe four years ago. I did use pain medication — for two days.)
This next piece really blew my socks off. As it should yours. Our bedraggled, tranced-out “American Dream” has morphed into a zombie nightmare. More and more people now suffer from heroin addiction with, guess what? — Big Pharma as both cause (heroin is cheaper than opioid medications once pain prescriptions run out) and beneficiary (Big Pharma has come up with an antidote — VERY EXPENSIVE — to heroin overdose). Thus, big bucks on both ends. Check it out:
BLOOD, MONEY AND OPIOIDS – AMERICA’S HEROIN RELAPSE AND BIG PHARMA’S HAND
2 thoughts on “Suckers-for-BIG-PHARMA Department: How heroin addiction now grips the collective pain body”
I’m 56 and had my mom who had drawers of vitamins & ate healthy killed by chemotherapy; oh, if we could start her treatment again! Since that experience I couldn’t agree with you more and am impressed by that cabinet! I see Castor oil – now there’s an amazing emollient my mom taught me about! It’s odd, but i was thinking about this very topic this morning on my commute, thinking there may be an age where bad food choices and popping meds over the years has caused irreparable cellular harm. But once can always try de-tox cleanses and miso soup…The truth is stupid people buy literally into the medical industrial complex so easily, it’s almost a peer pressure thing as to what & how many meds you take. I don’t visit doctors either except for first aid; my last visit was 4 years ago also for a tetanus shot after sliding off the pier along a nail. I throw away the notices about mamographs, never had one, never will. I don’t know if anyone will ever find my habits inspiring, but I certainly do yours! Hope to reach cronedom with the same resolution for healthy, disciplined living.
Mammograms? I’ve sensed all along that they cause cancer. Never had one, never will. I’ve been to doctors only a handful of times since I turned 30. Would much rather work with alternative healers if needed. Homeopathy especially, works for me. And during menopause I worked with an acupuncturist. Went to see her every three months, so that she could work with my changing body, tweaking the Chinese herbs once in a while over that six year period when my liver raged. (I seem to rmemeber especially the herb called Dong Quai.) I do see a dentist every four months to get teeth cleaned, since teeth have always been a weak spot for me. And I see an eye doc, but not nearly as often as they urge me to. I’m convinced that the old glasses I had from 12 years ago are just as good as the ones I’ve had for five years. The prescription doesn’t change much, and I once asked him, what if you checked my eyes on a daily basis. What would you find? In other words, eyes are probably constantly adjusting themselves in minute ways . . . And yes, I also once went for a tetanus shot, having stepped on rusty nail. But I wonder now if I really needed to. I do think ER and orthopedics are both important work, but otherwise, just about always NO! And even orthopedics . . . when I broke my wrist I briefly wondered if I should just try to set it myself, wrap it in comfrey compresses, keep it immobile, and let it be. I do know one woman who did that and her wrist healed. But it was my right wrist, and I’m right-handed, and I got cold feet. Luckily it happened only a couple of years ago, so I had Medicare. Never had medical insurance either, except once, when they made me buy it for a three-week rafting trip down the Grand Canyon. So welcome to the country of DIY health care!