Moving Beyond Prescription Medications

There are certainly instances where prescription medications might be necessary for people. Sometimes they may be suffering to such an extent that they can't function well enough to work though their inner (i.e., mental and emotional) issues on a feeling level. The problem is that leaning on pharmaceuticals as a crutch can become a way of life for such people because taking pills is more convenient than undertaking the process of inner work.

Physical symptoms are meant to make us aware of internal imbalances. Medications obstruct this system of feedback by obscuring the messages given to the mind by the body. By covering up or masking the symptoms, they send the body a message that a certain imbalance has been resolved when in fact it has not. If we could come to a deeper understanding of how the mind, body and emotions all work together and complement each other as a cohesive unit, we might be able to dispense entirely with potentially harmful chemicals. Free from the numbing and disorienting effects of drugs, we would be able to work through to the root causes of our illnesses - whether mental or physical - instead of merely suppressing their outward symptoms.

It's ironic that a culture with a prevalent "War on Drugs" mentality still holds out chemicals as a means of therapy for everything from the simplest cut or bruise to the most complex mental disorders. We of the Western culture are so prone to turn to medications for any kind of physical or mental ailment because we don't adequately understand the mind/body relationship. Thoughts of peace, joy, love and comforts actually have a rejuvenating effect on our whole bodies - and diseases can be a way of separating ourselves from these feelings. To give one example out of a wide range of possibilities, the road to health might involve our discovering the reasons why we feel unworthy of happiness - or why we should punish ourselves with sickness.