More Fourth Way
CHAPTER I
Return from India. The war and the “search for the miraculous.” Old thoughts The question of schools. Plans for further travels. The East and Europe. A notice in a Moscow newspaper. Lectures on India. The meeting with G. A “distinguished man.” The first talk, G.’s opinion on schools. G.’s group. “Glimpses of Truth.” Further meetings and talks. The organization of G.’s Moscow group The question of payment and of means for the work. The question of secrecy and of the obligations accepted by the pupils. A talk about the East. “Philosophy,” “theory,” and “practice.” How was the system found? G’s ideas. “Man is a machine” governed by external influences Everything “happens.” Nobody “does” anything In order “to do” it is necessary “to be.” A man is responsible for his actions, a machine is not responsible. Is psychology necessary for the study of machines? The promise of “facts.” Can wars be stopped? A talk about the planets and the moon as living beings. The “intelligence” of the sun and the earth. “Subjective” and “objective” art.
CHAPTER II
Petersburg in 1915 G. in Petersburg. A talk about groups. Reference to “esoteric” work “Prison” and “Escape from prison.” What is necessary for this escape? Who can help and how? Beginning of meetings in Petersburg. A question on reincarnation and future life. How can immortality be attained? Struggle between “yes” and “no.” Crystallization on a right, and on a wrong, foundation. Necessity of sacrifice. Talks with G and observations. A sale of carpets and talks about carpets. What G. said about himself. Question about ancient knowledge and why it is hidden. G’s reply. Knowledge is not hidden. The materiality of knowledge and man’s refusal of the knowledge given to him. A question on immortality. The “four bodies of man.” Example of the retort filled with metallic powders. The way of the fakir, the way of the monk, and the way of the yogi The “fourth way.” Do civilization and culture exist?
CHAPTER III
G.’s fundamental ideas concerning man. Absence of unity. Multiplicity of I’s. Construction of the human machine. Psychic centers. G.’s method of exposition of the ideas of the system. Repetition unavoidable. What the evolution of man means Mechanical progress impossible. European idea of man’s evolution. Connectedness of everything in nature. Humanity and the moon. Advantage of individual man over the masses Necessity of knowing the human machine.
Absence of a permanent I in man. Role of small I’s. Absence of individuality and will in man. Eastern allegory of the house and its servants. The “deputy steward.” Talks about a fakir on nails and Buddhist magic.
CHAPTER IV
General impressions of G.’s system. Looking backwards. One of the fundamental propositions. The line of knowledge and the line of being. Being on different levels Divergence of the line of knowledge from the line of being. What a development of knowledge gives without a corresponding change of being—and a change of being without an increase in knowledge. What “understanding” means. Understanding as the resultant of knowledge and being. The difference between understanding and knowledge. Understanding as a function of three centers. Why people try to find names for things they do not understand. Our language. Why people do not understand one another. The word “man” and its different meanings. The language accepted in the system. Seven gradations of the concept “man.” The principle of relativity in the system. Gradations parallel to the gradations of man. The word “world.” Variety of its meanings. Examination of the word “world” from the point of view of the principle of relativity. The fundamental law of the universe. The law of three principles or three forces. Necessity of three forces for the appearance of a phenomenon. The third force. Why we do not see the third force. Three forces in ancient teachings. The creation of worlds by the will of the Absolute. A chain of worlds or the “ray of creation.” The number of laws in each world.
CHAPTER V
A lecture on the “mechanics of the universe.” The ray of creation and its growth from the Absolute. A contradiction of scientific views. The moon as the end of the ray of creation. The will of the Absolute. The idea of miracle. Our place in the world. The moon feeds on organic life. The influence of the moon and liberation from the moon. Different “materiality” of different worlds. The world as a world of “vibrations.” Vibrations slow down proportionately to the distance from the Absolute. Seven kinds of matter. The four bodies of man and their relation to different worlds. Where the earth is. The three forces and the cosmic properties of matter. Atoms of complex substances. Definition of matter according to the forces manifested through it. “Carbon,” “oxygen,” “nitrogen,” and “hydrogen.” The three forces and the four matters. Is man immortal or not? What does immortality mean? A man having the fourth body. The story of the seminarist and the omnipotence of God. Talks about the moon. The moon as the weight of a clock. Talk about a universal language. Explanation of the Last Supper.
CHAPTER VI
Talk about aims. Can the teaching pursue a definite aim? The aim of existence. Personal aims. To know the future. To exist after death. To be master of oneself. To be a Christian. To help humanity. To stop wars. G.’s explanations. Fate, accident, and will. “Mad machines.” Esoteric Christianity. What ought man’s aim to be? The causes of inner slavery. With what the way to liberation begins. “Know thyself.” Different understandings of this idea. Self study. How
to study? Self-observation. Recording and analysis. A fundamental principle of the working of the human machine. The four centers: Thinking, emotional, moving, instinctive. Distinguishing between the work of the centers. Making changes in the working of the machine. Upsetting the balance. How does the machine restore its balance? Incidental changes. Wrong work of centers. Imagination. Daydreaming. Habits. Opposing habits for purposes of self observation. The struggle against expressing negative emotions. Registering mechanicalness. Changes resulting from right self-observation. The idea of the moving center. The usual classification of man’s actions. Classification based upon the division of centers. Automatism. Instinctive actions. The difference between the instinctive and the moving functions. Division of the emotions. Different levels of the centers.
CHAPTER VII
Is “cosmic consciousness” attainable? What is consciousness? G.’s question about what we notice during self-observation. Our replies. G.’s remark that we had missed the most important thing. Why do we not notice that we do not remember ourselves? “It observes,” “it thinks,” “it speaks.” Attempts to remember oneself. G.’s explanations. The significance of the new problem. Science and philosophy. Our experiences. Attempts to divide attention. First sensation of voluntary self-remembering. What we recollect of the past. Further experiences. Sleep in a waking state and awakening. What European psychology has overlooked. Differences in the understanding of the idea of consciousness.
The study of man is parallel to the study of the world. Following upon the law of three comes the fundamental law of the universe: The law of seven or the law of octaves. The absence of continuity in vibrations. Octaves. The seven tone scale. The law of ”intervals.” Necessity for additional shocks. What occurs in the absence of additional shocks. In order to do it is necessary to be able to control ”additional shocks.” Subordinate octaves. Inner octaves. Organic life in the place of an “interval.” Planetary influences. The lateral octave sol-do. The meaning of the notes la, sol, fa. The meaning of the notes do, si. The meaning of the notes mi, re. The role of organic life in changing the earth’s surface.
CHAPTER VIII
Different states of consciousness. Sleep. Waking state. Self-consciousness. Objective consciousness. Absence of self-consciousness. What is the first condition for acquiring self-consciousness? Higher states of consciousness and the higher centers. The “waking state” of ordinary man as sleep. The life of men asleep. How can one awaken? What man is when he is born. What “education” and the example of those around him do. Man’s possibilities. Self study. “Mental photographs.” Different men in one man. “I” and “Ouspensky.” Who is active and who is passive? Man and his mask. Division of oneself as the first stage of work on oneself. A fundamental quality of man’s being. Why man does not remember himself. “Identification.” “Considering.” “Internal con sidering” and “external considering.” What “external” considering a machine means. “Injustice.” Sincerity and weakness. “Buffers.” Conscience. Morality. Does an idea of morality common to all exist? Does Christian morality exist? Do conceptions of good and evil common to all exist? Nobody does anything for the sale of evil. ‘Different conceptions of good and the results of these
different conceptions. On what can a permanent idea of good and evil be based? The idea of truth and falsehood. The struggle against “buffers” and against lying. Methods of school work. Subordination. Realization of one’s nothingness. Personality and essence. Dead people. General laws. The question of money.
CHAPTER IX 1
The “ray of creation” in the form of the three octaves of radiations. Relation of matters and forces on different planes of the world to our life. Intervals in the cosmic octaves and the shocks which fill them. ”Point of the universe.” Density of vibrations. Three forces and four matters. “Carbon,” “Oxygen,” “Nitrogen,” “Hydrogen.” Twelve triads. “Table of Hydrogens.” Matter in the light of its chemical, physical, psychic and cosmic properties. Intelligence of matter. “Atom.” Every human function and state depends on energy. Substances in man. Man has sufficient energy to begin work on himself, if he saves his energy. Wastage of energy. “Learn to separate the fine from the coarse.” Production of fine hydrogens. Change of being. Growth of inner bodies. The human organism as a three-storied factory. Three kinds of food. Entrance of food, air and impressions into the organism. Transformation of substances is governed by the law of octaves. Food octave and air octave. Extracting “higher hydrogens.” The octave of impressions does not develop. Possibility of creating an artificial shock at the moment of receiving an impression. Conscious effort. “Self-remembering. ” Resulting development of impressions and air octaves. A second conscious shock. Effort connected with emotions Preparation for this effort. Analogy between the human organism and the universe. Three stages in the evolution of the human machine. Transmutation of the emotions. Alchemy. The centers work with different hydrogens. Two higher centers. Wrong work of lower centers. Materiality of all inner processes.
CHAPTER X
From what does the way start? The law of accident. Kinds of influences. Influences created in life. Influences created outside life, conscious in their origin only. The magnetic center. Looking for the way. Finding a man who knows. Third kind of influence: conscious and direct. Liberation from the law of accident. “Step,” “stairway,” and “way.” Special conditions of the fourth way. Wrong magnetic center is possible. How can one recognize wrong ways? Teacher and pupil. Knowledge begins with the teaching of cosmoses. The usual concept of two cosmoses: the “Macro-cosmos” and “Microcosmos.” The full teaching of seven cosmoses. Relation between cosmoses: as zero to infinity. Principle of relativity. “The way up is at the same time the way down.” What a miracle is. “Period of dimensions.” Survey of the system of cosmoses from the point of view of the theory of many dimensions. G’s comment, that “Time is breath.” Is the “Microcosmos” man or the “atom”?
CHAPTER XI
“Except a corn of wheat die, it bringeth forth no fruit.” A book of aphorisms. To awake, to die, to be born. What prevents a man from being born again? What prevents a man from ”dying”? What prevents a man from awakening? Absence of the realization of one’s own nothingness. What does the realization
of one’s own nothingness mean? What prevents this realization? Hypnotic influence of life. The sleep in which men live is hypnotic sleep. The magician and the sheep. “Kundalini.” Imagination. Alarm clocks. Organized work. Groups. Is it possible to work in groups without a teacher? Work of self-study in groups. Mirrors. Exchange of observations. General and individual conditions. Rules. “Chief fault.” Realization of one’s own nothingness. Danger of imitative work. ”Barriers.” Truth and falsehood. Sincerity with oneself. Efforts. Accumulators. The big accumulator. Intellectual and emotional work. Necessity for feeling. Possibility of understanding through feeling what cannot be understood through the mind. The emotional center is a more subtle apparatus than the intellectual center. Explanation of yawning in connection with accumulators. Role and significance of laughter in life. Absence of laughter in higher centers.
CHAPTER XII
Work in groups becomes more intensive. Each man’s limited “repertoire of roles.” The choice between work on oneself and a “quiet life.”‘ Difficulties of obedience. The place of “tasks.” G. gives a definite task. Reaction of friends to the ideas. The system brings out the best or the worst in people. What people can come to the work? Preparation. Disappointment is necessary. Question with which a man aches. Revaluation of friends. A talk about types. G. gives a further task. Attempts to relate the story of one’s life. Intonations. “Essence” and “personality.” Sincerity. A bad mood. G. promises to answer any question. “Eternal Recurrence.” An experiment on separating personality from essence. A talk about sex. The role of sex as the principal motive force of all mechanicalness. Sex as the chief possibility of liberation. New birth. Transmutation of sex energy. Abuses of sex. Is abstinence useful? Right work of centers. A permanent center of gravity.
CHAPTER XIII
Intensity of inner work. Preparation for “facts.” A visit to Finland. The “miracle” begins. Mental ”conversations” with G. ’”You are not asleep.” Seeing “sleeping people.” Impossibility of investigating higher phenomena by ordinary means. A changed outlook on “methods of action.” “Chief feature.” G. defines people’s chief feature. Reorganization of the group. Those who leave the work. Sitting between two stools. Difficulty of coming back. G.’s apartment. Reactions to silence. “Seeing lies.” A demonstration. How to awake? How to create the emotional state necessary? Three ways. The necessity of sacrifice. “Sacrificing one’s suffering.” Expanded table of hydrogens. A “moving diagram.” A new discovery. “We have very little time.”
CHAPTER XIV
Difficulty of conveying “objective truths” in ordinary language. Objective and subjective knowledge. Unity in diversity. Transmission of objective knowledge. The higher centers. Myths and symbols. Verbal formulas. “As above, so below.” “Know thyself.” Duality. Transformation of duality into trinity. The line of will. Quaternity, Quinternity—the construction of the pentagram. The five centers. The Seal of Solomon. The symbolism of numbers, geometrical figures, letters, and words. Further symbologies. Right and wrong understanding
of symbols. Level of development. The union of knowledge and being: Great Doing. “No one can give a man what he did not possess before.” Attainment only through one’s own efforts. Different known “lines” using symbology. This system and its place. One of the principal symbols of this teaching. The enneagram. The law of seven in its union with the law of three. Examination of the enneagram. “What a man cannot put into the enneagram, he does not understand.” A symbol in motion. Experiencing the enneagram by movement. Exercises. Universal language. Objective and subjective art. Music. Objective music is based on inner octaves. Mechanical humanity can have subjective art only. Different levels of man’s being.
CHAPTER XV
Religion a relative concept. Religions correspond to the level of a man’s being. “Can prayer help? ” Learning to pray. General ignorance regarding Christianity. The Christian Church a school. Egyptian “schools of repetition.” Significance of rites. The “techniques” of religion. Where does the word “I” sound in one? The two parts of real religion and what each teaches. Kant and the idea of scale. Organic life on earth. Growth of the ray of creation. The moon. The evolving part of organic life is humanity. Humanity at a standstill. Change possible only at “crossroads.” The process of evolution always begins with the formation of a conscious nucleus. Is there a conscious force fighting against evolution? Is mankind evolving? “Two hundred conscious people could change the whole of life on earth.” Three “inner circles of humanity.” The “outer circle.” The four “ways” as four gates to the “exoteric circle.” Schools of the fourth way. Pseudoesoteric systems and schools. “Truth in the form of a lie.” Esoteric schools in the East. Initiation and the Mysteries. Only self initiation is possible.
CHAPTER XVI
Historical events of the winter 1916-17. G.’s system as a guide in a labyrinth of contradictions, or as “Noah’s Ark.” Consciousness of matter. Its degrees of intelligence. Three-, two- and one-storied machines. Man composed of man, sheep and worm. Classification of all creatures by three cosmic traits: what they eat, what they breathe, the medium they live in. Man’s possibilities of changing his food. “Diagram of Everything Living.”
G. leaves Petersburg for the last time. An interesting event— “transfiguration” or “plastics”? A Journalist’s impressions of G. The downfall of Nicholas II. “The end of Russian history.” Plans for leaving Russia, A communication from G. Continuation of work in Moscow. Further study of diagrams and of the idea of cosmoses. Development of the idea “time is breath” in relation to man, the earth and the sun; to large and small cells. Construction of a “Table of Time in Different Cosmoses.” Three cosmoses taken together include in themselves all the laws of the universe. Application of the idea of cosmoses to the inner processes of the human organism. The life of molecules and electrons. Time dimensions of different cosmoses. Application of the Minkovski formula. Relation of different times to centers of the human body. Relation to higher centers. “Cosmic calculations of time” in Gnostic and Indian literature.
“If you want to rest, come here to me.” A visit to G. at Alexandropol. G.’s relationship with his family. Talk about the impossibility of doing anything in
the midst of mass madness. “Events are not against us at all.” How to strengthen the feeling of “I”? Brief return to Petersburg and Moscow. A message to the groups there. Return to Piatygorsk. A group of twelve foregathers at Essentuki.
CHAPTER XVII
August 1917. The six weeks at Essentuki. G. unfolds the plan of the whole work. “Schools are imperative.” “Super-efforts.” The unison of the centers is the chief difficulty in work on oneself. Man the slave of his body. Wastages of energy from unnessary muscular tension. G. shows exercises for muscular control and relaxation. The “stop” exercise. The demands of “stop.” G. relates a case of “stop” in Central Asia. The influence of “stop” at Essentuki. The habit of talking An experiment in fasting. What sin is. G. shows exercises in attention. An experiment in breathing. Realization of the difficulties of the Way Indispensability of great knowledge, efforts, and help. “Is there no way outside the ‘ways’?” The “ways” as help given to people according to type. The “subjective” and “objective” ways. The obyvatel. What does “to be serious” mean? Only one thing is serious. How to attain real freedom? The hard way of slavery and obedience. What is one prepared to sacrifice. The fairy tale of the wolf and the sheep. Astrology and types. A demonstration. G. announces the dispersal of the group. A final trip to Petersburg.
CHAPTER XVIII
Petersburg. October 1917. Bolshevik revolution. Return to G. in the Caucasus. G ‘s attitude to one of his pupils. A small company with G at Essentuki. More people arrive Resumption of work. Exercises are more difficult and varied than before Mental and physical exercises, dervish dances, study of psychic “tricks.” Selling silk Inner struggle and a decision. The choice of gurus. The decision to separate. G goes to Sochi. A difficult time: warfare and epidemics. Further study of the enneagram, “Events” and the necessity of leaving Russia. London the final aim Practical results of work on oneself: feeling a new I, “a strange confidence.” Collecting a group in Rostov and expounding G.’s system. G. opens his Institute in Tiflis. Journey to Constantinople. Collecting people. G arrives New group introduced to G. Translating a dervish song. G the artist and poet. The Institute started in Constantinople. G authorizes the writing and publishing of a book. G. goes to Germany. Decision to continue Constantinople work in London, 1921 G organizes his Institute at Fontainebleau. Work at the Chateau de la Prieuré. A talk with Katherine Mansfield. G. speaks of different kinds of breathing. “Breathing through movements.” Demonstrations at the Theatre des Champs Elysées, Pans. G.’s departure for America, 1924. Decision to continue work in London independently.
The term “negative emotions” means all emotions of violence or depression: self-pity, anger, suspicion, fears, annoyance, boredom, mistrust, jealousy, and so on.
The term “negative emotions” means all emotions of violence or depression: self-pity, anger, suspicion, fears, annoyance, boredom, mistrust, jealousy, and so on. Ordinarily, one accepts this expression of negative emotions as quite natural and even necessary. Very often people call it “sincerity.” Of course it has nothing to do with sincerity; it is simply a sign of weakness in man, a sign of bad temper and of incapacity to keep his grievances to himself. Man realizes this when he tries to oppose it. And by this he learns another lesson. He realizes that in relation to mechanical manifestations it is not enough to observe them, it is necessary to resist them, because without resisting them one cannot observe them. They happen so quickly, so habitually, and so imperceptibly, that one cannot notice them if one does not make sufficient efforts to create obstacles for them. After the expression of negative emotions one notices in oneself or in other people another curious mechanical feature. This is talking. There is no harm in talking by itself. But with some people, especially with those who notice it least, it really becomes a vice they talk all the time, everywhere they happen to be, while working, while traveling, even while sleeping. They never stop talking to someone if there is someone to talk to, and if there is no one, they talk to themselves. This too must not only be observed, but resisted as much as possible. With un-resisted talking one cannot observe anything, and all the results of a man’s observations will immediately evaporate in talking. The difficulties he has in observing these four manifestations, lying, imagination the expression of negative emotions, and unnecessary talking will show man his utter mechanicalness, and the impossibility even of struggling against this mechanicalness without help, that is, without new knowledge and without actual assistance. For even if a man has received certain material, he forgets to use it, forgets to observe himself; in other words, he falls asleep again and must always he awakened. This “falling asleep” has certain definite features of its own, unknown, or at least unregistered and unnamed, in ordinary psychology.
Self-study must begin with the study of the four functions, thinking, feeling, instinctive function, and moving function.
So now we must try to understand the four chief functions.
I will take it for granted that it is clear to you what I mean by the intellectual or thinking function. All mental processes are included here: realization of an impression, formation of representations and concepts, reasoning, comparison, affirmation, negation, formation of words, speech, imagination, and so on.
The second function is feeling or emotions: joy, sorrow, fear, astonishment, and so on. Even if you are sure that it is clear to you how, and in what, emotions differ from thoughts, I should advise you to verify all your views in regard to this. We mix thought and feelings in our ordinary thinking and speaking; but for the beginning of self-study it is necessary to know clearly which is which.
The two functions following, instinctive and moving, will take longer to understand, because in no system of ordinary psychology are these functions described and divided in the right way.
The words “instinct,” “instinctive,” are generally used in the wrong sense and very often in no sense at all. In particular, to instinct are generally ascribed external functions which are in reality moving functions, and sometimes emotional.
The instinctive function in man includes in itself four different classes of functions:
FIRST: All the inner work of the Organism, all physiology, so to speak; digestion and assimilation of food, breathing, circulation of the blood, all the work of inner Organs, the building of new cells, the elimination of worked-out materials, the work of glands of inner secretion, and so on.
SECOND: The so-called five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch; and all other senses such as the sense of weight, of temperature, of dryness or of moisture, and so on; that is, all indifferent sensations- sensations which by themselves are neither pleasant nor unpleasant.
THIRD: All physical emotions; that is, all physical sensations which are either pleasant or unpleasant. All kinds of pain or unpleasant feeling such as unpleasant taste or unpleasant smell, and all kinds of physical pleasure, such as pleasant taste, pleasant smell, and so on.
FOURTH: All reflexes, even the most complicated, such as laughter and yawning; all kinds of physical memory such as memory of taste, memory of smell, memory of pain, which are in reality inner reflexes.
The moving function includes in itself all external movements, such as walking, writing, speaking, eating, and memories of them. To the moving function also belong those movements which in ordinary language are called “instinctive,” such as catching a falling object without thinking.
The difference between the instinctive and the moving function is very clear and can be easily understood if one simply remembers that all instinctive functions without exception are inherent and that there is no necessity to learn them in order to use them; whereas on the other hand, none of the moving functions are inherent and one has to learn them as a child learns to walk, or as one learns to write or to draw.
Besides these normal moving functions, there are also some strange moving functions which represent useless work of the human machine not intended by nature, but which occupy a very large place in man’s life and use a great quantity of his energy. These are:
formation of dreams, imagination, daydreaming, talking with oneself, all talking for talking’s sake, and generally, all uncontrolled and uncontrollable manifestations.
The four functions-intellectual, emotional, instinctive, and moving-must first be understood in all their manifestations, and later they must be observed in oneself. Such self-observation, that is, observation on the right basis, with a preliminary understanding of the states of consciousness and of different functions, constitutes the basis of self-study; that is, the beginning of psychology.
It is very important to remember that in observing different functions it is useful to observe at the same time their relation to different states of consciousness.
Honoring Children of Alcoholics Week
 Honoring Children of Alcoholics Week
February 12 to 18, 2012 An estimated 25 percent of all children in the United States are affected by or exposed to a family alcohol problem. SAMHSA supports the National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA) during its Children of Alcoholics (COA) Week. COA Week celebrates the recovery of the many thousands of children (of all ages) who have received the help they needed to recover from the pain and losses suffered in their childhood, and it offers hope to those still suffering from the adverse impact of parental alcohol and drug addiction. During COA Week, we acknowledge the millions of children affected by a parent’s substance use disorder and celebrate that there is hope and healing for these children now and throughout their lives. This week—and throughout the year—remember to ask, “What about the children?” when speaking about recovery from substance use disorders. |
Florida turns tide on prescription drug abuse
Florida turns tide on prescription drug abuse
BRADENTON HERALD EDITORIAL | Crackdowns, new measures stem oxycodone epidemic
Florida can celebrate several major milestones in the struggle to contain the state’s prescription drug abuse and pill mill epidemic. Striking new evidence exposes the depth and depravity of this years-long nightmare. While doctors purchased some 46 million oxycodone tablets in 2010, that figure plunged to 1.2 million last year — an astounding 97 percent drop.
A new state law that took effect July 1 prevents doctors from selling oxycodone, a powerful painkiller, and other narcotics directly from their offices — typically in cash deals to walk-in drug abusers and traffickers masquerading as patients, often from out of state.
Overall statewide sales of oxycodone from pharmacies and doctors fell from 622 million doses in 2010 to some 498 million pills last year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration also reported last week — another promising indication that Florida is finally gaining the upper hand in the battle against this terrible scourge. In 2010 alone, oxycodone contributed to more than 1,500 drug overdose deaths, a staggering increase from the 350 victims in 2005.
The Manatee County death toll from 2010 reached 246, causing untold heartache among family and friends. When pain clinics began popping up around the county that dreadful year, the City of Bradenton wisely adopted a moratorium on new pill mills in May, soon followed by similar measures in Manatee County and Palmetto.
Florida finally awoke to this shameful situation several years ago, adopting a law establishing a prescription drug database that required doctors and pharmacies to report prescriptions and sales of powerful pain and anxiety medications. Still, some legislators and Gov. Rick Scott wanted to repeal the 2009 law, labeling the database a violation of privacy rights. Public safety and health priorities finally trumped that misguided concern, and the state launched the overdue Prescription Drug Monitoring Program this past September.
The database, designed to inform doctors and pharmacies about over-prescribed patients who obtained prescriptions from a variety of sources, now contains information on 26 million prescriptions. Not only does the monitoring system help prevent “doctor shopping” by patients, law enforcement can access the tool to uncover doctors and pharmacies that are prescribing and selling inordinate amounts of narcotic medications.
Investigations this past year brought indictments against dozens of pain clinic owners and doctors, including several from Manatee County. Fewer out-of-state drug abusers and dealers are flocking to the Sunshine State for easy scores. And Florida, once home to 90 of the nation’s top 100 physicians for writing oxycodone prescriptions, saw that number drop to 13 last year.
While prescription drug abusers and traffickers may be moving on to other substances, Florida can no longer be considered complicit in the mishandling of oxycodone and other legal narcotics — a remarkable and quick turnaround.
Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/02/05/3846084/florida-turns-tide-on-prescription.html#storylink=cpy
Drug addicts have inherited abnormalities in some parts of the brain which interfere with impulse control, said a British study published in the United States on Thursday.
Drug addicts have inherited abnormalities in some parts of the brain which interfere with impulse control, said a British study published in the United States on Thursday.
Previous research has pointed to these differences, but it was unclear if they resulted from the ravages of addiction or if they were there beforehand to predispose a person to drug abuse.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge compared the brains of addicts to their non-addicted siblings as well as to healthy, unrelated volunteers and found that the siblings shared many of the same weaknesses in their brains.
That indicates that the brain vulnerabilities had a family origin, though somehow the siblings of addicts — either due to environmental factors or other differences in brain structure — were able to resist addiction.
“Presumably, the siblings must have some other resilience factors that counteract the familial vulnerability to drug dependence,” said the study led by Karen Ersche of the University of Cambridge, published in the journal Science.
“An individual’s predisposition to become addicted to stimulant drugs may be mediated by brain abnormalities linked to impaired self-control.”
Researchers tested 50 biological sibling pairs, in which one was addicted to drugs and the other one had no history of chronic drug abuse. They also tested 50 healthy, unrelated pairs of people as a control group.
The tests involved measuring how well they could control their impulses in a stop-signal reaction time test that assesses how quickly a person can switch from following one set of instructions to another.
Addicts are known to have poor impulse control.
The researchers found that the sibling pairs — even the non-addicts – fared significantly worse on the test than the healthy volunteers.
Brain scans showed that the siblings shared some of the same weaknesses in the frontal lobe and its connections to the basal ganglia, which mediates motor, cognition and behavior.
In an accompanying Perspective article, Nora Volkow and Ruben Baler of the US National Institute on Drug Abuse said that knowing more about brain circuitry could help understand and treat other “impaired control” disorders, like obesity, pathological gambling, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
“Several childhood and adolescent interventions can improve executive function and self-control,” though more study is needed to see how such work may or may not impact the brain, they wrote.
Sexual addiction, which is sometimes referred to as compulsive sexual behavior, hypersexuality, hypersexual disorder and nymphomania, is defined by the Mayo Clinic as “an obsession with sexual thoughts, feelings or behaviors that affects your health, job, relationships or other parts of your life
Sexual addiction, which is sometimes referred to as compulsive sexual behavior, hypersexuality, hypersexual disorder and nymphomania, is defined by the Mayo Clinic as “an obsession with sexual thoughts, feelings or behaviors that affects your health, job, relationships or other parts of your life.” Sex addiction is of course different than traditional addiction to drugs and alcohol because it is a behavioral addiction that doesn’t include a physical dependence on substances. A behavioral addiction is when an individual compulsively engages in an act until it begins to cause serious negative consequences to their physical, mental, social and/or financial well-being.
Similar to substance abuse, the tell-tale sign of a behavioral addiction like sex addiction is when someone continues to engage in the destructive behavior despite the negative consequences it’s having on their life. A few other behaviors that been identified as addictive include but are not limited to gambling, food, viewing of pornography, use of computers, playing video games, use of the internet, work, exercise, cutting and shopping. While behavioral addictions like sex addiction are still making their way into medical journals of mental health conditions, they are viewed by most experts as very treatable.
Signs and Symptoms of Sex Addiction
Trying to identify whether or not an individual is suffering from a sex addiction can be a bit tricky. This is due to the fact that being sexually active in and of itself is not detrimental to one’s health like say drug abuse is. It’s when the sexual activity moves beyond the realm of normalcy and starts negatively affecting your life that the likely prognosis is addiction. Here are some common signs and symptoms of sex addiction:
- Your sexual impulses are intense and feel as if they’re beyond your control
- Even though you feel driven to do certain sexual behaviors, you may or may not find the activity a source of pleasure or satisfaction
- You use compulsive sexual behavior as an escape from other problems such as loneliness, depression, anxiety or stress
- You continue to do risky sexual behaviors despite serious consequences such as the potential for getting or giving someone else a sexually transmitted disease, the loss of important relationships, trouble at work or legal problems
- You have trouble establishing and maintaining emotional closeness, even in you’re married or in a committed relationship
Sex Addiction and Substance Abuse
An individual diagnosed as having a sex addiction is increasingly likely to develop a substance abuse problem as well. Oftentimes sex addicts will attempt to self medicate the anxieties, guilt and stresses they feel as a result of their addiction with drugs and alcohol. This behavior can lead to drug or alcohol addiction very quickly. These co-occurring disorders are known as a dual diagnosis and require specialized treatment for recovery.
The sad truth about prescription drug abuse
As a Woodstock high school student, under-confident and overweight, she struggled to find her identity.
Today, Christina, who doesn’t want her real name published, is 25 years old, extremely pretty and in perfect shape.
Back in high school, she explained, weight issues and a lack of boyfriends and friends her own age deeply affected her self-esteem.
Soon after graduation, she started seeing a man, despite the fact he drank heavily.
“I thought he was fun. He thought I was pretty. It was an attention thing,” she said.
While she drank socially in high school, she soon started to binge drink. On weekends, the couple drank up to 1.18 litres (40 fluid ounces) of alcohol a day.
As their relationship disintegrated, Christina started taking OxyContin to compensate, a drug given to her by an addicted friend.
“After I took them, everything went away. I was back in love with (my boyfriend). I felt great about everything,” she said.
Soon, she couldn’t function without them. At one point, she quit for a week until she “couldn’t stand it anymore” and contacted her friend.
“I said I feel like garbage, she said come over, I’ll help you out,” she said.
Despite a supportive, stable upbringing, the drugs eventually alienated her from her parents and sister, and she moved in with her boyfriend, who by then was also taking the drug.
Although she never really counted, she thinks she could take up to three 80-milligram OxyContin tablets on a bad day.
Each pill was cut into four that she would consume quarter by quarter.
Eventually the couple made friends with a dealer so they could get a discount on the drug.
“We’d sit around all day doing Oxys and some cocaine,” she said.
Eventually Christina and her boyfriend couldn’t afford their apartment anymore, and she was forced to move back home.
That’s when things came to a breaking point, and she had to seek help.
“I didn’t want to live, I didn’t want to die – but it was the hopelessness of not knowing what to do – you’re just lost,” she said.
Christina entered the methadone program, and after three years, was clean.
Methadone is a synthetic opioid used to treat withdrawal symptoms due to opiate dependency in patients.
“I’m a success story,” she said. “Some people are on methadone for years and years.”
Christina credits family support and “determination and perseverance” to getting her life back.
She eventually went to college and now works full time.
She’s also become a volunteer addictions counsellor with the Cynthia Anne Centre for Addiction that operates in both Woodstock and Ingersoll.
“I wanted to help people who struggle with this,” she said. “For some, it’s just a bad decision. It’s not who they are; it doesn’t define them.”
Administered by Operation Sharing, the Cynthia Anne Centre for Addictions arose from a gap in the system stemming from an up to four-month wait for addiction services in the county.
The centre, funded by the City of Woodstock, the United Way of Oxford and the Len Reeves Foundation, provides free ongoing daily support through counselling and a 10-week classroom program to local residents struggling with addiction issues.
Program director Bill Baleka calls prescription drugs “a really big problem” in the community but believes alcohol is still the number one issue for addiction.
“Alcohol is so readily available. People using other substances generally turn to alcohol for a second source of drug,” he said. “Oxys are number one as far as pill popping goes.”
According to Addiction Services of Thames Valley, there is a higher percentage of people being treated in Oxford County for narcotics addiction than in other regions such as London.
“I’ve seen an increase in the amount of people coming to us for help with prescription drugs, mostly opiates like OxyContin, Dilaudid and hydromorphone,” said Julia Nunes, an addiction and mental health counsellor with Addiction Services of Thames Valley for Oxford County. “I do think it’s interesting that there is a higher percentage of people coming to us for help with prescription opiates than in London. I really don’t know why that is.”
While last year in Woodstock and Tillsonburg the majority of people were still seeking treatment for alcohol, prescription drugs came in a close second.
The case is different in Ingersoll, where, in 2010, 77% of the people seeking treatment were looking for help with a narcotic addiction, with only 22% looking for help with alcohol.
According to information collected by Connex Ontario, a non-profit organization that offers a drug and alcohol helpline, more Oxford callers suffering problems with narcotics analgesics contacted them in 2011 than for any other substance.
Alcohol, which in the past had always been number one on its list, came in second, with cannabis in third place, followed by cocaine, others and crack cocaine.
From Oct. 1, 2008, to Sept 30. 2009, Connex was contacted by 57 Oxford County callers seeking help for narcotic addictions.
Those numbers rose sharply during the same time period from 2010 to 2011, with 98 people contacting them for help.
One of the main problems those seeking treatment face is simply the lack of resources, Baleka said.
“Why should it take 100 days to get help? There is not enough people out there available to help those struggling physically and psychologically with issues surrounding addiction,” he said. “The wait in this county has been an issue since I started working here 17 years ago.”
Baleka, who teaches an addictions course at Fanshawe College, said more professionals are needed in the field.
“We need more people out to help people in the field,” he said. “We need an army.”
Baleka said people develop addictions to oxycodone, or its brand name, a time-released drug called OxyContin, for a number of reasons.
“Some get hooked and take it for pain and like the euphoric feeling. People experience an unusual calmness when they take it,” he said. “They may be going through a wide variety of serious unrest and have a physical injury. They are looking for a way to escape the pain of life.”
Baleka, who emerged from a serious long-term addiction to alcohol and painkiller 30 years ago, said the Cynthia Anne Centre uses a different approach to combat addiction.
Baleka, who is very clear about the fact he doesn’t agree with the methadone treatment program, said the centre provides individualized counselling that addresses issues and related problems associated with addiction.
“You have to find out what’s behind the root causes of addiction. Just taking away the substance isn’t going to solve their problem,” he said. “We educate people to develop new life skills to replace the desire to turn to substances to solve their problems.”
Since the centre began its program last fall, Baleka said they have seen some measure of success.
He said many of participants have improved in their relationships, personal health, coping and life skills.
One man achieved 44 days of sobriety.
“The road to recovery is fraught with relapses. You have to keep plugging along,” he said.
Drug court’s first-class success | Jan. 24
Drug court’s first-class success | Jan. 24
Drug treatment saves lives, funds
Hillsborough County has also implemented a drug court treatment program to divert adults who have committed drug offenses from jail and prisons.
These special courts were funded by the state Legislature two years ago by diverting $13 million to build a new prison. Because many of our state leaders understand that addictions are treatable and should not result in expensive prison time, many Florida counties were able to start offering these individuals a chance to turn their lives around, stay in the community, and receive intensive drug and alcohol treatment to assist them back to a healthy life.
Over the past 18 months, the partnership in our county has accepted over 300 men and women into treatment with a very high success rate (70-plus percent). These are men and women who will remain in their own homes, continue to work and care for their families and receive alcohol and drug treatment free.
This is not an easy program and does result in some being discharged and sent to prison. However, the cost savings for those who do complete and continue to pay taxes, care for families, and maintain a healthy lifestyle amount to millions of taxpayer dollars every year.
Hillsborough County has the second highest success rate behind Orange County. Please support treatment in your community. It saves us all time, money and lives.
Drug Epidemic : Legislature should pass prescription drug abuse bill
Last spring, Oswego police found more than 650 pills — including oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone — $2,000 in cash and items used to transport and distribute drugs in a Volney home. Police charged two people with several felony counts in what they called illegal prescription drug trafficking.In a high-profile case in June, David Laffer killed four people during a robbery at a Suffolk County pharmacy where he intended to rob the store to feed his addiction to painkillers. In the days before the shooting, Laffer had filled six prescriptions for more than 400 pills from five doctors.These incidents illustrate what state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman calls an epidemic of prescription drug abuse. Schneiderman is pushing for legislation that targets the crime, violence, overdoses, addictions and death related to abusing prescription drugs. The Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescription Act, or I-STOP, proposes an online database that will provide doctors and pharmacists with a real-time, centralized system designed to end over-prescribing, target prescription drug trafficking and identify and help people at risk of prescription drug abuse.
The proposal, which has bipartisan support in the Senate and Assembly, would strengthen New York’s prescription drug monitoring program by requiring physicians and pharmacists to report information when they prescribe or dispense certain controlled substances. It would prevent “doc shopping,” in which people visit numerous doctors to accumulate a stock of prescription drugs. It would also safeguard against doctors who prescribe dangerous drugs when the patient demonstrates no medical need for them.
Nationwide, prescriptions for addictive drugs increased by 153 percent in the last 10 years.
In Onondaga County, crisis admissions to drug treatment involving certain controlled substances increased almost 50 percent between 2007 and 2010, from 303 to 449 admissions. The number of hydrocodone prescriptions grew by 16 percent from 2008 to 2010. In the same period, oxycodone prescriptions increased by 34 percent, and alprazolam (Xanax) prescriptions grew 25 percent.
Schneiderman’s plan significantly strengthens the state’s current prescription monitoring program, which calls only for pharmacists to report controlled substances they dispense at least once every 45 days, does not track prescriptions written and does not provide a mechanism for pharmacists to ensure that prescriptions are valid.
Some in the medical community are balking, calling the measure yet another mandate that will cost them money and time with patients. A few keystrokes on a computer hardly seems onerous, though, and the potential to prevent abuse, addiction or dangerous drug interaction far outweighs that criticism.
Before Laffer was sentenced in November to four consecutive life terms for first-degree murder in the pharmacy shootings, he acknowledged the “horrific acts” he committed. “If there is a discussion of doctor shopping and prescription pill abuse, then perhaps some good can come from this,” he said.
Schneiderman has started the conversation. The Legislature should join him and pass this sensible legislation.
Making the Grade on College Drinking Prevention
Making the Grade on College Drinking Prevention
Written by: Frances M. Harding, Director, SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention
In December 2011, the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Monitoring the Future survey posted some fantastic news: Underage drinking by 8th, 10th, and 12th graders has reached historical lows. Among 12th graders, for example, past-month alcohol use dropped to 63.5 percent in 2010, down from a high of 74.8 percent in 1997. While this decrease is heartening, it also signals a need to step up our prevention game on college campuses. Underage college students drink often and excessively. How can we help maintain our progress in reducing underage drinking as today’s high school students enter college? How can we help current college students who drink make healthier choices?
Please join the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on February 6, 2012, from 1:45 to 3:00 p.m. (EST), as it hosts Making the Grade on College Drinking Prevention, a live Webcast of a national 2012 Town Hall Meeting on underage drinking prevention. Dr. William DeJong, Boston University School of Public Health, will moderate a panel that will include Dr. Ralph W. Hingson, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, and representatives from campus communities. The panel will discuss both challenges and successes in preventing alcohol use by college students, with a focus on proven environmental prevention approaches, and answer questions from a live audience and from people posting via the Web. For more details and login information, visit http://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov/townhallmeetings/resources/trainings/webcasts/making-the-grade/default.aspx. Follow us on Twitter @SAMHSAgov, #THM2012, for meeting highlights before, during, and after the event.
Underage drinking prevention on college campuses requires use of the latest prevention science. This Town Hall Meeting will focus on environmental prevention, a proven approach to making alcohol less available and appealing to young people. Some goals of environmental prevention are to change social norms or attitudes relating to the use of alcohol, to control the availability of alcohol, and to strengthen enforcement of laws and regulations governing its use. The meeting also will identify free resources that campus communities can use in holding similar events as part of SAMHSA’s 2012 Town Hall Meeting initiative.
As the mother of a college-age daughter, I believe that this Town Hall Meeting focuses attention on a critical public health issue. Underage drinking at the college level has severe consequences. Each year, nearly 6,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are injured under the influence of alcohol and over 1,800 students die from alcohol-related causes. More than 150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health problem, while as many as 1.5 percent of students report a suicide attempt due to drinking or drug use. About 25 percent of students who drink report academic consequences, such as missing classes and falling behind. All parents want their children to succeed academically and in life. Mixing alcohol with the stressors of college life is a recipe for trouble.
During 2012, hundreds of communities nationwide will host Town Hall Meetings to encourage greater use of environmental prevention approaches in achieving measurable reductions in underage drinking. I urge you to join this national grassroots effort as well as participate in our Webcast event. Please share this information with others who can help make the grade on college drinking prevention.