What is Your Drug of Choice?

What is a drug? A drug is anything used to change how we think and feel. Drugs come in all shapes and sizes from legal ones (sugar, caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, food, activities, some medication, habitual behaviour) to illegal substances at the other end of the spectrum. In our culture there is often a misunderstanding, in that we focus on the actual ‘drug’ being a problem, but we do not resolve the underlying issues that encourage the use of it. The main problems with any drug if it is regularly used are the consequence of reliance and the consequence of the habit.

The consequence of reliance includes believing you cannot do without the ‘drug’, so that a cycle of belief and behaviour is ongoing. The mind will insist we cannot cope, survive, deal with whatever the issue, so we use the ‘drug’ to cope and that keeps us in the cycle of thinking and behaviour. In this cycle we don’t prove to ourselves that we can deal with life without the drug. 

The consequence of the habit depends on the drug of choice and regularity of use. If the drug of choice is caffeine, and the use is low then most will experience little or no consequence. If the drug of choice is food, and this is used in moderation, again, the consequence will be little or none for most. The consequences begin to challenge our wellbeing when the drug is depleting and the use is too often. Then our wellbeing will be compromised, and it is likely that some relationships and our overall engagement in life will be compromised too. Regular use of any drug generally means there is high anxiety about dealing with life and what it brings.

If we really want to change the consequences of overuse of anything that impacts on our wellbeing, then our energy needs to be put into the underlying issues. Whatever we put our energy into gets bigger – so perhaps we can shift our focus here off the ‘drug’ and onto the anxieties and deal with them using effective interventions that bring long term changes.

The Truth About Stress

Stress is perhaps the most used word in our culture at this time.  I’m on a mission to clarify what this means and what we can really do about it. How do we resolve current issues and prevent future ones?

The word stress has become an umbrella term that means many different things to different people.  But what actually is it? 

There is a chain reaction within the mind and body that generally works like this:

1.     There is an external pressure/event

2.     We think a certain way about it (we may feel overwhelmed, worried or paranoid in our minds)

3.     This will lead to a release of anxiety (fear) in the body (you may experience ‘butterflies’ or ‘knots’ in your stomach, or feeling sick)

4.     Once there is enough anxiety the body release adrenalin so that we can respond to the ‘danger’. 

The trouble is that although the danger is only in our minds, our body is fuelled with the most naturally powerful drug. This will have lots of physiological effects which can include: less blood to brain causing a change in clarity of mind; increased heart rate; sweating; dry mouth; shaking; heat; skin irritation; panic attacks; etc. If we do not release this adrenalin through physical movement, our body can be consistently full of it. 

A loop cycle can be created between thinking, emotional reaction and physical reaction and this is what people call high stress levels on a consistent basis.

While a bit of anxiety and adrenalin has no impact on our all round wellbeing, continual production will have a serious impact on our wellbeing and those around us too.

We need to separate external pressure from internal thinking. We may be able to do little, or nothing, about our external pressure, but we have the power to do something about our internal position.  Consistent high anxiety/adrenalin (stress) is not genetic, but it can become a habitual way of being. However, with the right skilful retraining, this can be changed.