Beware of this Medication that even Addicted an Anti-Addiction Expert
A Lot of anxiety over an anti-anxiety drug!
I believe “metabolic imbalance” is at the root of both physiological and psychological disorders. As I scientifically demonstrate in my book, humans heavily rely on drugs as metabolic crutches (biohacks against our broken feedback loops). But crutches always beget more crutches as they make us dependent. In fact, certain classes of legal (prescribed pharmaceutical-grade) drugs such as the Benzodiazepine family of anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) medications are so addictive that a renowned anti-addiction expert got hooked on them and almost died. The following modified excerpt from my book (on Amazon’s Hot New Release list), shares two tragic stories about this class of pharmaceuticals:
Our Drugs: Tioga and the Tragic Addiction of the Anti-Addiction
.. As the demand for psychiatric drugs and painkillers skyrocket, legislators try to control and disrupt the supply of drugs by labeling them as controlled and uncontrolled substances. These artificial measures on the supply side have led to an ongoing war on drugs.
The futile and costly war took a new turn on August 14, 2019 when police in Nicetown-Tioga, a poverty-stricken neighborhood in Philadelphia, attempted to arrest a man, accused of illegally buying the anxiety medication alprazolam .. The man resisted arrest and fired back, injuring several police officers. This led to a 7.5-hour standoff with dozens of police officers occupying and crippling the neighborhood. In my estimate, this one ordeal – similar to many others occurring daily across the US – cost the city and its residents in excess of $1 million once we include costs of the force and equipment deployed during the standoff, treating the injured police officers, covering their salaries, disability and pension, court and trial costs, and the long term prison costs for the man who resisted arrest. Billions are spent each year on this ineffective war on drugs.
Tragically, the shootout was over an anxiety drug which is legally marketed and prescribed by doctors some 25 million times every year. It belongs to the notorious Benzodiazepine family of drugs to treat panic disorders, with a global market value of $3.5 Billion in 2019 according to Verified Market Research. It is the drug family which even harmed the renowned psychologist Jordan Peterson, resulting in his disability, induced coma and placement under suicide watch. Peterson, himself an expert on this family of drugs and now a staunch critic, received his prescription legally from his doctor. It has cost Peterson’s family more than a million dollars to keep him alive using expensive detox and rehab centers around the world.
These two examples, one involving a violent standoff in a poor neighborhood, and one involving a renowned psychologist and influencer, demonstrate how using drugs as our main tool to fix our psychological imbalances is costing millions of dollars in medical or law enforcement expenses, destroying lives, families and neighborhoods, as well as packing courts, prisons, rehab centers and hospitals.
Besides psychiatric drugs, opioid abuse is also a strong biopsychosocial (to borrow the term from psychiatrist George Engel) barometer for the extent of addictive disorder among humans. In 2020, a record high number of 93000 Americans died of opioid overdose, about twice the numbers in 2017. More than 11 million Americans owe their addictions to doctor-prescribed opioids in 2017. The prescription opioids generate some $12 billion in revenues for pharmaceutical companies and 150-200 million prescriptions-visits (worth about another $10 billion) for doctors every year. In addition, in 2017 alone, each case of opioid use disorder and overdose cost viii U.S. taxpayers about $455000. And like many other social trends, the problem is scaling up alongside or parallel to the size of the economy.
And the Covid-19 pandemic and strict lockdown policies have only amplified the sales of anti-anxiety drugs and opioids. In chapter 4, I will discuss the neuroscience behind the imbalances that cause anxiety and depression.
This was an excerpt from Chapter 1 of my book: Masks, Crutches and Daggers: The Science of our Self-Delusional, Addictive Homo economicus Brain. I spent two years to draw from the latest discoveries in a wide range of disciplines — Neuroscience, evolution, biochemistry, psychology, economics, physics, philosophy, nutrition, and even mysticism — to understand the roots of self-delusion that plague human lives, rich and poor alike. The book is an essential simplified scientific “user manual” for our brain and body and how they communicate (feedback Loops), balance (for health), or burn out (for disease). I believe I have identified the common denominator of disease, disorder, disparity and discord (fights, divorces, lawsuits, riots, wars) that plague our lives. Here is the book’s introduction on Amazon’s Hot New Release in Behavioral Psychology (the book’s promotional sales at 23% OFF continues this week):
A Simple Practical Guide to How Your Brain and Body Communicate (Feedback Loops), Balance (Health), or Burn Out (Disease)
Most of us know more about sports, politics, games, apps, and our jobs than about how our own brain and body work or get burned out together. For less than the cost of a family dinner, this is one of the few books in the market that can help us understand in simple language the complex nature of body-brain feedback loops as the common denominator of disorders and diseases (such as diabetes, hypertension, weight gain, dementia, sleep disorders, constipation, infertility), and discords (fights, divorces, lawsuits, riots, wars). The author has spent two years to ingeniously draw from the latest discoveries in a wide range of disciplines: Neuroscience, evolution, biochemistry, psychology, economics, physics, philosophy, nutrition, and even mysticism to help us understand the roots of fatigue and imbalance that plague human lives, rich and poor alike. This book is an essential simplified scientific “user manual” for our brain and body.
The world’s largest battles are fought inside human minds and today most of us suffer from abuse not by others but by our own brain. Why do humans walk such a tight rope between depression and addiction (habituation), anxiety and recklessness? Why is it so hard to kick bad habits? Why are several countries now have Ministries of Loneliness to keep the social fabrics from falling apart? Why are humans so prone to self-delusion, self-deception, and forming mobs and cults? In this book, we learn, in simple language, about the neurochemical soup that makes our brain prone to metabolic imbalance and leads to pursuit of unfettered growth. "The sky is the limit" thinking has constructed a world of winners, losers and barely anyone in between.
A Unique Book and Author
Today self-censorship is the main form of censorship that constrains and compromises sponsored writings and speeches. The scientific insight and life stories shared in this book are candid, uncensored and heartfelt, shared by an author who is an independent scientist philosopher, and a freelance educator living by his motto "Guided by Conscience, Not Mobs!"
A graduate of University of Michigan and Case Western Reserve University, Ray Armat, Ph.D., is a materials scientist, chemical engineer, former NASA grantee and educator with years of interdisciplinary corporate research, business development and academic experience. He specialized in balancing industrial product formulas but once he realized his own body and mind were imbalanced, he tempered his ambitious career goals to learn more about the human brain and behavior. He shares how he had an epiphany during a stay at Frank Sinatra's original house. As a scientist philosopher, storyteller and educator, he uses a unique and rare blend of real life stories and scientific first principles that govern both natural and industrial processes to find unifying explanations to disease, disorder and discord. The book will be eye-opening and life-changing for many readers.
What is the alternative for people who need to manage a particular condition?