Coping in today's world, here'

Coping in today's world…here's a Xanax 

This week, I am talking about addiction and what it is doing to us as a society.

Anxiety is nothing new. It just has a new name. Years ago, it was called melancholia, the vapours, the English malady, neuroses, nervous temperament, nervous breakdown, and neurasthenia, which was the disease of the Gilded Age.

It all started because of the technology of the time, whatever time you may have been in. All of this comes from the inability to turn off your thoughts, and it's been around for decades.

It causes all kinds of physical reactions, sleepiness, stomach problems, morbid thoughts, pains, impotency, and even tooth decay, believe it or not.

And of course, there is always a pill for everything even back in the day. But recently, in the last 25 years or so, we have had a surge of doctors prescribing things like Xanax or Valium. Or more recently, Oxycontin.

The medication of the masses for many years. No one knew that people would become addicted to them, first to Valium and then to Xanax and Oxycontin.

And no one knew that this was as real of an addiction as heroin. Don't believe me? Just watch Netflix's documentary: Xanax.

These drugs were first put out there only to be taken for a month or so, but today's doctors have kept patients on them for years. And more and more patients are younger and younger. Especially in the last few years with the internet and all the "perfect" people that are on there making people feel like how come their lives aren't that perfect? 

These are like alcohol in pill form. The short-term effects that they have cause short-term memory, making you tired, fatigued, loopy, or makes you laugh. The long-term effects are dementia, tolerance to the pills, addiction, withdrawals, and physical symptoms from craving it when you stop taking it. 

If you stop using them, the consequences can be severe. It's like quitting the drug heroin. You can become psychotic, have seizures, severe anxiety, insomnia, and even suicidal thoughts and attempts.

There are ways to get off these pills, breathing, exercising, sleeping, getting outdoors, sunlight, meditation, CBD, or of course cognitive behavioral therapy which teaches you how to think differently and how to deal with what you've not been dealing with from the beginning. 

Believe it or not, social connections are one of the most powerful ways to dispute anxiety. Did you know that loneliness is one of the biggest detriments not only to mental health but physical health as well?

The problem with taking a pill to calm your anxiety is that you're not building up the mental calluses that you need to tolerate more anxiety. If you're squelching that experience of anxiety, you miss the opportunity to learn to cope with it on your own.

So today my friends remember, always do your homework before you just take a pill. Research other ways to help yourself, seek out counseling, go natural, and start exercising. You need to do the things above before you just take a "cure-all" pill that, in the long run, will just make your problems worse.

You need to put in the work it will take to be the change you want to see"

@TreadmillTreats