Genre: Nonfiction/Medicine/Alternative Medicine Rating: Four out of Four Stars for Online Book Club Five out of Five Stars for Amazon Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review purposes. The following is a duplicate of my review on Amazon. If readers purchase a copy of the book through the preview link, I receive a small commission from Amazon.
While some will dismiss this book as too controversial because it discusses the use of marijuana, the fact is that the track record for current methods of lowering the risk of relapse in cases of addiction to alcohol and opiates is shaky at best. Marijuana has been shown to have a myriad of medical benefits. While the author's method may not resonate with everyone, I believe that it is worth it to read about and consider it.
I have personally seen marijuana used effectively to lower the number and intensity of seizures in a patient that I took care of when I worked as a home care nurse. The patient was on numerous powerful pharmacological medications to control his frequent seizures. These medications made him extremely drowsy and he slept most of the time. When marijuana oil was introduced, he was able to wean off of all but two of these medications, was much more alert, and his seizures were well controlled.
I relate this anecdote because the author discusses the ways in which the brain is altered by the use of alcohol and opiates. Marijuana, when used as the author outlines, can help balance out these alterations in the brain and give the addict a fighting chance at staying clean. The book is short and gets directly to the point. I recommend it to anyone who is fighting addiction themselves or who wishes to help a loved one fighting addiction.
Hey, Kids! Let's play a little game that I call "Diet Culture or Food Insecurity." Are you ready?
Around noon while injecting my long-acting insulin, I said to myself: "Self, I think it would be good to have some lunch."
My Self replied: "Do we really need lunch, though? If we just have some nice iced black coffee with a bit of non-dairy creamer, that might stave off the hunger for a while. After all, we can't just go and eat whenever we like, now can we?"
So, is this something I said to myself because of food insecurity, or am I on a diet?
The answer has been both at different times in my life.
Today, it's because I'm food insecure. I ditched diet culture eight years ago. I can't say I've never looked back. I can't say that I never had nagging doubts that if I just tried to diet one more time this would be the time that would take and I would finally be thin and pretty and the Handsome Prince (TM) would ride in on his white horse and fall in love with me and I would live Happily Ever After (TM).
Gee, that sounds like an abusive relationship or addiction, doesn't it? Abusive relationships and addiction aren't healthy. So, since diet culture puts people in the same mindset as addiction and abusive relationships, why are so-called medical professionals always touting it as "healthy?" Things that are genuinely good for you do not involve gaslighting yourself.
In the past, I placated myself using pretty much the same words I did today in the name of diet culture, although the words I used in the past were more abusive. It generally went a little bit something like this:
"Oh, you want to eat again, huh? Of course you want to eat again, you fat pig! You're always thinking of food! How do you think you're ever going to get a boyfriend if you're always stuffing your fat face? Do you really need lunch? How about doing what the models do and just having a cup of black coffee? You can put a little non-dairy creamer in it if you really must. Maybe that will stave off the hunger for a while."
Yeah--that sounds really healthy, doesn't it?"
Both food insecurity and dieting invoke a starvation response. This is why people who are dieting find themselves thinking about food all the time. A steady diet of nothing but protein shakes and expensive "meal replacement" bars and fucking boiled chicken with fucking steamed veggies and fucking rice for dinner will do that to you.
Or maybe you could try the cabbage soup diet. Eat as much cabbage soup as you want, but be sure to strain the good bits out so all you have is a cup of fucking broth. This one might help you lose some water weight during the first two weeks, then it will stop working. Your chances of luring a Handsome Prince (TM) with the cabbage soup diet will be somewhat reduced because you'll be farting a lot. His hounds might think you smell interesting, though.
Perpetual dieting only benefits the multi-billion dollar diet industry.
Hi. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Michael Neil Lee, but you can call me Mick. I am a recovering addict and alcoholic, and I believe in angels.
I realize that some of you will think my beliefs are antiquated and unscientific. I believe in science, but I think there are some things that science can't explain. Like angels, for instance.
I know there are some of you who will be like "let us be nice to the fry brain and we will humor his belief in angels" and you will say things like "yes, there are angels here on Earth who help people. Like nurses and doctors and your counselors in rehab."
I don't know about nurses and doctors and my counselors. But yes, I believe in angels in the flesh. My little sister Nicole is a for real earth angel. She believed in me even when I was on rock bottom. She was there for my kids when both me and their mom couldn't be there because of our problems. Even when I was at my worst with meth and heroin and drinking and pills she still loved her big brother and I am sorry for the times I caused her to worry that the next time she would see me is in the morgue. I am crying when I write this so I am sorry if it is not the best writing. Nikki, you are a for real Earth angel. I believe in you.
Nikki's new girlfriend Thalia who she met last year is also an earth Angel. They both thought they would never meet anybody to be in love with, but they met each other. They love their nieces and nephews like they were their own children. They are in love with each other like they thought they could never be with anybody. Also, now I have a new buddy to have (Clean and Sober) fun with and listen to music with and tease and play practical jokes with. To be fair, Tally, you had to know it was a Snake in the Can, but you opened it anyways. I'm still waiting for the payback.
Thalia introduced me to instrumental music like this. I still love my Rock and Metal, always and forever, especially my Crue, in case you can't tell by the picture on my profile. But when I need to relax and to chill out, I listen to this instead of lighting it up or shooting up or drinking, and it's way better. Now my kids know their Dad will be around for them and not dead in an alley or something like that.
Also, my friend Cie who has said to me that I can write and she will help me edit my story, you are also a real Earth Angel. My story is called Earth Angel, and it is inspired by some of the people I met along the way. The Angel in my story is called Katarin. She is a real angel who has lost her way and has been abused so much. I have met so many women who have been abused and used up. One of them had schizophrenia and she had been raped so many times when she was trying to get drugs to forget her pain for awhile. She had abortions and also kids that were taken away. She was homeless. I tried to protect her a little but couldn't always watch over her. One day they found her dead.
I miss you, Karyn. I wish your life could have been better. I thought of you as my Sister, I really did. I wanted to be a good brother to you, the kind you never had. I am sorry I failed you like everyone else.
I believe she has gone back to be with the angels. I do. Even if she was messed up, she had a good soul.
I mean she is gone back to be with the Angels in Heaven. Because I do believe in them.
I know some of you think that is stupid, and it is unscientific, and maybe hypocritical, because I don't go to church. I believe in Heaven and Angels, and I believe in Jesus and that he is good, but I don't believe you have to think he is the Messiah to go to Heaven. I think he loves us all whether we believe he is the Messiah or no. I don't think Christianity is the only religion or the only way to be saved, and I don't think you even have to believe in anything at all to belong in Heaven. I think you only have to be kind and to try your best, and some people don't like that too much and they tell me I can't be saved if I think like that. I don't think they are right.
But I do believe in Angels, and I do believe in Spirits.
I have seen some shit in my life.
When I was a little boy, way before I ever heard about drugs and when I was going to church like a good little boy and believed what I was taught in Sunday School, I met a spirit one day in the attic at my maternal grandparents house. I was three years old and I would go in the attic and it was like a treasure hunt. And that day he was sitting there near the window. He was a boy who was older than me but still young, maybe like seven years old, and he was quiet and didn't talk, but he was nice and he smiled at me, and I stayed there with him until he faded away. I always thought it was about 20 minutes but It's hard to tell, it could have been more or less. I was never afraid of him. I never saw him again. But I always remember him. I didn't say anything to anyone because even that young I knew they would tell me to stop telling tales. I only told Nikki a lot of years later when she was 18 and I was 20, and she punched me in the arm for keeping such a cool secret to myself all that time. I told her it was fair though, because she didn't tell me she liked girls until about that same time, and we could have been liking girls together all that time but I didn't even know it!
So I believe in Angels and I believe in Spirits. And maybe some of you think that's pretty stupid. And maybe some of you think it means I am going to hell. I don't think so either way. I think there is stuff that Science doesn't understand and I don't think that too many people go to Hell.
So this is my story about me, and sort of an introduction to the story I hope to write. Thank you for listening and for your support. This is the first time I have really told my story, and I am kind of nervous for it.
I used this meditation today. Ocean sounds are always very soothing and helpful.
Yesterday I was still receiving feelings of fear/resistance from the soul who asked for my help in this matter. Today he seemed much more at peace and indicated that he wanted to help with the spellwork.
There is a disconnect although not a complete one between this spirit and his body, due to the fact that the physical brain is so badly compromised. If there is a miraculous healing of the physical brain, he will be able to use the body again and thus the disconnect will be resolved.
I have worked with incarnate people on the astral level before, but this person operates as something between an astral projection and a discarnate spirit. It is a very unique situation.
I sense angelic energies from him. He was a more advanced being than he was aware of. I feel honored to work with such a person, although I wish it could be under happier circumstances. I hope to be able to help him create such circumstances.
On a soul level, he needs to heal from the traumas/illusions that caused his depressive and addictive tendencies. There is a level of self-doubt and self-hate that needs resolution.
He is actually quite easy to work with. He is pleasant and polite in manner, but beyond this, there is a desire to please those who extend their kindness to him in a genuine fashion, and also a desire to do those things which are good and right. There is a desire to return kind gestures. There is also a realness and an honesty which is a rare commodity.
I can only hope I am able to do some good in this situation.
Everything I do in this matter I do from a place of love and light.
