stress and anxiety : PUT-ME-DOWN'S

Consider Dave, a person struggling with OVERSTRESS. He can't get a restful sleep, has aches and pains, and anxiety attacks. "What is wrong with me?" he moans, "I'm having chest, neck and back pain. I feel lousy, I can't go on this way. Life is not enjoyable anymore..." John works fourteen hours a day, drinks coffee and takes sweets all day long. He has a few drinks in the evening to "relax". But his Pick-Me-Up's only make his roller coaster ride steeper and bumpier. Sometimes he feels"OK", but much of the time he is a "mass of jangled nerves".

So, in exasperation, he goes to the doctor. "Can't you give me something to calm down my nerves and let me get a good night's sleep?" John says. "I just can't handle this anymore."

The doctor, in all likelihood, will respond by giving John a prescription for a PUT-ME-DOWN. Put-Me-Down's are medicines that temporarily force the body into sleeping or tranquilizing.

The most well known of these drugs is Valium. (Valium has quite a few relatives that work the same way but are known by different names: Tranxene, Serax, Xanax, Ativan, Centrax, Paxipam, and Librium are some examples.) Chemically, all the drugs in the Valium family are known as benzodiazepines. Another family of Put-Me-Down's are the barbiturates. These are such medicines as Phenobarbital, Butalbitol and Seconal.

The Put-Me-Down's do not work via the brain's Happy Messengers. Instead, they affect the brain at their own unique receptor sites. Unfortunately, Put-Me-Down's only work for one to three months. After that, the receptors adapt to the presence of the Put-Me-Down's. Then the person's aches, pains and fatigue come right back again. Unfortunately, by that time, many people find it impossible to stop the Put-Me-Down.

Benzodiazepines (the Valium family) are notorious for this. They have such a severe withdrawal syndrome that people taking them for any extended period of time cannot get off them -- eventhough the Put-Me Down is no longer doing any good!

We know that a person cannot chemically balance his brain with Pick-Me-Up's. They just make the roller coaster ride worse. Add Put-Me Down's to the potpourri of chemicals, and it becomes that much more hopeless. Can you imagine how futile an effort it is to balance microscopic amounts of chemicals in your brain with sugar, caffeine, alcohol and a Put-Me-Down too?!? Unfortunately, it is impossible for a person to feel anywhere near normal for any stable length of time.

Yet, so many people go to the doctor trying to find a way to feel rested, or to calm their raw OVERSTRESSED nerves, that benzodiazepines are the most commonly prescribed brain active medicines in the country today. (Remember, one in every ten of us is OVERSTRESSED right now.)

by BRAD BURNS