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However, then the third problem comes in, which is tolerance. As I take these substances into the body, the enzymes that break them down increase, so that, as I take in the next one, it is broken down quicker and so I have to take in the next one a bit sooner. So, treating emotional symptoms with drugs is an insidious process, in which addiction is very common. We are beginning to find that a lot of people, especially in the western world, are really addicted to diazepam and various other drugs that are used for the symptomatic treatment of emotional problems.
For the management of emotional problems, in my mind, yoga practices are number one. They work. Some of my patients do yoga nidra when they are acutely anxious, ten or fifteen times a day. Every time they feel like popping a diazepam, they put the tape on, lie down, and after a while, they gradually get down to needing it only twice a day. The same applies to the physical balancing practices, especially the pranayamas. Of course, for anxiety, brahmari pranayama is very effective and for depression, bhastrika pranayama with moolabandha is very powerful.
In Australia where I practise, and in the USA and South America where I have practised, the people whom we call patients are quite amenable to these practices because they are looking for something. What they are looking for is self mastery. They want to be the masters of their own therapy. They do not want me to give them a pill, but to give them the power to defeat their own emotional problems and emotional pain. Once they get that power, then it has a positive effect. It gives them confidence, it gives them self esteem. If you have confidence you are not anxious. If you have self esteem, you are not depressed. So this is where the power comes for the person.
The third group are those with thinking problems. Here all we need is common sense, because patients need to be able to intercept negative thought processes. such as, "I have never been able to do so and so, therefore, I will never be able to do it." Many people have a continuous line of negative thinking going on inside their heads." "I can't do it; he is better than I am; no wonder he can do it but I can't."
These thoughts need to be interrupted. Another negative thought that needs to be interrupted is, "I am an idiót." For
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