The need to feel safe is primal. It overrides the most conscientious and availed willpower, emotional reparation, or soul wrenching remorse. It is important to remember this, because depression is the second most commonly shared side effect of abstinence and recovery. I am talking about the deep dark depression most of those in cessation of an addiction suffer because of unattended grief.
It does not matter what you are addicted to, though substance abuse alters your biological chemistry and requires specialized detoxification, much more so than a relinquished Xbox, ceasing Starbuck’s, or the abnegation of baked goods. But every addiction inspires the creation of feel-good hormones, which upon cessation, leaves a mark. How deep depends on your level of toxicity and dependancy. That is why I believe successful mastery of any and all forms of addictive behavior requires physical detoxification partnered with psychological reparations, coping skills, and attendance to your overall body, mind, spirit connection.
A desperate desire to maintain comfort and security is human nature. Normal. Healthy in fact. It is part of primal-brain, survival adaptation for maintaining homeostasis. DOSE-ing. Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphin with neurochemicals our bodies produce in order to assuage pain, stress, fear, anxiety, and despondent mental accum is the biology behind every addiction. These naturally occurring neuro-chemicals ease physical and emotional pain while stopping the internal voice constantly reminding us of what is missing, hurting, or too much for us to handle. Because modern life is a pain, anxiety, and fear generating machine, DOSE-ing is more like preventative medicine.
If you move from one addiction to another, keep returning to old habits days, months, or even years after regaining control… and-or require pharmaceutical intervention to feel normal, you are by all definitions, an addict. But do not feel shame. That only reduces your chances of healthy habit forming in twenty-one to forty-nine days.
And remember, ‘addict’ is a just a label. A word for communication purposes. Control is in you. What others think of you is not your business. We are simply human beings with unhealthy DOSE-ing requirements that need support and understanding as we heal and regain homeostasis. Not very different from the cardiac patient needing stints or the cancer patient needing chemotherapy.
If you were to lose a best friend, spouse, lover… hell, even a dog that made you feel good every time you were together, you would grieve. Often for years. Nobody would blame you or call you names. You would have to go through all the stages of grief before being able to feel normal, no matter how long it took. And people would feel for you, be helpful, kind at the very least. Not judgmental, pious, or self-righteous. The time needed to regain emotional and spiritual equilibrium depends on the length and strength of the attachment. As well as the support you receive along the way.
The CAGE is not addressed in recovery treatment plans. Even while psychologists understand the significance of individual identity markers like loss and the role of grief in debilitating depression, addiction relapses, and suicide. The murderous malaise of recovery leading to severe mental health issues and soaring suicide rates is a public health crisis.
The Sanskrit word tṛ́ṣṇā translates most closely into that thing, thirst, longing, or need to fill an emptiness inside. The ancient belief ascribes three associated yens to tṛ́ṣṇā; (1) physical pleasures and satisfaction, (2) an appetite for existence, and (3) the need for non-existence. It should be easy to empathize because I am sure you suffer from one, if not all three tṛ́ṣṇā. Most every human not in denial does.
Addiction has plagued humanity throughout our mortal history. Our current social lacking aside, and any real sense of security fleeting at best, is it any wonder we are all DOSE-ing our way through each day. Life is often fearsome, arduous, odious, or intolerable. But it is still a gift. One we must learn to appreciate, savor, and nurture.
You must believe healing can happen, and self-control restorable. Once original trauma is redressed and reframed, healing takes place in three ways; immediate, cumulative, and reductive. Which brings me to the holistic approach that address all three tṛ́ṣṇā behind habitual behavior. By restoring the body, mind, and spirit, through causal discovery, detoxification, and nutritional support, we can get to the grief counseling that covers the four paths toward healing based on The Four Noble Truths and that life is suffering.
Grief counseling, you ask?
Yes. Abstinence creates a void, a loss that needs to be appropriately bereaved. The five stages of grief must be appreciated, anticipated, and dispatched during any addiction recovery. Something that is sadly not part of the current recovery paradigm. On that note, recovery is a word I use reluctantly, as it implies redoing or repeating patterns; the very thinking every one suffering needs to eliminate in order to achieve conscientious control.
Second, the bereaved do not recover. They adjust. And sadly, they are forced into adjusting to changes and vacancies and new expectations while feeling sad, stressed, and insecure. It is a difficult journey. The addicted is responsible for killing an addiction, and such should empower the process of acceptance. Unfortunately, a void remains a stressor so the healing process must be intentional.
Not until all five stages of grief: (1) denial, (2) anger, (3) negotiating, (4) depression, and finally (5) acceptance, are intentionally and consciencly processed, is your true-self reborn and you are able to escape the CAGE.
June 13, 2025 by Laurianne Macdonald, B.Sc., MPH, CHt, and Licensed RTT Practitioner
“Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.” ~ Jesus
Deprogramming a devout allopath is like wrestling a greased pig, such as is their ungainly girth, feral viscosity, and rapacious claim upon putrid wallows. The most profound challenge being the anointing of academia seeping into the convert’s vision blinding them to divine proclamation and the fact that they worship an already riddled and rusting idol. Less literarily, modern medicine and its applied sciences is and has never been gilded or golden, regardless, if not even proven by Good Housekeeping’s (GH) history of campaigning for brand name products with prize winning PR and a shiny little seal.
Never forget that since 1909 GH approval has promoted and propagated a plethora of poisonous and cancer causing products. Such includes cleaners, cosmetics, and cigarettes… detergents, plastics, sundries of every kind, baby talc powder, and even Teflon. Their so called experts have been gelded, refuted, and included in class action law suits countless times. Yet, “Miracle of the modern age” is still their mesmerizing mantra. “Rigorous testing by experts” continues to corrupt the fields of scientific method. Customer complacency, brand bias, cherry picked statistics, and colorful advertisements transmute “Doctor recommended” into dogma.
GH held the lion’s share of consumer trust by the time the Pure Food and Drug Act sank its teeth into protective regulations with the formation of the FDA in 1938. Good Housekeeping’s Golden Seal of Approval and FDA Approved coalesced to become one side of the two sided blade the American Medical Association (AMA) still wields with lethal precision. Big-pharma forged the other.
The AMA’s grip on the hilt of said sword remains firm and safe behind the ornate glimmering guard of nearly two centuries of political posturing and healthcare reform. Most recently, Obama care. The 2000 pages of incongruous and disingenuous greed sired legalese disguises unconstitutionality verging on crimes against humanity – and should never have made it past the senate.
Never mind SCOTUS. Oh… SCOTUS: The once revered defender of We The People. I cannot help but wonder why, in 2012, the feckless benchwarmers upheld PPACA’s decimation of the constitution and our inalienable rights. The ruling created a preponderance of precedents for an authoritarian takeover of our healthcare and public health systems, paving the way for the manmade pandemic that killed millions. Even more are now suffering untold side effects, disabilities, infertility, and early death because of their cure. They knew what they were doing… or they didn’t.
Yes, we the people have been flayed without recourse or remorse, as apparently, absolution is absolute for what is whet against political profiteering masquerading as the allopathic cannon. To paraphrase my favorite healer and activist, “Truly, Truly, I say to you… I speak the truth but you will not believe me!” You are, indeed, conditioned, fattened up, and led to slaughter so the butchers can cash in before God reclaims your portion.
Many of my clients ask what allopathic means, as I use the term frequently in my ministering, and, as you can imagine, less than shiny or appreciative favor. So I should begin with the original locution: allopathisch introduced by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann in 1813. I can guarantee every holistic practitioner will know who I am talking about. His essay on the difference between the modern medical paradigm and real healing underpins his purport to the Greek term allotrios: Belonging to another, foreign, or strange.
Though kinder in idiom than I imply, the sentiment applies whenever I reference western medicine, pharmacology, and biological systems theory. More to the point, allopathic medicine is to health and healing as oil is to water, a pig to purity, or hell from heaven. The two most blasphemous allopathic paradigms being the belief that one-size-fits-all and a willful but complete ignorance of the mind, body, spirit connection.
I cannot decide which ranks worse.
In my experience, both personal and professional, medical doctors move further away from being oath-bound healers the harder they cling to the angsty adolescent agita of allopathy. Which, by the way, ironically professes God is dead while foundations in alchemy make them believe they are gods.
Our now toxic environments, food supply, and chronically ill bodies prove the profound and life giving synergy between God, human beings, and nature. The connection cannot be recreated or improved upon by chemical intervention. Even though every modern medical doctor sorely asserts such is so with every script. They have not yet realized that when ethereal energies are disconnected, all hell breaks loose.
A little something healers since the beginning of time have taught, including the greatest of all healers, Jesus.
Believe it or not, we mere mortals survived, thrived, and healed ourselves using innate wisdom, the divine machinations within our own body, and the bounty of nature. We have administered medicine made from God’s greatest green gift for tens of thousands of years, if not more. We knew it was our responsibility to accommodate our needs and minister to those in need.
Then, a couple hundred years ago a pubescent humanity, with its collective conscience of narcissistic nonage, demanded to be heard. And like any good and knowing parent, God gave it the room. After all, adolescence gives way to growth and renewal, no matter how bitter the winter or deep the snow.
But like all winey pimple-faced stripling, we pound hot air filled chests while pointing out myopic facts believing ourselves smarter, stronger, and self-actualizing: Incapable of giving dad due credit, mom commendation, or the past any credence. We have pasteurized personage, distilled our spirit, and killed the father in the name of science and technology. The Olivet Discourse warns as clearly as every dad’s booming voice the day he finally has enough of the callow fester.
Still, men will be boys. Such as Biden, Fauci, Hillary, Gates, Graham, Cheney, Musk, Obama, Soros, Warren, and Zuckerberg… just to name a few. The list is extensive, but you know the type. Those, who in the face of cataclysmic errantries and apocalyptic conclusions continue to incite and spur unconditional accord and accommodation to their delusions of grandeur, Professor X Personality Disorder (PXPD) have undoubtedly infected the swamp known as DC.
It is also prominent throughout the medical and healthcare industry: from teacher to resident. There are peer reviewed studies to prove the preponderance of hubris tainting the allopathic autocracy. YouTube tutorials teach us how to deal with the abundance of arrogance and authoritarianism we endure at each doctor visit. And now most major hospitals must provide a customer complaint hotline.
The fact is, patient practitioners, compassionate caregivers, and able attentive attendings are a rarity.
Case in point, I was tortured this spring by a young trauma unit resident who possessed neither surgical skill nor cognizance of his ineptitude, even as I, quite loudly, pleaded for him to stop. “There must be a better way,” I cried. “Did you use any anesthetic?” Please take into consideration, pathos is lost in this telling and the measure of my pain tolerance is unknowable or expressible given the mode of accession. Just trust that I am not being overly dramatic.
So certain was this surgical sprat of his ability to push a tube between two very broken ribs and into my lung, he cut, bullied, and tried to pry me open for nearly a half hour. The attending allowed the torture to persist; my agony reduced to an equally unsuccessful teaching moment. The procedure was an utter failure. The hemothorax (collapsed lung filling with blood) was not relieved and I was now at risk for infection and other complications related to such an unnecessary and unpleasant breach.
Had I not panicked at the idea of a blood filled lung and remembered my long standing faith in Jehovah Rapha, I would have elicited my patient’s right to deny treatment. Especially when the GP explained that the crisis may resolve on its own given time and rest. But even this Integrative Holistic Health Specialist admits, conditioned is as conditioned does.
Fear has a way of making us forget even the most fervent deprogramming. And they know that.
I’d started out faithful enough: My survival was a miracle. And God finishes the good works He starts. When I woke with the Grizzly ATV still crushing me into the rough and rocky trail, I knew I was broken. I’d been broken many times. The pain was familiar. But I was able to stand and walk. With the help of my family, I dealt with my injuries for three days before breathing went from excruciating to exigent. That is when I, quite unceremoniously, requested to be taken to the hospital.
None of us could have imagined just how broken I was.
Diagnostics showed I had six broken ribs, two severely munched and detached. The same two the clumsy surgical student attacked without constraint. The soft tissue damage to my entire right side was extensive. My c-spine was a swollen mess. The inflammation so congested imaging the tech could not determine why I was unable to turn my head. My crushed leg and arm were grotesquely bruised. The size of the lump on my head explained why I’d lost consciousness. But unbelievably, other than my lung, there was no internal bleeding.
Again, I remain convinced God saved me.
While removing some small stones embedded in abrasions on my wrist a most wonderful nurse named Gloria, confessed what I already knew to be true regarding the wretched chest-tube catastrophe. “It was the worst she’d ever seen,” the attending had told her. “All the staff are talking,” Gloria went on. “You’ve become something of a celebrity with the way you handled it.”
That explained why the exceedingly tall surgical lead visited earlier that day, his conscripted, including my abuser, shuffling contritely behind him. The surgeon in his green pajamas and a spotless lab coat, obviously donned only on special occasions like quelling potential lawsuits, appeared in all his superiority to be assuring and confident, “Though this morning’s images show your chest-tube missed its mark, I’ve decided to leave it in for now. Hopefully the situation will resolve on its own, but if things worsen, there is a chance I can use the same incision to reposition the tube.”
The surgeon gave the young evildoer a look similar to my father’s way of signaling the all-clear: A nod from scorn filled eyes sent him to my bedside. Again, I was pummeled by “I apologize for the pain I caused.” And again, I was struck by how that word, apologize, always seems to clear the room of authenticity and sentiment. The rehearsed confrontation left any real regret and remorse lying like dead soldiers beside the blood splatter on the floor.
I tell you these things because my conviction and passion for true healing, using nature based medicine, faith, and the mind-body-spirit connection is ablaze like never before. The burn familiar was real, and deeply personal. One I must, in all godly consciousness continue to share, to warn the masses: those innocent souls who trust the white coats and collars unconditionally.
Truly, truly, I tell you, the allopathic method, western medicine is a deceit. A doctor’s skill may prevent death to your body after being devastated by chronic dis-ease, severe trauma or infection. Pharmaceuticals may kill what might kill you or lessen your pain and suffering for a time. In the end they will poison you, kill healthy cells, or cause irreversible damage to one or more of the very ‘systems’ the prescribing doctor is sworn to protect. Diagnostic technologies usually confirm what you already innately know: I am broken… I am sick… I am dying.
But do not be fooled. None of these things have anything to do with true health and healing.
The allopathic systems-theory is faulty and incomplete. It is missing the essential ingredients that promote longevity like faith, self-respect, and responsibility. For too long they have been conditioning us to believe only the credentialed and diploma bearing are allowed credit and authority over our health, healing, living, and dying.
That is the lie slithering off the enemies split tongue. So, please, I beg you to retake responsibility for your own health and healing.
As a GEHA (Guardian Ecclesiastical Holistic Association) certified practitioner, I teach how all health is related to balancing the mind, body, and spirit connection. I offer faith and nature based treatment plans that inspire a real understanding of healing and healthy living. My goal is to deprogram the allopathic conditioning that keeps you from believing in the miracle that is you.
That said, the ER is exactly where you need to go when you think you are having a stroke, heart attack, or have been broken in a traumatic accident. Seeking proper diagnostics and labs to know what ails you, where and how your body is malfunctioning, is smart… the responsible thing to do. Knowledge is power.
I am saying that what you do with that knowledge will determine your health outcome.
When you are ready for real, sustainable, transformative healing, lasting health, and the profound peace that comes only with faith, you can find me at https://www.lauriannemacdonald.com.
