Photo credit: D L Ennis

Tremendous scientific evidence and clinical experience show there are many natural things that can be done to beat addiction. Few people realize the extent of the power of natural medicine. Individually, many of these therapies have been shown to overcome addiction. One can only imagine the power of using them synergistically:

1. Vitamin C Therapy

Dr. James Howenstine asserts “drug addiction is easy to cure”. His clinic administers 20 to 85 grams of vitamin C a day to addicts. Along with other nutrients, this continues for 4 to 6 days and the vitamin C dosage is lowered to 10 to 30 grams. Dr. Howenstine says that addicts taking methadone, heroin, and morphine are withdrawn without any symptoms, and that wellbeing is restored in 12 to 24 hours. He advises taking sodium and potassium ascorbate to avoid diarrhea, which occurs around 10 grams with ascorbic acid. Though doses this large are usually given intravenously, it seems it can be accomplished orally.

More info: 1

2. Lithium Orotate

Many people think lithium is a drug you give to crazy people. Lithium is in fact a mineral that may soon be classified as an essential nutrient in human diet. The form of lithium usually given to those with so-called “mental illness” is lithium carbonate. In order to get the desired effect, the dose given is high enough where there is a problem with toxicity. However, lithium orotate has been found to be a much more bioavailable compound, giving comparable effects which much lower doses of elemental lithium. This is so much so that it is sold as an over the counter supplement. A proponent of lithium orotate, Dr. Andrew Wright, used to routinely monitor his patients for signs of toxicity, but stopped after he never found a single problem. Dr. Wright states:

“In 30 years of nutritionally oriented practice, I’ve been told by many alcoholics and their relatives that low-dose lithium can be very helpful for both alcoholism and associated mood disorders. For “practicing” alcoholics, I recommend a trial of lithium orotate, 10 milligrams three times daily (along with diet advice, niacin, glutamine, and other supplements). I ask recovering alcoholics to try 5 milligrams, three times daily (occasionally more). The majority of these patients report improved mood and decreased desire for alcohol after about six weeks using lithium therapy.”

An article in the British Journal of Addiction stated “both controlled and uncontrolled experiments show that symptoms of both alcoholism and affective disturbance are reduced in patients treated with lithium.”

There are almost endless benefits to this supplement aside from treating addiction. I just have to mention one more fascinating bit of research. A study showed that in 27 counties in Texas that contained lithium in their drinking water, the incidence of homicide, rape, burglary, and suicide, as well as other crimes and drug use, were significantly lower compared to counties that did not have lithium.

More info: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

3. Raw Foods Diets

One of the world’s leading authorities on nutrition, David Wolfe, says:

“…I have run into many former drug addicts who, by switching to raw-food nutrition, were able to naturally achieve the high they had looked for with drugs and alcohol.”

It is probable that eating a healthy diet that is extremely dense in nutrients will improve the health and wellbeing of any person. This may be especially so in the case of addicts, who have a tendency towards chronically poor dietary habits. Reversing this trend can be especially helpful to them.

Poor dietary habits in themselves probably warrant that addicts also supplement with multivitamins, fatty acids, and amino acids. However, we’ll see that there are also other reasons addicts will want to do this.

More info: 1

4. Insulin Potentiation Therapy

IPT is a virtually unknown therapy with nearly endless applications, though it is usually used as an effective cancer treatment. It delivers a low dose of chemotherapy along with insulin. It turns out the insulin will make the drugs selectively enter cancer cells. This therapy kills even more cancer cells than standard chemotherapy with little or no side effects.

Dr. Jean-Claude Paquette, one of the pioneers of IPT, reported a number of successes with treating drug addiction. These include 30 patients who quit smoking after just one treatment. The exact mechanisms of why it works are still not well understood, but some how insulin allows for rapid detoxification of the entire body, while avoiding withdrawal symptoms or craving. Some other IPT physicians have also noticed this effect.

More info: 1

5. Hyperbaric oxygen

Hyperbaric oxygen is a therapy where someone lies down inside a sealed chamber, and is exposed to oxygen at higher than normal pressures. A study of 340 addicts treated with this therapy reported that many experienced “tranquilizing or bioenergizing effects” and that there was an “accelerated reduction of psychoneurological and somatovegetative disorders” resulting in a 50% reduction in treatment duration.

More info: 1

6. Amino Acid Therapy

Amino acid therapy has an anecdotal success rate of 70% in the U.S. A number of individual amino acids such as glutamine have been demonstrated to help addiction, so it isn’t any stretch of the imagination to think that giving a broad array of amino acids can be beneficial. Amino acids are converted into neurotransmitters and help repair damage to the brain. Taking multivitamins may also help ensure that amino acids are metabolized for this purpose, as opposed for other uses in the body.

Cameron McIntyre, a naturopathic doctor, explains that drug abuse damages neuroreceptors in the brain. That damage then makes a person more susceptible to addictive tendencies, reinforcing the cycle of drug abuse. Amino acids then repair damaged proteins in a drug user’s brain, “basically giving the brain the chemicals that it is craving, but in a healthy way”.

More info: 1, 2, 3

7. N-Acetyl-Cysteine

NAC is a modified amino acid that a number of studies suggest may help cocaine addiction. One study showed a significant reduction in craving and likelihood to scan the internet for cocaine-related news within just 2 days.

More info: 1, 2

8. Chlorella

Chlorella is a microalgae that has countless health benefits, the most well known being detoxification. It also contains all the essential amino acids. These reasons may explain the anecdotal evidence of its ability to improve drug addiction and withdrawal.

9. Essential Fatty Acids

Excessive alcohol consumption produces a lot of free radicals and peroxidative agents, which destroy the double bonds in fatty acids. Studies show that monkeys given an omega-3 deficient diet and access to alcohol for an hour a day have the DHA in their brain get depleted by half. This translates into a 50% reduction in dopamine and serotonin. Supplementing with essential fatty acids can reverse this process.

More info: 1

10. Milk Thistle

Substance abuse can seriously damage the liver. Milk thistle has been shown to help protect liver cells and detoxify the body. Some estimate that the liver can be regenerated four times as fast while taking milk thistle. An interesting fact is that the liver replaces itself every 6 weeks.

More info: 1

11. Stop Sugar Consumption

Some studies indicate that sugar craving may be related to drug addiction. Perhaps it is best to treat sugar as if it were a drug while trying to quit. Besides, sugar has been shown to poison the body in at least 146 ways. It is worth stopping regardless.

More info: 1

12. Exercise

An interesting animal study shows exercise may help drug addiction. One group of rats was placed in cages with running wheels and got plenty of exercise. Another group of rats got no exercise at all. Afterwards, all the rats were connected to infusion pumps that would provide a dose of cocaine if they pushed a lever in their cage. The number of pushes required to get a dose increased each time. Fit rats gave up after pressing the lever around 70 times, whereas unfit rats did not give up until around 250 times.

More info: 1

13. Skullcap

This herb is anecdotally said to reduce withdrawal symptoms.

14. Infrared Sauna

Drug residues can be stored in fat and may be a factor in the persistence of symptoms. One clinic performed a small study and demonstrated that the sweat of patients treated with infrared saunas does contain drug metabolites. This clinic reports good results with infrared sauna treatment.

More info: 1

15. Glyconutrients

Glyconutrients are said to reduce withdrawal symptoms and may help correct a monosaccharide imbalance that increases the urge to smoke.

More info: 1, 2, 3

16. Magnesium

In a 2003 study, a group of 12 addicts were either given magnesium or a placebo. Urine samples were taken twice a week for 12 weeks. Those taking magnesium had drugs in their urine only 16% of the time whereas the placebo group had drugs in their urine 48% of the time. Cocaine craving scores were also 78% lower in the magnesium group.

More info: 1

17. B Vitamins

Animal studies in the 1950’s showed that healthy animals will always choose water over a water/alcohol combination. Nutritionally deficient animals would often choose the alcohol. A 1996 study induced thiamine deficiency in rats. This made them prefer an alcohol solution over pure water. A strain of mice that were genetically bred to prefer alcohol was also found to have lower thiamine levels. This indicates that thiamine deficiency can be both a cause and effect of drinking.

More info: 1

18. Suboxone

Natural medicine does not mean avoid pharmaceuticals like the plague. It means “Do what works!” Some physicians are reporting remissions (often spontaneously) with suboxone as a stand alone therapy. Not many doctors offer this therapy however, since you need to get an additional license to prescribe it.

More info: 1, 2

19. Remove Underlying Causes of Susceptible Behavior

Getting off of drugs does not necessarily mean the causes have been removed. Some causative factors have already been mentioned. In general, integrative practitioners have long since known the 5 principle causes of illness. Being assessed in these 5 categories may lead to uncovering some of the most common causes of anxious and susceptible behavior. These include heavy metal poisoning, lack of good nutrition, mold allergies, hidden food allergies, excessive stress, and chronic infections such as Lyme, bartonella, and Candida.

More info: 1

20. Supporting Methods

Though this article has not focused on these aspects of healing, meditation, counseling, support groups, massage, and acupuncture may all potentially help addiction, or at least keep a person engaged in healthy activities while recovering.

More info: 1

Go Forward!

The road to heaven may be paved in whatever hell you care to name, but it still ends in heaven. Please share this article with others, especially with anyone suffering from addiction.

About the Author:
David AuBuchon is a Natural Health Consultant and the author of Scientific Living – a project that compiles information on effective natural treatments backed by science and actual use. David also writes about spirituality and personality development. You can subscribe to his work by RSS.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not to be interpreted as medical advice. If seeking medical advice, consult a licensed physician.

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Before I began to write, I didn’t fully understand the effects of the past on the present.  Instead, for years, the past appeared in my mind’s eye like faded black-and-white photographs, in which no one, especially me, seemed to be fully alive.

Growing up, I lived a double life.  On the face of it, we seemed like a normal, happy family:  My father had an important career.  We lived in nice houses and wore pretty clothes.  But all this seeming perfection was a veneer, masking the reality that my father sexually molested me, a reality never spoken aloud.

Later, as an adult, I continued to live a double life: this time as a sex addict.  Again, in public, I appeared normal, with a seemingly good marriage.  No one knew that the shiny façade hid dark secrets: I cheated on my husband.

Then I started putting words on the page.  Finally, I chose to examine my past.

In Fearless  Confessions: a Writer’s Guide to Memoir, I encourage you, and you, and you, to explore, through writing, your life, as well.  Whether your childhood was traumatic or not, whether your current life is in disarray, chances are you do have a story to tell.  Whether, say, you’re figuring out a divorce, taking notes about a recent illness, exploring the disruption caused by a parent in the military, or worrying about a visit with an estranged mother, we write memoir to better understand ourselves, as well as to bring a reader with us on our journeys.

Here are five reasons why your life will be improved by writing a memoir, by telling your own story:

One:  Memoir Helps You Understand the Past

I gain much clearer insights about my past when I write, then if I simply sit around thinking about it, in the abstract.  What was the relationship between the sex addiction and being molested by my father?  How did the past cause such emotional devastation?  I discovered the answers to these important questions through the written word.

Writing is a way to interact with—and interpret—the past.  It helps us make sense of events, whether they are traumatic, joyful, or maybe just confusing.  Writing sharpens our senses so that images and details from the past emerge in a new context, one that illuminates events for ourselves as well as for our readers.

Two:  Memoir Organizes Your Life

Just living my life day by day, I never stop long enough to question events.  There’re errands to run, meals to cook—to say nothing of emotional clutter!  Who has time to stop and think about events swirling around us?

Only when I put my everyday life on hold, so to speak, sit down at my computer and write, can I even begin to see a pattern to the rush-and-tumble of life.

Memoir writing, gathering words onto pieces of paper or on a computer, helps us shape our lives.  By discovering plot, arc, theme, and metaphor, we give our lives an organization, a frame, which they would not otherwise have.  Memoir creates a narrative, a life story.

Three:  Memoir Helps You Discover Your Life Force

Before I wrote, while I kept secrets, I didn’t feel as if I were really living my life.  I didn’t have a clear grasp as to who I was.  What, and who, was the essence of “me”?  There are thousands of other incest survivors.  How was my story different?

When writing, if I forge even one good sentence on any given day, I have discovered a kernel of emotional truth.  I feel that life force of “me,” as if it’s my pulse.  To write is to give birth to a more complete self.

There is only one of you.  Your voice is unique.  If you don’t express yourself, if you don’t fully explore who you are, that essence of you will be lost.

Four:  Memoir Helps Others to Heal

One thing I most love about writing memoir, is that it affords me the opportunity to meet many courageous people, still struggling.

For example, after I completed a reading at a library in Athens, Georgia, one woman waited until everyone else had departed.  Approaching me, she was so scared she began to cry.  She confided that I was the first person she’d told that her father had molested her.  She was too traumatized even to tell a therapist.  Why did she confide in me, trust me?  Simply because I had written my story.  Through this meeting, both of us were empowered.

Five:  Confessing, through Memoir, is Good for the Soul

Telling family secrets—any intimate secret—can be scary.  Finally, however, I reached a place where not telling the secrets was worse.  I felt heavy, weighted down.  Finally, then, it was more a relief to write my life, then ignore it.  So even though at times I felt scared or uncomfortable, I ultimately felt a sense of release and power.

In short, with every word the pain lessened.  It was as if I extracted it, one word at a time.

As you challenge yourself, you’ll feel more courageous every day. Writing memoir energizes your psyche, nourishes your soul.

Sue William Silverman is a Guest Blogger for PickTheBrain.  memoir, Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey through Sexual Addiction (Norton), is also a Lifetime TV movie.  Her first memoir, Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You, won the AWP award in creative nonfiction.  She teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and has appeared on such programs as The View and Anderson Cooper – 360.  Her most recent book is Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir.  Please visit www.suewilliamsilverman.com.

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