Are

prescription drugs an avoidance strategy? Are they a problem?

Part 2

Question:

Lots of the videos show drug taking as a way to blot out reality - are you also including prescription
drugs, such as antidepressants?

Russ:

Good question. In week 2 module 4 we considered there are zillions of substances we can put into
our bodies to avoid or reduce pain - including everything from alcohol and cigarettes to aspirin and
panadol to crack cocaine and marijuana to antidepressants and antipsychotics and anxiolytics and
ice cream and chocolate and naturopathic and herbal remedies and chips and pizza.

And I hope you will recall, we're not looking at any of these methods as right or wrong or good or
bad or positive or negative; we're not interested in judging them; we're only looking at them in
terms of 'workability' - i.e. do they work to help you behave like the person you want to be and act
effectively to build the life you want? If the answer is yes, they're workable. If the answer is no,
they're unworkable. And you are the only person who can decide that.

Alcohol, used sensibly and moderately, will enrich and enhance the lives of most people; alcohol
used unwisely and excessively will worsen the lives of most people. Each person needs to assess; "Is
the way I use alcohol workable or unworkable for me?" And the same goes for any other substance
you put into your body - legal or illegal, prescribed or over the counter, synthetic or natural.

© Russ Harris, 2017 www.TheHappinessTrap.com