Addiction, Pain and the Billion dollar lawsuit and how EMDR therapy and Integrative treatment can help!

The search for the magic pill to alleviate pain may be coming to an end. Big pharma pleads guilty to enormous charges and new drug free therapies are now also being proven to reduce and eliminate pain. When our bodies experience pain, one of the first places we turn to is our trusted doctors. Most doctors specialize in medicine, not marketing. Although, when you get an aggressive marketing strategy coupled with a large pharmaceutical company that targets doctors and their patients, the results can be devastating. The amount of people affected by big pharma’s 40 year ploy to make billions off prescription drugs has affected countless numbers of families, homeless people, abandoned children and drug addicts to an astounding number that is unconscionable. This marketing scheme was developed for doctors of the Sackler family, who are responsible for driving uncountable numbers of people to overdose and death. The idea to eliminate pain may have started out with good intentions, but somewhere in the midst of all the money, got lost.

Marketing For Addiction

The beginning of this worldwide epidemic began with getting doctors to prescribe OxyContin for pain. Soon after, it became clear that addiction to this and other drugs would bring billions to big Pharma Perdu. The marketing plan was written and developed for years before some knew what was happening. There is an estimated 2.156 trillion dollars in damages, not including 18 billion dollars in legal penalties from the justice department in lawsuits against Big pharma Purdu and the Sackler family fortune for the legal prescription of opioids. A debt they are beginning to repay that will ultimately would take lifetimes to pay back. The jump to heroin or street drugs often begins with a prescription drug when a person is unable to cope with the physical and mental difficulties associated with addiction. When they are unable to get their drug or enough of the drug they have built tolerance to, illegal drugs become the focus. Anna Lembke MD, author of Drug Dealer MD speaks about how inhumane it can be getting people off of prescribed drugs. “Three out of four people addicted to heroin probably started with a prescription opioid,” stated the director of the Center of Disease Control.

How Opioids Rewire The Brain

What is happening at a deeply scientific level, is that when a person is unable to get the drug they have become addicted, which they have built a tolerance to, is now understood as mal-adaptive changes in the mechanics of the brain and body. This change is a truly, deeply felt sense to stay alive, from a perceived constant grim reaper knocking at the door. Staying alive is the number one item on the brain and has been since prehistoric time. The internal wiring from our nervous system (the vagus nerve) to our brain, computes a constant, “stay alive, seek pleasure and avoid pain.” When opioids maladaptively change the brain to reap higher rewards and punish deeper pain, the mission becomes, “get drugs, don’t let anyone stand in your way!” With a change in the wiring and a new operating system of the brain, it becomes clear as to why people just can’t quit, get over it, or as the failed marketing slogan says: "Just Say NO!," AND why on average people relapse 7 or more times in sincere efforts to be drug free. When a person is addicted, the prefrontal cortex (thinking part of the brain) is blurred. It’s decision making power has another part of the brain saying, “death is at the door.” The jump to heroin or street drugs seems like the angel in the light, and the way to stay alive. With  little to no understanding of this, a person can be blindly robbed and left feeling helpless and trapped by their own internal system. This inner turmoil is like Stockholm syndrome. This irrational psychological alliance with drugs is one reason why this dangerous bond is so difficult to break. (Stockholm syndrome was coined by the 1973 bank robbery in Stockholm where the captives over time took the side of their captors.) Because of this, Purdu’s marketing plan became easy. The target market was not even the user, it was the prescriber of the user; your family doctor. The result being, off the chart numbers of prescription related addictions, death from overdose and a pharmaceutical company with billions, and billions more guaranteed. Australian researchers have released the first-ever report on worldwide addiction statistics. They found about 15 million people use injection drugs, such as heroin. The CDC reported over 67,000 deaths in 2018, due to overdose, with the main driver being synthetic opioids. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html

How and why the large number of deaths and addiction related to chronic pain

A worldwide epidemic is now being uncovered. Perdue Pharma began its marketing campaign by targeting chronic pain sufferers of the non cancerous type. Its marketing strategy began by targeting doctors to prescribe lower dosages (between 10 and 40 mg.) of opioids. By the mid to late 90’s the strategy included a new product that was a time release tablet of 160 mg. Like any good marketing plan, they did their research. Who would be a good target market that they can ultimately get addicted to their drug? The answer in their marketing plan was spelled out. “Expand the product, Oxycontin, beyond cancer patients to chronic non-malignant pain sufferers.” The goal of this market expansion strategy was to reach these chronic pain sufferers which would lead to 68.7 million prescriptions. Also included in their strategy was to help family physicians feel comfortable prescribing these products and introducing them and combining them with the safety of other addictive products that include Buprenorphine Patch, Oxycodone, Morphine and many others. This finely tuned marketing strategy had one main goal. To give oxycontin the broadest range of use. This widespread application can easily happen when it can be used for mild or severe pain. AND they kept going by building clinical literature and helping the FDA become more comfortable with their promotional material. They knew that when this happens they would be able to aggressively move into the area reserved for oxycodone combinations and class III combinations. Big Pharma Purdu market strategy The FDA did not release a warning against Purdu’s drugs until 2001. In 2002, almost 10 years after the inception of the marketing strategy, it issued a warning letter to the company Purdu for misleading advertisements. Government Warning It advised doctors to see full prescribing information for complete boxed warning. • OXYCONTIN exposes users to risks of addiction, abuse and misuse, which can lead to overdose and death. Assess a patient's risk before prescribing and monitor regularly for these behaviors and conditions. Recently in 2020, Purdue Pharma agreed to a plea of guilty to three felony charges for the marketing and distribution of OxyContin. The government investigation ended in an $8.34 billion settlement. Purdue, founded by the Sackler family in 1953 has made billions off of people worldwide, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The devastation and repair will take years, as many have lost family, jobs, loved ones and financial stability due to addiction.

High rates of psychiatric disorders have been found among those with chronic pain and opioid use. Anxiety, depression, mood disorders with the majority of them having personality disorders (52%) were shown in the research study. National Institute of Health Finding and healing childhood trauma has been a key in treatment and healing. With the beginning being finding out what your ACE score is. ( Adverse Childhood Experiences) 10 question ACE test. This has been one of the most important studies of our time. It is the ongoing research of Kaiser and the Center for Disease Control. There is good news and much to be gained in this big time of change. New discoveries and ancient wisdom shed new light on healing pain without drugs and more specifically how to heal chronic pain and addiction to drugs with EMDR therapy, hypnotherapy, natural chinese medicine, mindfulness, meditation and other uncommon treatments that work. Mark Grant teaches an online course to clinicians on how to reduce and eliminate pain with EMDR therapy and hypnotherapy. Healing Pain Course As the death toll increases due to drug addiction, new ways to treat pain are working and many doctors are adding integrative functional treatments to their practice. The Institute for Functional Medicine, and Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine . Recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) for treatment of PTSD, EMDR therapy is successfully being utilized for addiction, the treatment of pain and more specifically treating medically unexplained pain with a high success rate. Mark Grant, Australian Psychologist has researched his protocol for over 30 years. Author of the new Change Your Brain Change Your Pain, is now offering this course worldwide on how to treat and heal pain. Healing Pain Course. Kye came to me with a laundry list of physical ailments. They had struggled with addiction and had a high ACE score 10 question ACE test. Stress and anxiety were at the top of the list. The rest went like this. Tinnitus, hoshimotos, lupus, severe abdominal bloating (thin everywhere else), severe lower back pain, chronic sinusitis and migraine headaches. AND although they were trying to reduce prescription drugs, alcohol consumption was high. Kye worked hard and wanted to understand their perfect (ACE) score and became committed to regular therapy appointments. With a combination of EMDR therapy and visual charts to visually help her understand, we began plucking away at the list. Visual Aids They began seeing an integrative medical practitioner and also improved their health through food. Today they have a clean bill of health with some minor occasional flare ups of tinnitus when stressed. They are pain free and drug free and occasionally have a drink at a party. At the end of our regular sessions they said this. “ You asked me in the beginning If I was living or dying and that I could only choose one. Here is your answer. “ When you like being in your body and it feels good to exist you are living. Before this I was dying.

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