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reflections

Yoga and wellness

Sujata Venkatraman

It was seven thirty in the evening. Students had just finished practicing a hatha yoga session for an hour and a half and were grouped around the teacher. One young man, looking very calm and composed, stood outside the inner circle, waiting to speak to the teacher. I asked him how he felt. He replied, "Wonderful! Finally after two years I am in control of my knees. After my accident it has been a painful recovery process but with Yoga, its getting there." He then added, "You know, with Yoga, I am also more in control of myself – I am not as anxious as I used to be".

The Yoga therapy class was located in a suburb near uptown Houston. Today all across the Western and the Eastern world, Yoga classes, therapy sessions and special meditation group sittings are held all over, in hospitals, in corporate offices, in schools and colleges, in gyms, athletic centers and other institutions. The art, science and philosophy of Yoga has been bringing physical and mental wellness to its practitioners for the last four thousand years. The complete body of Yoga encompasses various paths for the evolution of consciousness. Some of these paths are the physical disciplines of Hatha Yoga and Pranayama, faith and worship methodologies of Bhakti Yoga, the discipline of work, Karma Yoga, the Yoga of wisdom, Dnyana Yoga and the complete eight-fold integral path of Yoga described by Patanjali, Raja Yoga.

Twenty five hundred years ago, in his now-classical treatise, Yoga darsana, Patanjali writes: yogah chitttavritthi nirodhah. Yoga is the cessation of movements in the consciousness. B.K.S Iyengar describes yoga as the art of studying the behaviour of consciousness. The yogi/yogini observes his/her mind, understands the behaviour of the mind and then seeks to achieve a calm consciousness by quietening its movements. Patanjali describes an eight-fold path to achieve this mastery over consciousness in his yoga sutras. He writes that adherence to this eight-fold path, Astanga or Raja Yoga, allows one to maintain

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Editorial Team
Bhargavi Davar
Sadhana Natu
Radhika Kulkarni
V. Radhika
Soumitra Pathare

aaina is a mental health advocacy newsletter. Advocacy demands critical, creative and transformative engagement with the state, policy makers, professionals, law, family and society at large. aaina will thematically cover issues in community and mental health, NGOs in mental health, self-help and healing, non-medical alternatives in mental health, rights, ethics, policy and needs of special groups. aaina provides a forum for user expression of their experiences with mental health services and debates issues concerning rights of persons with psychiatric disabilities. We look forward to meaningful dialogue with individuals and groups alert about these issues.

Those interested in receiving copies of aaina may contact us at wamhc@vsnl.net. Write to us with all your suggestions, criticism and viewpoints on the issues covered.

This issue of ‘aaina’ was edited by Bhargavi Davar.

Design and Layout
Anand Pawar

Printing
Anita Printers, Pune

Contact Address

Center for Advocacy in Mental Health,
36 B, Ground Floor, Jaladhara Housing Society, 583, Narayan Peth, Pune 411 030

Tel: 0091-20-4451084
Email: wamhc@vsnl.net

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mental equanimity in all circumstances and develops their physical, mental and emotional well being. This eight fold path consists of Yama (control of the body, speech and mind), Niyama (proper conduct and discipline), Yoga asana (the physical discipline of postures which removes physical suffering by keeping the body disease-free and healthy in all circumstances), Pranayama (the science of breath control to achieve concentration), Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses so as not to be disturbed by the physical world), Dharana (concentration on an external or an internal object), Dhyana (total meditation with the object realizing it first partially and then grasping it in its entirety) and finally Samadhi (oneness with the object). Of these the first five are considered to prepare the mind for the last three.

Swami Rama in an experiment conducted for Menninger Foundation demonstrated his abilities to alter his EEG pattern. The EEGs recorded on several other Yogis now confirm their mastery over their internal organs. Studies have indicated that this is possible because of their awareness of the biofeedback processes inside the body. Constant practice of Yoga allows us to develop enormous sense of wellness and lets us be responsible for all aspects of our personality. Various studies in India, Germany, United States and other parts of the world have been performed to examine the application and benefits of Yoga practice in everyday lives. These studies address their therapeutic value for chronic conditions such as asthma, arthritis, pain, heart ailments, diabetes, disorders related to women, obesity and many other physical conditions. Furthermore, studies now firmly establish Yogic techniques for stress relief. Ailments related to mental conditions are also being addressed in controlled experiments using Yoga therapy.

It is clear from the above discussions that Yoga is a controlled program that attempts to address attitudes and disposition of the human being. Asanas not only help develop poise, strength and flexibility, they also address issues related to biofeedback processes related to the brain, endocrine system, immunity system and others.

Hypothalamus and its relation with other brain centers through neurochemical reactions have known to be associated with several mental conditions. Several techniques of Pranayama, Yoganidrasana (yogi/yogini in sleep), trataka, gomukhasana (cow face), sarvangasana (headstand), and sirsasana (headstand) are some

asanas that help balance these various systems. Pranayama, Sirsasana, sarvangasana, shavasana (corpse pose) are some poses that are known to help in epilepsy. In an article, Yoga and Women’s problems, Dr Kamakshi Kabir and Rahila Jaipal write that when patients with psychiatric problems are given yoga therapy along with medication, they respond quicker and more effectively. Treatment for depression using drug therapy is still a hit or miss strategy since this could be related to neuroendocrine abnormalities, low serotonin levels at the synapse or dopamine-related abnormality. They show sleep irregularities in their EEG. Simple asanas like yoganidrasana, shavasana and pranayama can induce a state of rest and relaxation. Several experiments conducted on Zen meditators indicate that their EEG patterns show alpha waves which corresponds to a decrease in the activity of the brain. The advanced Zen meditators showed presence of theta waves, which is related to a further decrease in the cortical activity of the brain. Higher consciousness seems to be therefore related to a decrease in the activity of the brain. Meditation, pranayama and Yoga practice could therefore provide alternative treatment to depression.

Dr. Uma Krishnamurthy, consultant psychiatrist at Vivekananda Kendra and Lakeside Hospital, Bangalore writes "Yoga, the science of holistic living" that pilot studies have proven the advantages of Yoga practice in obsessive-compulsive neuroses and phobic neuroses. She also writes "efficacy of [yoga] has been satisfactorily demonstrated in anxiety neuroses and depressive neuroses". In the same book, Dr. R. Nagarathna writes about the effect of pranayama and shavasana practice on 18 people for 8 weeks. During the first four weeks, they practiced for 1.5 hours daily and for the next four weeks they practiced for 1 hour everyday. A psychiatrist examined them both before and after their Yoga training. They showed a significant reduction in their anxiety levels and their sympathetic nervous system had also calmed down. She also notes the efficacy of mantra techniques in patients with obsessive thoughts and behaviour.

Dr Sarada Subrahmanyam notes that excess or deficiency of certain brain amines may lead to psychiatric tendencies and Yoga helps to maintain the chemical balance. In an experiment conducted with psychiatric patients selected from Dr. Boaz Rehabilitation School, Institute of Mental Health, Madras and psychosomatic patients and normal subjects from Kaivalyadhama Yogic Health Center,

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Madras, many people were initiated into Yoga. 10 people with aggressive behaviour, 10 who were mentally challenged and another 10 with epilepsy were made to successfully practice yoga and meditation for a period of one year. The study found a fall in the level of cortisol in the aggressive patients. The mentally challenged patients showed a rise in their amine levels, which correlated with psychological development. There was also a reduction in the frequency of seizures amongst those with epilepsy.

A lot of interest has been generated in using Yoga therapy for improving the IQ of mentally challenged children. Experiments conducted by Vivekananda Kendra YOCTAS show significant statistical improvement in the I.Q scores of those who underwent yoga therapy for a duration of one year as compared to those who did not. Yoga therapy was most beneficial to children in the mild and moderate retardation.

In pilot studies conducted by Vivekananda Kendra Yoga Research Foundation, Bangalore between 1986-1988, students in the age group 8-18 were taught integrated approach to Yoga for two and a half hours everyday. Parametric measurements of their long and short-term memories, audio, visual and audiovisual, all indicated an increase. The pilot study was expanded into systematic research by testing on two groups of students for ten days. One group was taught yoga asanas, pranayama, meditation and kriyas for 8 hours each day. The authors of the study do not indicate the activities of the control group. The results of the study indicates that the Yoga group scored better in visual verbal, visual spatial, visual and audio visual faculties than their control group counterparts after the ten day camp. While the loss of motivation in the control group is not explained in the study, the authors believe that increased awareness, increased focus and decreased anxiety levels due to Yoga might explain their better scores.

The use of Yoga therapy for treating psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia has been the subject of some research studies recently. Increased awareness and focus might help the patient recognize the state or condition they are in. My brother, Dr. Jayaraman was a regular Yoga practitioner before he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. His remarkable comeback and his ability to not only manage his condition but to pursue active academic research in physics is a testament to his Yogic practice.

His increased focus and awareness allowed him to be "in control of his reality" and by combining Yoga with drug therapy, he has been able to prove that the practice of Yoga allows one to perceive and recognize their consciousness, states of existence and mental wellness.

Yoga practice allows one to claim responsibility for their wellness. Constant yoga practice not only removes states of disorder but also induces a state of happiness, which is now being understood scientifically as the neurochemical, endocrinal and limbic state of balance within us.

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Healing Rhythms

Zubin Balsara

Most of us associate drumming and rhythms with Ganapati festival, pop songs, longhaired funny western musicians, or sober tabla players. However, rhythm is everything that manifests in a pattern. Everything that exists in time has a rhythm and a pattern. Our heart is the mother drum, the breath constantly following a beat, each neuron in our brain fires in a rhythmic pattern, our muscles have a rhythm of their own.

We can measure the rhythm of our heart by electrocardiograms (EKG); electroencephalograms (EEG) show the rhythm of the brain, and electromyograms (EMG) show the rhythm of the muscle. We all have a circadian rhythm, which determines our lifestyle- when we eat and when we sleep.

You will also notice the rhythm of people- notice how each person feels, behaves and responds in a different rhythm. Some people have a very fast rhythm for feeling and responding, others take time to respond due to a different rhythm. In order to have a fulfilling relationship, the "life rhythms" have to be co-ordinated.

Rrhythm is not an external element, it is everywhere, it is in you. Rhythm has the power to organize, bring into order and bring structure. Because of this power, rhythm can create and maintain the creation.

The easiest way to access this power is through the simple and beautiful DRUM! Rhythms played on a drum can "organize, bring into order and structure" any system which has become chaotic thereby restoring it from dis-ease to a state of ease.

The healing power of the drum was a mystery to me until I met Ms. Heather MacTavish (Executive Director) of New Rhythms Foundation, San Francisco.

New Rhythms Foundation is an organization devoted to bringing the healing power of drumming to senior citizens and various populations dealing with cognitive challenges like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Schizophrenia, Dementia etc. New Rhythms Foundation invited me for a 4-month project where I saw the healing power of music and rhythm.

Heather’s personal journey is a testimony to the healing power of music and rhythm. Heather was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. She couldn’t sleep because of the drugs that she was on and also because of the constant dialogues going on within her mind about her life and her death. She found solace in dancing. She would dance every night. Sometimes she danced through the night. She had always loved to dance but in the past, she had only permitted herself to dance when she went to a party. The dancing led Heather to drum teachers, Mika Scot and Barbara Borden. Drumming helped her co-ordinate her motor movements, overcome paralytic spasms, and heal her sufficiently. The drumming led to sharing the joy and benefits of drumming with others, thanks to help from a friend who asked her to facilitate Drum Circles for senior citizens. Today, New Rhythms Foundation has offered the same comfort and healing of the drums to well over 500 individuals dealing with cognitive ailments.

From Heather, I learnt more about the drum as a self-help tool for personal healing. Drumming helps individuals to:

• Relax

• Release accumulated stress

• Expend excess energy

• Express emotions

• Become playful and childlike

• Explore creativity

At times, individuals dealing with emotional disturbances find it difficult to practice "passive" meditation techniques like vipassana, visualization, meditation etc. In such a scenario, drumming can be used as a form of meditation. Recent biofeedback studies show that drumming, along with our own heartbeats for brief periods, can alter brain wave patterns and "meditate us", dramatically reducing stress.

A recent study by Barry Quinn, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist specializing in neurobiofeedback therapy (NBT) for stress management, indicates that drumming works on even the highest-stress clients. Dr. Quinn operates a neurobiofeedback clinic called the MindSpa Place in Colorado Springs, CO, and for nearly nine years has been working with how a variety of techniques affect the brain waves.

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One of Dr. Quinn’s patients, a Viet Nam veteran who has long suffered from high stress, hyper vigilance and chronic sleep problems, regularly produced almost no Alpha in his brain wave patterns. (Alpha is a mental relaxation state missing in nearly 40% of the population.) During a single, 30-minute session of slow, gentle drumming using a one-sided hand drum and a beater, this patient nearly doubled his Alpha brain waves. No other technique used (including a sound and light machine) in a series of 15 stress reduction sessions had been able to produce any Alpha in this client. Until drumming, in fact, no technique used in the nine years of Dr. Quinn’s research had been able to bring a significant return of this relaxation brain wave in any client.

In my experience of drumming, I have come across many individuals dealing with depression and other states of negative emotions. After a session of drumming, most of them feel more free and at ease. During one of my sessions at a de-addiction centre, I came across one client who was depressed and refused to participate in any group-work, counselling or other therapies. He walked in to the music therapy session, and I handed him an African drum called "Djembe". He took it and played like a thorough professional drummer for one hour. After the session, his physiology had changed. He had a broad grin on his face. He was playful, communicative and transformed. When I asked him if he was a professional drummer, he replied,

"No sir, I do not even know the name of this drum and I have never played any musical instrument in my life." Since then, he is a regular at our music therapy programs. His battle with depression has been replaced with his love for drumming.

For experiencing the power of drumming, you can buy one frame drum (Dafli) and one drumstick with a soft head (mallet). Hold the drum in your left hand and hit the beater on the drum with your right hand. The beats should be soft, constant and at the rate of the heart beat (72 beats per minute). Doing this for 15 minutes is sufficient to become relaxed, centred and light. Drumming works well as a group methodology with almost all populations.

Drumming bypasses the mind and touches the soul. Once you are connected to the soul, everything is possible.

The author is President of World Centre for Creative Learning Foundation, Pune, India, an organisation certified to facilitate Drum Circles as a form of therapy. Zubin may be contacted at- earthpeople@vsnl.net

© World Centre For Creative Learning Foundation, March 2002. All rights reserved.

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Gloominess, heaviness in the atmosphere. There are trees – old and young, small and big – on this huge campus, but somehow it seemed colourless, grey, the heart burdened with strange sadness-

Those were the feelings generated, when I recently visited Yerawada Mental Hospital along with my colleagues at the Center for Advocacy in Mental Health.

My recent "field visit" to the Hospital brought back memories. I tried to recollect the image of "mental hospital" that existed in our minds. I remembered how till six months ago, before I joined CAMH, I tended to take it so lightly. When someone behaved "crazily" or not in accordance with what we thought was right we’d say "You must be out of your mind, we’ll leave you at Yerawada". It was said in jest and no one took it seriously. But, when one consciously "thinks" about it in the context of mental illness, the same sentence makes a world of difference. It highlights the social stigma attached to the word "mental". To our minds, the words "out of your mind" meant "mental", which had a fixed identity to it as the word "MAD", and the word "leave" meant to "dump", "not to take back". The distinction that we are the society of normal people and you are not a part of us, you are an alien, is so pronounced.

After entering the patients wards, I felt more and more as if this stigma has a kind of smell of it’s own. It was there, all over in the atmosphere. Male wards were at least, I would say, bearable.

But the major jolt was to come later, in the form of the female ward. The first shock was, women were in such large numbers, like a flock of sheep. The crammed rooms, worn out, untidy clothes, and extremely unhygienic conditions in the chronic ward presented a heart rending scene. The patients looked very pathetic and forlorn. What I could not take were the eyes, the sadness, pain, a looming lost look with no sign of hope.

Meanwhile we were paraded through new wards where construction was in progress- recreational hall, occupational therapy centre, kitchen, ECT room and so on. We were asked to scrutinise the outer environment, infrastructural facilities and the Superintendent literally challenged us to point out any lacunae. Yes, the facilities, what we saw of it, were okay, compared to what we know of the typical condition of the State run hospitals in our country. It was not as miserable as what we read in the state government and Mahajan Committee reports. One would give the management their due credit for their efforts on this front. At the same time, we cannot ignore the fact that, the Superintendent had no reason to feel so great about providing hygienic conditions and basic infrastructural facilities, as these are basic human rights and hence mandatory.

As claimed by the superintendent, the government tries to provide the best of infrastructural facilities (food, shelter) and "treatment" (mainly medicine, ECT and occupational therapy, like knitting, stitching in case of women) to patients. But ironically these "up to the mark" facilities don’t reflect in the patients’ faces and physical condition. The element of human touch is grossly lacking and this could be the obvious reason. Adequate human resources, specifically in terms of working closely with patients, such as social workers and clinical psychologists are scarce. The dire need for alternative treatment / therapies could be sensed at each step.

The interaction with female patients made me sadder. Almost all of them were abandoned / dumped by families or the police and court got them admitted after they hit the rock bottom. Most of them were forced to face violent situations in their lives and had painful and atrocious accounts to tell. In many cases one could see (although without an in-depth study, one cannot claim and prove) that the mental distress, ill health had it’s roots not in a person’s biology or psychology, but in society, in our social environment.

The female patients were literally grabbing us, as they all wanted to speak out, share – express their feelings, lives and touch. The other common strong urge was to be back with their families or return back to society. That’s the only dream they cherished. The social worker and the Superintendent told us, that in majority

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of cases families were not ready to take them back. Hence, the process of recovery comes to a halt or patient is not able to sustain herself without support and the situation arises where they have had to readmit the patient.

Here they are disconnected from the rest of the society, in the midst of women who share the same urge of getting out of this rut. I was trying to imagine what kind of life they are forced to live. Day in and day out you are in this dark hole, with not even a minor change in the situation. In this hopeless situation, I suppose they have many states, where they are and can be fine like you and me. But it’s really difficult for anyone, even a so-called "sane" person to survive and sustain the "normal / orderly" state of mind for a long time. The harsh reality is that you are an outcaste, not connected with the society, of which you so much want to be part of. The scenario literally left me numb.

By the time visit came to an end, it was becoming difficult to take it anymore, the picture was so gloomy, sad and disturbing. It brought with it an indescribable feeling of inadequacy for not being able to help in small ways at that point when you see so much need for connecting. This visit to the female ward drained me and I wanted to get away from the place as early as possible. The impact in 2 and ½ hrs was so heavy.

How do the patients spend day after day? And when one stays here for year after year, how could anyone get better and not loose the sense of reality? How will anyone walk the journey back to his / her home? These questions kept haunting me, tearing at my senses.

It also brought the realisation that the onus is as much as on us - the society, as on the government system. We must try to re-integrate them, not marginalize them as outcastes and go on with our lives as if nothing has happened! In an institute such as the mental hospital, people come at the very last stage. As a society there are many initiatives of support and care that we could take for preventing someone to reach that last point.

Otherwise it seems as if it is the fag end. But, no, with the support of society and care, we can turn back and surely find new roads…

Lalita Joshi, a sociologist, works at the Center for Advocacy in Mental Health, a research center of Bapu Trust, and can be contacted at wamhc@vsnl.net

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We live in a bipolar universe: Sun and Moon, yin and yang, up and down, right and wrong, good and bad, masculine and feminine, left and right. Thus one of the objectives of living on this planet is to learn how to make choices. Our first rule is: Every individual has free will choice.

Every individual is responsible for his/her own choices. If you give away your choice to another individual or group entity, it is still your choice.

Energy moves in cycles. We send out energy through thoughts, feelings, and actions. Then we experience the effect when the energy returns. Giving away your free will choice to another who has decided to "play God" does not exempt you from the personal return of your energy.

Each returning cycle of energy has a lesson for us. All experience, physical, mental and emotional, has a meaning. Illness has a meaning. We cannot eradicate the symptoms, which are wake-up calls demanding a change of life style, attitude and belief, and expect to escape our lessons. They will keep coming back until we confront them and handle them.

There is a very severe crisis in the field of medicine, and mental health because these Principles- Every individual has free will choice; Whatever you put out comes back to you; Illness has a meaning- are ignored. Two basic criteria should be used for adjudicating any idea, concept or practical application in the field of physical, mental, and emotional health:

A. Does It Work?

1. Does it produce the desired result?

2. Is the result predictable?

3. Does the client understand her/himself better for using it ?

4. Does it increase the client’s sense of well-being?

5. Does it increase the client’s sense of responsibility for their own life?

6. Are the effects only temporary, leading to
   addiction?

7. Does the "cure" produce unwanted side effects?

B. Does It Do Any Harm?

1. Does it hurt the patient/client in any way physically, mentally or emotionally?

2. Does it diminish the sense of responsibility for the body, emotions, mind or life?

3. Does it diminish their quality of life?

4. Does it remove something of their life essence?

5. Does it remove their sense of humanity,
   compassion, and feeling for other parts of life?

6. Is the ‘cure’ worse than the original disorder?

7. Are we trying to cover a problem and eliminate a symptom rather than finding the cause?

Presently two major modalities: drugs/surgery and psychotherapy/counseling are used to treat the mentally distressed.

The use of drugs/surgery is founded on the mechanistic theory that human beings are physical bodies that are composed of chemicals and that memory is stored in the brain. If the memories are bad, just cut them out, i.e., eradicate unwanted behavior with as much force as deemed necessary.

Psychotherapy is founded upon centuries old superstitions and fears of the unknown/unfamiliar. It uses the word "psyche" yet denies the existence of the spirit. Creative therapies produce positive results and no negative side effects, because they do not deny the individual’s sense of responsibility for self.

Both major therapy modalities aim to change, modify, or adjust the individual’s behavior, i.e., their response and reaction to their own thoughts, emotions, and life around them to fit into an ever increasingly threatening social order where people are viewed as mere cogs in a machine that profits a few at the expense of the many. Fitting in is "normal." Not fitting in is "abnormal". Even genius, which 70 years ago was considered something wonderful, has been classified as abnormal, following the dictum: Label it! Then you can treat it!

The escalating number of suicides, mass murders, wild killing sprees (Colorado), bombings, 9/11, and Mrs. Yates, should lead us to closely examine the psychological treatment backgrounds of the

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perpetrators of these incidents. The sheer preponderance of cases in which the perpetrator was on psychotrophic drugs should convince you to say, "No!" to the efficacy of using drugs/surgery to modify, adjust or eradicate certain symptomatic behaviors. All modalities that utilize outside force are doomed to repeat their failures, because they do harm to the client. The more outside force is exerted, the greater the harm. Doctors and all those involved in the practice of assisting others would do well to review the Hippocratic oath: "To do no harm."

Mrs. Yates, a Houston woman, drowned her five young children in the bathtub, while suffering from post partum depression or PPD. Let us examine PPD briefly.

The baby she carried for so long was no longer inside her giving her a sense of satisfaction, fullness and joy. Her baby was outside her body, no longer part of her. In a delusionary moment someone outside her, even her own baby, could be considered a stranger. A sense of emptiness existed where there was fullness before. That emptiness spells depression.

A newborn baby requires constant attention. The baby’s feeding patterns awakened her mother at odd hours of the night, which upset the circadian rhythms. That in itself is enough to create insomnia and hormonal/immune system imbalance. She not only had to care for the newborn baby, she also had to care for four other little children. She was vastly overworked, under rested and overwhelmed by the extra drain on her energies. She had felt the strain with her previous baby and was diagnosed with PPD, treated with drugs and released. A mother can easily become sorely distressed if her baby is not doing all right, and become desperate.

Drugs have long lasting effects that do not surface immediately, as they are stored in the interstitial spaces of the body and can come to the surface at any time. Drugs suppress symptoms for a while, but do not remove the cause, which still exists like a time bomb ticking. Many drugs nullify the individual’s sense of differentiation and responsibility, thus lifting the lid on Pandora’s box where the negative personalities are stored under lock and key. With prolonged stress the normal human responses cave in under the onslaught of the negative personalities, who take over, push aside the innate sense of humanity, and direct the person to commit mayhem.

Two women were talking, one woman to another. "My first baby took my hair. My second baby took

my teeth. My third baby took my hearing. And the fourth baby took my figure." Babies in the womb take whatever they need to build their bodies. Few mothers get adequate minerals, unless they eat organically grown food, or take supplements, because the soils all over the world have been depleted of minerals for many years. A mother’s physical, mental and emotional health can deteriorate quite drastically after birthing several children, especially if they come very close to one another, as in Mrs. Yates’ case.

Hippocrates stated, "Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food." People do not have drug deficiencies. People have mineral deficiencies, vitamin deficiencies, i.e., nutrient deficiencies. There is no nutrition in drugs. The synthetic chemicals used to manufacture drugs come from petrochemical products, which have a different DNA structure than human beings. Thus, they are a poison to the human body. The body has numerous self-correcting systems, which if given a chance will keep the body whole, and healthy. If these systems are interfered with, or suppressed with drugs or surgery, the body’s ability to heal itself is vastly diminished.

I learned recently that a former student died from an overdose. She had been under psychiatric care on a steady diet of psychotrophic drugs for too many years. While doing yoga regularly, her depression diminished, but she fell off and went back to drugs. This reminded me of another young, very talented girl who also overdosed on medications after being hooked for over 6 years.

A friend of mine, who refers to himself as a "recovering psychiatrist", told me that the only reason anyone ever got better was because he listened to them. He left his practice because of the excessive pressure to use more drugs. He did not want to become a "drug pusher!"

The medical paradigm of treating mental distress has failed because it is based, not on the good of the patients, but on the greed of the pharmaceutical companies who also control the curriculum of the medical schools and manipulate the laws of the land to secure their monopoly. The modality of handling the individual through psychotherapy is far less damaging, but the aim is the same, to modify and adjust behavior to a chaotic world which becomes ever more threatening.

For a suitable solution we need to look to the ancient science of yoga, which does not fractionate the individual. We are composite beings. We have not only a physical body, or sheath, but also an energy body/sheath. This body/sheath surrounds

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the physical body and interpenetrates and influences the physical body. Outside the energy body is the mental and emotional body. This is the body/sheath where the problems begin through excessive likes and dislikes, fixed ideas and attitudes, and belief systems. Outside the mental and emotional body is the wisdom or intellectual body. Outside all the other bodies/sheaths and interpenetrating them is the bliss body. This is where all the healing comes from. All healing is spiritual in nature, which is why ignoring the spiritual nature of humans has led to such disastrous results.

Yoga works because it addresses the spiritual being and empowers the being to take responsibility for their own body/mind. Yoga balances and strengthens the glands and immune system. When the glands are balanced, the individual feels good and functions without excessive stress. There is no outside force or substance that can balance the endocrine glands because they are spiritually based. A mechanistic science can never approach the delicate balance that the body, which is part of the identity of a spiritual being, can produce.

Therefore, I tell all my students: "Whatever you do for yourself is always going to be far more effective and long lasting than anything someone else does for you, or to you."

Roberto is author of ‘Your Amazing Mind’,‘How to speak with power’, and ‘How To Handle Life’s Challenges’. He has been practicing raja, karma, bhakti and jnana yoga for over 40 years. Roberto may be contacted at rmazzarella@sbcglobal.net

Copyright © 2001-2002 by Roberto Mazzarella.
All rights reserved.

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Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a special treatment sometimes applied to severely depressed or psychotic patients. Psychiatrists defend the treatment staunchly. The general public and the mass media view it with misgivings - after all, isn’t electricity passed through the brain? Doesn’t the patient’s body convulse as a result of the shock? Therefore, shouldn’t ECT be consigned to a metaphorical rubbish heap along with blood letting, application of leeches and other barbaric medical practices of yesteryear? This article hence seeks to reappraise ECT and to present its modern practice.

A patient advised ECT undergoes a full physical examination and tests such as ECG and X-Rays. Fitness to receive ECT is thus confirmed. ECT is usually administered in the morning after an overnight fast. The patient lies down in the ECT room and an anaesthetic drug (e.g. thiopentone sodium) is injected. This induces sleep and curtails the anxiety that the procedure may otherwise occasion. Next, a muscle relaxant (e.g. succinylcholine) is injected, paralyzing the voluntary muscles of the body. Sometimes, other drugs are also given to increase the safety of the procedure.

During ECT, using a special device, a small current is passed through electrodes on the head. The current lasts for a very short duration, usually about 0.5-2.0 secs. The magnitude of the current is small, usually about 0.5-0.8 amps, and the total electrical charge that the patient receives is around 0.1-0.3 coulombs. Much of this electrical charge does not actually reach the brain but instead traverses scalp tissues. Only a very tiny electrical stimulus is applied. This should reassure those who believe that enormous bolts of electricity strike the brain during ECT!

The current applied activates the brain, producing a brief barrage of brain electrical activity that can be detected using electroencephalography (EEG). The activated brain - and not the electrical stimulus - induces the characteristic muscular contractions. This convulsion is mild and merely lasts a few seconds because of the effect of the muscle relaxant.

The muscle relaxant that minimizes the muscular contractions also paralyzes the respiratory muscles. The patient is artificially ventilated with pure oxygen for the few minutes that it takes for spontaneous breathing to resume. The entire process is painless and the patient usually feels comfortable on awaking 15-45 mins later, when the anaesthesia wears off.

Patients usually require about 4-10 ECTs administered twice or thrice a week. More frequent ECT can be harmful while less frequent ECT may be less effective.
The single most important indication for ECT today is a biological form of depression known as endogenous depression. ECT is also useful in schizophrenia and mania, two other psychotic states. ECT is not used in neurotic, psychosexual, psychosomatic, organic and other psychiatric disorders. Recent research however suggests that ECT may be effective in a few other conditions, including Parkinson’s disease.
Why has ECT survived the advent of drug therapy in psychiatry? Well, ECT produces recovery faster than drugs; it is more effective than drugs at times, and is often effective in drug-resistant cases. Hence, ECT reduces suffering, hospital stay, hospital costs etc; it can also be life saving as in stuporous, suicidal or violent patients.
The beneficial effects of ECT wear off over time; so, after the ECT course the patient is usually prescribed appropriate antidepressant or antipsychotic drugs to maintain the ECT-induced improvement across the succeeding months or years.
How does ECT act? Here,With a tentative view is very expressed. Nerve cells in the brain communicate with each other through chemicals called neurotransmitters. ECT and the drugs used in psychiatry modify the actions of these neurotransmitters and thereby, it is suggested, benefit the patient.
Despite the rather alarming nature of ECT, the treatment is painless and quite safe. Mortality rates are about 1 in 25,000 - lower than those with drug therapy. This is not to say that ECT is totally harmless.

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