Just Say No to Drugs?
The United States government spends over $180 million on anti-drug ads. Remember the phrase made popular in the eighties, “Just say no” to drugs? It referred to illegal drugs. The problem? How could teenagers and young people buy into the idea when they saw adults, including their parents and grandparents, taking so many over the counter and prescription drugs? I would amend the slogan to, “Just say no to drugs … unless they’re prescribed or on television.”
Too many people are putting their faith in taking pills and tablets to resolve their health problems. There’s a wonderful film called Christmas at Maxwells directed by Bill Laufer. This is one of those independent film gems. In the story, a successful businessman’s wife is extremely ill. The husband continually presses the doctor to prescribe a pill that can produce a miracle. He becomes angry and distraught when there isn’t.
Please don’t get me wrong. I think there certainly are life-saving pharmaceuticals that work wonders in helping people. However, in such a stressed-out, fast paced world, pills are viewed as the quick and only solution to many ills without being open minded to alternative health options. Fine, take your pills. And also try something like EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) at the same time.
Dr. John Abramson is an award-winning family doctor on the clinical faculty at Harvard Medical School. He’s the author of the book, Overdosed America. Dr. Abramson talks about how the corporate takeover of clinical research and medical practice is compromising Americans’ health. On a positive note, he says that there is solid scientific evidence indicating many of the things we can do to protect and preserve our own health are far more effective than what the drug companies’ top-selling products can do for us.
According to CBS News, based on a New England Journal of Medicine report, drug company television advertising to consumers skyrocketed seven-fold from 1996 to 2000. Do this test. Watch any of today’s national evening news on ABC, CBS or NBC. Count and write down the number of drug ads during the newscast. It’s called “pull through” advertising, designed so consumers create “demand” with their doctors. It works. Can you name the blue pill? The purple pill?
Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine is actively lobbying congress to improve drug safety. It looks like they have a sense of humor too. Check out this spoof of drug television advertising called, The Drugs I Need. It’s funny.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYodDH4qZQo
I’m amused by people that are quick to pop a pill. Yet when I bring up the idea of something so safe and gentle as EFT, they look at me like I’m talking about UFOs. The topic passes over their heads like a fast-moving cloud. They ignore or block out the idea. Even though healing using energy meridians is ancient, tapping on acupressure points is too “far out” of many people’s “beliefs” radar.
So how do EFT and other healing modalities hit the mainstream? By using a strategy that is similar to the way the drug companies do it–pull through advertising. The most powerful form of marketing is generating word-of-mouth. While the major pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars to advertise and market their drugs in print and on TV, EFT advocates can do something that costs next to nothing. Create word-of-mouth advertising based on their own experiences using EFT to inform their doctors, psychologists and colleagues. Ultimately, results speak the loudest. And that’s where an effective method like EFT shines.
Just say yes … to new possibilities.
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