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CES Ultra vs. Drugs
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Drug Popularity
Central-nervous-system agents today constitute the fastest growing sector
of the pharmaceutical market, accounting for 31% of total sales in the
United States. In 2001, of the twenty-five drugs with the highest retail
sales, eight were psychotropic, those treating mental health conditions.
Antidepressants had the highest retail sales ($12.5 billion) of any drug
category and were responsible for the largest share of the increase in
overall drug spending from 2000 to 2001. Dependency
Adult use of anti-depressants almost tripled from 1988 to 2000. Women and
children experienced the most dramatic rise. In 1999-2000, 10 percent of
women 18 and older reported taking anti-depressants in the previous month
as compared with 4 percent in men. Use among children has seen a very
sharp increase, especially with Ritalin used to treat attention deficit
disorder. From 2000 to 2002, the government counted an average of 13.5
visits for every 100 boys ages 5 to 17, up from an average of 8.5 visits
from 1997 to 1999. The comparable figures for girls were 5.3 and 3.3. By
contrast, anti-depressants were prescribed at similar rates for boys and
girls, and in both cases the rates increased sharply from 1994 to 2002.
Dependence on prescribed tranquilizers has risen by 290% since 1962, a
period during which the per capita consumption of liquor rose by only 23%
and the estimated consumption of illegal opiates by about 50 percent, As
noted by Ivan Illich in Medical Nemesis, "Medical addiction ...has
outgrown all self-chosen or more festive forms of creating well-being."
Danger
Some people take the wrong medication; others get an old or contaminated
batch, and others a counterfeit; others take medications in dangerous
combinations. Some medications are addictive, others have devastating
emotional and physical side effects. Every year a million people—that is 3
to 5% of all hospital admissions—are admitted primarily because of a
negative reaction to medications. The situation has become especially
exacerbated by the medical profession's propensity to dole out medication
like candy for the slightest sign of depression, anxiety, or insomnia,
helping make drugs like Prozac as chic in the suburbs as crack is in the
inner city. This has led to that plague of legal drug addiction,
documented by Peter Breggin in his definitive study Toxic Psychiatry.
The CES alternative
CES is the anti-drug—the non-pharmacological alternative for the treatment
of anxiety, depression, and insomnia. It is a unique and viable
"bioelectric" approach which seems to enhance the homeostasis of the
biological central nervous system-the tendency for intrinsic balance
within a system.
Its ethic is that of self-regulation. Its goal, wellness—a state of proper
alignment-the balanced interplay of body and mind attained through
personal empowerment rather than dependency.
CES believes that increased reliance on external drugs interferes with
that self-regulatory process, reducing our ability to cope. That to
reclaim control of our life we have to learn how to alter that chemical
composition and reorient that circuitry, not through dependency but by
activating, strengthening, and effectively employing our own inner
resources.
Self-regulation, autonomy, and no negative side effects are reasons enough
to consider CES. Cost is yet another factor. Stress medication averages
$1-$3 a tablet. The estimated cost of a year's treatment using Buspar, a
popular anti-anxiety agent is $642; that of Paxil, a major
anti-depressant, more than $1,000. At $295, The CES Ultra is but a
fraction of those costs and may be used year after year.
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