chrisjswanson Posted July 14, 2008 Hi everyone I'm trying to stop taking harder drugs, and I read that the California Poppy is used in TCM for safe anxiety relief. Can anyone tell me about this herb? Is it generally safe / effective or could it be dangerous to me if I don't see a TCM doctor first? I'm looking at other options too, I was just interested in this. peace + love Chris Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Junbao Posted July 14, 2008 Valerian and hops can be good. Actually, if you can go a natural food shop that has herbs, a chamomile, hops, and skullcap tea is something really nice to make for yourself. You could take that with Valerian too. Sometimes the ritual of making a good warm herbal tea, and drinking down a few cups, really can calm you down. Also, a couple Ayurvedic herbs that are good are Bacopa and Ashwaghanda. I prefer Bacopa myself. It's also supposed to work well with meditation, and balancing left and right brain. I get it at Vitamin Shop, $9.00 for 100. I took poppy without any troubles, but it was kind of expensive and other things worked better for me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chrisjswanson Posted July 14, 2008 Thanks Junbao, I really appreciate your suggestions. I will look into these more, perhaps something will match just right for me. There's an awesome place in Santa Cruz called the Herb Room that's got tons of good medicinal herbs / supplements that I can check out. Anyone know how any of these medicines effect the body's organs from a TCM perspective? I suspect I have imbalanced my body through past drug use and am trying to begin a path that will minimize further damage. Honestly I have had such bad experiences with Western doctors that I am having a major shift towards learning about TCM. It makes more sense to me already, and I barely know anything about it. peace + love Chris Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Junbao Posted July 14, 2008 (edited) I grew up in Santa Barbara where they have a TCM school and they did acupuncture treatments for about half of what you would pay at a normal acupuncturist. You could get some good herbs prescribed to you too. Here is a school in Santa Cruz for you. I think the have a campus in San Jose too, but I would rather be in Santa Cruz personally. Treatments with a senior student, supervised by the instructor are only $25. fivebranches.edu Chris, I think you are me 10 years ago... Seems exactly where I was at. Edited July 14, 2008 by Junbao Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chrisjswanson Posted July 14, 2008 Junbao It is great to hear someone say "you are me ten years ago" because it translates as "I have ten years of wisdom that is directly applicable to you" Therefore any advice you have will be very welcome. About those California Poppies: I made a good strong tea from them last night, since I am currently not taking harder drugs. Here are my thoughts as one who has taken many kinds of natural and synthetic drugs: The California Poppy is the natural equivalent of a benzodiazepine, the family of drug that Valium and Xanax belong to. This family of drug is the only thing that has "easily" treated my anxiety symptoms. Problem is they are maddeningly addictive. So after I drank that tea I quickly recognized the effect as being extremely similar (and yes, very helpful for me). In time I did some research, and while not that much study has been done on this plant, I did find numerous references to alkaloids that have an affinity for the BZ receptor, which is the same place benzodiazepines are active in the brain. So from what I can tell they essentially do the same thing as a good dose of valium would, although the poppy has like 300 less active compounds that probably do a lot more too. Funny thing is that everyone says benzodiazepines are addictive (I agree) and that california poppy is not (don't know yet). Any thoughts on this? peace + love Chris Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taoist81 Posted July 14, 2008 Depending on what you have taken, you may want to look into Kratom. It has been used with fairly good results to help people coming off opiod based drugs and it is gurrently still legal in 49 states (if you are in the US). As for the "effect on your organs from a TCM perspective", everyone is a bit different. To be able to diagnose you one would have to see you, go through the 10 questions and check your tongue and pulse and then some. Good luck. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
