Natural Energy: A Consumer's Guide to Legal, Mind-Altering and Mood-Brightening Herbs and Supple Ments

Mayell's "Natural Energy" is a normalizing, de-pathologizing discussion of human desire to experiment with its consciousness and a methodical, encyclopedic review of legal, socially-sanctioned mind-altering and mood-brightening herbs and supplements. As such, the book is a wonderful resource for any substance use/drugy and alcohol providers interested in designing "natural highs" clinical curricula for clients struggling to find psychologically healthy over-the-counter self-medicating options. Let's face it: there will be people who don't like to go to doctors. Whether we call them "resistent," or Stoic, they have and will self-medicate. For some users (or, shall we say, "chemical copers"), drinking and boozing is self-psychiatry. Mayell offers a no-nonsense guide to this kind of herbal/supplemental self-management. In my work with substance use population (in the correctional setting), I found this tome to be of great value (along with Weil's and Rosen's "Chocolate to Morphine") in designing a "natural highs" treatment curriculum for offering clients an exploration of non-addictive self-medication alternatives. Perhaps, more valuable than the specific herbal prescriptions, is Mayell's thesis: non-addictive responsible self-medication is a possibility. Pavel Somov, Ph.D. Author of "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time" (New Harbinger, Nov. 2008), "Recovery Equation: Motivational Enhancement/Choice Awareness/Use Prevention: an Innovative Clinical Curriculum for Substance Use Treatment" www.drsomov.com www.eatingthemoment.com