Daniel Davis, LMFT

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What You Don’t Know About Weed May Hurt You

September 4, 2019 By Daniel Davis, LMFT 19 Comments

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’re likely aware that there’s been a substantial shift in the cultural attitude towards using marijuana for both medical and recreational use over the past decade.

In fact, there seems to be more public support for reforming marijuana law than at any point in our nation’s history.

Today, recreational marijuana is legal in 11 states and the District of Columbia, medical marijuana is legal in 33 states plus the District of Columbia, and polls have shown that more than half the country is now in favor of legalizing marijuana across the board.

But, just because something is publicly acceptable or popular doesn’t mean it’s safe or the wise thing to do…

The uncertainties and dangers of using weed are especially important to understand for those who are using, or considering using, marijuana for medical purposes. While the very name “medical marijuana” seems to imply that marijuana can be used for medical purposes just like any other medicine prescribed by a physician, the ways in which medical marijuana has been approved, prescribed, and made available to the public differ vastly from other commercially available prescription drugs.

Unfortunately, these differences and the use of medical marijuana itself pose problems that seem to be largely unrecognized by many physicians and the public.

I encourage you to watch the following video on what’s in weed and why it’s much more dangerous than people realize by Dr. Jerry Callaway, an ASAM-certified addiction medicine specialist in Santa Clara County, California, who’s been working in addiction medicine for the last 35 years.

Inside the video, Dr. Jerry Callaway discusses:

[0:56] Why medical marijuana can’t be classified as a medicine
[2:02] The short-term and long-term consequences of weed (including a study done in New Zealand on marijuana’s effects on IQ and brain functioning)
[3:03] How you can help someone get off of marijuana
[3:32] Why marijuana stays in systems of users for so long
[3:58] The effects of marijuana on the liver and why they are so critical to long-term health
[5:06] The emerging public health effects in Colorado of legalizing marijuana that are now being seen in California

And much, much more!

What do you think? Do you believe weed should be legalized for both medical and recreational use, or just one or the other? Why or why not? Be sure to share your thoughts on this important and timely issue below. I look forward to hearing from you and I know we can all help each other!

Filed Under: Blog, Recovery, Self-Care, Videos

The Genetics of Addiction

June 28, 2019 By Daniel Davis, LMFT Leave a Comment

When I was born, my family lived about a 5 minute walk from the current Apple Computers headquarters in Cupertino, California, USA.  Much has changed here in Silicon Valley.  Very few cherry or apricot orchards remain, and now it is a center of the information economy for the planet.

Amidst the many Google, Amazon, Facebook buildings in Santa Clara Valley are many wine bars, breweries, and marijuana dispensaries.  Like any other city, town or village about 15 percent of the population has the gene for addiction.  Some cultures have an unusually high rate of addiction, but addiction is a problem in every corner of the world.

My grandfather, Early Byrd Davis, was Cherokee; Native Americans have a 75 percent rate of alcoholism.  He was a raging alcoholic.  How do I know if I carry the gene for addiction?

Please watch this video on genetics and addiction by Dr. Jerry Callaway:

Filed Under: Blog, Recovery

Does someone’s drinking or drug use scare you?

June 22, 2019 By Daniel Davis, LMFT Leave a Comment

Do you know how to tell when someone you love has an addiction? It is like being lost. Have you ever traveled to an exotic place, like Honduras, Cameroon, or Taiwan? When I am in a place with signs in a language that I cannot read, I feel unsure and disoriented. It is even more confusing when I cannot find someone who speaks English to help me. Addiction is like being lost in a foreign country.

Denial is the hallmark of addiction. One may rationalize a ticket for drunk driving or blackouts. Even an overdose and waking up in the Emergency Room can be dismissed. “It’s no big deal. I am fine! I will never drink vodka again”

Signs are misunderstood or ignored. Paying attention to the symptoms and signs of addiction can be lifesaving.

Please watch this video by Dr. Jerry Callaway on the signs and symptoms of alcoholism and other drug addiction:

Filed Under: Blog, Recovery

What is Alcoholism?

June 13, 2019 By Daniel Davis, LMFT Leave a Comment

I hear people talk about alcohol in glamorous ways. The fine wines in the tasting rooms of Napa Valley, pints at microbreweries, and Champagne in upscale restaurants are consumed to celebrate achievements in life. When does drinking become a problem?

One way to define addiction is when one continues to drink even though alcohol is creating problems. Ten percent of American drinkers consume more than 70 drinks a week on average. Do you drink more than ten drinks a day routinely?

What about those people addicted to alcohol who do not drink so heavily? A maintenance drinker is an alcoholic who consumes in a very controlled way. A binge drinker is someone who periodically drinks too much, sometimes with embarrassing behavior as a result. A dry drunk is a physiological alcoholic who no longer touches alcohol; yet the thought disorder which underlies addiction remains unchecked.

Please watch this video by Dr. Jerry Callaway on alcoholism and other drug addiction:

Filed Under: Blog, Recovery

What Time Is It?

May 24, 2016 By Daniel Davis, LMFT Leave a Comment

How do you relate to time? Are you a punctual person?

Our relationship with time is important. Some of us are more oriented to the clock. When someone prefers to use our Judging process in the outer world, then one often has a different relationship to time. One is more aware of Chronos – a sense of time from ancient Greece related to chronological or sequential time. As human beings we have evolved from the sundial to the grandfather clock to the pocket watch to the digital wristwatch to the Apple Watch. Perhaps, we just look at our iPhone for the time. People who prefer their Judging Function prefer to be timely and organized. They tend to like planning and being methodical.

People who prefer to use their Perceiving Function are more spontaneous and flexible. They seek to experience and understand life as opposed to wanting to control it. They are adaptive and change course. People who prefer their Perceiving Function are more aware of Kairos – another sense of time from ancient Greece that is related to “a time in between.” While Chronos is quantitative, Kairos is qualitative.

The term Kairos reflects an earlier sense of time before sundials or clocks. Originally, our sense of time as human beings came from the cycles of nature – summer, fall, winter, and spring. The length of a day changes throughout the year depending on the season. The weather often varies from season to season. Time is variable. Farmers plant in spring and reap in the summer. The length of the light during the day waxes and wanes. Our bodies change with the cycles of nature – a woman has a period.

Yet the clock has become an unquestioned assumption for many modern people. We have a mechanical counting which reflects a 24 hour day. Our digital time is different from the rhythms of nature. A day in late December is very different from a day in the middle of June in Kansas City, USA, or Jakarta,Indonesia or Johannesburg, South Africa as well as for most of the world. Before we developed clocks our sense of time was different – more natural.

We had a different consciousness: sometimes referred to as mythical consciousness. These ancient people were keenly aware of nature and its rhythms. They perceived time as more of a circle of death and rebirth. “The ancients are said to have perceived events as iterations of a cosmic eternal return and regeneration within a specific place, whereas we believe that events occur on an irreversible, linear timeline that is independent of place,” writes Glen Aparicio Parry.

Most of us just assume that this ancient perception of time is fairytale, but that linear time is real. We do not even consider the possibility that this ancient view of time has validity. “The idea that time and space exist as independent dimensions is a relatively recent development. For most of mankind’s existence, knowledge of time and space was dependent upon place, for it was closely tied to the observation of the natural cycles of celestial and earthly phenomena surrounding one’s homeland. Knowing when and how to hunt, gather, and eventually to plant food all depended upon a close monitoring of the recurring rhythms of a place. What we know as time and space were merged into place,” writes Glen Aparicio Parry.

Our present day view of historical time assumes that time is simply a mathematical abstraction. This belief came from Isaac Newton who asserted that there was an “absolute” time. He asserted that time was then divorced from space.

Much of our modern thought originates from ancient Greece. One needs to carefully tune in to recognize an opening of Kairos. This is the source of the expression, “Seize the Day!” Kairos is also associated with an ever moving wheel of fortune. “Kairos time lives somewhere between intervals of Kronos time,” writes Glen Aparicio Parry.

“An Indigenous sense of time, it seems to me, includes both Kronos and Kairos and then maybe something more. It is understood that all is in flux, that everything is always changing and that even natural rhythms must be closely monitored because they are not guaranteed to remain the same. Monitoring these natural rhythms and cycles helps to develop an intuitive awareness, an awareness that recognizes the opportune time to act within a given cycle. This awareness seamlessly takes into account as host of variables, which are not logical or able to be broken down or counted because they are far too numerous – but they are understood nonetheless at an intuitive level,” concludes Glen Aparicio Parry.

Please watch this video on the Whole Brain State by Dr. John Omaha:

Blog 57

Filed Under: Balancing Your Brain, Blog, Consciousness, Nature, Recovery, Spirituality, Synchronicity, Whole Brain Balancing, Whole Brain State Tagged With: abstraction, Apple Watch, bodies, change, Chronos, consciousness, cosmic, cycles of nature, digital wristwatch, eternal, fall, flexible, grandfather clock, Indigenous, Indonesia, irreversible, Isaac Newton, Jakarta, Johannesburg, John Omaha, Judging, Kairos, Kansas City, length of a day, length of the light, linear timeline, mathematical, methodical, mythical, outer, Perceiving Function, period, planning, pocket watch, process, qualitative, quantitative, regeneration, return, South Africa, spontaneous, spring, summer, sundial, Time, USA, weather, Whole Brain State, winter, world clock

What Does HALT Stand For?

February 9, 2016 By Daniel Davis, LMFT Leave a Comment

12 step programs offer our modern world an enormous gift. Through-out the world, we can find Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Al-anon meetings, Over-eaters Anonymous meetings, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous meetings, Debtors Anonymous meetings, and many other meetings. For many reasons, when Bill W and Dr. Bob founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935 in Akron, Ohio, something profound began. It was revolutionary in very positive ways. Meetings, books, sponsors, resources, and the 12 steps offer great resources to learn how to consciously live and even thrive with the thought disorder of addiction.

Part of the tradition of 12 step work, includes a great deal of folk wisdom in the form of slogans. This is found in the conference approved literature and can he heard at many meetings.

“One day at a time.”

“Cultivate an attitude of gratitude.”

“Your worth should never depend on another person’s opinion.”

The phrase HALT reminds us to: “Never get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired.”

When we take the time to do the simple things to take care of ourselves, we strengthen our individual will. We are more mindful and careful in our choices. When I get 8-10 hours of sleep, my physical brain is healthier. You can see this on a brain scan. When I eat a healthy diet of natural fresh food – including fruits, vegetables, and proteins – I further strengthen my brain. When I get aerobic exercise, I produce endorphins and eliminate adrenaline. My body is calmer and my brain is healthier with exercise. When I take the time to talk with friends who are accepting and empathic, I feel better. These are the practices that support sobriety as well as general mental health.

Psychotherapy can also be a terrific asset for those dedicated to working a 12 step program. It is very helpful to seek out a professional aware of the differences between general psychotherapy and chemical dependency counseling. A counselor, social worker, psychologist, or psychiatrist with training in chemical dependency treatment can help the client hold themselves accountable and navigate the world of recovery. Addressing the problems with emotional self-regulation can greatly help with the recovery process. Alcoholism and drug addiction is an attempt to control one’s thoughts and feelings with chemicals. Learning how to calm oneself down without doing anything self-destructive is critical for all of us, if we haven’t learned already.

People who are physically and/or sexually abused in childhood are more likely to abuse drugs. Those who abuse substances use alcohol, nicotine or other drugs to change their emotions that we began regulating poorly due to trauma or adversity in childhood. First, the drug abuser uses the substance to calm overwhelming emotions. Second, the substance enables the person to vicariously re-experience their unresolved emotions from childhood abuse or adversity. Usually, these emotions are associated with memories of traumatic events that are yet to be resolved.

The abuse of alcohol and other drugs interferes with maturation. When a teen drinks regularly from age fourteen to eighteen, he tends to act as if he is fourteen or fifteen many years later; this is called delayed adolescence. When someone smokes marijuana regularly from sixteen to twenty one, she is likely to act as if she is sixteen or seventeen later in life. Taking care of our basic needs of life for sleep, healthy food, social support, and exercise is part of being a mature adult. We take over care of these basic needs from our parents as we grow up, if we are healthy.

Addiction is also known as the sacred disease. Carl Jung wrote that “perhaps it was no accident that we traditionally referred to alcoholic drinks as spirits, and that alcoholics were people who had a greater thirst for spirit than others, and that perhaps alcoholism was a spiritual disorder, or better yet, a spiritual condition”.

People who become slaves to alcohol and other drugs long to go back to paradise, reach Heaven, reach home – more than most. Addicts desperately yearn to regain that lost warm, fuzzy sense of oneness. There are two ways of looking at this longing to go home. One is yearning to return to infancy, not only to go back to paradise but to crawl back into the womb.

M. Scott Peck writes: “The other way to look at it is as a potentially progressive kind of phenomenon; that in this yearning to go home, addicts are people who have a more powerful calling than most to the spirit, to God, but they simply have the directions of the journey mixed up. Many contemporary men and women are cut off from their own life source. . . (They) are undermined by the loss of connection to their own energy in their own body. . . . In infancy, ‘I desire” is indistinguishable from ‘I need.’ As adults, they look at other people who seem to love life and wonder why they themselves do not. They pretend, even as children, to be reaching out from their own desire. Their place of desire is false; their desiring is not coming from natural instincts; therefore, those instincts cannot be satisfied. Because their bodies are not expressing desires that come from natural desires, they fall into unnatural desires, driven desires that overwhelm them with stupor and manifest as addictions. They crave food that brings them no nurturance, drink that brings them no spirit, sex that brings them no union. Because their culture worships matter and minimizes soul, they concretize metaphor and minimize life. Their hunger is for food – Soul food; they are starving for sweetness – Mother Food that will reconnect them to who whey were born to be. Their thirst is for spirit; their longing is for union. They yearn for connection to their own ‘I desire'”.

We all suffer from addictions, in a sense. It is human to struggle with self-destructive patterns. Ultimately, alcoholism is a blessing because it is a disease that visibly breaks people. Those who are alcoholic are no more broken than normal drinkers. We all experience terror and shame. One may not be aware of their pain, but they certainly experience it. We are all broken people, but because of their struggle with drinking alcoholics cannot hide their brokenness. The rest of us normal drinkers can hide behind our masks of composure. Yet we do not have the gift of talking with each other about the things that are most important to us. The disease of alcoholism put one into an obvious crisis. Out of the crisis of alcoholism, the alcoholic has the unique privilege of experiencing the profoundly healing community of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Please watch this video by Elizabeth Schindler on HALT:

Blog 42:

Filed Under: Blog, Recovery, Self-Care, Uncategorized Tagged With: 12 step programs, abuse, addiction, Al-Anon, alcohol, Alcoholics Anonymous, angry, brokenness, Carl Jung, childhood adversity, conference approved literature, Debtors Anonymous, delayed adolescence, Elizabeth Schindler, emotions regulating poorly, exercise, God, HALT, healthful food, heaven, home, hungry, infancy, lonely, M Scott Peck, marijuana, maturation, meetings books, nicotine, Overeaters Anonymous, paradise, recovery, sacred disease, self-care, self-destructive patterns, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, slaves, sleep, slogans, social support, sponsors, substances, tired, Trauma, unresolved emotions, vicariously re-experience

Working Ego

December 29, 2015 By Daniel Davis, LMFT Leave a Comment

“The ego is the seat of consciousness and if consciousness creates the world, the ego is doing God’s creative work in its effort to realize itself through the way of individuation” Edward Edinger.

The quality of our life is largely dependent on the health of our ego. If our ego is healthy, we will be flexible, strong, compassionate, aware and constructive. Having a healthy ego takes effort; we need to choose to do the work to grow up and mature.

My ego has two basic powers. The first power of the ego is observation, and the second power is choice. These are the two main functions of our minds: to monitor and modify.

What is an ego? When I look out from my eyes and see the world, I am aware of myself and the world. In some ways, it feels no different from when I was 7 years of age. I have a continuity of my sense of identity as an individual. I call this part of myself “I” or “me,” and I am referring to my ego. My ego is the part of me that is aware or conscious.

There are factors which help strengthen the ego: balancing one’s brain, regulating one’s feelings, reclaiming one’s projections, and engaging in self-care. These skills helps one see the world more clearly and make life giving choices. When my brain is balanced, I am able to use both sides of my brain. My left brain is about logic, facts, and time. My right brain is involved with relationships, emotions, and spatial relationships. When the sides of my brain are balanced and connected, I have access to both brain hemispheres when observing the world and making choices.

When I am able to calm myself down, I am able to see more objectively. When I calm myself down, I am not overwhelmed with emotions. As I am able to remain more neutral, my choices are more reflective of the facts of the situation.

A projection is something that interferes with my ability to see clearly. My projections are when I see parts of myself in others. A teenager is having a projection, when he idealizes an athlete or rock star. He is seeing his potential strength and creativity in another person. When he is able to see these projections and reclaim them, he is empowered. He does this by doing the work to develop his skills in music and sports. As he gains mastery in himself, he has more objectivity and confidence. He feels empowered, because he sees himself as he is. He can see his internal power.

When I take care of my needs for sleep, healthful food, exercise, and time with emotionally supportive family and friends, I feel calmer and see more objectively.

When I have a working ego, I am willing to do the work of an adult. I take the steps to keep my ego strong and healthy as an adult. I get 8-10 hours of sleep, eat healthful foods, take time to exercise my body, and talk with empathic friends and family. I also play and have fun. A working ego also implies a willingness to make difficult choices that support the vitality of my life and the lives of others.

An unhealthy ego is an ego that is weak. When an ego is not strong, it attempts to be the only center of the person. When our ego is weak, our energy alternates between thinking we are greater than we are (inflation) and thinking we are less than we are (deflation). It is like a balloon being too full or flat. We are most effective when we see ourselves and the world as we are – no more, no less.

It is possible to wield great power as a president of a company, the leader of a country, or a religious leader, and to still remain quite unconscious. Sadly, this is more often true than not. It is possible to be a leader who manages things and people with great authority and precision and still not be awake. If one does not have the interest or take the time to think introspectively – to examine oneself – then it is impossible to be conscious.

Our ego is formed when we are young. As young baby, our ego begins by being uninformed. We are totally dependent on our parents for survival. We are unable to see ourselves as separate from our mother. Over time, we begin to see that we are separate from our mother and by crying or smiling our mother responds by feeding us, changing us, holding us, or smiling at us. As we gain strength, we become more aware of how we can influence our own life. Our powers of awareness and choice are born in this way.

As we mature in healthy ways, we are able to see that we are not the center of the world. We are aware of the impact of our choices on our family and friends. We are able to consider others and the world as a whole when we make decisions. Some of us consider our Soul and God in our decision making. Possessing a healthy developing ego, we are able to be flexible with others socially. We can choose to love.

Please watch this video by Judith Peterson on the value of a working ego:

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Filed Under: Blog, Recovery, Self-Care, Spirituality Tagged With: Athlete, aware, bonding with mother, choice, compassionate, consciousness, Daniel Siegel, Edward Edinger, flexible, healthy ego, infant development, Judith Peterson, mind, object relationship, observation, projections, reclaiming, regulating emotions, rock star, self-care, strong, teenager, two basic powers, two main functions, weak ego, Whole Brain State, will, working ego

HALT (Never Get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or TIred)

September 24, 2015 By Daniel Davis, LMFT Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Recovery, Self-Care

Self Care

September 21, 2015 By Daniel Davis, LMFT Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Recovery, Self-Care

Recovery (The Journey From Addiction to Wholeness)

September 21, 2015 By Daniel Davis, LMFT Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Recovery

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About Daniel Davis, LMFT

I create an environment where clients experience their unique significance, authentic empowerment, and profound acceptance and collaborate with clients to identify solutions to their current crises. For more information on how I can help you, contact me today by calling 408-249-0014 or emailing info@danieldavislmft.com. I look forward to speaking with you! Read More…

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