The vitamins and supplements regimen I’m about to share with you is the regimen that I found worked best for me. I was an Alcoholic, so the list I am about to share is geared towards that type of physiology. Do your own research. Get one of those big homeopathic books or do deep dives on the internet to educate yourself and create your own. These can help with the symptoms you might experience in early detox and the following months.

How do they help? Well, the drug abuse lifestyle strips your body of essential nutrients. When the body lacks these nutrients you experience a vast array of symptoms such as sleeplessness, anxiety, irritability, inflammation, high blood pressure, and so on. You can reduce these symptoms two ways. Get a prescription to mask the symptoms of nutrient deficiency, or simply replace the missing nutrients.

Unfortunately, nobody will teach you about this stuff, so I will just share what I have learned.

Pedialyte: helps with hydration. Yeah, Pedialyte is marketed for babies. Just up the dosage, but don’t chug the whole bottle at once. I would usually sip it over the course of a couple days. Water alone does not hydrate well if the body cells lack what helps them absorb the H2O.

It works by replenishing electrolytes, electrically charged mineral salts. Remember, minerals are conductive metals.  Remember, nervous system. You are essentially giving your nervous system what it needs to function properly, and since the nervous system is what we sense and feel with, doing this helps you feel better. It’s a homeostasis thing.

And yeh, it’s the same premise as sports drinks like Gatorade, but I found that those drinks upset my stomach and don’t come close to doing as good as a job as Pedialyte.

Fruits are awesome at rehydration as well, ready to absorb in plasma form, and packed full of healthy sugars, fiber, and Phyto-nutrients.

Next is old school Baking Soda: Mix a spoonful of this stuff in a small glass of water and it will dispel any acid reflux, upset stomach. It calms the acid because it’s a Base (alkaline) opposite of acidic. Keep this in mind when buying food as well. These Basic foods help keep the body’s pH levels balanced. And once again, it has to do with your circuitry.

Your body’s pH level (measurable by pissing or sucking on a litmus strip, purchasable in most pharmacies) is indirectly the measurement of how electrically conductive your body tissues are. When tissues are acidic, they are overly conductive, too much—which is one of the reasons for when you get the Shaky Jakes.

That been said, another way to use Baking Soda is in a bath. Run a bath and dump in a whole 1 lbs. box of baking soda and soak. The Baking Soda will absorb through your skin and balance out your pH. It takes about ten minutes. It helps a great deal, but the sensation doesn’t last long, especially if you assault your system again shortly after getting out of the tub by smoking a cigarette while slamming a soda-pop.

You can get Baking Soda anywhere there’s groceries and it costs about one dollar per box. Get five.

Epsom Salt: Another good ingredient to add to the bathtub is Epsom Salt. The big thing about Epsom Salt is that it’s essentially Magnesium. Most people are deficient in magnesium anyways, due to food farming practices and yada, yada, yada. But you, my friend, probably have next to none. Magnesium is important for healthy bones, muscles, and nerves! The mineral also helps to regulate blood pressure and metabolize insulin. Sounds like a winner!

You can find Epsom salt in almost any store with groceries or a pharmacy. A 5 lbs. bag costs only a few dollars. Add two cups to the bath and let it soak in transdermal (through your skin).

Charcoal: Activated Charcoal, to be specific, is so well known for sucking toxins out of the body that it’s used by hospitals for overdoses and poisoning. Seems like an unnatural type of treatment until you consider bonfires.

Bonfires?

Once upon a time, men and women used to hang out at bonfires almost every night to cook food and stay warm. The wood would burn and transform into coals. The coal soot would rise with the smoke and cling to the skin and inhaled. A natural detoxifier. It’s also great for when you catch a cold or get the Flu (which can be a trigger for many).

You might need to venture into a health food or Vitamins store to find this one. Still not awfully expensive. Remember, use as directed.

Fish oil: commonly used to help reduce triglycerides in the blood (bad cholesterol). But I don’t care much about that. And many “scientists” came to believe it helps with depression on the premise that cultures with a diet rich in fish have lower rates of the disorder. But I don’t care much about that either. What I do know is, when I use it, as directed on the label, I experience a reduction of intrusive and unwanted thought patterns. It works quickly, no need for it to build up in your system.

You can find this stuff in most grocery stores and pharmacies, but I recommend going to a vitamin store to get the good stuff. And never be afraid to ask whoever is working at these vitamin stores what the good stuff is. If you find that the clerk working at a franchised vitamin store is unknowledgeable, go to a local vitamin shop, they usually know what they’re talking about because they own the place.

Co Enzyme Q10 for repair: Without getting too technical, when someone is using alcohol for fuel (alcohol a.k.a. distilled ethanol, like the high-powered gasoline additive labelled on the pump), the body learns to run on it. The body adapts, as it always does. And how it adapts is by mutating each body cell’s powerhouse generators, called mitochondria, to run on ethanol as a source of energy. Co Enzyme Q 10 helps the mitochondria revert to normal function, which means it can better use real food for energy again.

L-Theanine: To sum up this guy, L-Theanine is basically an amino acid which helps calm your ass down. It works rather fast and well, especially when combined with vitamin D.

GABA: Gamma-aminobutyric acid is a neurotransmitter that blocks certain impulses fired between neurons in the brain. It calms!

Alcohol mimics the effects of GABA by binding to GABA receptors in the brain. I have absolutely no clue how swallowing this supplement eventually ends up as the neurotransmitter alcohol replaced. All I know is it helped me sleep a helluva lot better when absolutely nothing else worked. Take before bedtime.

My favorite all-in-one type supplement for sleepy time is called Sleepology by Genexa. It has GABA, some THC, and a good combination of other botanicals.

And don’t forget the all-around multi-vitamin for obvious purposes. These can also be tailored to age and gender.

Don’t cheap-out on these either. Not all vitamins and supplements are created equally. Start with a couple if that’s all you can afford. It’s worth every penny.

There are more, and you can do your own experimenting to find what works best for you. Like I keep saying, these are what worked best for me. I found that they work better than prescriptions and have zero side-effects.

The bottom line here is that vitamins and supplements will drastically reduce symptoms via reintroducing what is lacking in your body, while medications drastically reduce symptoms by tricking the body into thinking the deficiencies are not there.

I know it seems like a lot of work. A lot of hunting down supplies and spending money on them. But I would like to say that this exercise of preparation alone is part of the recovery. The act of getting what you need for a successful outcome improves your mindset and chances. Not to mention, it will help cut cravings and withdrawal time in half. (Click the link to know why.)

If you are still reading, it’s probably safe for me to throw in this last little tidbit. Treating someone who is trying to recover from addiction to mood-altering substances with prescribed mood-altering substances or symptom obscuring medications is a great business model. Not a good health model!