[TPIN] TPIN Alcohol on Gigs and Stage Fright

[Michael Goode]

Dear Travis,

I agree with Dr. Alan that if the alcohol problem is serious that it is 
a good idea for a psychiatric evaluation and consultation for relief 
through prescription medication.  I also agree with the situation with 
your father-in-law, (and I am sorry to hear about it!), that even with 
medication, there are underlying emotional issues that are far larger 
than even what medication can provide.  The problem is that the 
neurotransmitters (the nervous system signal chemicals that control 
everything we do), will always try to correct back to the original 
state even with medication trying to alter them.  What that means is 
that if you don't solve the underlying hurt and emotional wound which 
causes somebody to drink or abuse drugs in the first place, the problem 
will keep coming back.   Medication does help for certain, but it will 
not always fix the problem as in your father-in-law's case.  Richard 
Brantigan, M.D. was speaking about the effect of medication at the ITG 
conference at Denver in 2004 in reference to stage fright and beta 
blockers .   Brantigan said that the neurotransmitters become resistant 
to medication (in this case Inderal, the beta blocker used to treat 
stage fright), and the patient needs more and more of the drug to have 
any effect and eventually the dosages required become so high that the 
use of the drug becomes dangerous and the only way to solve the problem 
is through some form of talk therapy.   That was his recommendation in 
this case and this is consistent with the experiences of my consults 
who are on medication that have been referred by psychiatrists to me 
for help.

This could be the reason that one of the medications for Travis's 
father-in-law is on is not a "cure-all" because the neurotransmiiting 
chemicals become resistant to the medication because the medication 
cannot correct the underlying emotional problem.   This is also 
consistent with the course on pharmacology I took with my advisor, 
Professor Philip Hoffmann the same course that he teaches at the 
University of Chicago Medical School to medical students.

My point is that the neurotransmitters will only fully self-correct 
when a person gets some form of talk therapy, which is what Dr. 
Brantigan's point about Inderal, and is consistent
with my theory of automatic transmissions of neurotransmitting 
chemicals that they reflect exactly what a person is feeling or 
thinking.   My advisor at the University of Chicago a world-class 
researcher in neurophysiology, felt that this was new and good science.

In my work, I help people get down to the real root of what emotionally 
caused the problem in the first place.   Stage fright is all about 
compensating in an ineffective way for fear.   I have helped many 
people solve this problem.  When someone abuses alcohol or other drugs, 
these are cries for help.  In a chronic state like alcoholism it may 
seem hopeless that there is no way to solve it, but the only way we can 
know for sure is by finding the true underlying emotional reason why a 
person became a substance abuser in the first place.

Best,

Michael Goode
Author and Performer
Stage Fright in Music Performance and Its Relationship to the 
Unconscious
Principal Trumpet and General Manager
Chicago Reading Orchestra
University of Chicago MLA
in psychoneuromusicology
Member, Performing Arts Medicine Association
www.trumpetworkspress.com