which may easily harass the Mind. An excessive consumption of Damp-producing foods leads to
the formation of Phlegm which, when combined with Fire, disturbs and obstructs the Mind. This
leads to agitation, manic behaviour and insomnia. In such cases the tongue would be Swollen,
with a Stomach-Heart crack with a sticky-yellow coating inside it.
Excessive Sexual Activity and Overwork
Excessive sexual activity and overwork (two causative factors which often occur together) both
deplete the Kidneys and the Essence. They can therefore lead to exhaustion and depression from
Kidney and Essence deficiency.
Drugs
Drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, heroine, LSD and others, deeply affect the Mind. Prolonged
use of such drugs, even the so-called "light" ones as cannabis, lead to mental confusion and lack
of memory and concentration. In combination with other causes of disease, they definitely
contribute to mental-emotional problems and clouding of the Mind.
It is usually the overlap of different causative factors, each originating from different times in
one's life, that leads to the development of mental-emotional problems.
It is useful to form an idea of the origin of mental-emotional problems in terms of time. To do
this, one can divide a person's life into three broad periods, each of which is characterized by its
own specific aetiological factors:
- the period in the womb: constitution
- childhood, up until about 18: childhood patterns
- adulthood: diet, sex, overwork, drugs, emotions.
Broadly speaking, inherited traits obviously affect our life in the womb, juvenile development
affects our childhood, and emotional problems, diet, sex and overwork affect our adulthood.
Many of the emotional patterns adults fall into are often set during childhood. This may be due
to very many different factors such as relations with parents, lack of demonstrative affection
from parents, relations with siblings, fighting between parents, emotional strain put on a child by
a parent who pours out all his or her troubles to the child, a too strict and rigid upbringing, too
many academic demands at school, a parental preference for one child over his or her siblings,
pressure on a child to fulfil a parent's failed dreams, a child assuming almost the role of husband
or wife after the death of the father or mother respectively, etc.
Thus the three stages of life and their causative factors of mental-emotional problems can be