Psychiatry 101: A Surprising Discovery
I may be a perfect candidate for psychiatry.
I ask questions with period marks to shorten conversations. I avoid eye contact with strangers in fear (maybe it’s anxiety) that I might learn too much about them. I secretly think that Metallica would be making better music if they went back to bludgeoning themselves with party drugs and alcohol, instead of “therapy.” I’m trying to master the Law of Un-attraction to shield myself from a “real job,” small homes and junky cars. And, I’m constantly giving my children advice, only to give it to myself.
Psychiatry, can your drugs help me?
Perhaps these questions are what motivated me to pursue a career as a drug design chemist, winning multiple awards for my work. Nothing gets me more excited than drugs and how they affect the body (except my wife’s abs). I’ve studied their molecular anatomy, risked life and limb to mix and match explosive chemicals in a round bottom flask, and even sold my soul to Big Pharma in exchange for a lab bench and chemical hood.
During this time, I’ve made some surprising discoveries about psychiatric meds, which include antidepressants, antipsychotics, stimulants, and anti-anxiety drugs. Understanding what I’ve learned will protect you from the flood of side effects that are now being discovered at breakneck speeds, courtesy of the myriad of patients being prescribed psychiatric drugs in the name of mental health.
Your Own Personal Hell
Antidepressants strive to increase the levels of a “coping” molecule known as serotonin in the brain. It supposedly helps us find happiness when it’s covered in an avalanche of nastiness. But, it’s never been proven. Still, the drugs attempt to boost serotonin by “selectively” stopping the “reuptake” among brain cells. This is where the whole SSRI acronym came from—“selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.” It’s a slick name, but a stupid idea. Nothing is selective in the body.
While trying to block the reuptake of serotonin, antidepressants can also prevent its release and that of another brain compound known as dopamine. The areas of the brain responsible for release and reuptake of these neurotransmitters are so damn similar (after all, they work on the same molecule) that an antidepressant drug isn’t smart enough to understand which one it is supposed to work on. So it does what any dumb drug would do, it blocks both. That’s why users usually carry a glassy stare in their eye. Fully under the psychiatric spell, they’ve tuned out.
Deep sadness, fear, anger and aggression can set in over time. By removing serotonin and dopamine from the brain, long-term antidepressant users can’t find or feel happiness. Instead, they may become buried in the avalanche of nastiness. And if you can’t find or feel happiness in life, what’s the point? What’s going to stop you from snapping your own neck or spraying bullets on your classmates? Not much when you live in your own personal antidepressant hell.
Think this is all opinion?
According to the FDA, antidepressants can cause suicidal thoughts and behavior, worsening depression, anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, aggression, psychotic episodes and violence. Some even cause homicidal ideation according to the manufacturers. Many long-term antidepressant users will tell you they no longer feel normal emotions—they’re numb, like zombies.
But the side effects of these drugs aren’t limited to hijacking your feelings and emotional state, causing violent and psychotic states. Physical side effects occur too and include abnormal bleeding, birth defects, heart attack, seizures and sudden death. Over one hundred and seventy drug regulatory warnings and studies have been issued on antidepressants, to sound the alarm on these side effects.
For Elephant Use Only
Psychiatrists prescribe antipsychotic meds such as Zyprexa and Seroquel, for anything from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, delusional disorder, psychotic depression, autism or anything else they can think of, even “pervasive developmental disorder,” which is perfect for boosting sales because it targets children who suffer from irritability, aggression, and agitation. It’s a shame ‘cause these drugs are good for nothing but sedating irate elephants, not curing psychiatric disease.
According to a study published in Psychological Medicine, antipsychotic drugs cause brains to shrink – they lessen brain matter and volume. Originally designed for those deemed “schizophrenic,” the drug companies came up with a brilliant marketing campaign to sell these drugs to a much wider market—unsatisfied antidepressant users. You’ve probably seen the ads—if your “depression medication” isn’t working, then don’t blame the drug; you may just have bipolar disorder!
Once swallowed, antipsychotics sail through the blood stream where they’re carried to the brain. Like a giant oil spill, antipsychotics cover the brain in a medicinal slick, where brain wave transmission is blocked. Users become devoid of normal brain activity. Motivation, drive and feelings of reward are shunted. If psychiatry considers this a “treatment,” they’re the crazy ones.
If you’ve ever seen someone who has suffered from the “spill” courtesy of following doctors orders, you can’t mistake one of the most common side effects, it’s called Akathisia. Involuntary movements, tics, jerks in the face and the entire body can become permanent side effects for antipsychotic users.
Antipsychotics also cause obesity, diabetes, stroke, cardiac events, respiratory problems, delusional thinking and psychosis. Drug regulators from the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa warn that they can also lead to death. I wouldn’t be surprised if psychiatrists considered this a cure…
Use This to Jump The Grand Canyon
If you’re going to attempt to jump your scooter over the Grand Canyon, or ride your snowboard off Kilimanjaro, stimulants are great. They flood the brain with dopamine and trigger an inhuman surge of adrenaline, responsible for making you believe life is grand, despite eminent death. Outside of that, you’re either a speed freak, a college student trying to learn an entire semester of Biology 101 in 4 hours, or a fifth grader “following doctor’s orders.”
Top stimulants being prescribed today are nothing more than a mix of amphetamines packaged into trade names like Adderall, Dexedrine and Ritalin. Street thugs sell it as meth, poor man’s cocaine, crystal, ice, glass and speed. It’s no wonder kids are now abusing Ritalin, Adderall and these drugs more than street drugs, they’re cheaper to get and they’re “legal,” hence the term kiddie cocaine.
Even the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) categorizes Ritalin in the Schedule ll category, meaning a high potential for abuse—just like cocaine and morphine. All of them have the same effects regardless of how they’re named: Central nervous system overload leading to heart attack and/or heart failure. And kids are dropping faster than Meth Heads at Raves…
I’m not exaggerating.
Eleven international drug regulatory agencies and our own FDA has issued warnings that stimulants like Ritalin cause addiction, depression, insomnia, drug dependence, mania, psychosis, heart problems, stroke and sudden death.
Bash Your Head in with Anti-Anxiety Drugs
If you’re not man enough for a drug that could sedate an elephant like antipsychotics, then psychiatrists will prescribe anti-anxiety meds, particularly benzodiazepines. Choosing between the two is akin to deciding whether or not you should be hit in the head with an aluminum bat or a wooden one; anti-anxiety meds being the latter.
Discovered in the stinky chemistry labs of Hoffman La Roche in 1955, anti-anxiety meds aim to trigger sleep receptors in the brain, just slightly. So, rather than being riddled with anxiety, you are put to sleep, halfway. It’s “treatment,” and psychiatrists have been “practicing it for decades.” But, it has yet to work, because drugging your problems away is more dangerous than anxiety. The use of anti-anxiety meds is coupled with a host of nasty side effects such as seizures, aggression and violence once the drug wears off. Hallucinations, delusional thinking, confusion, abnormal behavior, hostility, agitation, irritability, depression and suicidal thinking are all possible outcomes according to Big Pharma’s heavily guarded research papers.
Getting off the drugs could be harder than abandoning a heroin addiction. Some have described withdrawal from “benzos” being akin to pulling hundreds of fish hooks out of their skin, without anesthesia. If you doubt their addictive nature, go to Google search and type in a few of the leading anti-anxiety drugs like Klonopin or Xanax and here is what you’ll find:
“Klonopin withdrawal” 1,860,000 results
“Xanax withdrawal” 1,980,000 results
Exposing Psychiatry: How to Get The Truth
In total, the side effects of psychiatric meds spread far and wide. And most are hidden from patients and doctors alike. Fortunately, Citizens Commission on Human Rights has solved this problem with a state-of-the-art database that allows people to search through the adverse reaction reports sent to the FDA on psychiatric drugs. It also provides international drug regulatory agency warnings and studies published on the side effects of the drugs.
So, can psychiatry help me? No. And that’s surprising because psychiatric meds are some of the biggest selling drugs, poised to seal the hopes and dreams of millions. Regardless of what mental state I might be in (or anyone else for that matter), there is not a single drug that cures, treats or solves the perceived problems of mental health.
While people can suffer miserably from emotional or mental duress that can hinder their lifestyle, the pseudo-science of psychiatry has yet to solve any of these problems, and in fact only contributes to poor health as seen by the wide array of side effects. Marketing campaigns and ghostwritten medical journals are designed to obscure these facts. But the psychiatric drug side effect database courtesy of CCHR ensures that all patients have access to the truth, to the documented facts, which could save their life or that of a loved one.




Brian 9:11 am on July 21, 2010
Wow! I’d have to say that this is the best summary of the psych-meds situation that I have seen.Very nice article.
shauna 9:13 am on July 21, 2010
Right on Shane. Thank you for helping to spread the word (CCHR is making progress against the madness of psychiatry). This is data the public need to know.
Shauna
Vancouver
scotty 9:17 am on July 21, 2010
My poor husband is in his third year of withdrawing from Atavan.He truly went through hell as the &*&^^ so called doctors just added many more drugs such as SSRI and the worst Serquel. Thank the heavens for truth and real help from http://www.benzo.org/uk. The good news is that we at age 71 and 79 are totally medication ie drug free and finding a wonderful life. Stay away from all traditional medicine.
Joe 9:19 am on July 21, 2010
So what is the solution?
RMR 9:26 am on July 21, 2010
@Joe: The solution lies in healthy eating and living. Stay away from the processed chemicals that the USDA calls “food” and focus on a whole foods diet. Within a couple of weeks you’ll find you’re feeling fantastic
)
Walt Goodpastor, MSW, MBA, ND 9:57 am on July 21, 2010
What a great article and so very true!
I worked for over twenty years in academic psychiatry settings at three different medical schools, and I observed all this psychoquack fraud first hand. Thank you for shining a flashlight on this den of cockroaches.
YeaBaby 10:10 am on July 21, 2010
Shane, keep up with the BJJ because the smack down is coming my friend. Keep your eyes open and remember you are in Condition Yellow.
Your book, Over the Counter Natural Cures, paid for itself in a month and the boost in our health has been amazing. My deepest thank you.
The People's Chemist 10:36 am on July 21, 2010
BJJ every other day. Alert. Thanks!
Georgia 10:24 am on July 21, 2010
I nearly lost my best friend to depression from separation from her husband.Her primary said she should take an anti depressant to make her not to feel so sad,she accepted.She got worse,I asked her if it helped,she said no.All she needed was someone to listen to her feelings,so I let her talk.Her husband would not listen,but I did, for two weeks and today she has become a most vibrant,happy lady that she used to be.
Traci 10:29 am on July 21, 2010
Great article. Diet is key especially staying away from carbs. Dr. Julia Ross wrote a great book – “The Mood Cure”. The title is a bit deceiving but she speaks at length about the importance of diet and proper amino acid supplementation. It has worked for me and many others I have recommended it to. Thanks again!
judy 10:38 am on July 21, 2010
Shane we need you! People are so oblivious to the truth, they hear me talk about your articles and look at me like I am from another planet. Besides the pharmaceuticals destroying lives, there is a whole host of mind control tactics conditioning people to not believe the truth, even if it is handed to them freely. I am thankful for your work, and your mission to tell us the truth. Its the willful ignorance of some people ‘out there’ that I can’t handle. I just want to say thank you again Shane. You are greatly appreciated.
Lea-Ann 11:04 am on July 21, 2010
Best article to date Shane! I will be posting this EVERYWHERE as everyone else should.
Lori Rogue 11:34 am on July 21, 2010
I agree about Metallica!…and everything else too.
Scott Manesis 12:21 pm on July 21, 2010
This article reminds me of an interesting documentary that I had seen called “Psychiatry, Instrument of Death”.
The movie talks about the fact that Psychiatry as a whole is complete fraud. How can one claim to be a doctor when they have never cured a single person of anything at all?
It’s all about conformity, if you are different or you think differently than the rest of the programmed drones then there must be something wrong with you.
You have to remember these are the same types who thought people were possessed by demons if the went around telling people the world was round and not flat.
Psychiatry is the biggest farse. One look at any book on psychiatry and one can put themselves into many of the “labels” they have for your “psychiatric condition” it would just depend on your mood at the time.
Thanks for this article about the dangers of the drugs that these quacks prescribe.
Carl 12:22 pm on July 21, 2010
The warning signs were clear. It’s not too hard to see that without some some level of human intervention with Psychiatry, their harmful practices (whether they can see them or not) do need to be corralled and people need to be warned.
This is a great article as it speaks to educated people on the merits of a science of biology and pathology. The insights are like reading from original articles on affects of radiation and whether cancer was showing up in human births after bombing Hiroshima
alfredoe 2:02 pm on July 21, 2010
What an article!!! All is correct, he only missed the real reason for this to go on: MONEY.
Doctors and big pharma do BIG business with this state of things.
The best psychiatric drug you can find is EXERCISE. You release most powerful endorphines, you feel much better than under any other drug.
Kim 3:29 pm on July 21, 2010
Thanks for the info. I ordered and received a fantastic packet of info. that goes into great detail about this very issue. It was put out by Scientology but was very happy to see Sean on the DVD along with numerous other well-respected authorities on the subject. I’m thankful that at least some organization is trying to get the word out. And I thank Sean, too.
On a personal level, I have a nephew who has been diagnosed with OCD and has been put on several different psycho meds. I actually don’t think he has the condition. In reality it’s more of a behaviour problem that the parents and docs don’t want to face. The label and drugs are so much easier. But I’m afraid for him. He’s 15 now but has been on drugs for years already.
june 3:43 pm on July 21, 2010
I totally agree with everything you say. But once a person gets started for some it is impossible to quit. My husband has been on this garbage for at least ten years now. He has the mind set that nothing else can help even though the stuff he’s been taking does not “cure” anything.
April 5:22 pm on July 21, 2010
This is a great article. It’s so refreshing to hear someone stand up and speak the truth about Big Pharma and their true motivations behind their “cures”.
Deb 6:38 pm on July 21, 2010
My sister has been medicated for 20 years, beginning with anti-anxiety drugs, now on a lethal concoction of antipsychotics and “mood enhancing” meds.
None of this is working for her, and only keeps her appearing psychotic, as per the “effects” of the drugs.
I took her to a Naturopath and she went on many natural supplements which stopped her Tardive Dyskinesia (uncontrolled shaking) whilst coming off these powerfully harmful antipsychotics. When off all drugs and on natural supplements she was actually “normal” for the first time in 19 years. Unfortunately, due to an adverse reaction to an antibiotic given wrongly to address an adverse reaction to an anti-skaking drug, she ended up in hospital, in the emergency room. Once this happened and they saw that her “background” history was schizophrenia, they admitted her immediately to the psychiatric part of the hospital.
The psychiatrists (in her home town in Victoria, Australia,) obviously want to keep her medicated so that she remains a “money-making” patient so that they can justify their jobs, and managed to make her an Involuntary patient, and have once again doped her up on even more antipsychotics plus more.
Whilst she is forced to be on all these disgusting drugs, her life is a complete misery, and all the medical profession want to do is drug and sedate. It is a pity that they can’t be the ones to live and look after her and see the hell she is in.
She is not the same sister I once knew, and I feel that euthanasia would be kinder than the HELL she is having to endure from her forced drugging, but then due to the mental confusion and depressive effects of the drugs she will probably try and end her own life.
As you said, the psychiatrists would probably consider this a cure……..
aj 10:39 pm on August 5, 2011
My sister was progressively drugged up when her teenage rebellion got too much for a strict catholic school. She was diagnosed with all sorts of things, most of which were caused by the drugs she was given. It took me years to unravel the cause of her death but it made me conclude psychiatrists are the most evil people alive.
Marijo 10:35 pm on July 21, 2010
Thank you sooo much for having the courage to speak up about this! You have an advocate! Ann Blake Tracy, PhD’s book, “Prozac Panacea or Pandora?” & her CD “Help, I Can’t Get Off My Antidepressant” available at drugawareness.org ! The resources on that web site are beyond helpful, they are life saving ! There is a light at the end of the dark tunnel–a bright light! I cannot impart all to you here. We learned that it takes 1/2 to 1/3 of the amount of time on the drugs to get off of them, successfully, & it’s important to go off the SSRI drugs very very slowly–shave the pill—You can read more at drugawareness.org if you scroll down & click on the picture of her book, “Prozac Panacea or Pandora?” The person needs to have a support system, keep a journal, there is a general diet, and other helps in the book. The CD “Help, I Can’t Get Off My Antidepressant” is to listen to every day while going off the drug. Read about her work & qualifications at the web site drugawareness.org
Monica 10:55 pm on July 21, 2010
Great work Shane, we need people like you who are brave enough to speak out. Pioneers of orthomolecular psychiatry such as Dr A Hoffer, Dr Allan Cott as well as Linus Pauling have confrimed that mental illness is a myth and that emotional disturbances can be merely the first symptom of the obvious inability of the human system to handle the stress of sugar dependency! Dr John Tintera was on the same track as long as his implication of sugar as a cause of what was called schizophrenia could be confined to medical journals he was ignored. Dr Tintera announced years ago ; Nobody but nobody should ever be allowed to begin what is called psychiatric treatment anywhere unless and until they have had a glucose tolerance test to find out if they can handle sugar!
Angela Brooks 10:03 am on July 22, 2010
Shane – I have been a nurse for 21 years in mental health. I have seen JUST the side effects your talking about. A new 18 yr old kid will come in with a bouncing personality and over the next 2-3 years of admitions – he is blank. Looks like an old man. If it is ok with you – I am going to add this post to my blog – with your credit of course- Such truth !
The People's Chemist 10:09 am on July 22, 2010
The interaction is great here! These efforts build on themselves and help get the warning out. The key it stop people from
going to psychiatrists. And this article and your comments help achieve this. Keep posting and forwarding!
Kathleen Caldwell 10:36 am on July 22, 2010
Shane,
That was a fabulous article which I will promote far and wide! I have, unfortunately, experienced what you have described with family and friends. It is an uphill battle but one we need to fight, for all who will listen.
Janine 3:49 pm on July 22, 2010
Great article! I would add one more point – pregnant women prescribed SSRI’s and the subsequent emotional and behavioral problems of their offspring.
Noreen Heath 5:32 am on July 23, 2010
Shane,
I have read your book, the above article and several of your other articles as well as seen your videos. We are on the same page on SO many topics.
I have first and second hand experience with psychiatric drugs and would personally not recommend them to anyone for any reason. ANY temporary benefit they may provide is so far outweighed by negative side effects I find it difficult to believe they are so regularly dispensed and even endorsed by so called “thinking” people. WTF are they thinking about is what I would like to see spelled out. ok, i can spell it myself..MONEY and CONTROL.
Diet, exercise and a venue of free expression of ALL thoughts and feelings will go a great deal farther than ANY drug. In our society, it is most definitely NOT okay to disagree with the majority. Not out loud any way. People who point out glaring lies tend to be shunned, or, at the very least, discounted as crazy, eccentric, not right in the head…NOT to be taken seriously.
Too many people are too comfortable with status quo. People have become so accustomed to being lied to that the truth is foreign and frightening. Better living through chemistry is a way of life. It beats having to confront reality and make changes from within.
What I hope to see and be a part of is true healing of mind, body and spirit on a large scale. i believe your books and other efforts are a part of that. One at a time, I have been making the effort to get people to stay away from conventional medicine and do more personal research towards simple ways of healing themselves. I have already recommended your book and website as a starting resource in that vein. This is a groundswell I would like to see grow, until it becomes the mainstream.
Just in case you haven’t truly and successfully answered your own question, “psychiatry, can you help me?” the answer is NO. Let your conscience be your guide, with balanced input from trusted friends. Diet and exercise are a big part of the solution, just, not all of it. There is much work to be done and I wish you success in your part of it.
Elaine 5:18 pm on July 25, 2010
Thank you, Shane, for all your efforts. Your insider’s viewpoint is very helpful. Having studied biochemistry, I also appreciate the depth of understanding you have on the subject matter.
I had to fight to get my father off anti-depressants. He had been on them for 22 years, and had lost all rational contact with his children as a result. After he tried to end his life and was put back in the psych ward with electro-shock, I finally managed to educate the rest of my family with the help of Peter Breggin’s books on the subject (he is a psychiatrist who does not believe in drugs or shock “treatment” !) I was able to get my mother to gradually wean him off the drugs, because the doctors would not even entertain the idea of helping to get him off of them.
A few years later he developed Parkinson’s Disease (probably the result of the shock “treatment”), but he did get free of the “anti-depressants”. Before he died my siblings were all able to restore their communication with him, and he told me he was “no longer depressed”. He may not have died happy, but at least we were able to restore some dignity to this loving man’s life. He was so proud of all of his children, and was so sad that he was unable to really be a part of our lives for so long because of this crime on the part of psychiatry’s labels and quackery.
I wish I had realized sooner how possible it can be to handle this, once one is armed with the true data, and some courage. It is well worth the fight. Keep up the good work!
Michael Homan 5:14 am on July 27, 2010
Does anyone every get the feeling pharma drugs are to weed out the population? Look at how the FDA regulates things. I think money and greed is so high a priority with these organizations, they make money on us coming and going… and the joke is on us for trusting them and allowing it to ever get this far. When you look to see how many drugs cure anything, how money is collected each year for research, and what is the end result? year after year.
Sharon 7:09 am on July 28, 2010
I recently answered a radio ad for ADHD research…I went and was turned down to participate in their study…All I can say is I passed the test with flying colors and they suggested, I need to get back to my Dr. right away. That people with this problem need drugs till they go to a nursing home. WOW…all I can say, is I am so glad I had my Over The Counter Natural Cures book.
Reading these posts, make me feel so much better…I was sick all day yesterday with what they told me!
Thanks Shane Ellison for your work!
Zann 10:59 am on August 13, 2010
I can see I will be the lone dissenter here, but I feel I must respond to what I feel is a subjective over-generalization of what pharmeceuticals do for sufferers and why they are used. My assertions here are based on my own personal experience, and my only goal is to offer a different perspective on this important subject.
I’m totally in agreement about the overuse of prescription medication and the failure of traditional psychiatry. But psychiatry is a broad term, and I think people often confuse it with any type of counseling, talk therapy, behavior modification, group therapy, cognitive therapy. What I tire of is people preaching, emphatically, about antidepressants when they have no personal experience with genuine clinical depression and, therefore, with antidepressants.
I’m a person who suffered (no drama, no exaggeration)for decades, including childhood, with OCD, anxiety and depression while listening to and believing the same hype about the Evils of Psychiatry and the perils of getting “hooked” on antidepressants and becoming a zombie. At the age of 36 and the mother of 2 young children, with a full-time job necessary to support them, I got to the point of being fearful of leaving my house due to anxiety and overwhelming depression. But as that old saying goes, I couldn’t afford and didn’t have time for a nervous breakdown. I didn’t have the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom, nor was I in any shape to do so. I called a crisis line and was eventually seen by a psychiatrist who helped me understand depression, assured me I wasn’t “crazy” and suggested counseling for what is a very real medical condition: clinical depression.
Depression is a disease that runs in my family and had caused plenty of harm, grief, addiction, and abuse by people who proudly proclaimed they didn’t believe in any of that psychiatric baloney. Like many people, they sought relief from depression by other means — booze, illegal drugs, alienation, and a host of addictions such as eating disorders, porn addiction, gambling… you name it.
After two years of counseling by trained, caring professionals, my life improved. No one ever offered me a quick fix or sent me on my way with a prescription. But I continued to have long periods of sadness, anxiety, fear, feelings of impending doom, and low self-esteem which not only affected me but my children, as well. It was hard to enjoy or be there fully for my kids, difficult for me to function at my job, or to pursue creative outlets and social life. In other words — to enjoy life. My diet was extremely healthy and I have always exercised daily. Of course, these things helped, but it was not until I made the decision to begin a monitored trial run taking antidepressants that for the first time in my life I felt “normal.” Do you know how beautiful the sound of that word is? I had never felt normal. What “normal” people take for granted is what chronically depressed people fantasize about. I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT A LA-LA LAND OF ESCAPISM OR ZOMBIE-HOOD. No, I’m talking about the abililty to focus without obsessive thoughts, the ability to want to get up and start my day, the ability to have genuine feelings of joy and love, AND appropriate grief and sadness, compassion, and the energy to care for myself and my loved ones. As my mood and outlook on life improved, I was also able to do volunteer work and help others.
I know I’ve been fortunate to have had responsible caregivers & only minor side-effects from antidepressants. I will continue to be a proponent of anti-depressants, coupled with counseling, as a possible remedy for those who suffer with chronic depression, OCD, anxiety disorders. Simply put: antidepressants saved my life — a enriched life I feel I’m just as entitled to as the millions of others who were born with a biological chemistry different than mine. I’m a better citizen of my community and the world when I’m not depressed.
So, before condemning all pharmeceuticals, please temper your opinions and actions with the realization that informed people can and do benefit from drug therapy, accompanied by the support of trained, ethical physicians and therapists. No one should take any prescribed drug blindly. Just as no one should rely solely on alternative therapies — whether through diet, natural supplements, accupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic, Chinese herbal, or whatever — without educating themselves first and realizing that humans respond individually to treatment and no one size fits all. Instead of condemning all of psychiatry and psychology as foot soldiers for Big Pharma, encourage people to become informed about all possibilities and to choose what works for them, while continuing to educate themselves on what’s available out there. Shaming or labeling those who take antidepressants or anti-anxiety medication (responsibly) as taking “the easy way out,” is both harmful and simply wrong, because none of it is easy. If you don’t believe or approve of antidepressants, don’t take them. But don’t ridicule others whose lives have been dramatically improved by them. Thank for reading.
Sandman 9:43 am on August 22, 2010
The Metallica comment was spot on! They were on to something prior to “therapy”. They were exposing the establishment with their early albums. All of a sudden, heavy metal was slowly reduced on the airwaves and Metsllica’s music was tempered down. Makes you go hmmm….
Katie 8:10 am on November 4, 2010
You’ve hit the nail on the head with this post. The resulting side effects from the meds are looked at as “symptoms” indicating a different psychological disorder rather than just what they are- side effects. The new “symptoms” result in new meds and dosage adjustments, thus creating new side effects, and a repeat in the whole process. The cycle goes on and on because a person is so desperate to get “better”, they are willing to take anything pushed in their face in hopes of the hell going away. Meanwhile, the only thing being accomplished is the person falling further in to a black hole, losing hope along the way of ever getting better. They don’t realize that it’s not because they can’t get better, it’s because the meds are making them worse. Yeah, been there, done that.
Jem 10:48 am on May 23, 2011
My sister has a life of hell worse than before due to multiple psychotic drugs. Is it really possible to wean yourself off them? Could she take the supplements we could purchase on your site while she was trying to come off them or would she have to wait until they were out of her system? How long would this take do you think? I’ll take a look at the book Prozac, Panacea, Pandora and send it to her. Thanks for that recommendation.
Cheri 3:06 am on July 15, 2011
What about DMAE for ADHD, and also used in skin creams? Is it good or bad?
Thank you Shane ~ for all you do !