“The top Psychiatrists in the world have rejected the serotonin theory of depression on multiple occasions in the last 20-30 years.” Quoted from ‘The Anti-Depressant Fairy Tale’ by Nic Hooper.
The theory that deficiencies in serotonin and norepinephrine cause depression has been effectively disproved. The favoured ‘cure’ – selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI’s) – which flood the brain with serotonin (by not allowing it to be absorbed), essentially overload the brain with more of something it doesn’t need, and in cases of prolonged use, can cause irreparable damage to one’s neurotransmitters, thereby causing new or increased imbalances.
I believe that people are indeed suffering from imbalances. It is my contention, however, that these imbalances do not originate in the brain, but instead in the world around us. Further, I would argue that the mental illness epidemic is in large part a natural neuro-biological reaction to massive consumption of unnatural bio-chemical substances and paralysing toxic circumstances.
This issue hits me in my spleen where children are concerned. With less polluted sensibilities (as their bodies and minds and ‘new to exposure’, as compared to those of most adults), they feel the effects of toxins and imbalances more intensely. It is no surprise to me that children (and people) seem ‘out of their minds’ more and more these days. It’s a natural defence mechanism, and perhaps in a subconscious way, an attempt to relate and demonstrate what a lack of health, balance, accountability and responsibility looks like. It is horrific to me that when children exhibit symptoms and reactions to this imbalanced equation, they are often told, ‘there is something wrong with your brain and you’ll need to be on medication – possibly for the rest of your life.’
This quick fix/immediate gratification mentality is irresponsible and lazy. To drown our children in pharmaceutical apathy is akin to abandoning them on a street corner in an unknown city. This kind of health ‘care’ doesn’t feel like care at all.
“Our children are the first in human history to grow up under the constant shadow of “mental illness.” Not too long ago, goof-offs, cutups, bullies, nerds, shy kids, teachers’ pets, and any number of other recognizable types filled the schoolyard, and all were considered more or less normal. Nobody really knew what to expect from such children as adults. That was part of the glorious uncertainty of life. The goof-off in the fifth grade might show up at his high school’s twenty-year reunion as a wealthy entrepreneur,the shy girl as an accomplished actress. But today, children diagnosed with mental disorders-most notably, ADHD, depression,and bipolar illness help populate the school yard. These children have been told that they have something wrong with their brains and that they may have to take psychiatric medications the rest of their lives, just like a “diabetic takes insulin.” That medical dictum teaches all of the children on the playground a lesson about the nature of humankind, and that lesson differs in a radical way from what children used to be taught.” – Robert Whitaker, Chapter One (A Modern Plague) from Anatomy of an Epidemic
The medical community is still trying to discover why there has been a 35% increase in the number of diagnosed mentally disabled people in the last 20 years. If we get down to brass tacks, and look at what else has happened in the last 20 years, we might discover that in this time, we have slowly been deprived of every basic biological element necessary for human sustenance, and replaced them with artificial everything. Consumption of pharmaceuticals is rampant. These chemicals are released into our water through our waste and, along with all the other pollutants, has contributed to a shortage of natural, clean water.
Our food is being genetically modified, and we are constantly bombarded with encouragements to consume things that have no business in a human body. The airwaves themselves are polluted: ‘Air wave’ technology, including cell phones – which are actually sophisticated radios – have replaced ‘ground-based’ communication systems, and have been shown to harms cells and cause damage to DNA.
Related to the air, and most importantly, is our lack of connection to the earth (with grounding itself.)
“According to some experts, balancing the ionization in your workplace and home may help combat the ill feelings associated with stressful lifestyles. The world’s most tranquil and refreshing regions are loaded with billions of negative ions. Air near waterfalls, mountains, beaches and forests are among those places where ionization levels are in complete and natural balance. Dr Felix Sulman, head of the Applied Pharmacology department at Jerusalem University, conducted experiments with positive and negative ions on “normal” people (his subjects were two groups of men and women between twenty and sixty-five).When left for about an hour in a room that contained an overdose of positive ions they became irritable and fatigued. Yet the same people confined for the same period of time, in air containing an overdose of negative ions showed a pattern of brainwaves that suggested increased alertness and relaxation. He tested their alertness and work capacity by various means and all of them scored significantly higher during, and immediately after, exposure to a high level of negative ions than in “normal” air.”
Another ‘crazy maker’ is our increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Humans are not rocks; we were designed to move.
Combining all of these facts makes for a nightmare in the mind: a singular nightmare that has become a world wide reality.
“The GAO, in its June 2008 report, concluded that one in every sixteen young adults in the United States is now “seriously mentally ill.” There has never been a society that has seen such a plague of mental illness in its newly minted adults, and those who go on the SSI and SSDI rolls at this young age are likely to spend the rest of their lives receiving disability payments. The twenty-year-old who goes on SSI or SSDI will receive more than $1 million in benefits over the next forty or so years, and that is a cost-should this epidemic continue to grow-that our society will not be able to afford.” -Robert Whitaker, Chapter One (A Modern Plague) from Anatomy of an Epidemic.
If we do not promote health, we are promoting sickness. To provide pharmaceuticals and disability benefits (a cycle that almost guarantees people stay sick), instead of high potency vitamins and empowerment through holistic fitness therapy, for instance, makes me question the motivations of those establishing health care standards.
If our government/medical community wants to cure this epidemic, thereby creating balanced, healthy people, and at the same time, saving a ton of money long term, a healthy, balanced approach to health care, as well as the creation and maintenance of healthy, balanced environments are all non negotiable. Notice I said if.
Policy makers hear the horror, but instead of ‘for really healing’, we get controlled. Instead of focusing on the mental health epidemic – or the many man-made, external bio-environmental causes – government overwrites privacy policies, changes gun control ownership laws, takes away amendment rights, and invokes martial law.
Perhaps we won’t be helped. Perhaps we our on our own. But this might not be bad news.
We can heed the wake up call ourselves. Who better than those who understand? Who better than those who stand to have their most important needs finally and truly met?
We can remember human nature, instead of flaccidly succumbing to an unnatural and artificial reality. We can learn to listen and listen to learn. We can share and take care of ourselves, and our children. We are capable of much more than we or ‘they’ think; perhaps we have been lead to believe differently, but the purveyors of such demeaning nonsense are not in any position to teach, heal or lead anything.
But we are.
Power To The People!
Image Credits
“Imbalance” by Mary Rose
The current situation is clearly out of control, and one of the driving forces is the business model for health care, especially the pharmaceutical industry, in this country. A business grows by increasing its market share, and it increases its market share by persuading more people to consume its product or service, or to consume it in larger quantities. What starts out as a product (such as SSIs) that is genuinely useful for a small segment of the population gets over marketed, to the point where there is no net benefit. It does not help that most psychologically active drugs are seriously addicting, inducing dependence where no real need existed originally.
Another disturbing trend is a narrowing of what is considered normal, which is devastating for individuals who in other cultures, or in our own culture fifty years ago, would have been considered normal so long as their behavior was not seriously disruptive, and willful wrongdoing if it was. The consequences of a medical diagnosis of mental illness last a lifetime, and there are far fewer safeguards against errors than there are in the criminal justice system.
Completely agreed. Thank you for your comments.