Today approximately one hundred million people worldwide are taking psychotropic drugs. In 1966 there were only 44 psychotropic drugs available, today there are 174.
In the UK 64.7 million prescriptions for antidepressants were dispensed in 2016. That was 3.7 million more than the 61 million items dispensed in 2015.
In 1967 leading psychiatrists met in Puerto Rico to map out a vision of their future. Their plan was to create by the year 2000 a range of psychiatric drugs regulating every aspect of human behaviour. As of 2017, they created an industry which turns over $330billion a year.
Many people are badly affected by the drugs they use. They can cause anxiety, sleep disorders, liver problems, hallucinations, sexual malfunction, head pain, even suicidal thoughts. All antidepressant products carry a risk of many different side effects. It’s both amazing and terrifying how often some doctors don’t even discuss the potential harm of certain drugs with their patients.
Part of being an adult is making our own choices, and when it comes to making important decisions about potentially changing your brain chemistry, it doesn’t get much more important than this! You really need some hard scientific facts to inform your choice.
Make no mistake antidepressants can be harmful, doctors are subjected to some of the most sophisticated marketing you will find anywhere on this earth, and they are not necessarily pharmacological experts who understand exactly how every drug they prescribe works.
Although medical drugs unquestionably do save many lives and improve the quality of many others, it’s important to remember that there is an enormous, if not always acknowledged financial incentive for drug companies to develop medications that sometimes have to be taken for life!
These drugs can be dangerous and side effects are not as rare as some people are led to believe. I have had clients come to me who are suffering far more from their antidepressants than their depression. The idea that medical drugs are unequivocally good for us, is absolutely not true.
The benefits of using antidepressants are unproven. Drug companies currently spend approximately three billion dollars a year promoting the notion that depression is a purely biological illness that in most cases can only be effectively treated by long term use of their products. There is no evidence, despite the billions of dollars spent on marketing the idea that clinical depression is caused through faulty biology or bad genes. Some doctors have been encouraged to use the analogy that depression is like type 1 diabetes, which is inaccurate.
All trials of antidepressants are conducted by the drug companies themselves, and these trials are not independently assessed, so they can and do chose not to publish studies that show only a weak or no advantage of their products over a placebo.
Despite over forty years of development, no single antidepressant has been shown to be any more effective than any other. So the newer SSRI’s (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are no more effective than the monoamine oxidase inhibitors of old. There is no evidence newer ones work any better, although some people believe they are less toxic. There is however evidence that switching between antidepressants to find the one that works best for the individual produces better outcomes overall. A common withdrawal symptom of coming off antidepressants is feeling low. This is because the brain is trying to adjust to life without the drug.
Neuroscience shows the use of antidepressants as depression medication is based on artificially increasing the number of neurotransmitters found in the synaptic cleft, the area between the two synapses. Neurotransmitters act as communication agents between the synapses. The problem is the body adapts to this intrusive addition to what is a very complex and delicately balanced system, and so the medication can become less effective over time.
This accounts for why so many people on antidepressants often have to increase dosages, or sometimes change the type of medication they are taking. It also explains why the effects of suddenly stopping medication can be quite severe. Antidepressants also create psychological and physical dependency, but never solve the root cause of the problem.
I have been helping clients who suffer from ADHD, PTSD and Depression for nearly twenty years, and can honestly say, effective psychotherapy used hypnotically is much better at preventing relapse than drugs, it changes the way the brain operates but in a natural way and without side effects. Research has found that in deep relaxation the brain produces more serotonin which is a mood enhancer when a person is depressed their serotonin levels are low, it’s now recognised that they are a result, not a cause of depression. With effective therapy, the person can quickly learn new thinking skills and thought patterns, introducing more physical exercise, creates endorphins that are known to help lower the symptoms of depression. these can be used for life, this is much better at preventing relapse into depression than antidepressants. PTSD can often be removed in a single session. Two or three further sessions are required in order to effect a permanent resolution.
Often clients tell me their doctor wants to increase their dosage. In such cases, I generally suggest that if they have to take these medications, a lower dosage is always a better option. Why? Because toxicity will be less and side effects should be weaker. It’s been acknowledged that a higher dose of antidepressants, taking into account the placebo effect of knowing you are on a more powerful drug, makes no difference to the outcome.
I am passionate about this because I have had clients in the past who have still felt depressed or even suicidal while taking antidepressants, and others that have experienced severe head pain but eventually freed themselves from these terrible symptoms through therapy, slowly reducing and eventually coming off them.
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