Depression Treatments with no real Value: The new Science behind Antidepressants

Treating depression with chemical drugs has become a widespread acceptable solution in today’s world. The new science reveals that the magic pill is nothing else but the magic doing of our mind as findings reveal that placebo sugar pills show just about the same results without the serious side effects of the chemical antidepressants. How can this be?

The featured article in the Newsweek magazine of February 8th “The Depressing news About Antidepressants” by Sharon Begley is a very informative read about the pharmaceutical solution as treatment for depression in the light of new scientific research that looked at placebo vs antidepressant pills.

In discussion with psychologist Prof. Irving Kirsch who has taken the very difficult role to bringing this data into the light, Sharon summarizes the findings and, thus, challenges the notion with her article that depression is simply a biochemical imbalance that is correctable with a antidepressant pill. Find Irving Kirsch talking about the Myth of Antidepressants below this article.

The question that needs to be addressed here is what comes actually first: are the feelings that lead to depression causing a chemical imbalance or does the chemical imbalance affect our feelings and cause depression?

There is certainly a vicious circle happening here as both of the above is certainly true once we are on our way to feeling depressed. Nutrition can affect our biochemical balance equally as our thoughts can. But can the magical pill really cut to the roots of the cause of everything? Or can it at least lift us out of the black hole so we can begin our journey to recovery?

The answer is not that easy especially in the light of the new findings in scientific research around antidepressants. How can it be that a sugar pill, a placebo, can work the same wonders like the real chemical pill? How can it be that pills are prescribed for depression that affect serotonin levels in exactly the opposite ways: one increasing serotonin and the other one decreasing serotonin. How can these two pills show the same effects on our biochemistry? Or do they at all? Is it really the pill or is it our belief that affects our sense of emotional balance?

How does our mind affect our biochemical functioning and how can we utelize its power for our own healing purposes. There would be not much business happening for the pharmaceutical world if we would discover that we have all the solutions we need to rebalance our biochemical cocktail within ourselves. And in fact, this is what Dr Nick Hall, an internationally recognized psychoneuroimmunologist who has conducted pioneering research dealing with the interrelationships between emotions and health claims we are able to do, and he is by far not the only one.

Marketing strategies have influenced our thinking in a way that most of us can hardly imagine. It has formed parts of our belief and value systems and has left too many people in a space of confusion on a conscious and subconscious level.  And it affects people from all walks of life. Doctors, pyschiatrists, scientists that tell us how many people were helped by antidpressants without hearing the messages and entertaining the idea that a simple sugar pill might have done the same without the side effects that so many people experience.

True science I believe should be serving humanity but today true scientists are rare to find. I highly recommend you to read the article yourself whether or not you suffer from a cluster of symptoms that have been categorised and labeled as depression. The mind works in miraculous ways and I have witnessed this in my own private practice over and over again.

As informative this article is as dangerous it is to publish these finding and slamming antidepressants all together as millions of people believe in the healing power of these pills. This belief should never be taken away without finding anything else within oneself to believe in.

But often in that statement lies the heart of the problem, we don’t know any more what we can believe in. Too much information, too many scientific discourses, too many people that claim a solution to this and that, and as we trying to make sense of what is happening we lose touch with ourselves all together.

Empowerment begins with knowledge and being able to trust this knowledge. I have been studying and researching our emotional world for over two decades now. Has it taken me any further in my understanding about the functioning of our human beingness? To be quite honest not very much but what it has brought is an openess and insight into a world that is stubbornly focusing mostly on symptoms rather than causes and herewith alienating the human aspects from its body. There is always more to the picture as is presented to us and deep inside we know it. Accessing this deep wisdom within and empowering it with facts is a very powerful way to recovery, balance and, ultimately, happiness.

And please, if it is your belief that antidepressants are helping you don’t just disregard them because of what you are reading here unless you truly can change your belief system first.

I invite anyone to comment on this issue and I’d be very happy to go into further details or direct you to any other sources that might guide you on your path.

And here is the link  to Sharon Begley’s article “The Depressing news About Antidepressants” once again. For your convenience I added Prof. Irving Kirsch’s talk about the myth of Antidepressants below and the link to purchase his newest book: The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth

Have a listen to Dr Anne Blake Tracy whose shocking research findings has lead her to campaign against the use of Antidepressants.

All the best.
Halka Beseda

You Tube video part 1 out of 15: Irving Kirsch interviewed on Coast to Coast AM on 23 January 2010.

Dr Anne Blake Tracy talks about the History of SSRI’s Prozac LSD PCP and the effects on June 22, 2009.

For more information on the effects of antidepressants and the treatment of depression please go to the International Coalition for Drug Awareness website. For information on Prof. Irving Kirsch go to his profile page at the University of Hull.

Technorati Tags: anti depressants, antidepressant, antidepressants, depression, depression treatments, Dr Ann Blake Tracy, Irving Kirsch, treating depression, treatment, treatment for depression, treatments

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