How Safe Are Mental Health Prescriptions?

Mental health treatment, despite recent advancements in the field, continues to carry a stigma which suggests abnormality and promotes exclusion.  Moreover, mental health continues to be segregated from the field of General Health, and the serious nature of these illnesses is regularly discounted.  Those suffering from common ailments, such as depression and anxiety, not only face a litany of troubling symptoms, but are forced to suffer these symptoms secretly, in fear of being stereotyped or profiled by a world that remains in ignorance about mental illness.  When mental health patients finally decide to seek treatment, many are “at the end of their rope,” and are willing to try just about anything in hope of returning to a “normal” life.

The first step taken by doctors is usually a strategy which involves prescribing medication, thought to ease persistent symptoms.  Doctors hope to control the symptoms of depression and anxiety by adjusting the levels of certain chemicals in the brain.   Today’s most prescribed drugs fall under a category called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs.  SSRIs work to control the brain’s level of serotonin—a neurotransmitter which regulates mood and behavior.  Drugs belonging to this class include brand names like Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil and are prescribed at an alarming rate.

Many patients have experienced some degree of relief from these medications, but predictably, drugs of this kind are not without their problems.  Most people report at least some detrimental side effects when taking SSRIs, and in isolated cases, these drugs have proven dangerous, if not fatal.  The most alarming side effect, a propensity for violent and self-destructive behavior, including suicidal ideation, seems to be experienced very early on in a medication regiment, and is especially profound in young adults.  The school shooting rampage in Columbine, gave rise to heated debates over antidepressants and adolescents, as it was documented that at least one of the shooters was being treated with these medications.  Other school shootings show similar evidence to support this alarming correlation.  In addition, suicide rates for young adults taking SSRI medications are five times that of their non-medicated peers.

These SSRIs have a laundry list of side effects and many experts wonder if they are not creating more problems than their solving.  Here’s a short list:

SSRI Side Effects:

Agitation

Anxiety

Insomnia

Sweating

Tremors

Loss of appetite

Sexual difficulties

Impotence

Effexor, a popular drug that lies outside of the SSRI category, is commonly prescribed to treat both Depression and Anxiety disorders.  It too comes with a suitcase full of troubling side effects and has also been known to cause increased blood pressure in patients.  Hypertension is the leading cause of heart attacks, and the use of Effexor has been linked now to heart conditions that have proved fatal.

Why should the solution put you at risk of more disease, likely worse than what you started with, and even increase your chance of death? It shouldn’t.  Think about this.  Your car breaks down in the middle of the desert. Say you find a solution, but the risk if you choose it is that your car might blow up and you’ll die.  The really isn’t any question that 99% of us would walk 100 miles if needed in that hot desert heat in order to find another option right?

The logic behind this thinking is exactly why many promising new drug-free alternative therapies are quickly becoming more popular.  The time is now to seek out and only support solutions that are proven to work, with the bare-minimum side effects, zero preferred.

Within this environment, characterized by a barrage of prescriptions, some doctors are seeking a more comprehensive approach to mental health.  Cognitive therapy and behavioral modification are used in conjunction with medication to learn more about the deeply hidden causes of these ailments.

More recently, techniques such as meditation, magnetic therapy and subconscious restructuring have been employed as well.  The goal:  identify and treat the root of depression or anxiety, rather than just the symptoms.

Natural supplements—vitamins and minerals—are also being used as an alternative to prescription medication.  Find out more about 10 mental health supplements here.

It seems today there are as many treatment techniques and supplements as there are patients, and more will undoubtedly emerge, trying to capture a piece of the mental health market.  That’s not necessarily bad news, it may even be encouraging.  The trend to find alternate treatments—treatments which are more holistic and comprehensive in their approach—is promising, in that it seeks to replace the singular approach that exists now, which relies predominantly on potentially harmful drugs.

Did You Just Throw Away Success?

You might have heard someone tell another that they just “threw away their chance for success”. Have you ever contemplated if this is truly possible? Can someone ever throw away their chance for success? The simple answer is no, but you can definitely waste a good situation.

In most circumstances you can never throw away your chances completely, but you always run the risk of hindering your path and taking the long way to the achievement of your goals. No one wants to handcuff their own future, so how do you ensure your chance for success stays close by your side?

By knowing what success looks like… How do you measure success? How do you know if you are winning in the game of life if you don’t know what winning looks like? How would you be able to spot success if you saw it coming down the road? How do you know that you aren’t successful already?

We often keep our eye towards the horizon of tomorrows achievement while neglecting to celebrate the victories that lead us to where we are today. Not recognizing a good thing when you see it can be a very costly mistake, especially in the case of a loved one or valuable employee.

An old Indian fable told by a good friend of mine illustrates the risk we run by being impatient…

Once a man did a lot of penance and God appeared to him. He asked for infinite wealth and power. God smiled, and granted his wish but with a small rider. He told him that he would have to go to the banks of Narmada river at a certain point where the small spherical stones are strewn about.

God told him that amongst those stones he would find a ‘Parasmani’ – the philosopher’s stone, that can turn metal into gold. The man was overjoyed. He asked God how would he recognize the Parasmani from amongst the millions of identical stones lying on the banks of the river.

God told him that this stone would be slightly warmer to touch than the others and disappeared. Now, this man excitedly went to the indicated spot and was flabbergasted on seeing the multitude of identical stones there. They were all similar looking.

Initially he made piles of the stones that he had checked for the warmth. But he found this to be a futile exercise after a few days, so he decided to start throwing the stones away from the banks, far into the river, after he checked them.

Days passed, weeks passed, months passed. This man kept picking up stones and throwing them into the river. People called him the mad stone-thrower. Years passed and the man kept doing what had become his practice. His actions were practiced until they had become automatic and unconscious.

Suddenly one day he picked up a stone which was slightly warmer than the rest, but before he realized what he had got he had already chucked it into the river! Sometimes our practices become so reactive in the moment that we lose sight of the end-goal.

This is force of habit which stops us from choosing in every moment how we can design our future. There is choice but our hand has already moved and thrown the stone. Habits can be changed. Be patient with your progress! What must you commit to learning, changing or doing in order to be successful today?

Have you stopped to smell the sweet aroma of achievement lately? Have you oriented yourself carefully around your goals so that you know when to celebrate success? It is important to place your vision on the end result so that you know exactly when you arrive there.

The wise believe that the past is destiny and the future can be designed. We can choose at every moment, what we want from our future. Knowledge is power when you realize that there are options. True power comes from the wisdom your receive when you consciously exercise your choice.