Alternatives to psychiatry
Wow, some researchers have finally spent some time on our withdrawal boards and report back with ALARM. We try to get people to look at these boards all the time and it’s pretty clear most people are unimpressed enough to generally think we are simply being hyperbolic in our descriptions about how many people are gravely suffering. Sadly this often includes people critical of psychiatry. Those of us suffering from severe withdrawal syndromes … [click on title to read the rest]
Antidepressant medication is the most commonly prescribed treatment for people with depression. They are also commonly prescribed for other conditions, including bipolar depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, chronic pain syndromes, substance abuse and anxiety and eating disorders. According to a 2011 report released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one out of every ten people (11%) over the age of 12 in the US is on antidepressant medications. Between 2005 and 2008, antidepressants were the third most common type of prescription drug taken by people of all ages, and they were the most frequently used medication by people between the ages of 18 and 44. In other words, millions of people are prescribed antidepressants and are affected by them each year.
Again Science Daily reports on the fact that psychotropic drugs impede people’s capacity to drive safely. The classes of drugs being talked about here are SSRI and SNRI antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and the z-drugs like Ambien and Lunesta. I know from having taken them that antipsychotics too are egregiously guilty for making people NOT ALERT. I don’t think […]
A recent study on antidepressants has shown that the drugs have some serious side effects: those taking certain prescriptions could lose their sex drive. It sounds like the whole nation’s sexuality is under a threat as, according to the statistics, one in ten Americans takes antidepressants. And it’s not only libido people are losing – […]
Many of us who have withdrawn from benzodiazepines and SSRI antidepressants, both, have heart palpitations and other heart symptoms quite often as an iatrogenic injury. I’ve noticed that for my PTSD and psychiatric drug withdrawal induced tachycardia that yoga really does help minimize its horrors. It’s not a cure all but it sure as heck helps one get through when things are rough as well as perhaps creating a foundation for long-term healing….I’m sharing this here today because I’m quite sure many with psychiatric drug withdrawal syndromes might be helped too. Below the excerpted article are a few postures that help my heart calm….
What happens to the mother in the below excerpt from an article is extremely common. First she intuitively feels her anxiety shouldn’t be medicated and then the drugs make the issue worse. Her observation is not taken seriously by her medical team. This is where coercion often starts in psychiatric care. Her own bodies wisdom […]
Helen Fisher is an anthropologist who has looked at how antidepressants effect romantic love, falling in love and most importantly ongoing attachment. The conclusion being that the love response and the human instinct for attachment are profoundly messed up. Antidepressants don’t just create sexual dysfunction, they wreak havoc with the whole emotional system that creates attachment to other human beings. In my experience it is not only the antidepressants that do this. As far as I can tell all psychiatric drugs do it. As is often the case antidepressants are more commonly studied when the mainstream is being considered. The fact is, however and unfortunately, that neuroleptics are going mainstream. Historically, neuroleptics (antipsychotics) and the other psych meds aren’t taken by as many “normal” people as the antidepressants do so they haven’t been studied by this woman who is basically making a social commentary. Someday perhaps such studies will extend to include all psychotropics, as there are more and more people effected by all these classes of drugs.
From Medical News Today, for anyone reading this blog who has yet to be convinced that psychiatric drugs are neurotoxic and cause harm especially when used long-term. There is a video with the study’s author at the bottom of this post.
I wonder if the fact that some significant minority of people become completely disabled for various lengths of time when withdrawing from these drugs will ever hit the media? They really only cover some of the vast array of possible problems while on them as well in this article….
I can see by the stats on the blog that sometimes people happen upon one of these posts via search and then they sit and click through one after another until they’ve read the whole thing! I’ve noticed this a few times now and I don’t really look at my stats all that closely all the time, so I imagine it happens with some frequency. People get glued to their computer for a few hours! It’s a compelling story and so I’m sharing it again.
She tells the harrowing tale with a great sense of humor!
It’s really a short autobiographical novel of sorts in parts.
ALT
admin
Monica Cassani
Will Hall
