Henry Quant was just 5 years old and bedridden with chronic fevers when he began taking pills for anxiety and depression. His mother knew that the drugs helped, but they made her nervous.
“The really scary part,” Elizabeth Quant said, “is we don’t know what these do long term.”
This summer, under the watchful eye of his physician, Henry, now 7, replaced his antidepressants with vitamins and learned some stress-relief exercises to calm himself.
“Now he’s doing better and better,” said his mother, who lives with her husband, Shawn, and three children in south Minneapolis. If Henry, a second-grader, starts to relapse, his mother says she won’t hesitate to change course. But after two months, she’s thrilled. “He’s happy and he’s healthy, that’s Henry.”
At one time, psychiatrists might have cringed at the thought of using alternative medicine instead of “real” treatments for mental health care. But a growing number of doctors are adding herbs, nutritional supplements and meditation to their arsenal of psychiatric drugs, as evidence mounts that natural therapies can help. Even stalwarts of the medical establishment, from the University of Minnesota to Allina Hospitals & Clinics, are exploring ways to use mind-body therapies to treat depression and anxiety….
….”I think people are fed up with having their kids medicated as the only option,” said Dr. Timothy Culbert, head of integrative medicine at Children’s, and Henry’s doctor.
Last year, Culbert co-wrote a series of self-care books for children (“Be the Boss of Your Body” by Free Spirit Publishing) on ways to cope with pain, stress and sleep problems – all linked to depression.
Several patients have been able to get off medication, while others have cut their dosage, Culbert said. His goal is to teach kids to help themselves, not just passively receive therapy….(read the rest here)
The “scientific” skeptics are given their time too if your read the whole article. I wonder why us alternative folks are hardly ever given time when the mainstream pharma ho’s spread their shit?? You know there is no science behind our observed reality. And noone wants to put money behind it to make it “real” in their eyes. I suppose that’s why.
Thats an interesting article. I like when it says that drugs are the first choice. For many of us with mental illness, drugs have been pushed as the only choice. And when you are depressed and confused, you do not have the mental strength to argue. And, who are we to question a doctor.
Jim S
Every time I see a post about a child taking powerful psychotropic drugs it concerns me. I am glad that parents and doctors are looking for other ways to help children. Medication should be the last resort – not the first.
Gianna,
Each and every time someone such as yourself posts something like this, you give parents hope!
For any parents out there looking for answers, who are new to your site…..I’d like to invite them to join Safe Harbor –
http://www.alternativementalhealth.com
Click ‘Support Group/Listserv’ – Ask Gianna to let you in – she’s the moderator of the group.
Duane
Thanks for posting on the article, its great to highlight this issue! The words money, advertising and pharmaceuticals come to mind when you ask the question of why natural alternatives aren’t viewed more positively!
Warmly,
Coach Louise Crooks