Happy Pills, Anxiety Drugs, and Therapists Galore

The below is an excerpt of a fairly long article but concise history of biopsychiatry from Andrew Weil’s perspective.

Sharing this just because Andrew Weil wrote it and it’s nice when these authors who draw the masses in actually speak out on the issue of abysmal mental health care. I rarely agree with everything any author says and Dr. Weil is no exception. Still I think he’s basically a good guy and he’s helping get the word out:

We Have Happy Pills, Anxiety Drugs, and Therapists Galore: So Why Are We More Stressed and Depressed Than Ever?

An alternative to the old talking cure is expanding the knowledge base of psychotherapy as we recognize the role that exercise, nutrition, spirituality, mind-body approaches, and lifestyle can play in enhancing our clinical effectiveness. Epidemic depression is occurring at a time when the field of mental health appears very robust. There are more mental health professionals treating more people than ever before in history: psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, licensed social workers, counselors, and therapists of all kinds. We have a powerful “therapeutic arsenal” of drugs to make us happier, calmer, and saner. When I leaf through the pharmaceutical ads that take up so much space in psychiatric journals, I get the feeling that we should all be in great emotional health. Depression and anxiety should be as fully conquered as smallpox and polio. But more of us than ever are discontented and not experiencing optimum emotional well-being. What is wrong with this picture? Why is the vast enterprise of professional mental health unable to help us feel better?

I want you to consider the possibility that the basic assumptions of mainstream psychiatric medicine are obsolete and no longer serve us well. Those assumptions constitute the biomedical model of mental health and dominate the whole field.(continue reading)

Well, biopsychiatry was pretty much obsolete from it’s inception, but still it’s good that this is being underscored by the likes of Dr. Weil. If you’ve not spent the last 8 years studying how psychiatry came to be what it is today this is a piece that is worth reading. It took me a few days to post this because part of me is just so tired of this stuff and I’ve been putting the word out for years. Unfortunately many have yet to hear.

Another good article about how things are changing that has links to many other salient piece too is:  Chemical imbalance myth takes a big public fall (no, antidepressants do NOT correct an imbalance of serotonin, nor do other psychiatric drugs correct anything at all)