YOU DO NOT HAVE A MENTAL HEALTH ILLNESS, and you do not need antidepressants!
Most of society believes that depression is a valid illness, often utilizing it to describe a variety of emotional disturbances. Diagnostic criteria, such as the “SIGECAPS” guidelines, evaluate specific characteristics displayed by individuals. If symptoms persist for more than two weeks, healthcare professionals can diagnose depression. Antidepressants usually constitute the initial treatment, with the expectation that individuals will recover and return to a depression free life. If only it were that simple.
Antidepressants to treat grief depression?
How do antidepressants work?
Having trawled through the internet and read extensively on the subject, it seems there are numerous conclusions, hypotheses and much debate around antidepressants, how they work and how much is the placebo effect.
Experts tell us that antidepressants, psychiatric drugs, boost noradrenaline and serotonin, the “happy brain chemicals.” And believed to regulate mood by stimulating chemical changes that increase the levels of these neurotransmitter messages to the brain.
Do antidepressants work for grief depression?
There is considerable controversy surrounding the actual benefits that antidepressants offer for treating depression. Research and trials underscore the significance of the placebo effect. Professor of Medicine Lennard J. Davis highlights that physicians frequently prescribe up to three SSRIs and other psychopharmacological drugs in combination. It is important to note without any substantial studies to support these practices. Physicians practicing what is known as “polypharmacy” hope that if one medication doesn’t work, additional medications will.
Dr Mercola writes:
“Doctors are performing uncontrolled experiments on patients.” Hoping that in some scattershot way they might hit on a solution. Drugs have dangerous interactions and most physicians are shooting in the dark with all the dangers that attend such bad marksmanship.”
Dr Mercola believes the serotonin hypothesis for depression should be given a serious review. He questions the validity of antidepressants in treating people as follows:
Most people think depression is due to a “chemical imbalance in your brain,” and that these drugs are designed to correct the imbalance. This is not a scientific statement.
The low serotonin theory arose because they understood how the drugs acted on the brain; it was a hypothesis that tried to explain how the drug might be fixing something. However, that hypothesis didn’t hold up … Investigations were done to see whether or not depressed people actually had lower serotonin levels, and in 1983 the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) concluded that:
“There is no evidence that there is anything wrong in the serotonergic system of depressed patients.”
The serotonin theory is simply not a scientific statement. It is a botched theory and a hypothesis that was proven incorrect.
The fact that this fallacy continues to thrive is destroying the health of millions. If someone takes an SSRI drug that blocks the normal reuptake of serotonin, they end up with the very physiological problem the drug is designed to treat which are low serotonin levels. Ironically, is the state hypothesized to bring on depression in the first place.
I am not a medic, I do know grief and believe that there is validity in what Dr Mercola has presented.
Can noradrenaline and serotonin be stimulated naturally?
According to one study from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, of the United Kingdom, exercise increases brain serotonin function in humans. A study published in Neuropsychopharmacology revealed that there are two mechanisms by which physical activity increases brain serotonin.
Motor activity increases the rate and frequency at which serotonin is “fired” within the brain, resulting in an increase in the release and synthesis of it. Regular exercise increases the level of tryptophan in the brain, an amino acid used to manufacture serotonin. Research in biological psychiatry concludes that exercise and diet play a huge role in stimulating “the happy chemicals” in the body.
Exercise V Antidepressants
Antidepressants come with a written description of possible side effects as follows:
- Dry mouth
- Urinary retention
- Blurred vision
- Constipation
- Sedation (can interfere with driving or operating machinery)
- Sleep disruption
- Weight gain
- Headache
- Nausea
- Gastrointestinal disturbance/diarrhea
- Abdominal pain
- Loss of libido
- Agitation
- Anxiety
- Thoughts of suicide
Side effects of exercise
Long-term exercise improves mood and protects against mental health disorders by decreasing depression and hostility through the production of serotonin. Dopamine enhances mood and long-term memory stimulating highly pleasurable feelings in the brain and contributing to “runner’s high.”
Why are doctors prescribing antidepressants for grief depression?
- This theory has become indoctrinated into our culture and media. People accept it as fact, we trust our doctors. Even mental health practitioners believe it.
- We live in a culture of “a pill for an ill,” those grieving want their doctorto fix them.
- Doctors don’t have time for patients and recommending exercise and a better diet is to simple
- Those grieving are vulnerable and would do anything to stop the pain
- Money. The drug industry and it’s use of antidepressants for a variety of ills.
- The “depression industry” is worth $19 billion a year. I believe money is the main motivator in prescribing antidepressants
What does the eight-hundred-pound gorilla do? Anything it wants to.
Dr Joseph Mercola
MY CONCLUSINON;
GRIEF DEPRSSION IS NOT A MENTAL HEALTH ILLNESS!
NEVER HAS AND NEVER WILL BE!
The process of grieving is different for everyone. Many who struggle to cope with their loss feel disconnected, unable to focus. They feel overwhelmed, scattered in their thoughts. There is an extreme sadness along with many other emotions as we try to make sense of death. Some people feel they are losing their mind. Alot of people fail to understand that the emotions and feelings are normal and natural. Including feelings of depression associated with loss.
As someone who has experienced immense grief and loss in life and grief depression. I have never taken antidepressants or anxiety pills going through the grief and mourning process. Mourning is a process that will take time and it is not easy. There is no way out of grief, there is a way through. Grief is a dark tunnel, there is a light at the end. and it is only you that can do it, minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day. Remember the pain and loss you are experiencing is a direct correlation to the love you feel you have lost. For more information about coping with grief and loss follow this link https://thegrieftoolbox.com/