Doctors have been treating so called mental illness for thousands of years with various unproven methods of psychiatric interventions. Many of these interventions have had devastating effects on people’s lives. These treatments of choice have included such procedures as trepanation (the drilling of holes into people’s skulls), blood letting to reduce the amount of blood in the brain, insulin therapy to induce a seizure to reset the brain, lobotomies (severing the frontal lobes), electroshock therapy and the so called more humane treatment of chemical lobotomies (using the neuroleptic or anti-psychotic drugs) of the late 20th century.
Newer Atypical Drugs no More Effective According to Research
The newest drugs of choice for severe mental illness are the atypical anti-psychotics which the drug manufacturers claim have fewer of the severe neurological effects that the neuroleptic or anti-psychotic drugs have. However these drugs have not been proven any more effective in the ability to treat mental illness.
In this video on the recent history of psychiatry and the treatment of choice for mental illness, psychiatric drugs, you will likely be dismayed and disturbed by what you hear. Some of the following are discussed in detail….
- The treatment for mental illness with pharmaceutical medications is a theory that is not proven out by the science. In other words there is no reliable test for measuring the amount of serotonin or dopamine or any other neurotransmitter in the brain.
- The all psychiatric medications include a disclaimer that states something to the effect that, “It is not known exactly how the drug works but...”
- There is no scientific diagnostic test, like a blood test or MRI for example that can identify and diagnose a so called psychiatric illness or measure the effectiveness of a psychiatric drug.
- Whereas pharmaceutical drugs target certain neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin there are actually about 100 different neurotransmitters that have been identified and there are likely many more that have not been identified.
- Pharmaceutical companies call the unwanted effects of their drugs “side effects” when in reality all side effects are simply “effects” of the medication.
- All pharmaceutical drugs (psychiatric or otherwise) effect every body system not just the so called targeted system like the brain.
- Taking a psychiatric drug is not at all the same as taking insulin for diabetes. Insulin is something that your body produces and uses. A psychiatric drug does not provide a missing ingredient that your brain needs.
- Many of the “effects” of psychiatric drugs are actually forms of mental illness.
- There is an “unholy alliance” between the pharmaceutical companies, the FDA which is the regulatory agency that approves drugs for the marketplace and the APA (American Psychiatric Association).
- The APA defines and describes through a subjective voting system what cluster of symptoms should be considered a mental disorder.
- The more diagnoses included in the APA’s DSM manual of Mental Disorders the more opportunities there are for psychiatrists and other mental health care providers to be reimbursed by insurance companies for their services.
Various theories have evolved over thousands of years as to what causes severe mental symptoms like severe depression, hallucinations, delusions, suicidal tendencies, severe impulse control, mania and the like. Although the propaganda machine of the pharmaceutical companies has woven a story that these mental conditions result from chemical imbalances to date there is no definitive evidence to support that theory.
“Some problems are purely organic (brain tumors, the effect of toxic substances, injuries, genetically acquired psychosis, untreated diabetes, hypothyroidism, etc.)”
Other examples of organic causes of severe mental illness include such common things as urinary track infections (especially in the elderly), vitamin and mineral deficiencies, infectious disease like Lyme Disease or the rarer encephalitis lethargica that Oliver Sacks wrote about in his book Awakenings.
Why Should People be Cautious About Psychiatric Treatment
Many of the roots of modern day psychiatry are traced back to Nazi Germany and their eugenics programs. Many of which were supported by American Psychiatrists.
One of the most disturbing aspects of modern day psychiatry is the so called normalization of mental illness. Through the mass marketing of psychotropic medications to the general population, including children, American psychiatry has so broadened the definition of mental illness that just about anyone can be diagnosed with a mental disorder as defined by the DSM IV and treated with a pharmaceutical.
The reasons people suffer from mild to severe mental and emotional problems are multitudinous: Some of those reasons likely have to do with malnutrition, bad thinking, brain damage, toxins, abuse, ungodly family systems, and especially rejecting God and rejecting truth.
If you are suffering from mental and emotional problems there are many safe and effective forms of help available.
For more information on the history of psychiatry in America read Robert Whitaker’s book Mad in American: Bad Science, Bad Medicine and the enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill.