"What Drug Companies Aren't Telling You About Antidepressants"
Did you watch the whole video? If not, here's the highlights:
Antidepressants don't help as much as we think (or we're led to believe!)
The effectiveness of antidepressants is greatly exaggerated - from The Wall Street Journal
While they often don't do what's promised, they often DO harm many patients
Antidepressants increase the risk of suicide and violence
Some patients have antidepressant withdrawal symptoms so severe, they can never stop taking them
Bottom line:
We're not getting accurate, truthful information from the pharmaceutical companies because they only
publish the positive results and bury the numerous negative studies.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg!
You May As Well Be Snorting Cocaine
According to medical expert Peter R. Breggin, M.D. -
More than a third of patients taking depression medications experience a 'stimulant effect' (comparable
to PCP, meth, or cocaine - drugs known to cause aggression and violent behavior).
These symptoms include:
anxiety
agitation
panic attacks
insomnia
irritability
hostility
impulsivity
severe restlessness
hypomania
mania
...and it all leads to out of control behavior - as if you were on speed or coke or PCP!
Antidepressant Withdrawal Much Worse Than Heroin Withdrawal
Here's a short list of withdrawal symptoms from the December 2007 issue of a prominent
medical journal:
agitation,
anxiety,
akathisia, (like being tortured on the inside)
panic attacks,
irritability,
hostility,
aggressiveness,
worsening of mood,
dysphoria, (extreme uncomfortability)
crying spells or mood lability, (pathologically laughing and crying)
overactivity or hyperactivity,
depersonalization,
decreased concentration,
slowed thinking,
confusion
memory/concentration difficulties
Warning: Discontinuing antidepressants requires medical supervision.
Even Eli Lilly, the maker of Cymbalta - warns not to suddenly stop
taking this medicine, as it may cause withdrawal symptoms such as:
dizziness,
pins and needles sensations, (more about this below)
nausea,
difficulty sleeping,
intense dreams,
headache,
tremor,
agitation,
anxiety.
And "the sexual problems can last for months, years, or sometimes indefinitely after
the discontinuation of SSRIs..." according to a 2006 article in The American Society
for the Advancement of Pharmacotherapy. (By comparison, heroin withdrawal lasts only
about two weeks.)
So how common are these withdrawal symptoms?
Up To 80% Suffer
Under increasing pressure, Eli Lilly in 1996 sponsored a research symposium to deal with
the issue.
The shocking conclusion (from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital):
...anywhere from 20 to 80 percent of patients suffered what was then called antidepressant withdrawal.
(But after the symposium it was renamed "discontinuation syndrome".)
And what about the 'brain zaps'?
These are blinding electric shock-like sensations causing -
dizziness,
sweating,
nausea,
insomnia,
tremor,
confusion,
vertigo.
Oh, but the preferred term for coding these types of symptoms in adverse drug reaction reports
is paresthesia (a 'pins-and-needles' sensation - which in no way sums up the pain involved).
Ex-Insider Reveals All!
One noted psychiatrist, David Healy (a drug-industry darling until he dared to speak out about the dangers
of over-prescribing depression medications)
describes a multinational industry now made up of "the most profitable corporations on the planet"...
in its manic pursuit of profit. (And this from a man who still prescribes antidepressants
and has impeccable credentials.)
He says 'Big Pharma' has captured almost total control over the research process,
bought up academic experts, and turned them into marketing shills.
The Drug Makers assemble, pay for, and manage large-scale clinical trials.
Since they own the data, they can manipulate it for their own purposes, -
suppressing damaging information,
twisting the outcomes of the trials, and even
manufacturing new "diseases" whose primary function is to serve as marketing vehicles for
new varieties of psychotropic pills.
Big Pharma controls the trials, and thus controls the reporting of the trial results.
Drug Makers Dirty Tricks
For example, did you know that drug trials start with a 'wash-out' period, where ALL participants
are given a placebo? When half the patients are magically healed after one week (which isn't
even possible from any antidepressant) those people are eliminated from the study.
THEN they start the real trial, and STILL the placebo is neck-and-neck with the real drug in terms of
effectiveness. (It's not uncommon for the placebo to win, even though the race is fixed!)
Another dirty trick Healy mentions:
The PR departments of drug companies secretly write articles and attach the names of
some of the eminent scientists they've 'bought'. Since this unethical ghostwriting
has been exposed, one would hope this practice is now less prevalent. (I wonder what
dirty tricks they're up to now, that we don't yet know about?)
One final undisputed fact: the epidemic of depression and manic depression did not even begin until
drug companies began to market the disease in the 1960's.
The Crutch That Numbs
After decades of front-line experience, Healy concludes:
"Antidepressants cause emotional anesthesia and numbing or sometimes euphoria, providing a
fleeting, artificial relief from emotional suffering.
"In the long run, all psychiatric drugs tend to disrupt the normal processes of feeling and
thinking, rendering the individual less able to deal effectively with personal problems and
with life’s challenges. They worsen the individual’s overall mental condition and produce
potentially irreversible harm to the brain.
"The supposed therapeutic effects of psychiatric drugs are in fact the result of drug-induced
mental disabilities..."
In other words, antidepressants often become a crutch that numb you out, just like so-called 'street drugs'.
Well what's a person to do?! If you can't trust the drug companies or their products...?
Here's a little bright news:
Four Decades of Research Provides Solution
Studies have shown exercise improves the serotonin system as much as antidepressants.
In fact, after four decades of research, the Center for Neural Science of New York University concluded
the following four activities increase serotonin levels:
Exercise
Sleep
Light (such as natural sunlight)
Good nutrition
In fact, anything that relieves severe stress helps the serotonin system.
It’s why therapy might work just as well as medication. The stress is relieved, and your system recovers.
And it may explain why placebos work so well.
But that's not all that helps. I found a way to turn the source of my pain into the source of my healing. I discovered true emotional healing comes from establishing a whole new relationship with my emotions.
I stopped seeing them as the enemy. Through practice, I learned what it means to truly FEEL your feelings, rather than manipulate them.
The difference is like night and day.
Life becomes EXCTING! You can't wait to get up in the morning. You learn to LOVE your feelings - ALL of them. Even the 'yucky' ones.
Because you feel them, and let them go, and then you become 'more'.
More powerful, more clear, and more of yourself. You become more of
who you really are, once you develop a new relationship with your emotions.
And if I can do it, so can you.
First, stop seeing emotions as the enemy.
Second, start feeling anything that comes up. Anything.
Third, stop trying to manipulate your feelings. Don't try to justify, or rationalize, or blame them on anyone or anything. Don't think about what you're feeling - just feel.
And own the fact that they're YOU'RE feelings!
Next, start processing out whatever's inside of you right now. Get out paper and pen and just WRITE. Write out whatever comes up for as long as you can. Write and write and write.
