| The growth of western psychiatry has resulted in an | | | | from depression and got off the antidepressants, |
| over-reliance on psychiatric labels and expensive | | | | mood stabilizers and Ritalin. |
| drugs. Vast sums of money are spent on treatment | | | | What I discovered is that depression is not a disease |
| that doesn't address the underlying cause, only masks | | | | but a symptom of a bigger issue. Its cause can be a |
| symptoms and causes additional problems. | | | | mental, physical, emotional or spiritual issue in a person's |
| The pharmaceutical industry is targeting everyone, | | | | life. Depression is there to tell us that something is out |
| especially our youth with two specific marketing | | | | of balance that something is not right in our lives. I also |
| strategies. First is mental health screening programs in | | | | discovered that the public is not being told the truth |
| schools and physician offices, which are often | | | | about antidepressants. The drugs that were suppose |
| unscientific, vague, and disempowering. Second is the | | | | to "cure" me were actually the cause of my ADD and |
| false advertising about a "chemical imbalance" in the | | | | Bipolar symptoms. |
| brain. This unproven medical model is globalizing as | | | | Today I am free of depression and antidepressants |
| never before, rapidly spreading from richer developed | | | | because of persistence, personal responsibility, and by |
| nations to poorer developing nations. | | | | the grace of a higher power. The only special thing I |
| I know what it is like to be in extreme emotional | | | | had going for me was my determination to live in a |
| distress and to undergo the invalidating "treatment" of | | | | better world. This gave me the strength to go find the |
| the mental health system. For over half of my life (23 | | | | resources I needed to break free from depression |
| years) I was prescribed one drug after another to "fix" | | | | once and for all. You too can realize your strength and |
| my depression. With three different mental illness labels | | | | make life better for yourself and others. |
| (depression, ADD, and Bipolar Disorder) my chances of | | | | Full recovery is possible but it's not happening in |
| ever living a happy life were very, very bleak. I had | | | | traditional mental health programs where the primary |
| been told over and over that I had a hereditary | | | | and often only treatment is medication. To achieve full |
| chemical imbalance and that I would have to be on | | | | freedom and success, each person must become |
| five different medications for the rest of my life. But | | | | actively involved in their own education, growth and |
| somehow my genuine human spirit found a way out | | | | recovery. If you can get out of bed in the morning, get |
| from behind the drugs and propelled me from one end | | | | dressed, brush your teeth, and wipe your behind then |
| of the spectrum to the other. I found a way to recover | | | | there is hope for you. |