A dear friend of mine recently sent me an article from the New York Review of Books, entitled The crazy State of Psychiatry, by Marcia Angell. I found this article very interesting, and a kind of reassurance to why I choose the subject that I am currently studying, TCM. The beginning of the article starts with the subheading, "The Epidemic of Mental Illness, Why?". The statistics under this subheading show that people who Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance increased "nearly two and a half times between 1987 and 2007- from 1 in 184 Americans to 1 in 76.... and a thirty five percent increase in the same two decades for children" (Angell, M. 2011). The main theme of the article is why? If we have some of the best psychiatric drugs on the market, why do we see more today than ever before. The article continues to postulate that the drugs on the market are indeed, not the best things people with mental illness could be given, but instead, more detrimental, and causing more illness. Further more, there is an idea that the criteria for mental illness are becoming less rigid, and opening more and more symptoms up to be interpreted as a sign for mental illness. Psychiatrists themselves are moving away from psycho analysis, and talk time with patients, and moving toward relegating symptoms to drug categories, and simply prescribing haphazardly. The article is very open minded in the sense that is concedes that there are some people, and some illnesses that do benefit to some of these drugs, but that mostly pharmaceutical companies are the main benefactors of these drug sales, and not the other way around. Here is a quote from the article.
When Minnesota and Vermont implemented "sinshine laws" that require drug companies to report all payments to doctors, psychiatrists were found to receive more money than physicians in any other specialty. The pharmaceutical industry also subsidizes meetings of the APA and other psychiatric conferences. About a fifth of APA funding now comes from the drug companies" (Angell, M, 2011).
Big business generally does not spend money if they do not gain from it in some way, I think most people can agree big business, especially pharmaceuticals has never been known for it's amazing works of philanthropy. The article then explores the effects of anti-psychotics, and anti- depressants on the brain. These drugs over time cause the brains pre-frontal cortex to "slowly atrophy", causing lifelong damage. Obviously I am paraphrasing this article immensely and would suggest that anyone who is interested in this topic read the article, as it is very thought provoking. Mostly what I got from the article is an idea or more confirmation I should say, in our diseases medical system, but also the public's loss of belief in their bodies natural abilities to heal itself, and an emotional dependency on pills. I had begun to loose my belief as well, when dealing with even benign issues such as acne, so I can't imagine how daunting it must feel to people who are dealing with mental illness. SO I choose to study natural health, and I do firmly believe there are better alternatives to drug cocktails for almost everything. The article spoke largely of children who are now being given anti-psychotic drugs, some "500,000", and "ten percent of ten year old boys" take medication for ADHD. These statistics make me think of my dad. My father was a drug addict his entire life. He grew up in a household with one alcoholic parent and one who was emotionally unstable and a pill popper. He was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age, and given something akin to Ritalin. It is my opinion that he probably needed love and attention a little more than he needed drugs, but sadly his was a highly dysfunctional household so drugs was what he got the most of. It is no wonder to me, that for the the rest of his 50 years of life he was never able to feel normal without some sort of chemical intervention, and he never did learn to love or believe in himself, his body, and all of his abilities. This is the reason I choose TCM, I want to help foster a belief in one's body, and a more holistic and natural approach to Health.
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