Disclaimer : The information I'm providing below is my personal opinions, based on facts & reasons I've discovered. These are for educational purpose only and should not be taken as a recommendation for or against any specific medical treatment or course of action. Thank you.
I'm going to list out the main 5 reasons why I would never take up or recommend psychiatric treatment. Before I begin, I'd like to make it clear that my intention here is not to fear monger or create panic. Instead, I would like to bring out some facts, data and let people draw their own conclusions.
Lets go!
1. Mental disorders are not medical diseases.
There's no denying that people with mental disorders like depression & Schizophrenia have problems that needs treatment. The huge issue with psychiatry is the way it diagnoses & treats these disorders. Psychiatry looks at mental disorders as biomedical problems and tries to treat them using drugs. Although this may sound somewhat scientific, in reality, this has NO SCIENTIFIC basis whatsoever. Till date, there has been no scientific study, research or evidence that proves that mental disorders are biological/mental illnesses. Mental disorders in psychiatry are not listed/classified based on scientific diagnostics methods. The disorders are simply VOTED IN. This is why even after years and years of research & funding, we're still unclear about the root cause of disorders like Schizophrenia and even unsure whether some disorders like ADHD are really disorders! Psychiatrists get together and VOTE for mental disorders, which will added to the 'DSM' - a book which has the list of all the mental disorders & symptoms. Psychiatrist's words are taken as evidence and not science. In fact, homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder in the DSM, until the LGBT activists protested against it. And immediately, it was removed from the DSM. That's how much scientific the DSM is.
2. Psychiatry is NOT scientific.
When you consult a psychiatrist, the way he diagnoses a mental disorder is purely SUBJECTIVE. He will ask you some questions, and based on the answers you give, you will be diagnosed with a mental disorder. That's it! There's no lab test, MRI scan or any scientific test that you can use to diagnose a mental disorder. This is again, because there's NO SCIENTIFIC evidence whatsoever, that proves mental disorders have biological root causes.
Then if you ask the psychiatrist why the drug? He'll answer 'Oh, there's a chemical imbalance in your brain, which is the root cause of your mental disorder and these drugs will correct the imbalance'. This may sound very scientific & biological, expect that it IS NOT. The chemical imbalance is merely a theory which has no scientific data to support it. There's no lab test, MRI scan, no scientific method to test if you really have a chemical imbalance in your brain.
So essentially, a psychiatrist is diagnosing you with a mental disorder without a lab test, and he treats you with drugs that is going to fix a chemical imbalance which has not been proven to exist by any scientific test. It's a simple marketing strategy of the drug companies, that gave a medical/biological twist to mental disorders to validate the drug treatment. Worse of all, the drug companies are making numerous attempts to come up with some level of scientific credibility (a study, research) to this chemical imbalance theory so they can go full throttle with their sales.
3. Psychiatric drugs DO NOT WORK!
Well, if you treat a medical condition which didn't exist in the first place, how could you expect it to work? Lets first understand what these drugs do to your brain. Depending upon the type of antidepressant you take, a certain chemical in your brain will be suppressed or increased. For instance, if you're taking SSRIs, they'll block the reabsorption (reuptake) of 'serotonin' in the brain which creates an imbalance of serotonin. Do you see what's happening here? We are not even sure if there's a chemical imbalance in the brain, yet we go on to put the brain on drugs that CREATES AN IMBALANCE.
It is true that there is some scientific data that shows serotonin treats depression to an extant. However, this is does not mean serotonin is the key to cure depression. Saying 'Serotonin treats depression, so depression is, in fact a serotonin deficiency' is as ridiculous as saying "Playing with puppies makes depressed people feel better, so depression is, in fact, a puppy deficiency”. But unfortunately, this is the circular reasoning psychiatrists seem to have taken up to justify medications for mental disorders.
Studies have proved that antidepressants are TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE. But some may say that some people or even themselves have seen improvements after taking antidepressants. The sad truth is, they would've said the same if they were treated with simple sugar pills. This is called the placebo effect. Studies have proved that antidepressants work no better than sugar pills. Till now, not ONE PATIENT has been cured from mental disorders by these drugs.
4. Psychiatric drugs have DEADLY side effects.
These drugs, which creates imbalances in your brain, comes with its own deadly side effects. And I mean, LITERALLY DEADLY. . Besides the common side effects like severe headache, nausea, involuntary movements of muscles, lack of sexual interest, etc, these drugs cause DEADLY & VIOLENT BEHAVIORS. Studies have PROVED that antidepressants creates SUICIDAL & MURDEROUS thoughts. Many many suicidal cases have correlation with antidepressant drugs. MOST of the school shootings are done by people who were using antidepressants.
@1:06 in the above video gave me chills. Now, ask yourself, would you ever take or make your loved ones take a drug that has SUICIDE and MURDER as side-effects?
5. Once you take psychiatric drugs, it's hard to get out.
If you happen to unfortunately fall into this trap and end up taking medication, it's really hard to get out. Psychotropic drugs are highly addictive and can have severe withdrawal effects. In one of the comment response in that connect post, one employee posted a story of his friend who stopped taking antidepressants and tried alternative therapy. This is a really bad move, as withdrawal of psychotropic drugs itself can cause suicidal and violent behaviors. And yes, the person took his car and rammed into a gate.
However, this doesn't mean there's no way out. There are many honest psychiatrists who can actually help you get away from these drugs safely. The book 'Psychiatric Drug withdrawal' is a good place to start (I have a copy of this book and will be happy to lend to those who are interested).
Final thoughts :
There's no doubt that those struggling with mental disorders deserve the same level of empathy & treatment as those struggling with physical illness. BUT they should not be medically treated with the same way we treat physical illnesses (i.e, with medicines). At least not until we have enough evidence that mental disorders have biological root causes. Even if that be the case, the current psychotropic drugs have to be altered and made much safer than it is now (at least no suicidal & murderous thoughts pls!!).
Again, the intention of this post is not to create panic. I just wanted to show the unscientific & deadly side of psychiatric drug treatment that is traumatizing and killing people.
If you or someone you know is taking antidepressants, my advice would be to educate yourself with the facts. Consult multiple psychiatrists and find out if it is safe for you to withdraw from the drugs. If it is, do it with the help of your psychiatrist, take up alternative means of treatment like Cognitive Therapy which are much safer and have proven to show improvements. Adopt to a healthy lifestyle. Have faith. Get support. Avoid negativity & bad habits. I had depression and OCD myself, and I was able to cure it through alternative treatments (Dietary changes, Yoga, Meditation, etc). If need there be, I may post about how exactly I cured them.
I hope I have not discouraged or offended anyone. May the almighty bless us all with health and prosperity. Allow me to end this post with a favorite prayer of mine :
References :
Does mental illness really exist?, Dozens of mental disorders doesn't exist!, Is schizophernia really a brain disease?, ADHD is not a real disease!, Why DSM is unscientific, Chemical Imbalance is a myth, Anti depressants : No better than placebos, Association between suicide attempts and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors: systematic review of randomised controlled trials., Antidepressants cause addiction, Antidepressants are ineffective for most patients, study finds, Psychiatry admits it has no cures
