Tree Frog

Please read my reply to your thread called paxil.
These drugs affect the liver, and can do other damage, and one MUST not suddenly stop taking them, they must be weaned off very slowly or it will make you very ill. They are not benign drugs, and should not be given except in the most extreme cases. It would be nice if a pill could make our lives all better, but that just isn't so. Life is hard, and it can be harsh. We need each other desparately.

It worries me when I see people taking all these chemicals into their bodies, because I know the thyroid, whose job it is to balance all things in the body, just can't keep up with the job. If we want mental and physical health, we have to seek healthy things, not try to simply make a symptom go away. Many times our immune systems are depressed, and our bodies are starved for nutritional balance, and nerves are not properly fed. Many times not being able to handle our lives is nutritional in nature, such as a need for B-complex vitamins and/or omega-3 such as found in cod liver oil! Without those we would be going up the walls, and psychotic!

I have researched these things because I don't want to further compromise my liver, since I have Hepatitis C, gotten from a blood transfusion. I suffered from severe depression a great deal of my life. I was labeled as bi-polar at one time. I also had undiagnosed hypothyridism, which is being treated now. I had serious childhood abuse issues, Hep. C, and hypothyroidism, all of which have depression as a symptom. If I took a drug for depression on top of those things I would only have had MORE problems.

Emotional issues can be worked out just fine in talk therapy with a therapist one can relate to and trust.
I know, because I did it. It is hard work to look at the facts squarely, but it works.

Depression is an emotion that has beeen vilified into being a disease. It was named a disease so that doctors could bill insurance companies for treating it. But insurance often has a clause that they don't cover psychological issues, so the docs called depression a medical issue when manufacturers came up with a drug they wanted to sell. We need to understand that this is big business, they are not simply altruistic folks that live to take care of us. A lot of very nice people are in the healthcare business, and most mean well. But doctors often just go by their big pharmacological book, looking up symptoms and handing out drugs they have never personally taken or researched. And, my doctor told me, not all side-effects are listed in their pharmacological book.

I have questioned doctors many times over why they want me to take this or that drug, after I researched them, and then they agreed with me that it was not a good thing to take the drugs. They admitted they had not known all the facts about what they were subscribing. They are just human beings with limited time they can spend with us, and they do the best they can, in their chosen field, so I am not faulting them. I am saying it is up to us to be careful of our own bodies, because we are the ones that have to live with our choices.

It is normal to feel depressed when certain things happen, or we feel helpless when we don't have good coping skills, or have been mistreated, or when we have losses. Brain chemical imbalance has never been measured, and the drugs intefere with nuerotransmitters, they do not balance the brain chemicals.. that has become the catch phrase and it is totally inaccurate, but doctors say it all the time.
So-called anti-psychotic drugs are actually are a drug lobotomy, as far as I can tell how they "work". They are being pushed on doctors like crazy as supposedly safe alternatives to depression, by pharacuetical companies. Remember, this is their business, to sell doctors on drugs. Drugs are used to manage people in nursing homes because they make one emotionally flat. If you have emotional issues, you need the full capacity of your brain and emotions to work through and deal with your issues. I hope that you get good psychological help, because we can change thinking patterns. There is a way out!

We HAVE to be our own healthcare advocate. I learned the hard way, by experience, and then learned to research. You can learn by educating yourself.
If you do an internet search on your health problem and the drugs you are offered, you will find a lot of info, on both sides of the story. There are lots of doctors and self-help groups trying to get these points across to those that want to know.

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Tree Frog