Fox News just informed viewers that 27 million Americans are being treated for depression. The Washington Times ran a three-part series this week on the tsunami of mental illness in New Orleans four years after Hurricane Katrina, mostly depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A rash of additional articles has appeared nationwide on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), including one from last Sunday’s (August 2) Washington Times “Pure suffering for OCD Patients,” by Cheryl Weinstein. All news sources, regardless of political persuasion, lend the aura of medical legitimacy to these phenomena.

But just three years ago, we were hearing a vastly different story: “Cheer up: U.S. not so depressed,” a 2006 Washington Times headline proclaimed, the gist being that reports of epidemic levels of clinical depression were greatly exaggerated — and possibly bogus, along with statistics on alcoholism and anxiety.

The problem — and nearly every news source and medical professional acknowledges it — is that mental illnesses, especially depression, PTSD and OCD, are difficult, if not impossible, to diagnose or quantify.  There is no X-ray, blood test, DNA or other chemical analysis that nails these as bona fide sicknesses, such as one might seek, say, for a brain injury or diabetes. And while there is little question that people do suffer from acute, long-term sadness, stress and compulsive behaviors, there exists no direct, medical proof for the notion of biologically-based brain disorders, contrary to the claims of pharmaceutical companies and mental-health advocacy groups like the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

What that means for average citizens is that there is no magic bullet, no medication, to “cure” what are essentially human phenomena, not medical conditions.

NAMI, the National Association of Mental Health, and the American Psychological Association, all of which receive federal and state dollars via grants and other subsidies, pump out one press release after another touting genetic and biological mental illnesses as well as “medicalized” mental disorders brought on by life events. But as most medicated individuals and their families eventually discover, affected sufferers do not seem to get better on psychotropic drugs and therapies.

Dr. Peter Breggin, one of the more outspoken medical authors addressing the issue of mental health treatments, especially psychotropic medications, describes antidepressants, tranquilizers and even some antipsychotics as essentially “brain-blunters,” meaning that they “dull” the emotions so that the patient doesn’t feel them as intensely as before, depending on the dosage. Otherwise, psychiatric drugs do little, if anything — except produce ghastly side-effects.

Stimulants like Ritalin may jolt the brain, say after a stroke, to “wake it up” a bit, but for strictly psychiatric uses, Ritalin is called a stimulant in adults and a tranquilizer in children — rather difficult to reconcile in an identical drug.

Now that black box warnings are appearing on one antidepressant after another, due to high-profile deaths among children and violent rampages by teens — beginning with the carnage in Columbine, Colorado — it would seem that the mainstream media, Congress and the medical industry in general would rethink their support for psychiatric labels, mental health screening, psychotropic substances and the mental health industry.

In Dolton, Illinois, for example, 6-year-old Kierra Garner was found dead in her home in January 2006.  Nine weeks later, toxicology reports surfaced, pointing to intoxication from the drug amitriptyline, commonly used to “treat” manic depression or bipolar disorder, two supposedly biologically-based mental illnesses. In a 6-year-old! A pharmacist told the local NBC affiliate that the drug is not meant for children and would likely prove to be fatal in any dose if given to a child that age. Yet, the medication was prescribed.

Last April, Gabriel Myers, age 7, died by suicide in his South Florida foster home, hanging himself on an extendable shower hose.  According to staff writer Kris Hundley of the St. Petersburg Times (May 8), the little boy was taking two powerful psychiatric drugs at the time of his death — Vyvanse, an ADHD drug, and Symbyax, a combination of the antipsychotic Zyprexa and the antidepressant Prozac, neither of which had been approved by his parent or a judge, as required by state law — when he killed himself.  Symbyax carries a "black box" warning that it might lead to suicidal behavior among children and adolescents, especially when first prescribed.  Documents made public in connection with a state investigation into Gabriel's death show that foster care workers repeatedly ignored the necessity of obtaining consent for psychotropic medications in a child under the state's care — apparently not a rare occurrence.

The media has historically been the public’s first line of defense against wrongheaded notions and policies. But today, with 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at educational facilities about to be screened for mental illnesses under the New Freedom Initiative (funded by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2004), using the psychiatric bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a guide, most media services have dropped the ball. Most DSM labels cannot be verified through any medical test, yet impending government-subsidized universal health care proposals includes all aspects of mental health in lawmakers’ plans.

The point is that psychiatric therapies and drugs do not have good track records, especially in the long term. Some initially claim they feel better, but that may well be the power of suggestion inasmuch as it doesn’t appear to last long. The news article by Weinstein on post-Katrina mental health in New Orleans inadvertently confirms the point:  Sufferers who had been treated and were on medication said they were no better, just as the infamous killers of their classmates and the offspring of “sick” mothers like Houston’s Andrea Yates apparently did not fare well on their prescribed, psychotropic “cocktails.”

What used to be approached as a personal or character issue, or even a religious concern, is now being “medicalized” without basis. What happens to a person in response to life events, even tragic ones, does not lend itself to a medical diagnosis. People can, of course, choose to live differently; to move elsewhere; to tackle problems such as anger, resentment and frustration squarely; to jettison unwarranted fixations on beauty, sex or even counterproductive “checking” and “hoarding” behaviors (as per OCD)…or they can succumb to a permanent condition of sadness and stress. In most cases, it comes down to a personal decision, one that a trusted friend or clergyman might be able to influence.

Unfortunately, the media, lawmakers and the medical profession have jettisoned principles once espoused in America through its religious institutions and families. They have instead created a new “religion” called Psychiatry — a state-sponsored religion complete with bible, doctrine and tax-supported institutions.

The United States — indeed the free world — now serves as hosts to hundreds of mental health advocacy and “behavioral science” institutions (especially those within university settings), all of which sup at the public trough.  The “silent victims” are the troubled and upset individuals themselves — many of whom may have good reason to be upset and troubled.  What’s different today is that they no longer have a legitimate advocate based in constitutionally recognized right of self-determination or religious choice.

Beverly K. Eakman is a former speechwriter for the heads of two federal agencies, a sought-after lecturer and the author of four books (including the best-selling award-winner, Cloning of the American Mind: Eradicating Morality Through Education) on education policy, mental-health and illicit data-trafficking.  Her latest book is Walking Targets: How Our Psychologized Classrooms Are Creating a Nation of Sitting Ducks.  She can be reached through her web site: www.BeverlyE.com.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (11)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

Bill Wagner said:

Great Article Wow Beverly, you are a breath of fresh air! This is what our society is coming to. It is the scourge that needs to be removed. There is no room on this earth for pretend science, because that is what it is. The atrocities that these degraded men and women commit are beyond belief. It is time to bring them to justice once and for all. We need to call a spade a spade, and dispense with any niceties and eradicate this make believe science.

report abuse vote down vote up

August 06, 2009
Votes: +1

Rosiecee said:

Like Your Article! Thanks for the informative article. The Physicians Desk Reference states that SSRI antidepressants and all antidepressants can cause mania, psychosis, abnormal thinking, paranoia, hostility, etc. These side effects can also appear during withdrawal. Go to www.SSRIstories.com where there are over 3,200 cases, with the full media article available, involving bizarre murders, suicides, school shootings [48 of these] and murder-suicides - all of which involve SSRI antidepressants like Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, etc, . The media article usually tells which SSRI antidepressant the perpetrator was taking or had been using.

report abuse vote down vote up

August 06, 2009 | url
Votes: +1

dcwhitworth said:

The Low-down on depression and mental illness Breggin cannot have actually worked in a psych-ward. I have seen medications for OCD,depression, and schizophrenia do wonders with patients on the ward. Also, the is a mountain of tests showing genetic precidents for OCD, schizophrenia,etc. Don't just go by the popular press. You need to read and study testings and studies in professional journals.I am a biochemist, I have read the reports for myself. I have also worked in a psych-ward. Breggin is backed by scientologists ( who believe,despite all fossil data, that live was brought to earth on a spaceship from another planet). Please draw your own conclusions and not just go by what people with an agenda say.

report abuse vote down vote up

August 07, 2009
Votes: +0

Joseph Zagera said:

SSRIs and their application It is a curious thing to observe that there are fewer and fewer people in the world who are moderate in their ways. As you mature in this life you realize this and are less likely to make silly uninformed statements. The medical community is realizing now that in some cases SSRIs can cause suicidal thoughts in children and teens. This is not the case in adults. Are SSRIs over prescribed? I have no doubt that they are, yes! However, to people who have suffered episodes of extreme depression due to complex PTSD,for example, the idea that talking to "a trusted friend or clergyman" will cure you is a silly idea and demonstrates the ignorance or severity of this type of condition. To such people, SSRIs are nothing less than a Godsend. A good doctor will hopefully eventually bring such a sufferer around so they will no longer need such medicine. Whenever I read such an article it is obvious the writer is speaking from a purely bigoted political or religious point of view and have never suffered in such a way or known anyone who has. I have known good and sincere people who have been through a regimen of SSRIs and psychotherapy, for a finite amount of time, and have benefited greatly. Later they leave the therapist and medicines behind. SSRIs should not be a lifelong answer in most people, but as an emergency step they can work miracles. Rather then turn people away from God, as is suspected, they can actually restore faith in his mercy. The connection between psychiatry and a political move to make it a religion, which has merit, is a comlpetely separate issue.

report abuse vote down vote up

August 09, 2009
Votes: +1

SCHNORCHEL said:

Removing Engrams There is an interesting book, called "Dianetics, Modern Science of Mental Health," which has been a bestseller for many decades, starting in the 1950s. This book describes a detailed methodology for removing so-called engrams (painful image pictures) from the reactive mind of an individual. The process uses communication with a trained Auditor who knows precisely how to find painful incidents in the past of the individual that have left engrams in his reactive mind. By using carefully structured questioning commands and getting answers to these questioning commands from the person, the engrams are erased causing person to be brighter and happier. Dianetics uses neither drugs nor hypnosis. The person who has engrams has his engrams erased and attains a state of being cleared of engrams while fully conscious. He or she becomes free of the compulsions and self-destructive impulses caused by engrams after the engrams are erased. His cleared state leaves the person intelligent and happy. Psychoanalysis and psychotropic drugs leave the person worse off than before. They create new engrams instead of removing old engrams. Moreover, some psychiatrists are known to have committed suicide, because they came to realize that they have been trained to hurt people instead of to cure them. Many persons have already been cleared. The Ms. Eakman is on the right track by indicating the source of engrams and the failings of drug therapy and psychiatry.

report abuse vote down vote up

August 09, 2009
Votes: +1

Barry Wehrli said:

	... This statement really hits the nail on the head: "...there is no magic bullet, no medication, to “cure” what are essentially human phenomena, not medical conditions." That is so true. Thanks, Beverly, for writing this article.
	report abuse vote down vote up

August 09, 2009 | url
Votes: +2

Ben125 said:

SSRIs I suspect that people like Beverly Eakman have an ax to grind with looking at objective reality if it ever dares to challenge the precepts of religeon. Anyone who has been successfully treated for serotonin reuptake using SRI's and SSRI's will tell you that they thank God for such medication. Religeon has become a key culprit in preventing people from seeing that emotional trauma actually exists on a biological level. Anyone who tells you that modern medications "numb you" is ignorant on the topic. It's the trauma which numbs you.

report abuse vote down vote up

August 10, 2009
Votes: -1

Barry Wehrli said:

Religion? This issue has little to do with religion or God. It comes down to common sense. New drugs keep popping up all the time. How are long-term health/side effects going to be known when the "medications" keep changing? Or... why do the "medications" keep changing in the first place? This is dangerous stuff. Do some research about the Coloumbine school shooting, you'll be surprised. Humans have existed and evolved for millions of years; we seem to have done okay without these kinds of "who knows that they will do" drugs. Real support from loved ones and good, caring counseling; that's the safe and sane way to recover from emotional trauma. Emotional trauma is MANIFESTED at the biological level. It is the SYMPTOM not the cause (thought all the money-hungry pharmaceutical companies would love for you to think otherwise). How can I say that? Because I've counseled people with zero chemicals or hypnosis and seen body functions return to normal when the proper the emotional trauma is handled correctly

report abuse vote down vote up

August 10, 2009 | url
Votes: +1

Mary Baker said:

14 years I've been treated with SSRIs for OCD for 14 years. They still work. Nothing helped before I started using them. When I've gone off them, even while continuing talk and cognitive behavioral therapy and positively thinking I could do without them, the OCD symptoms come back. So...your theory doesn't seem to apply to me. I'm sorry I don't have a noble enough character to have toughened my way out of it on my own, but that's the breaks.

report abuse vote down vote up

August 11, 2009
Votes: +0

Mary Baker said:

... PS...One of the Columbine shooters said in the video they prepared that he stopped taking the SSRI meds he'd been on because he felt less angry when he was on it, and he was concerned that he wouldn't have the fire in the belly to commit the murders if he kept taking the SSRI. If you doubt me, research it for yourself. I read the transcript when it was released within a year after the tragedy.

report abuse vote down vote up

August 11, 2009
Votes: -1

Ben125 said:

	... There is the "folksy" attitude about human caring and "tough love" that evades the reality of serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake. Let the drug companies engage in money grubbing if they can create such effective mnedications.
	report abuse vote down vote up

August 11, 2009
Votes: -1