Depression

Overview

Depression is one of the most heavily-marketed psychiatric conditions. This is not surprising given that the antidepressants commonly prescribed for it raked in over €20 billion in profits worldwide in 2006.

Depression is a label

Psychiatrists commonly claim today that depression is also an “illness, just like heart disease or asthma.” This is completely untrue. Depression is simply a label that psychiatry assigns to people who are suffering from a condition they don’t understand and can’t cure.

But people do get down and sad and depressed?

That is certainly true.

But saying that these people are suffering from an organic brain illness caused by a chemical imbalance and needing psychiatric drugs to be well again, simply isn’t true. Giving such people psychiatric drugs actually constitutes taking advantage of them while they are unwell.

How does a diagnosis of Depression occur?

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders says that five out of nine criteria must be met to diagnose depression, including deep sadness, apathy, fatigue, agitation, sleep disturbances and appetite change. Even psychiatrists are concerned about such attempts to “make an illness out of what looks to be life’s normal ups and downs.”

Why do some websites talk about being sad for 2 weeks?

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders mentions that if certain symptoms are present for 14 days, then one can be diagnosd with Depression. If one has these symptoms for 13 days, one doesn’t have Depression. It’s a complete psychiatric arbitrary and is often repeated in websites parroting the standard psychiatric line, that’s all.

But isn’t it linked with a chemical imbalance in the brain?

That is what psychiatry would like one to believe. However what they don’t want you to know is that the chemical imbalance in the brain theory is completely discredited. In 2005, when faced with national media pressure, Dr Steven Sharfstein, then president of the American Psychiatric Association, conceded, “We do not have a clear-cut lab test” to prove the existence of a chemical imbalance. Other experts agree. Ron Leifer, New York psychiatrist said: “There is no biological imbalance. When people come to me and they say, ‘I have a biochemical imbalance,’ I say, ‘Show me your lab tests.’ There are no lab tests.” For more information on the falsity of the Chemical Imbalance Theory, please click here.

But don’t brain scans show that depressed brains look different?

Todays brain imagery photos, said to prove mental illnesses are physical diseases, are deeply flawed. Indeed, prescribed psychotropic drugs most likely cause the changes seen in the brain. Steven Hyman, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, admits that indiscriminate use of such brain scans produce pretty but inconsequential pictures of the brain.

Elliot Valenstein, Ph.D., author of Blaming the Brain, is unequivocal: [T]here are no tests available for assessing the chemical status of a living persons brain. No biochemical, anatomical, or functional signs have been found that reliably distinguish the brains of mental patients.

According to Valenstein, The theories are held on to not only because there is nothing else to take their place, but also because they are useful in promoting drug treatment.

Dietary, Medical and Nutritional Conditions can cause “Depression”

There are many dietary, medical and nutritional conditions which can produce the symptoms which psychiatrists label as “Depression”.

Some of the most well-known examples are Vitamin B Deficiency, Vitamin D Deficiency, Chromium Deficiency and Under-Active Thyroid (Hypothyroidism).

The first step for anyone who thinks they are feeling down more than they should, is to get a full and searching physical examination for all the dietary, medical and nutritional problems that can cause a person to feel down.

But don’t antidepressants cure people?

No they don’t. Giving people antidepressants only masks the true source of their unhappiness and leaves the person worse off because they are now suffering from the original condition plus the effects of the drug.

Antidepressants are linked with Suicide, Agitation, Anxiety, Hostility, Paranoia, Insomnia, Hallucinations and Violent Behaviour

Antidepressant “wonder-drugs” are so widely prescribed that more than 150 million people worldwide have taken Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants. These drugs are under fire by drug regulatory agencies, not only for their potential to create violence and suicidal impulses, but because drug trials have found they perform no better than placebos (sugar pills).

As a class of drugs, antidepressants are linked with Suicide, Agitation, Anxiety, Hostility, Paranoia, Insomnia, Hallucinations and Violent Behaviour. The manufacturer of one antidepressant, Effexor, even warns that the drug can cause “homicidal ideation”.

Antidepressants are linked with cases of mothers killing their children

It’s important to know that antidepressants have been linked with extremely serious crimes:

On 24 December 2007, California mother, Lisa Brown drowned her 7-month old daughter in what may be just the latest in a string of psychiatric drug-induced infanticides. She told the police she was taking the antidepressant Paxil.
Andrea Yates, of Houston, Texas, drowned her five children, aged 6 months to 7 years, in the bathtub on Nov 22, 2004 after taking the antidepressants Effexor and Remeron.
A young Alabama mother, Annie Mae Haskew, took antidepressants before smothering her 10-week-old son in October of 2002.
Another Texas mother, Dena Schlosser, killed her 10-month-old daughter in November 2004 by severing the baby's arms. She had been prescribed psychiatric “medication for depression” and antipsychotics before the crime.
Mary Ellen Moffitt suffocated her 5-week-old daughter and herself on July 26, 2004 in Michigan after taking the antidepressant Paxil.
Emiri Padron smothered her infant daughter in her crib on June 22, 2004 and then stabbed herself twice in the chest. Emiri was receiving psychiatric treatment before the incident and investigators found the antidepressant Zoloft in the New Jersey apartment where the crime took place.
Mine Ener used a kitchen knife to cut the throat of her 6-month-old daughter on Aug 4, 2003 after taking “medication” for “postpartum depression” [another invented psychiatric disorder].

What Can I Do?

Take control of the situation oneself - don’t allow a psychiatrist to control your life.
Read the section on Depression in CCHR’s report - please click here.
Read the CCHR Report on The Drugging of “Post Partum” Depression” - please click here.
Learn about the dangerous side effects of psychiatric drugs - please click here.
Use the Depression resources listed in our Useful Links section - please click here.
Beware of some Depression Support Groups which support psychiatric drugging. Do not support them financially and discourage the government from funding them also.
Support Depression Support Groups that actively help and encourage people to investigate the real medical conditions that may be causing their difficulty.
Report any instances of psychiatric treatment for Depression using our Online Abuse Report Form - please click here.
Report any side effects from taking psychiatric drugs for Depression using our Online Drug Reporting Form - please click here.
If you or someone you know has been labelled with Depression, then the first step is to first see a competent, non-psychiatric physician to ensure that an undiagnosed, untreated, physical condition is not causing “psychiatric” symptoms.
The next step is to seek out and investigate the use of the many non-psychiatric and workable ideas and practices that can bring about the recovery of mental health.

Disclaimer: Please note that the information on this website is for information purposes only.
None of it constitutes medical advice. In order to safely come off psychiatric drugs, we have provided relevant websites in on our Links page. However we provide this information on a buyer-beware basis and you must use your own judgement. No one should stop taking any psychiatric drug without the advice and assistance of a competent, non-psychiatric medical doctor.