Why Psychiatry is Irrelevant, Part VI

Thoughts. Cognitions. Ideas. Beliefs. Fantasy. Perceptions. If there is one lesson I teach my clients most often, it is that thoughts precede emotions. That is, your thoughts, which include perception, belief, and imagination, are what cause your brain to determine whether emotion will occur.

Take, for example, thinking that occurs when one is rejected for a job. One could say, "I'm never going to get a job. I'm useless; I'm going to be unemployed and undesirable forever." This depressive thinking will result in depressed feelings, then depressive behavior. And the cycle will perpetuate. Contrast that thinking with something more positive: "This job didn't work out. It clearly wasn't a good fit. I'm sure there will be something else for which I am a good fit." That kind of thinking won't prevent disappointment, but it will soothe the ego and prevent more depressive feelings.

So, as promised, here are some of the thought errors that can cause or worsen depression and anxiety:

--“Woe is me” (generalization)

--Internalizing

--Catastrophizing

--Personalization

--Black-and-white thinking

--Should thinking

--Believing one’s emotional and relational suffering are due to a broken brain—not a broken life—and that one is mentally ill, biologically inferior, or disabled, and therefore powerless to effect meaningful change.

We all are guilty of silly thinking; some more than others. It is easy to see how almost all depressed persons and those who struggle with anxiety are encumbered by inappropriate thinking. Yet another cause for depressive and anxious symptoms that do not require a broken brain.

Tomorrow, more.

Why Psychiatry is Irrelevant, Part V

There are so many potential causes for depression and anxiety that every time I look at the lists, I add one or more new ones I hadn't thought of before.

As promised, the next batch of sufferogenic causes of depression that have nothing to do with a genetic predisposition or a mythical chemical imbalance.


As anyone can attest, we are highly relational creatures. Students of Introduction to Psychology might recall the Harlow experiments, where baby monkeys were removed from their mothers, then given various replacements with varying degrees of similarity to the mother. The monkeys were generally quite disturbed after the long separation.

We know that humans are even more susceptible to deep pain and pathology when devoid of human contact. The symptoms it produces are nothing short of depression and anxiety. All relational crises, then, can stimulate or exacerbate depression or anxiety.

Relational Crises:

• Divorce/break-up and resulting loss of relationship (e.g., parent losing custody of a child)


• Rejection by loved ones or someone desired


• Discovering one is socially undesirable or lacks skills to make friends


• Loneliness


• Family schism


• Relational strain/broken alliances in relationships


• Rejection/ridicule/lack of respect from co-workers or superiors
  

Any reader who says they haven't experienced one of these is lying. We all experience them. We all hurt deeply from them.

Why Psychiatry is Irrelevant, Part IV

Yesterday I listed several of the existential questions and crises that have crippled people with anxiety or depression throughout history. Many of my readers can already see enough evidence that depression and anxiety are expected consequences of being a deeply imperfect human in a deeply imperfect world.

But wait, there's more!

Today, I will list some of the traumas that trample on the souls of human beings. When I say trauma, I am not referring to skinned knees or watching the Cubs fail. I'm talking about the kind of events that overwhelm the mind's ability to absorb information, to make sense of the evil in this world. As you can see, traumas stimulate existential crises.


Traumas:

• Abuse and/or neglect, by parents or other relatives, teachers, or other trusted adults


• Sexual (rape, incest, molestation, sexual slavery)


• Physical

• Slavery
  
• Emotional misuse (severe control)

• Witnessing the abuse of others, especially family members


• War (witnessing atrocities, being forced to commit atrocities)


• Natural disasters


• Victim of violence or torture (e.g., severe bullying)


• Abduction


• Loss of a loved one


• Accidents (killing/injuring someone else)

Does anyone really think that a person who is reduced to depression or significant anxiety who has experienced any of these becomes so because of a broken brain? That is exactly what the medical model of psychiatry teaches.

Tomorrow, more causes for depression and anxiety.

Why Psychiatry is Irrelevant, Part III

Yesterday, I listed many biological causes for depression and anxiety. Almost all people have struggled with one or more biological weakness; many struggle with multiple biological causes, enough to cause significant depressive symptoms. For some, the body fights the mind and even the soul.

Today, I will be listing several existential causes of depression. These are almost utterly ignored by psychiatry (and, to my dismay, even many psychologists), although they have been the cause of many of the deepest depressions throughout the millennia.

Existential or psycho-spiritual crises/questions:

• “Meaning of Life” questions: searching for a reason for being or existing without resolution

• The question of the existence of God

• If God exists, is He good?

• How do we explain evil? If I do evil, does that mean I am evil?

• Boredom (nothing meaningful to do/experience)

• Guilt/shame: inadequacy

• Human Mortality versus Immortality

• Am I finite or infinite?

• Is life pointless if death is the end of existence?

• Why must we die?

• Is there an afterlife?

• If there is a Heaven and Hell, will I go to Hell?

• Can I have assurance that I will go to Heaven?

There are those who seem to go throughout life unaware of existential questions and crises or appear comfortable without resolving these questions. But to the existentially sensitive, the answers to these questions are more precious than air. Even one unanswered existential question can reduce even the stoutest soul to a dark puddle and shrivel even the hardiest mind into a bundle of frayed nerves.

Tomorrow, another sphere sufficient to produce deep depression or anxiety.

Why Psychiatry is Irrelevant, Part II

As promised, I will now begin listing the near infinite number of reasons why a person could become depressed--reasons that not only do not require a medical view of depression, but make the whole "broken brain" model defunct and irrelevant.

I will begin with biological problems. Note that most of these problems are not genetically based, but are environmentally caused. Often, these biological "insults" create a biochemical or structural problem in the brain, but this is qualitatively different than what psychiatry says is the foundational cause of most depression.

Biological causes of depression:

• Alcohol use/abuse
• Illicit drug use (e.g., cocaine, opiates, MDMA, hallucinogenics)
• Prescription medication (opiates, drugs prescribed for chemotherapy)
• Drugs marketed as "antidepressants", such as SSRI's (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Lexapro, etc.), often from direct use of the drug but also from withdrawing from the drug
• Stimulants, such as Concerta, Vyvanse, Adderall, Strattera (yes, Strattera is a stimulant)
• Neuroleptics (especially from their common horrific side effects)
• Countless treatments for neurological disorders (e.g., ECT)
• Environmental Toxins (household chemical agents, toxins in water, air, fertilizers)
• Insufficient exercise
• Poor diet (not only imbalanced diet, but preservatives and fake ingredients)
• Food allergies/sensitivities
• Poor sleep (one of the most underappreciated factors for emotional/cognitive dysfunction)
• Brain injury
• Chronic and/or debilitating disease
• Chronic and/or debilitating pain
• Physical disability
• Bad weather or insufficient sunlight
• Lack of fresh, clean air

I realize that this list is nowhere near exhaustive. I am certain that scientists will discover many other environmental toxins that mess up our emotional systems. But for now, ask yourself if you have escaped all of these. Almost no one has. Is each of these enough to trigger depression? For some people, yes.

I can't tell you how many children have been cured of phony-baloney disorders by correcting one or more of these biological problems. One adolescent I recently treated was diagnosed with ADHD and depression by a local expert psychiatrist. His parents refused to put the child on medication; they had a hunch that something was wrong with the diagnosis. They brought their son to me for a second opinion. I discovered in about 15 seconds that his sleep was woefully insufficient. We made improving his sleep the number one priority. In three weeks, his sleep had improved. Within days, his ADHD symptoms were gone, his depression lifted, and he described being a new person. All because one sphere of biological functioning was awry. That is how sensitive we are to disregulation.

Tomorrow, I will unleash the second list of reasons why people become depressed and anxious. I'm just getting started.

Until then, sleep well, eat well, and don't eat paint chips.

Why Psychiatry is Irrelevant

Modern psychiatry’s greatest weakness is not its particulars. It isn’t that it has failed thus far to find the Holy Grail: the perfect pill or surgery that can fix human suffering without doing great harm to the human person or its systems. No, the greatest weakness of medicine’s weakest specialty is in its foundational principles and presuppositions.

Psychiatry is a hopeless profession because its philosophy is fatally flawed. Because its foundation is antithetical to good science and its naturalistic worldview precludes a supernatural (i.e., spiritual) view of the human person, it has become increasingly irrelevant. The emperor is naked, and fewer and fewer people are bothering to notice.

The primary debate is between psychiatry’s medical model and a humane, psycho-spiritual model of mental illness. What this debate boils down to is the question, “Why do people suffer problems such as depression (the most common ‘ailment’ treated by psychiatrists)?” Is the depressed person doomed to suffer the consequences of a broken brain unless and until psychiatry corrects whatever biological, chemical, or electrical error exists? Or, is it possible to tell every person what they desperately want to hear: “After understanding your life, your history, your beliefs, your struggles, your environment, and your world, I can understand why you would be depressed.” I have never met a person in my professional or personal life, where, after having gotten to know them well enough, I have not been able to validate their misery as comprehensible, meaningful, purposeful, and redeemable.

There is no shortage of reasons for a person being depressed or anxious. One need not look to psychiatry’s biochemical bogeyman for an answer.

Beginning tomorrow, I will begin unleashing a torrent of alternative causes of depression. By the time I am done, it will be clear that psychiatry’s view of depression—that one is born with a biological predisposition to an illness that causes the symptoms of depression—will seem hopelessly irrelevant and, frankly, silly.

911, What’s Your Parenting Emergency?

There is a great story about a 10-year-old boy from the Chicago suburbs (no, it wasn’t my kid) who was complaining about the dinner his father had made for him. The father didn’t appreciate the complaints and, thank goodness, wasn’t budging on the boy’s demands to make him an alternative meal. The boy threw a tantrum. Surprise, surprise.

In response, the father said something like, “You know what? Call 911 if you think that you have a disagreement with me and you’re right. Call them, let them come over here and see who’s right.” And the child did just that.

Apparently, the boy dialed 911, but then when the operator answered, the boy chickened out and hung up. Per policy, the 911 operator called the home. The father explained, “He thinks that is just a joke this 911. I’m telling him that is not a joke and we have to impose some rules in the house and the have to follow the rules.”

A police officer was dispatched to the residence, where the cop advised both the child and father on the proper use of the 911 system.

First, I’d like to award the dad here with a Parent in Charge certificate. Way to go not giving in to your child’s entitled attitude. He should be thankful he has edible food three times a day.

Second, I’d like to encourage parents not to suggest their child call 911. Great idea and I understand the impulse, but a Parent in Charge doesn’t need the police to come help deal with his 10-year-old’s temper tantrums.

Third, I’d like to remind parents that Junior will not starve to death if he misses dinner. If he doesn’t like what you’ve made, he doesn’t have to eat it. No skin off your nose. Now, this is provided you have never won the Worst Cook of the Year Award and aren’t trying to feed your child arsenic pie or some whacky exotic food that most billy goats would reject. Sure, it’s good to expand your child’s culinary horizons, but don’t make your kid a guinea pig.

If you disagree with me, please don’t call 911. They might see my cooking, which is bad enough to put me behind bars.