Depression. What to do that does not include anti-depressants and talk therapy.
What to do for depression outside of talk therapy and medication.
Dr. Peter Breggin is a psychiatrist who looks at mental health issues through a functional lens and does not support the use of psychiatric drugs.
In these short video clips that are easy to understand, Dr. Breggin explains why mood-altering medication may not be the remedy for mental health issues.
If you are on the fence about taking these medications for depression, please watch at least his first short video regarding the belief/myth of a chemical imbalance.
What can happen when you take an anti-depressant?
Most of my clients have never been told by their doctors how an anti-depressant medication works. And some patients think that the medication is serotonin in pill form.
Below is a PDF book excerpt, Solutions for Depression & Anxiety © 2018, Health Secret LCC, describing what can happen when you take an anti-depressant.
“Antidepressant medications can create long-term chronic refractory depression. They will generally decrease the reuptake of serotonin so there’s more serotonin in the synaptic cleft between the nerve cells. What that means is that the nerve cells are being exposed to more serotonin, and so they will actually start down regulating their serotonin receptors.
Over time, the brain actually loses some of that sensitivity to serotonin, and people will start becoming less responsive to the medications. Sometimes some of those serotonin nerve cells will start dying off, and people will no longer be responsive to the medication.
They get more and more depressed, and then the medication has to be switched or increased in dosage. They start getting to the point where they are refractory to treatment. Instead of getting better, the disease actually gets worse over time. A major side effect of antidepressants like Prozac and others is that they can increase suicidal thoughts and sometimes actions. Some people that have started these medications actually did things to harm themselves or other people, too. Antipsychotic medications make the brain super sensitive to dopamine, which means they’ll tend to have more chronic episodes of psychosis.
Then they start to develop movement disorders, like tardive dyskinesia, and people can actually develop refractory psychotic symptoms. They get worse and worse over time.
Another problem with antipsychotics is that it blocks the release and stimulation of dopamine into the frontal lobes, and that can cause problems with cognition. They can start having difficulty with thinking clearly, being motivated, getting things done, with attention. Some researchers have started calling that tardive dementia.
In addition, both antidepressants and antipsychotics cause problems with mental processing, with memory, and starts impairing frontal lobe function, which is important for logic, self-control, and moral reasoning.
And they make the person apathetic, meaning they don’t really care about things anymore. These medications are not benign, and we have to be very careful in understanding that they’re potent drugs. If they’re not used correctly, they can do more harm than good. “
Want to get off your psychiatric medications? Taper the right way!
Dr. Malik and Dr. Breggin separately interviewed Josef Witt-Doerring, who specializes in tapering off your psychiatric drugs. What he offers is vital to people looking to get off these medications because often, your doctor can assist you with going on these drugs but cannot assist you when it comes to going off of them.
There is a right way and a wrong way to go off these drugs.
Here is the interview link for Dr. Malik’s interview
What to do before a taper to achieve success
However, the one thing that neither interview discusses in depth is that from a nutrition perspective, it is critical before the taper to address underlying root causes and address them for a minimum of three to six months before you taper off the drugs.
If you taper off and do not identify what was causing the depression in the first place, then you may struggle during and after the taper. You must support your body first, then taper!
More often than not, depression has multiple root causes. It can have an emotional component (such as abuse or trauma), and a body imbalance causes as well, such as nutrient deficiencies, poor nutrient absorption, heavy metal or environmental toxicity, head injury, gut dysbiosis, and increased intestinal permeability.
This can be addressed through diet, functional testing, and releasing trapped emotions. It does not have to take years on a therapist’s couch and mood-altering medication. There is a saying, “Sitting on a therapist’s couch will not rid you of your depression if it is caused by low B12.”
That is a simplistic root cause for depression, but the bottom line is that talking will not fix it if it is related to a host of systemic imbalances.
Sadly, a toxic body burdened by processed food, digestive complications, excess weight, blood sugar dysregulation, environmental toxins, and heavy metals appears to be the new norm.
But depression appears to be the “new norm” as well.
Functional Nutrition for Depression. Could this be the answer you have been searching for?
From a functional nutrition perspective, the goal is not to provide supplements for your disease, illness, or health condition but to find where the imbalances lie in the body and provide your body with the right tools to heal itself. We look at you as an individual. If two people have depression, the functional approach for each may be entirely different based on your underlying imbalances.
To identify these underlying root causes, we take time to listen to you. Often, if we listen and ask the right questions, the patient can provide clues to what is happening. After that, testing may be warranted, and labs can vary from person to person instead of ordering the same basic lab panel for each person.
Therefore, this approach is much different than what is taught to allopathic professionals. Some functional practitioners follow more of an allopathic model, ordering the same tests for everyone who is a new patient and sending them off with bags full of supplements. This is not what a functional approach is about.
My lab shop has tests for heavy metals, environmental toxins, gut health (just added!), food sensitivities, and more.
If you have questions about which tests from the lab shop are right for you, you can schedule a consult via Calendly.
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