Transforming Depression

I have had many clients and friends share with me how they are either suffering from depression or have experienced depression in the past. The prevalence of depression is on the rise. According to the World Health Organization, 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression, and nearly 50% of all people diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. It’s estimated that 15 percent of the adult population will experience depression at some point in their lifetime. These statistics are quite sobering but not at all surprising.

Suicide and Self-Harm Statistics – (Source: www.verywell.com)

We are being sold lies

Unfortunately, the answer to the dramatic increase in mental illnesses, has been to bombard people primarily living in Western countries with commercials sponsored by Big Pharma. Poignant images of people suffering from depression are cleverly portrayed to emotionally manipulate the viewer. S/he is convinced that the only solution for his or her mental illness is to take a variety of ‘mood enhancing’ drugs that will supposedly transform his/her life. Just pop a pill and everything will be alright.

Okay let’s get real! Gwen Olsen, author of ‘Confessions of an RX Drug Pusher’, talks about her experiences as a 15 year old veteran of the pharmaceutical industry. She says: “the pharmaceutical industry is in the business of disease maintenance and symptoms management. They are not in the business to cure cancer, alzheimer’s or heart disease. If they were, they would be in the business of putting themselves out of business which doesn’t make any sense. The pharmaceutical industry doesn’t want to cure people. When we talk about psychiatric drugs in particular, these are drugs that encourage people to remain customers of the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, you will be told if you’re given a drug such as an antidepressant or an anti psychotic, that you may be on that drug for the rest of your life. Very frequently people are on the drug for a very long time or the rest of their life, because they are almost impossible to get off of.”

What about withdrawal symptoms from antidepressants?

On October 2, 2018, BBC news headliner: ‘Antidepressant withdrawal hits millions in the UK’ was quite disturbing. It’s not uncommon for side-effects to last for weeks, months or longer. The review authors, Dr James Davies, from the University of Roehampton, and Prof John Read, from the University of East London, say about four million people in England may experience symptoms when withdrawing from antidepressants, and about 1.8 million may experience these as severe.

This might include:

• anxiety
• sleep problems
• hallucinations

Possible side effects of antidepressants

They looked at 24 pieces of research, involving more than 5,000 patients, to reach their conclusions, published in the Journal of Addictive Behaviours.

Some comments shared by these patients included:

• “It took me two months of hell to come off the antidepressants – was massively harder than I expected”
• “While there is no doubt I am better on this medication, the adverse effects have been devastating – when I have tried to withdraw – with ‘head zaps’, agitation, insomnia and mood changes”
• “The difficulty of getting off has been a tough road and taken me years of trying and is something that doctors could be more knowledgeable of and supportive with”

Dr Davies said: “This new review of the research reveals what many patients have known for years – that withdrawal from antidepressants often causes severe, debilitating symptoms which can last for weeks, months or longer.

“Existing NICE [National Institute for Clinical Excellence] guidelines fail to acknowledge how common withdrawal is and wrongly suggest that it usually resolves within one week.

“This leads many doctors to misdiagnose withdrawal symptoms, often as relapse, resulting in much unnecessary and harmful long-term prescribing.”

So what are the alternatives?

For my own journey, I suffered from severe depression on and off for about 25 years. When I arrived on Bali I was taking Zoloft which was prescribed by my therapist in the USA. She said that Zoloft was available on Bali, so it would be easy for me to refill my prescription there. When I ran out of Zoloft, I went to BIMC which at the time was one of the only international clinics on Bali. The doctor said that they didn’t have Zoloft, so instead I could start taking Prozac. Fortunately my friend, a psychiatric nurse, was with me at the time. I had this vision of my life 20 years onwards depending on Prozac to keep me stable. The thought of this was even more depressing than my depression.

My friend Lisa looked at me and said, “Michele, you don’t need to keep taking any anti depressants. I know some alternative ways to overcome depression. This was a huge turning point for me, because for the first time in my life it felt like there was hope for me to finally find freedom from depression. She advised me to start exercising and meditating regularly. I took her advice to heart and now nearly 17 years later I’m still depression free. I’m not saying it was easy. It honestly took me a couple of years to reprogram my mind and discover new ways to be content within myself and my life.

There is no ‘one answer fits all’ cure for depression. Each of us must find our own way. Many times there are past traumas and painful events connected to our depression, that we must uncover and face so that these wounds can be healed. Sometimes we discover that we never believed we were good enough  or fully loved and accepted ourselves which ultimately pushed us even deeper into depression. I believe that everyone has the possibility to overcome depression — the key is being willing to shift out of the ‘Me’ and focus more on ‘We’. When we help others we no longer have the time or desire to focus on our own sorrows. As we give so shall we receive.