As a board-certified counselor practicing in Cary and Crystal Lake, IL, I have treated many patients for depression. Treatment for depression used to have good results.
30 or 40 years ago, if you came to a therapist with symptoms of depression, he could reliably tell you that the odds that you would soon get better were solidly on your side. He would most likely assure you that most episodes of depression run their course, benefit from counseling and end with total recovery, without drug treatment of any kind.
However, in the last several decades something changed in the field of diagnosing and treating depression that has led to a 600 percent increase in patients collecting Social Security disability because of psychiatric illness! There is no question that the contemporary approach to treating psychological problems is the use of drugs.
Between 1974 and today, the outlook for treating depression went from being a positive one to one that sometimes afflicts the patient for life. Why?
It's because of the "anxiety-depression medication myth." The myth has ballooned out of proportion to any reality because of the power of modern marketing.
Notice the commercials on TV and what do you see? The ads shape and condition your belief that this or that medication will make you better.
The harm is especially great if you happen to be one of the 65% of sufferers taking antidepressant medications who are failing to improve. Various studies have demonstrated that, in many, if not most cases, these types of psychiatric medications do not work any better than a placebo and, besides that, can also run the risk of serious side effects.
These side effects can include worsening the very mental disorder for which you originally started treatment! If you do not believe me, just look at the warning labels for these drugs on the internet.
They will make your blood curdle. Some experts assert that drug companies have even omitted disclosure of drug trial results when they showed no effects or negative effects.
However, many people are aware of the most common antidepressant side effects because they are so prevalent, including, sexual dysfunction and insomnia. Remember the TV; some of the negative side effects are mentioned in the ads but are done so, so rapidly you do not really notice them.
Also, some of the worst side effects, like significant weight gain and increased lipid and glucose metabolism, can be so unpleasant and troubling that patients taking these drugs often just quit taking them on their own!
A 2005 study mentioned in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that 74 percent of patients suffering from schizophrenia quit taking their medication either because it did not work; or because the side effects became unacceptable. Another dangerous problem that affects too many sufferers is the potent addictive potential of the anti-anxiety medications.
Perhaps the worst side effect of all is that you can acquire additional emotional problems or even a more severe form of psychological illness than that with which you started! That's right, thorough research on this serious subject suggests that after a possible initial alleviation of symptoms, antidepressant drug patients often, subsequently, spiral downward into a chronic phase of dismal long-term depression.
If side effects create additional symptoms or contribute to the acquisition of a more serious illness, you may need to take a new drug that may create even more serious problems. The little known and little discussed effect of these drugs is that sometimes they can actually cause more of the problems they were designed to treat.
This often hidden effect needs much more discussion and exposure to start eliminating the anti-depressant medication treatment myth. What type of treatment for depression and anxiety do I prefer?
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a very effective treatment technique. It is based on the well-founded assumption that traumatic or troubling, conflictual situations have caused us to develop certain subconscious patterns of thinking that pathologically affect our view of ourselves, our environment and our history.
As I use cognitive therapy (CBT) with my patients, I isolate, re-structure and replace many of the pathological beliefs and cognitive patterns stuck in the background of their minds. These subconscious beliefs unknowingly to the patients, hypnotize them into feeling terrible about themselves and their situations.
After completion of CBT, the hypnosis is over! Then their symptoms can start to disappear.
During treatment, I will often direct my patient to use an STK, or self-therapy kit at home. These kits are used to reinforce the benefits gained during the consultations; they are used concurrently with the cognitive therapy.
STKs are powerful educational packages. They are designed in different formats, including MP3, CD, DVD, e-book etc.
As stated previously, they effectively re-teach and consolidate the principles of cognitive therapy learned in the therapy sessions. They use imagery, role-exercises and lifelike examples to reinforce the central core of healthy life principles and thinking patterns.
They also accelerate the speed at which ones disturbing symptoms are eliminated. Once the belief systems related to these troubling situations are isolated and replaced, patients are then free of the distorted thinking patterns that were triggered by the troubling event.
