The Truth about Anti Depressants
When you’re addicted to drugs, life is depressing. Unless you’re a rich Hollywood celebrity, you never have enough money. So you steal to support your habit, even from friends and family. Or you trade your body for a fix. Some of the depression comes from the drugs you take; some from the shame and self loathing you feel for hurting yourself and the ones you love. Either way the depression is real.
Is it any wonder then that anti depressants are handed out like Halloween candy by so many drug treatment centers? It is to me. You see study after study has shown that anti depressants don’t work for most depression. In an article published in the January 2010 Journal of the American Medical Association, Anti Depressant Drug Effects and Depression Severity, the authors reviewed a number of studies to estimate the relative benefit of medication versus placebo across a wide range of initial symptom severity in patients diagnosed with depression. The conclusion: ”… there is little evidence that they have a specific pharmacological effect relative to pill placebo for patients with less severe depression.”
Anti depressants do have their effects, of course. Just check the black box warning that comes with these powerful meds, which are known to cause headache, nausea, weakness, insomnia, anxiety, weight gain and suicidal thoughts. A black box warning (also sometimes called a black label warning or boxed warning ) is a type of warning that appears on the package insert for prescription drugs that may cause serious adverse effects.
And yet despite the black box warnings and their ineffectiveness, more than 15 million Americans take these dangerous drugs, including a hefty percentage of the drug rehab population. Because it pays.
The psychiatric industry is one big money-making racket which takes in 330 billion dollars a year. The unfortunate effect of that? Fifteen million Americans, including a hefty percentage of the drug rehab population, take dangerous anti depressants and don’t know the truth…that anti depressants don’t help; they harm.
When looking for drug rehab in Georgia, choose a drug free program.
Fritz Alders,
Managing Partner, Georgia Alliance.